For his “contributions to architecture as an art”, Nader Tehrani is the recipient of The American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, the highest form of recognition of artistic merit in the United States. With nineteen Progressive Architecture Awards, he is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Design, and recipient of the Design Visionary Award from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Tehrani is the Founding Principal of NADAAA, an interdisciplinary practice with works in infrastructure, urbanism, architecture, and installations. The former Head of the Department of Architecture at MIT (2010-14), Tehrani was also Dean of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union (2015-22). His work is featured in the permanent collections of the CCA and Nasher Museum, and NADAAA has been widely exhibited at MOMA, LA MOCA and the Venice Biennale.
Mr. Tehrani is here in Seattle to serve on the AIA Seattle 2025 Honor Awards jury, culminating November 3 with a Town Hall event. 2025 Honor Awards | AIA Seattle
Come early to enjoy the multiple art exhibits currently at the Frye. Admission included. The cafe will have happy hour food and drink. Our talk begins at 5:30 in the 140 seat auditorium.
Mr. Tehrani will present "The Diminishing Public"
The theme of “The Diminishing Public” will examine what it means to design public spaces in the age of privatization, in a moment when technology has come to overwhelm our sense of anonymity in the public sphere, and how competing definition of democracy have come to re-situate what design can do to mitigate how people come together as a community. The talk will also look at the differences between planning, urban design, and architecture as disciplines through which power might be exercised.
Pictured: work by NADAAA
