Acclaimed Architects Enrique Norten and Thom Mayne to Speak at Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego

SAN DIEGO, CA.- The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies continue to present their lecture series celebrating the great achievements of Louis Kahn. Enrique Norten will speak about his work and how Kahn's legacy has influenced his practice on April 3, 2009 at MCASD's La Jolla location. Thom Mayne is the final speaker in the series and will give a lecture on his work on May 8, 2009 also at MCASD in La Jolla.

Previous lectures in the series have been given at the Salk Institute by Frank Gehry, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, and David Adjaye. The lecture series is made possible through the generous support of Linda Chester and Dr. Kenneth Rind.

Enrique Norten
Friday, April 3 > 7 PM > MCASD La Jolla
Born and raised in Mexico City, Enrique Norten began his formal study of architecture at Universidad Iberoamericana, in Mexico City, where he earned his first professional degree in 1978. He obtained his Masters in Architecture from Cornell University in 1980.

Norten founded TEN Arquitectos (Taller de Enrique Norten Arquitectos) in 1986, where he is currently principal. The firm reached international stature when it opened a second office in New York City in 2001. Among the firm's most recognized projects in Mexico City are the National School of Theater at the National Center of the Arts, Hotel HABITA, and the Televisa Mixed Use Building. Current projects include 1 York residential building in New York City; the Guggenheim Museum in Guadalajara, Mexico; and BAM South Site in Brooklyn, New York.

In February 2008, Norten was presented with the Excellence in Architecture and Design Award by PODER - Boston Consulting Group Business Awards. In 2007 he obtained the Legacy Award by the Smithsonian Institution for his contributions to U.S. arts and culture. In 2005 he received the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts by the World Cultural Council and was the first Mies van der Rohe Award recipient for Latin American architecture in 1998.

He has lectured all over the world and has participated in several international juries and award committees such as the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition in New York City and the Holcim Foundation Awards for Sustainable Construction. He was recently appointed a member of Deutsche Bank's Board of Trustees.

Norten currently holds the Miller Chair at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. He has held the O'Neal Ford Chair in Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, the Lorch Professor of Architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City (1980-1990) and has served as a Visiting Professor at Cornell University, Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, Sci-Arc, Rice University, Columbia University, and as the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale School of Architecture.

Thom Mayne
Friday, May 8 > 7 PM > MCASD La Jolla
Thom Mayne received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Southern California in 1968 and his Masters in Architecture from Harvard University in 1978. He founded Morphosis in 1972 as in interdisciplinary and collective practice involved in experimental design and research. With projects worldwide, the firm's work encompasses a wide range of project types and scales including residential, institutional, and civic buildings as well as large urban planning projects such as the winning proposal for the NYC 2012 Olympic Village and the widely recognized urban research initiative, LA Now. Morphosis expanded its operations in 2007 and currently maintains a permanent office in New York City as well as site offices in Paris and Shanghai, in addition to its original location in Los Angeles.

Recent award-winning projects include the San Francisco Federal Building; the Wayne L. Morse United States Courthouse in Eugene, Oregon; the University of Cincinnati Student Recreation Center in Cincinnati, Ohio; Hypo Bank in Udine, Italy; and Social Housing in Madrid, Spain. Current projects include the Phare Tower in Paris, France; the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas; the Giant Group Campus in Shanghai, China; the New Academic Building for the Cooper Union in New York City; and the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pasadena, California.

Mayne is the recipient of many distinguished honors, including the Pritzker Prize in 2005, the McDowell Medal in 2008, the 2006 National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the 2000 American Institute of Architects/Los Angeles Gold Medal in Architecture. With Morphosis, Mayne has been the recipient of 25 Progressive Architecture Awards, 70 American Institute of Architecture Awards, and numerous other design recognitions.

Throughout his career, Mayne has remained active in the academic world. He was a co-founder of the influential Southern California Institute of Architecture and currently holds a tenured professorship at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. Mayne has also taught at Columbia, the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands, the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, Yale (the Eliel Saarinen Chair in 1991), and the Harvard Graduate School of Design (Eliot Noyes Chair in 1998).