Richard M. Sommer

As Director of the Global Cities Institute at Daniels Faculty, Sommer co-curated the study and exhibitions with Michael Piper, Housing Multitudes: Reimagining the Landscapes of Suburbia{{Cite news |last=Bozikovic |first=Alex |date=2022-11-21 |title=Not Markham or Manhattan, but something else: a new vision for the landscapes of suburbia at Toronto gallery show |language=en-CA |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/article-municipal-planners-reimagine-the-landscapes-of-suburbia-at-toronto/ |access-date=2023-03-17}} held at the Daniels Architecture and Design Gallery and at the World Urban Pavilion at Regent Park in 2023. Housing Multitudes features work by University of Toronto faculty, students and local architectural practice, LGA Architectural Partners, proposing solutions for how suburban geography can evolve to accommodate additional housing and also contribute to a more social and sustainable future.{{Cite news |last=Bozikovic |first=Alex |title=Merging the Past with the Future |work=Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/architecture/spectacular-new-home-of-u-of-ts-daniels-faculty-merges-past-andfuture |access-date=2020-07-03}}

Whilst serving as Dean of the Daniels Faculty, Sommer led the transformation of 1 Spadina Crescent into the Daniels Building, designed by NADAAA.{{Cite web |title=Daniels Building by NADAAA {{!}} 2018-11-01 {{!}} Architectural Record |url=https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/13738-daniels-building-by-nadaaa |access-date=2023-03-17 |website=www.architecturalrecord.com |language=en}} The project won numerous awards including a Toronto Urban Design Award. Sommers expanded the Daniels Faculty, adding five new programs including a renewed undergraduate program in Architectural Studies, a PhD in Architecture, Landscape, and Design, and amalgamating University of Toronto's programs in Art/Visual Studies and Forestry.{{Cite web |title=New U of T proposal would see Faculty of Forestry join John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design |url=https://www.utoronto.ca/news/new-u-t-proposal-would-see-faculty-forestry-join-john-h-daniels-faculty-architecture-landscape |access-date=2023-03-17 |website=University of Toronto News |language=en}} Sommer co-curated, with Pillow Culture NYC, the inaugural exhibition at the Architecture and Design Gallery, New Circadia (Adventures in mental spelunking){{Cite web |title=The health impact of taking a nap |url=https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1656259139507}} based on ongoing research on the democratic potential of collective spaces of idling, dream sharing and rest.{{Cite news |last=Roussy |first=Kas |date=December 15, 2019 |title=Napping has been redeemed by health experts, but don't overdo it |work=CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/nap-health-canada-snooze-neurology-napping-snooze-1.5394362}}

Prior to his appointment as Dean at the Daniels Faculty, Sommer was a member of the faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for eleven years, and served as Director of the school's Urban Design programs.{{Cite web |date=2009-04-24 |title=Professor Richard M. Sommer appointed as Dean, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto |url=https://www.canadianarchitect.com/professor-richard-m-sommer-appointed-as-dean-john-h-daniels-faculty-of-architecture-landscape-and-de/ |access-date=2020-03-20 |website=Canadian Architect |language=en-US}} He has held several other academic appointments including the O’Hare Chair/Visiting American Scholar at Ulster University, Scholar-in-Residence at the California College of the Arts, as well as visiting professorships at the Cooper Union, KU Leuven, Washington University in St. Louis, Columbia University and Iowa State University. In 1995 he co-founded a design practice: borfax/B.L.U.

Sommer has served as a visiting critic and lectured internationally.{{Cite web |title=Afterall - Richard Sommer, Barbara Fischer and Charles Stankievech |url=https://www.afterall.org/events/richard-sommer-with-barbara-fischer-and-charles-stankievech/ |access-date=2023-03-17 |website=Afterall |language=en}}

Sommer received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design,{{Citation|title=List of Rhode Island School of Design people|date=2021-07-09|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Rhode_Island_School_of_Design_people&oldid=1032799504|work=Wikipedia|language=en|access-date=2021-09-14}} and a Master of Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design, where the architect Jose Rafael Moneo served as his thesis advisor.{{Cite web|date=2009-04-24|title=Professor Richard M. Sommer appointed as Dean, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto|url=https://www.canadianarchitect.com/professor-richard-m-sommer-appointed-as-dean-john-h-daniels-faculty-of-architecture-landscape-and-de/|access-date=2021-09-14|website=Canadian Architect|language=en-US}}

In 2020 Sommer received a Distinguished Professor Award from The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.{{Cite web|date=February 28, 2020|title=ACSA Announces 2020 Architectural Education Award Winners|url=https://www.architectmagazine.com/awards/acsa-announces-2020-architectural-education-award-winners_o|access-date=2020-03-20|website=Architect Magazine}} In 1994 he was awarded Harvard's Arthur W. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship (now called the Wheelwright Prize). In 1991 he received the Legislative Award for Teaching Excellence from Iowa State University.

Sommer's research has been supported by awards and grants including: the National Endowment for the Arts, the LEF Foundation, the Wheelwright Fellowship, the Tozier Fund and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

• Sommer, Richard & Fizer, Natalie. (2020) “[https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/67/fizer_sommer_full.php Glossary of Dream Architecture: Genus for a New Circadia]” in Cabinet, Issue 67 / Dreams, Spring 2019–Winter 2020 (New York/ Berlin).

• Sommer, Richard. (2017) “[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118887226.wbcha163 A Secular Cathedral of Art: Frank O. Gehry’s Guggenheim, Bilbao]” in The Blackwell Companion to Modern Architecture, Twentieth Century, D. Leatherbarrow and A. Eisenschmidt, eds. (Wiley Publishing).

• Sommer, Richard. (2013) “[https://people.utm.my/lylai/files/2017/06/page-156-2.pdf Beyond Centers, Fabric and the Culture of Congestion: Urban Design as a Metropolitan Enterprise]” in Urban Design, (Minnesota University Press).

• Sommer, Richard. (2013) “The Urban Design of Philadelphia: Taking the Towne for the City” in [https://www.routledge.com/Shaping-the-City-Studies-in-History-Theory-and-Urban-Design/El-Khoury-Robbins/p/book/9780415584623 Shaping the City: Studies in History, Theory and Urban Design], (London: Spon/Routledge Press).

• Sommer, Richard & Forley, Glenn. (2013) “The Democratic Monument: The Reframing of History as Heritage” in D. Gobel, et al, Eds., Commemoration and the American City: Monuments, Memorialization and Meaning (University of Virginia Press).

• Sommer, Richard & Forley, Glenn. (2011) “Highway Beautiful: The March from Selma to Montgomery” in Critical/Productive, a Journal of Architecture, Urbanism and Cultural Theory, Vol 1.1: Theoretic Action (University of Michigan).

• Sommer, Richard & Forley, Glenn. (2008) “Dyn-o-mite Fiends: The Weather Underground's Action at Haymarket” co-authored with Glenn Forley, in Collateral Damage: War & Architecture, Journal of Architectural Education Special Issue, 62:3 (Blackwell).

• Sommer, Richard & Forley, Glenn. (2007) "The Democratic Monument in America: A Twentieth-Century Topography" (Cambridge: President and Fellows of Harvard University).

• Sommer, Richard & Jones, M.M. (2004) "Supernatural Urbanism: The Los Angeles River Studio", Eds. (Cambridge: Harvard Design School Press).

• Sommer, Richard. (2001) “[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1567285?seq=1 Four Stops Along an Architecture of Post-War America]” in Perspecta Vol. 32, The Yale Journal of Architecture, (Cambridge: MIT Press).

• Sommer, Richard. (1999) “Time Incorporated: The Romantic Life of the Modern Monument” Harvard Design Magazine, Number 9. (Cambridge: President and Fellows of Harvard University).

• University of Toronto
• John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
• New Circadia

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1531-314X.2007.00165.x Dy-no-mite Fiends: The Weather Underground at Chicago's Haymarket] by Richard M. Sommer with Glenn Forley
• [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1567285?seq=1 Four Stops along an Architecture of Postwar America], Richard M. Sommer, Perspecta, Vol. 32, Resurfacing Modernism (2001), pp. 76
• [https://www.daniels.utoronto.ca/ Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design]
• [https://www.archpaper.com/2023/02/housing-multitudes-at-the-university-of-toronto-imagines-the-future-of-suburbia/ Housing Multitudes at The University of Toronto imagines the future of Suburbia]

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Category:Architects from Philadelphia

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