Mori, Toshiko

Toshiko Mori

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Education

  • B.Arch, Cornell University, 1976
  • Hon. M.Arch, Harvard University, 1996

Years of practice

1976–

Affiliations/Firms

  • Toshiko Mori Architect, 1981-present
  • Edward Larrabee Barnes, 1976-1981

Professional organizations

  • Became AIA fellow in 2005

Related websites

Keywords

A+U Magazine, AIA, B.Arch, Barnes, Cooper Union, Cornell, Department of Architecture, Edward Larrabee Barnes, FAIA, Florida, GSD, Georgia, Graduate School of Design, Harvard, Israel, John Hejduk Award, M.Arch., Maine, New York, New York City, New York Foundation for the Arts, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Toshiko Mori Architect, Van Alen Institute, advisor, architect, commercial, faculty, institutional, museum, professor, residential, trustee

Biography

Early life and education

Toshiko Mori was born in Kobe, Japan in 1951. She moved to New York in 1966.  Before she went to Cooper Union School of Architecture, where she received her Bachelor of Architecture degree, she studied art history in Florence.  There, an opportunity to meet architect-artist Leonard Meiselman presented itself, and she found herself interested in art beyond paintings because she wanted to “venture into something different.” [1]  After graduation, Mori worked in the office of Edward Larrabee Barnes in New York City.

Career in Architecture

In 1981, Mori founded Toshiko Mori Architect in New York City. Toshiko Mori Architect has worked on a number of diverse projects, from exhibition designs, to houses in Florida, Maine, New York City and Israel, museum projects in Maine, and institutional projects in New York, Maine, and Georgia. Since establishing her own practice, her small-scale furniture projects, graphic design and drawings have won numerous awards and have been published and exhibited extensively. In 1996, she was awarded an Honorary Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University.

Pushing the boundaries of materials forms one of the essential components of Mori’s architectural approach. She regularly collaborates with specialists in many fields of science and technology to pursue her ongoing research into innovative materials and their possible use in architecture. [1]

Mori is the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture.  She has been the chair of the Department of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 2002. She taught at the Cooper Union School of Architecture from 1983, until joining the Harvard GSD faculty with tenure in 1995.

In 2003, Mori was awarded the Cooper Union Inaugural John Hejduk Award.  She received the 2005 Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Medal of Honor from the New York City chapter of the AIA. She has served on the board of trustees of the Van Alen Institute and the Storefront for Art and Architecture, and has been an advisor to the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is currently an advisor to A+U Magazine and serves on the President’s Council for the Cooper Union. [2]

Major Buildings and Projects

  • Poe Park Visitor Center, Bronx, New York (2011)
  • Darwine Martin House Vistor’s Center, Buffalo, New York (2005) [3]

Press and Awards

  • Built by Women Cultural Award, Poe Park Visitor Center (2014)
  • AIA New York Chapter Architecture Merit Award, Sinthian Cultural Center and Artists’ Residence (2014)
  • AIA New York Chapter Merit Award, House in Ghent (2014)
  • Architectural Digest’s 2014 AD 100 (2014)
  • AIA New York Chapter Interior Honor Award, Sean Kelly Galler (2013)
  • American Architecture Awards, Syracuse Center of Excellence (2012)
  • World Architecture Festival Award Finalist, Syracuse Center of Excellence (2011)
  • New York City Public Design Commission Award for Excellence in Design, Brooklyn’s Children Museum Rooftop Pavilion (2010)

Writings

Mori, Toshiko. Immaterial/ Ultramaterial. George Braziller, 2002.

Mori, Toshiko. Textile Tectonic. George Braziller, 2005

Footnotes

[1] “OnInnovation: Visionaries Thinking out Loud. A Video Oral History Project Advancing a Culture of Innovation Powered by The Henry Ford.” OnInnovation : Toshiko Mori. February 11, 2009. Accessed July 23, 2015.

[2] Kateigaho

[3] “Toshiko Mori.” Toshiko Mori Architect. Accessed July 23, 2015.

[4] Donoff, Elizabeth. 2003. “Toshiko Mori | Darwin Martin House Visitors Center | Buffalo, New York.” Architecture 92 (7): 36. https://search.proquest.com/docview/227893203?accountid=13215.

Toshiko Mori, “Women of Architecture: Toshiko Mori,” National Building Museum video, 1:33:17, July 22, 2015, https://youtu.be/NoJnveF5nYo.