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
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy by John Lobell
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy
By John Lobell
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: June 2020
Noted Louis I.Kahn expert John Lobell explores how Kahn’s focus on structure, respect for materials, clarity of program, and reverence for details come together to manifest an overall philosophy.
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn
By Harriet Pattison
Publisher: Yale University Press
Forthcoming: October 2020
An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Harriet Pattison, FASLA, is a distinguished landscape architect. She was Louis Kahn’s romantic partner from 1959 to 1974, and his collaborator on the landscapes of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, and the F.D.R. Memorial/Four Freedoms Park, New York. She is the mother of their son, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.
Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes
Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes
By Per Olaf Fjeld and Emily Randall Fjeld
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Published: October 4, 2019
A new and personal reading of the architecture, teachings, and legacy of Louis I. Kahn from Per Olaf Fjeld’s perspective as a former student. The book explores Kahn’s life and work, offering a unique take on one of the twentieth century’s most important architects. Kahn’s Nordic and European ties are emphasized in this study that also covers his early childhood in Estonia, his travels, and his relationships with other architects, including the Norwegian architect Arne Korsmo.
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Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context by David Raizman
Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context
By David Raizman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Published: December 2020
An innovative approach to graphic design that uses a series of key artifacts from the history of print culture in light of their specific historical contexts. It encourages the reader to look carefully and critically at print advertising, illustration, posters, magazine art direction, and typography, often addressing issues of class, race, and gender.
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian by Rick Poynor
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian
By Rick Poynor
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: September 2020
A comprehensive overview of the work and legacy of David King (1943–2016), whose fascinating career bridged journalism, graphic design, photography, and collecting. King launched his career at Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, starting as a designer and later branching out into image-led journalism, blending political activism with his design work.
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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