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Sir Richard

Richard M. Sommer is an architect, urbanist, and scholar currently serving as the Director of the Global Cities Institute at the University of Toronto. He was previously the Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto from 2009 to 2020. Sommer has had an illustrious career, holding positions at Harvard University and other institutions, and has received several awards for his research focusing on design and urbanization trends.

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52 views2 pages

Sir Richard

Richard M. Sommer is an architect, urbanist, and scholar currently serving as the Director of the Global Cities Institute at the University of Toronto. He was previously the Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto from 2009 to 2020. Sommer has had an illustrious career, holding positions at Harvard University and other institutions, and has received several awards for his research focusing on design and urbanization trends.

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Richard M. Sommer is an architect, urbanist, and scholar of the built environment.

He was born in Philadelphia, and now resides in Toronto, Canada. From 2009 until
2020, he was the Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape,
and Design at the University of Toronto, succeeding George Baird.[1] He is
currently the Director of the Global Cities Institute at the University of Toronto,
and Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the Daniels Faculty.[2]
Contents

1 Career
2 Education
3 Notable projects
4 Awards
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Career

Prior to his appointment as Dean at the Daniels Faculty, Sommer was a member of the
professoriate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for eleven years, and served
as Director of the school's Urban Design programs.[3] He has held several other
academic appointments including the O’Hare Chair/Visiting American Scholar at the
University of Ulster (2005–2010), Scholar-in-Residence at the California College of
the Arts (1995–1998), as well as visiting professorships at K.U. Leuven, Washington
University (1993–1995), Columbia (1993) and Iowa State University (1989–92).[3] In
1995 he founded a design practice called borfax/B.L.U.[3]
Education

Richard Sommer completed a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Fine Arts


from Rhode Island School of Design in 1984 and 1983 respectively.[citation needed]
Following this he completed a Master of Architecture at Harvard University's
Graduate School of Design in 1988, where the architect Jose Rafael Moneo served as
his thesis advisor.[citation needed] His research focuses on design in the context
of trends in urbanization. He has also been pursuing a related long-term research
project (with Glenn Forley) examining the monument as a historical exemplar of
architecture's political function, particularly in relation to American democracy,
and claims to American exceptionalism.[3]
Notable projects

Led the transformation of 1 Spadina Crescent[4] with NADAAA Architects[5]


Quadrupled the size of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape,
and Design, adding five new programs including a renewed undergraduate program in
Architectural Studies, a PhD in Architecture, Landscape, and Design, and
amalgamating UofT's programs in Art/Visual Studies and Forestry[2]
Co-curated New Circadia (Adventures in mental spelunking), a collaboration with
Pillow Culture, NYC and the inaugural exhibition at the Architecture and Design
Gallery at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design[6]
His writings and projects have been included in: Perspecta: The Yale
Architecture Journal, ANY Magazine, Metropolis, The Journal of Architectural
Education, Arcade, The Harvard Design Magazine, and the books Supernatural
Urbanism: the L.A. River Studio; Shaping the City: Studies in History, Theory and
Urban Design; Regenerating Older Suburbs; Urban Design and Third Coast Atlas[3]
Key writings include: Beyond Centers, Fabric and the Culture of Congestion:
Urban Design as a Metropolitan Enterprise; Four Stops along and Architecture of
Post-War America; The Urban Design of Philadelphia: Taking the Town for the City;
Time Incorporated, The Romantic Life of the Modern Monument, and a series of
publications/books with Glenn Forley including: The Democratic Monument in America:
A Twentieth Century Topography; Highway Beautiful: The March from Selma to
Montgomery, and Dy-no-mite Fiends: The Weather Underground at Chicago's Haymarket
Awards

In 2020 Sommer received a Distinguished Professor Award from The Association of


Collegiate Schools of Architecture in 2020.[7] In 1994 he was awarded Harvard's
Arthur W. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship (now called the Wheelwright Prize). In
1991 he received the Legislative Award for Teaching Excellence from Iowa State
University.

Sommer's research has been supported by awards and grants including: the National
Endowment for the Arts, the LEF Foundation, the Wheelwright Fellowship, the Tozier
Fund and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

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