Ricardo Scofidio, the visionary architect and Cooper Union alumnus who taught for many years at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, passed away on March 6, 2025, at the age of 89.

Scofidio, known for his bold and unconventional designs, left an indelible mark on the architectural world with work that challenged the boundaries of the field. Together with his long-time partner in life and work, Elizabeth Diller, he took on projects that questioned the inherited premises of design and along the way wholly reframed notions of public space, schools, museums, and theaters. Their work has been recognized with numerous awards, such as the 2009 Royal Academy Architecture Prize, and in 1999 they earned a MacArthur Foundation Award, the first architects to win the coveted “genius” prize. In 2009, Diller and Scofidio were named one of Time's 100 most influential people.

He and Diller, a 1979 Cooper graduate, along with architect Charles Renfro, built a firm with a unique, multidisciplinary approach, blending architecture, art, and performance in ways that were not just functional, but also deeply thought-provoking. The firm’s website confirmed Scofidio’s passing and noted his “profound impact on our architectural practice, establishing the studio with a mission to make space on his own terms.”

Born in New York City, Scofidio studied architecture at The Cooper Union and then attended Columbia University. Scofidio’s practice as an architect reflected his wide-ranging knowledge and interests, integrating performance art, video installations, and multimedia into his designs and demonstrating that architecture could be a platform for critical dialogue as well as creative expression.

Acting Dean Hayley Eber worked at Diller Scofidio + Renfro for six years and recalls Scofidio as “a true original, combined a brilliant mind with a gentle spirit. Known for his distinctive soul patch, love of jazz, and vintage sports cars, he was a creative force in design and architecture.”

He produced work of extraordinary breadth: in 2002, he and Diller designed the Blur Building for the Swiss National Exposition, a 300-foot–wide structure projected over a lake and designed to generate fog, obscuring boundaries of built and natural environments. In Boston, they designed their first US building, the Institute of Contemporary Art, a structure that reads as a sinuous ribbon hovering over a channel of Boston Harbor, made from transparent glass, translucent glass, and opaque metal. Their expansion of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, completed in 2019, became a signature example of how architecture could reframe cultural institutions to better engage with their communities, balancing the interplay between art and space. At Lincoln Center, the architects reimagined the once isolated arts complex as a welcoming, integral public space using strategies such as a new grand entrance, a redesigned main plaza and fountain, a grass-covered, sloped roof that also serves as a campus lawn, a pedestrian bridge, and a glass façade revealing an interior space of Julliard School to Broadway.

One of Diller Scofidio + Renfro's most influential projects was the High Line, a former elevated railway track in Manhattan that was repurposed into a lush, elevated park. This project, which the firm designed in collaboration with James Corner Field Operations and Piet Oudolf, has been widely credited with sparking the global trend of reclaiming urban spaces for public use, redefining how cities think about green space, and influencing countless projects around the world.

Beyond his buildings, Scofidio was a professor and a passionate advocate for the integration of architecture with other artistic and cultural forms. He was a frequent lecturer and author, shaping a generation of architects who followed his belief that architecture should engage with its environment and reflect contemporary issues of technology, politics, and identity. He began teaching at Cooper in 1965 and retired in 2007.

Of his 40-year career at Cooper, Eber said, “He redefined pedagogical boundaries and mentored generations of architects, influencing their practice profoundly. Within the studio, he was a generous colleague, always willing to share his expertise and solve complex design challenges, including invaluable Photoshop tricks. Ric's impact on the city, the practice and the discipline is immeasurable, and his loss will be deeply felt.”

If you have a memory of Ric Scofidio that you would like to share, please send it to communications@cooper.edu. We will be publishing remembrances and tributes from the Cooper community in the coming weeks.