Dean Tehrani Awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Letters

POSTED ON: April 23, 2020

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Villa Varoise, NADAAA – 2019. Photo by John Horner

Villa Varoise, NADAAA – 2019. Photo by John Horner

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has awarded Nader Tehrani with the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, which is given to an architect who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art. This year, the Academy’s membership of 250 individuals nominated 34 firms and individuals. Members of the jury included Peter Eisenman, also a 2020 recipient of the Academy’s Gold Medal for Architecture, Steven Holl, James Polshek, Billie Tsien, Tod Williams, and chair Annabelle Selldorf. Dean Tehrani is a principal at Boston-based architectural firm, NADAAA.

The Academy is an honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers, and writers. Its annual architecture awards program began in 1955 with the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, and has since expanded to include four other architecture awards. This year’s award recipients include Brooklyn-based firm Bade Stageberg Cox, New Orleans architect Jonathan Tate, Kevin Lippert, founder of the Princeton Architectural Press, and structural engineer John Ochsendorf.

  • 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.