Neil Denari is an architect and principal of Neil M. Denari Architects (NMDA, Inc.), a globally recognized design office based in Los Angeles. NMDA works at all scales across a diverse array of countries and contexts. Focusing primarily on architecture and urban scale planning, the office also has worked in the realm of graphic design, branding, and product design. At present, his office is engaged with projects of various scales in the U.S. and Asia. NMDA’s most recent completed building is HL23, a 14-story condominium tower next to the High Line at 23rd Street in New York.
NMDA considers architecture as a medium with specific attributes that are different from other art and media forms, but not as a medium whose responsibility it is to resist the influences of the temporal or the graphic, those forces exerted by immaterial or two-dimensional media. In this sense, we work with media rather than against it, allowing architecture to be engaging rather than authoritative.
Denari studied at the University of Houston (BArch 1980) and Harvard University (MArch 1982), and is a Professor at UCLA. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and the University of California, Berkeley, among other schools. Denari has received numerous awards, including the Los Angeles AIA Gold Medal in 2011, induction into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 2010, an artist’s Fellowship from the United States Artists organization in 2009 and in 2008, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His most recent solo exhibition was “The Artless Drawing: Neil Denari 1982–1996,” a 2010 show of 60 of his analog drawings held at ACE Gallery Los Angeles, curated by Sylvia Lavin.
Denari is the author of two books, Interrupted Projections (1996, TOTO) and Gyroscopic Horizons (1999, Princeton Architectural Press). He is currently working on Facticity (AADCU), an 800-page multigraphic book on the work of NMDA to be released in 2013.
Announcements
Total Armageddon: A Slanted Reader on Design edited by Ian Lynam
Total Armageddon: A Slanted Reader on Design
Edited by Ian Lynam
Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Published: March 2019
Total Armageddon is about design. And culture. And complexity, notably how we, as a global civilization, deal with science fiction, taste, social media, the cities we live in, aesthetics, PowerPoint, burkas, Big Tech, full-contact sports, and other thorny topics. The book celebrates 15 years of independent publishing and brings together a who’s who of authors and essays from 32 issues of Slanted Magazine.
A Field Guide to Color by Lisa Solomon
A Field Guide to Color: A Watercolor Workbook
By Lisa Solomon
Publisher: Roost Books
Published: August 2019
In this creative workbook you’ll discover fresh ways to connect with color in your art and life. Using watercolors, gouache, or any other water-based medium, explore color theory while playing with paint through a balanced blend of color experiments and loose color meditations. This inspiring workbook will change the way you relate to color
Five Oceans in a Teaspoon by Dennis Bernstein and Warren Lehrer
Five Oceans in a Teaspoon
Poems by Dennis Bernstein
Visualizations by Warren Lehrer
Introduction by Steven Heller
Publisher: Paper Crown Press
Published: September 19, 2019
“From a kidnap note for a world held hostage by an A-bomb, to a Holocaust survivor’s tattooed arms where the numbers just don’t add up, Five Oceans in a Teaspoon re-envisions a poetry memoir via a textual kaleidoscope... Bernstein and Lehrer are the Rodgers and Hart of Visual Poetry.” — Bob Holman, poet, poetry activist and chronicler, and founder of the Bowery Poetry Club
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City by Paul Goldberger
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City
By Paul Goldberger
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: May 2019
An illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.
Charleston Fancy by Witold Rybczynski
Charleston Fancy: Little Houses and Big Dreams in the Holy City
By Witold Rybczynski
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: May 2019
Charleston, South Carolina, which boasts America’s first historic district, is known for its palmetto-lined streets and picturesque houses. The Holy City, named for its profusion of churches, exudes an irresistible charm. Award-winning author and cultural critic Witold Rybczynski unfolds a series of stories about a group of youthful architects, builders, and developers based in Charleston: a self-taught home builder, an Air Force pilot, a fledgling architect, and a bluegrass mandolin player.
Teaching Graphic Design History by Steven Heller
Teaching Graphic Design History
By Steven Heller
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: June 2019
An examination of the concerted efforts, happy accidents, and key influences of the practice throughout the years, Teaching Graphic Design History is an illuminating resource for students, practitioners, and future teachers of the subject.
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