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Laurie Hawkinson Appointed to NYC Public Design Commission

POSTED ON: November 3, 2016

Wilce Student Health Center, OSU, view at entrance

Wilce Student Health Center, OSU, view at entrance

By Lea Bertucci

Cooper Alum, Laurie Hawkinson (AR ’83) has just been appointed to the NYC Public Design Commission, New York City’s design review agency. In mayor Bill De Blasio’s announcement, he stated; “Laurie’s years of work designing projects for a wide range of clientele, both domestically and internationally, as well as both privately and publically, demonstrate her expertise in the field”. In this position, Ms. Hawkinson will oversee proposals for permanent works of architecture, landscape architecture and art on city-owned property as part of an 11-member council.

Since graduating from The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union, Hawkinson has received an MA in Department of Art Practice from UC-Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from UC-Berkeley. She is a partner at Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects (SMH+) and Professor of Architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and currently serves on Columbia University’s Professional Schools’ Diversity Council.

Hawkinson joins two other Cooper Union architecture graduates with high profile civic posts. In August, 2016 Mayor de Blasio nominated Michael Samuelian (AR’95) as President and CEO of the Trust for Governors Island. In January, 2016, Gina Pollara (AR’91) was named President of the Municipal Art Society of New York.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.