Toshiko Mori

Mori graduated from Cooper Union in 1971, the Cooper Union School of Architecture in 1976. She then received an Honorary MArch from Harvard Graduate School of Design, in 1996.[1]

Prior to establishing her own firm, Mori worked for Edward Larrabee Barnes.[3] She is licensed as an architect in Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C. At the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, she received tenure in 1995 and chaired the Department of Architecture from 2002–2008. Mori has taught at the graduate level at Cooper Union School of Architecture, Columbia University, and Yale University.[1]

Mori is known for her "concern with material innovation and conceptual clarity."[4] Her projects include the A.R.T. New York theater, the canopy at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, Pembroke Hall at Brown University, exhibit design at MoMA and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and numerous residential projects in the United States, Taiwan, China, and Austria.[5][6][7]

As a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities, Mori leads research and inquiry into sustainable architecture, enhancing cities' livability, and creating efficient urban services.[8] Mori is also on the board of directors of Architecture For Humanity, a nonprofit dedicated to design innovation and community involvement.[9]

In 2015, Mori's ecological cultural center in the Senegalese village of Sinthian opened.[10] The building's pitched roof is a sophisticated water-collection system that siphons rainwater into a cistern, providing 30 percent of Sinthian's overall consumption.[11] In 2019 her Fass school and teachers' residence in the same country was opened.[12]

Mori is an Independent Member of the Board of Directors at Dassault Systèmes.[13]

Mori has been the recipient of numerous international awards and honors, and her work has been widely exhibited and published. She was awarded the Cooper Union's inaugural John Hejduk Award in 2003.[14] In 2005, she received the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the Medal of Honor from the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter.[15] Her projects have been exhibited in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s “Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006” and at the Guggenheim Museum.[16]

A monograph of her work, Toshiko Mori Architect, was published by Monacelli Press in 2008. She has contributed to many publications, as well as editing a volume on material and fabrication research, Immaterial/Ultramaterial.[17]

In 2014, Mori was recognized for her work designing the Poe Park Visitor Center, a winning site of Built by Women New York City,[18] a competition launched by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation during the fall of 2014 to identify outstanding and diverse sites and spaces designed, engineered and built by women.

• 2016 Miami & the Tropical World, Korach Gallery, University of Miami - Miami, Florida
• 2015 Afrika, Louisiana Museum - Humlebæk, Denmark
• 2015 Built x Women NYC, The Center for Architecture, New York, NY
• 2014 Office US (Sinthian Cultural Center/ Thread), Fourteenth International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia - Venice, Italy [1]
• 2012 Dialogue in Detail, Thirteenth International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia - Venice, Italy [5]
• 2010 Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum, Guggenheim Museum - New York, New York [1]
• 2009 Detour Tokyo, Moleskin - Tokyo, Japan[1]

• Fass School and Teachers’ Residence – Fass, Senegal (2019)
• Stephen Robert '62 Hall, Watson Institute, Brown University - Providence, RI (2018)[22]
• Center for Maine Contemporary Art - Rockland, ME (2013-2016) [23]
• Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University - Providence, RI (2013)
• Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research Laboratory Building - Cambridge, MA (2011–15) [24]
• Paracoustica: Portable Concert Hall (2011-) [5]
• Brooklyn Public Library - Brooklyn, NY (2009-) [25]
• Hudson Park and Boulevard - MTA Canopies and Café, New York, NY (2008-)
• Pembroke Hall, Brown University - Providence, RI (2008)
• Thread - Sinthian, Senegal (2012-2015)[26]
• Syracuse Center of Excellence - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY (2005–10) [5]
• Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion, Darwin D. Martin House- Buffalo, NY (2002–09) [5]
• New York University Masterplan - New York, NY (2007) [5]
• The Newspaper Café - Jinhua, China (2004–07) [5]

• Toshiko Mori Architect (official website)
• Vision Arc (official website)