Who is Moshe Safdie A Short Profile of the Architect

Moshe Safdie came a long way to win the prestigious AIA Gold Medal in 2015. When growing up in Israel, Safdie thought he would study agriculture and become a farmer. Instead he became a citizen of three countries—Israel, Canada, and the United States—with architectural offices in four cities—Jerusalem, Toronto, Boston, and Singapore. Who is Moshe Safdie? Background: Born: July 14, 1938, Haifa, Israel; family moved to Canada when he was 15. Education and Training: 1961, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, six year degree in architecture1962, apprenticed with Daniel (Sandy) van Ginkel and Blanche Lemco-van Ginkel, Canada1963, apprenticed with Louis I. Kahn in Philadelphia, PA1964, Moshe Safdie and Associates, Inc. Selected Projects: 1967: Habitat 67, World Exhibition Expo 67, Montreal, Canada1988: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada1991: Jean-Noà «l Desmarais Pavilion, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada1993, Mamilla District, Davids Village, Jerusalem, Israel1994 - 2013: Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California1995: Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver, Canada1995: Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Vancouver, Canada2000: Exploration Place Science Center, Wichita, Kansas2003: Public Library, Salt Lake City, Utah2003: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts2005: Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem, Israel2007: Lester B. Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Canada2008: U.S. Federal Courthouse, Springfield, Massachusetts2011: Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort, Singapore2011: Virasat-e-Khalsa, Khalsa Heritage Memorial Complex, Punjab, India2011: U.S. Institute of Peace Headquarters, Washington, D.C.2011: Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas City, Missouri2011: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas2015: Sky Habitat, Singapore Six Design Principles that Direct Safdies Approach: Architecture and Planning Should Shape the Public Realm: create meaningful, vital, and inclusive social spacesArchitecture has a Purpose: design buildings that address human needs and aspirationsRespond to the Essence of Place: design specific to place and cultureArchitecture Should be Inherently Buildable: design is informed by the specific qualities of materials and the processes of constructionBuild Responsibly: We have to use resources efficiently while we advance our clients goals.Humanize the Megascale: mitigate the dehumanizing effect of mega-scale, and enhance the quality of life in our cities and neighborhoods Source: Philosophy, Safdie Architects at msafdie.com [accessed June 18, 2012] In Safdies Own Words: He who seeks truth shall find beauty. He who seeks beauty shall find vanity. He who seeks order shall find gratification. He who seeks gratification shall be disappointed. He who considers himself the servant of his fellow beings shall find the joy of self-expression. He who seeks self-expression shall fall into the pit of arrogance. Arrogance is incompatible with nature. Through nature, the nature of the universe and the nature of man, we shall seek truth. If we seek truth, we shall find beauty.—March 2002, Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) presentation, On Building UniquenessI think you need to, as an architect, understand the essence of a place and create a building that feels like it resonates with the culture of a place. So my buildings in India or in Kansas City or in Arkansas or in Singapore, they come out different because the places are so different.—PBS Newshour, Jeffrey Brown, October 14, 2011 transcriptThese cities of 20 million and 30 million people, with densities of thousands of families per acre, they require new inventions to humanize that mega-scale, to find a way in which, though we live densely and though we live one on top of each other, we still want nature, and we still want sunlight and we still want the garden, and we still want all the qualities that make a place humane. And thats our responsibility.—PBS Newshour, Jeffrey Brown, October 14, 2011 transcriptI think, you really want to know about architecture? Taxi drivers. You will always find out about what the public feels about a building from taxi drivers.—PBS Newshour, Jeffrey Brown, October 14, 2011 transcript Honors and Awards: 1995: Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal2015: AIA Gold Medal Moshe Safdie and McGill University: Safidie modified his McGill University thesis to submit to the Montreal Expo 67 competition. With the acceptance of Habitat 67, Safdies career and continued association with Montreal was established. In 1990, the architect donated his vast archive of papers, drawings, and project records to the John Bland Canadian Architecture Collection (CAC) at McGill University. Books by Safdie: Moshe Safdie: Building and Projects, 1967-1992, with CD-ROM, McGill University PressBeyond Habitat, 1970For Everyone a Garden, 1974Form and Purpose, 1982Jerusalem: The Future of the Past, 1989The City After the Automobile: An Architects Vision, 1997Moshe Safdie (Volume I), 1996Yad Vashem, 2006Moshe Safdie (Volume II), 2009Safdie, 2014 About Safdie: Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie by Donald Albrecht, 2010Moshe Safdie, The Power of Architecture  Documentary Film by Donald Winkler, 2004 Sources: Biography, Safdie Architects (PDF); Projects, Safdie Architects; Moshe Safdie, architect and global citizen, by Avigayil Kadesh, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, March 15, 2011 [websites accessed June 18, 2012]