This presentation will be conducted in-person and through Zoom. Public attendance is limited to Zoom, please register in advance here.

The lecture is part of Nat Oppeheimer ARCH 152/ARCH 482.02 Structures IV/Grad Seminar Technology Course. 

A free-flowing conversation about the nature of collaboration among Architects and Structural Engineers and the manner in which we discuss structure and its impact on architecture. 

Guy Nordenson is a structural engineer and professor of architecture at Princeton. He was the engineer for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC (with Silman), the International African American Museum, and Emmanuel Nine Memorial, in Charleston SC and oversaw the design of David Hammons’ Day’s End sculpture in the Hudson River.

Nordenson is the author of books on climate adaptation and engineering design. He was Commissioner of the NYC Public Design Commission from 2006 to 2015 and a member of the NYC Panel on Climate Change. He is fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Nat Oppenheimer is an Executive Vice President and Senior Principal at Silman. Nat joined the firm in 1988 and has extensive experience in the areas of new construction, renovation, sustainable engineering, and historic preservation as Principal in Charge of much of the firm’s institutional, private residential, and educational work.

Nat is a board member of the Architectural League of New York, currently serving as its Treasurer. Since 2013, he has been an active participant of the Industry Advisory Group for the US Department of State Bureau of Overseas Building Operations. Since 2016, Nat has been a member of the Van Alen Institute International Council. He is also a member of the Grace Farms Foundation Architecture + Construction Working Group, an interdisciplinary group of A/E leaders who are advocating to end the use of modern slavery in the supply chain and labor for the built environment.

Nader Tehrani is the Dean of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union in New York. He was previously a professor of architecture at MIT, where he served as the Head of the Department from 2010-2014. He is also Principal of NADAAA, a practice dedicated to the advancement of design innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and an intensive dialogue with the construction industry. 

For his contributions to architecture as an art, Nader Tehrani is the recipient of the 2020 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, to which he was also elected as a Member in 2021, the highest form of recognition of artistic merit in The United States.

In-person attendance to the lecture is open to Cooper Union students, faculty, and staff in room 315F. Members of the public may attend through Zoom only.