Michael Maltzan: No More Play And Other Urban Speculations

Renown Los Angeles architect Michael Maltzan is teaching a graduate design studio at the School of Architecture this semester as the Nancy M. & Edward D. Fox Urban Design Critic, a faculty endowment honoring Nancy and Edward Fox, members of a three-generation Trojan family. Michael Maltzan was born in 1959 in Levittown, on Long Island, New York. He holds both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design, where he received the Henry Adams AIA Scholastic Gold Medal. He received a Master of Architecture degree with a Letter of Distinction from Harvard University in 1988. In the decade since founding Michael Maltzan Architecture in Los Angeles, Maltzan has created a practice that engages the increasingly complex reality of urbanization and information-driven culture. Building on his background in the arts, his work endeavors to synthesize the ambiguity of our contemporary world through an architecture that is both catalyst for new experiences and infused with optimism for its role as an agent for change. This work, through projects including the Mark Taper Forum/Inner-City Arts, Harvard-Westlake School’s Feldman-Horn Center for the Arts, MoMA QNS, Kidspace Children’s Museum, UCLA Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater, Fresno Metropolitan Museum, Sonoma County Museum, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s new Administration and Education Complex, charts a new trajectory for Modernism and the public realm. Mr. Maltzan’s work has been recognized with the American Institute of Architects’ Young Architect’s Award, five Progressive Architecture awards and 13 additional awards from the AIA. He has lectured internationally and has served as a design instructor, lecturer, and critic at The Architectural League of NewYork, Rhode Island School of Design, UCLA, UC Berkeley, USC, Harvard University, University of Waterloo, and Southern California Institute of Architecture. He is a licensed architect and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Mr. Maltzan’s designs have been featured in over 100 national and international publications including Architecture, Architectural Digest, Architectural Record, Artforum, A+U, Domus, GA Houses, Lotus, Phaidon Press’s 10x10, Newsweek, The New York Times, Taschen Press’s Architecture Now 3 and 4, and the monograph Alternate Ground. Mr. Maltzan’s work was also featured in solo exhibitions at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2003 and at the Carnegie Museum’s Heinz Architectural Center in 2005. The Nancy M. and Edward D. Fox Urban Design Critic endowment provides funds for the annual appointment of a visiting urban design critic at the School. The critic is responsible for teaching and research in the area of urban design and the role of the business community in the development of cities. The critic incorporates the complimentary roles of architects, urban designers and financial partners in city building. Lectures are free and open to the public. They are located in the Gin D. Wong, FAIA Conference Center, Harris Hall, on the University Park campus. No reservations are required. Parking is available on campus at Gate 1 off Exposition Blvd. USC School of Architecture