Enrique Norten

Enrique Norten, Hon. FAIA, was born in Mexico City where he graduated from the Universidad Iberoamericana with a degree in architecture in 1978. He obtained a Master of Architecture degree from Cornell University in 1980.

In 1986 he founded TEN Arquitectos (Taller de Enrique Norten) in Mexico City, initiating a lifelong commitment to architecture and design. TEN Arquitectos seamlessly engages a multitude of scales and typologies, including furniture design, single-family houses, and residential, cultural, and institutional buildings, as well as landscape and master planning.

Projects such as the National School of Theater at the National Center of the Arts, Mexico City; Televisa Mixed Use Building, Mexico City (first prize, Mies van der Rohe Pavilion Award for Latin American Architecture, Barcelona, Spain, 1998); and Hotel HABITA, Mexico City (Latin American Building of the Year, World Architecture Awards/RIBA, London, 2002; Business Week/Architectural Record Awards, and AIA New York Chapter Award 2003) established the firm as a leader in contemporary architecture.

Under Norten’s leadership and vision, the firm reached international stature when it opened a New York office in 2003. Since then, TEN Arquitectos has grown to more than 70 members, working on a diverse array of award-winning and acclaimed architectural projects.

Current commissions include the Amparo Museum (Puebla, Puebla, Mexico); Xochimilco Master Plan and Aquarium (Mexico City); a new vision for Rutgers University’s College Avenue Campus and Livingston Campus (New Brunswick, NJ); and the design of BAM Cultural District’s South Site cultural center (Brooklyn, NY).

Construction is underway for the Hotel Americano (New York, NY); Acapulco City Hall (Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico); Paseo Tabasco (Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico); and the 1.3 million square-foot Mercedes House (New York, NY). Recently completed are 580 Carroll Street (Brooklyn, NY) and the Chopo Museum (Mexico City).

In the past two decades, Enrique Norten’s projects have been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2009 Institute Merit Design Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) New York Chapter for the Xochimilco Master Plan and Aquarium and a National 2009 Institute Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design from the AIA for Orange County Great Park (Irvine, CA).

In 2008, Enrique Norten was presented with the Excellence in Architecture and Design Award by PODER—Boston Consulting Group Business Awards, and in 2007, the Legacy Award from the Smithsonian Institution for his contributions to U.S. arts and culture. In 2005 he received the Leonardo da Vinci World Award for Arts from the World Cultural Council. He was the first recipient of the Mies van der Rohe Award for Latin American Architecture, in 1998.

Norten has lectured all over the world and is a regular speaker at the Urban Age Conference, dedicated to shaping the thinking and practice of urban leaders and sustainable urban development through a worldwide investigation into the future of diverse cities around the world.

Throughout his career, Enrique Norten has balanced the practice of architecture with participation in international juries and award committees, including the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition in New York City and the Holcim Foundation Awards for Sustainable Construction. In 2006 he was appointed a member of Deutsche Bank’s Board of Trustees and in successive years he has become a board member of the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York and the Americas Society/Council of the Americas.

Enrique Norten has held the Miller Chair at the University of Pennsylvania since 1998. He has held the O’Neal Ford Chair in Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin and the Lorch Professor of Architecture Chair at the University of Michigan, and has been the Eliot Noyes Visiting Design Critic at Harvard University. He was Professor of Architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City (1980–90) and has served as a Visiting Professor at Cornell University, Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, Sci-Arc, Rice University, Columbia University, and as Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at the Yale School of Architecture.

The work of Enrique Norten/TEN Arquitectos has been presented in several international exhibitions, including “inTENtions: Process and Variations” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2008; “Old City—New Architecture” at the XI St. Petersburg World Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia; “La rue est à nous tous” at the Val de Seine National School of Architecture in Paris, France; “The Guggenheim Architecture” in Bonn, Germany, 2006; and the Venice Biennale in 1996, 2002, 2004, and 2006.

In addition to numerous articles in national and international publications, the work of the firm has been published in several monographs. Among the most significant are Working: 20 Projects in Process (2007); Enrique Norten: Temas y Variaciones (2004, reprinted 2005); and TEN Arquitectos (1998, reprinted 2002).