SARAH WILLIAMS GOLDHAGEN 236 East 111th Street #1 New York, NY 10029 Phone: 646-896-1696 Email:
[email protected]
Sarah Williams Goldhagen writes and lectures about architecture and landscapes, cities and urban design, infrastructure and public art -- all the things that constitute the built environment. In 2015 she won the prestigious Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Commentary for her criticism in Architectural Record. Now a contributing editor at Art in America and Architectural Record, she was the New Republic’s architecture critic for many years, and taught for a decade at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Goldhagen has been an invited guest lecturer at numerous universities and colleges. Her essays have appeared in scholarly and general-interest publications in the US and abroad, from Art in America and the New York Times to the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Giornale dell’Architettura and L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui. CURRENT POSITIONS Writer and Critic Contributing Editor, Architectural Record Contributing Editor, Art in America CURRENT BOOKS “Welcome to Your World: Experiencing the Built Environment” Harper/Collins Publishers, April 2017 How the new scientific understanding of cognition could, should, and is changing the design of our built environment. “Critical Criteria: Judging the Built Environment” Criticism of new buildings, landscapes, and urban interventions around the world, and why it matters
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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS Books Louis Kahn’s Situated Modernism. Yale University Press, 2001. Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture. CCA and MIT Press, 2001, edited with Réjean Legault. Articles, Op-Eds, and Essays in Books “Alvar Aalto’s Embodied Rationalism.” In Alvar Aalto and America. Yale University Press, 2012, Edited by Stanford Anderson, Gail Fenske, and David Fixler. “Alvar Aalto’s Astonishing Rationalism.” In A Field Guide to a New Metafield: Bridging the Humanities-Neurosciences Divide. University of Chicago Press, 2011, Edited by Barbara Maria Stafford. “Architecture as Vocation: Urban Vision in the Architecture of Moshe Safdie.” In Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie.” Skira, 2010, edited by Donald Albrecht. “Positioning Positions.” Positions, 2008. “Snapshots: Monumentality in Postwar Architecture” In Architecture between Spectacle and Use. Clark Studies in the Visual Arts and Yale University Press, 2008, ed. Anthony Vidler. “Something to Talk About: Modernism, Discourse, Style,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2005. “Showing Cities What Planning Can Accomplish: Techniques for the Production of Locality in Josep Luis Sert’s Peabody Terrace.” Harvard Design Magazine, Fall 2005. Josep Luis Sert: Fifty Years of Architecture, eds. Miró Foundation and Josep Maria Rovira, Spring 2005. “Critical Themes of Postwar Modernism.” In Anxious Modernisms, edited by Goldhagen and Legault. “Freedom’s Domiciles: Three Projects by Alison and Peter Smithson.” In Anxious Modernisms, edited by Goldhagen and Legault.
3 “Reconceptualizing the Modern.” In Anxious Modernisms, edited by Goldhagen and Legault. “Looking Back at Neutra’s Windshield House.” Richard Neutra’s Windshield House, ed. Dietrich Neumann, Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Yale University Press, 2001 (published under name Sarah Ksiazek). "David Geiger," "Georgia Dome," "Pontiac Silverdome," "Stadiums." In L’art de l’ingénieur: Constructeur, entrepeneur, inventeur, ed. Antoine Picon. Editions du Centre Georges Pompidou, 1997 (published under name Sarah Ksiazek). “Critiques of Liberal Individualism: Louis Kahn’s Civic Projects, 1947-1957.” Assemblage, December 1996 (published under name Sarah Ksiazek). “Architectural Culture in the Fifties: Louis Kahn and the National Assembly Complex in Dhaka.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, December 1993 (published under name Sarah Ksiazek). “James Stirling: Circumstances Against Style.” Newsline, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, November 1990 (published under name Sarah Ksiazek). “Detail and Abstraction: The Inevitable Task.” In Detail: The Special Task, catalogue essay with contributions by Helen Searing, M. Christine Boyer, and Patricia Conway. A.I.R. Gallery, New York, 1984 (published under names Sarah Williams). Criticism “Deconstruction Site” (review of Diller, Scofidio + Renfro’s Eli and Edythe Broad Museum, Los Angeles), Art in America, December 2015. “Concrete Future” (review of “Unfinished” Exhibition and Met Breuer opening), Art in America, June 2016. “One World Trade Center” Architectural Record, 2015. “The Blob That Ate Wilshire Boulevard” Architectural Record, 2015 (Zumthor’s LACMA). “Critique: Chicago Architecture Biennial” Architectural Record, 2015. “Rem’s Rules” (on Koolhaas’ curatorial program for the Venice Architecture Biennale). Architectural Record, 2014.
4 “The Great Architect Rebellion of 2014” (on the exhibitions in the national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale), The New Republic, 2014. “Frank Lloyd Wright was a Genius at Building Houses, but His Ideas for Cities Were Terrible” The New Republic, 2014. “The Winner of the 2014 Pritzker Prize is Revolutionizing Architecture” The New Republic, 2014. “Crashing the Boy’s Club: How Far Have Women Architects Come?” Architectural Record, 2013. “Yes, Denise Scott Brown Deserves a Pritzker Prize” The New Republic, 2013. “Toyo Ito’s Pritzker Prize” The New Republic, 2013. “The Revolution at Your Community Library” The New Republic, 2013. The local branch library, a new building type with an old-fashioned name, is our best hope to reconstitute the public realm. Inspired the Charles Revson Foundation’s support of the Center for an Urban Future’s influential “Re-Envisioning New York’s Branch Libraries” report (2014) and CUF/Architectural League of New York’s “Re-Envisioning Branch Libraries” Design Competition.
“Architecture is More Than Just Buildings: In Remembrance of Ada Louise Huxtable” The New Republic, 2013. ”Seeing the Building for the Trees” The New York Times, Sunday Review, 2012. Metaphors of embodied cognition in new buildings by Jürgen Mayer H., Mount Fuji Architects, NADAAA, Toyo Ito, and Junya Ishigami.
“A Vision Beyond Rebuilding” The New York Times, Room for Debate. Shrinking cities and the model of Leinefelde-Worbis in East Germany.
“The Beauty and Inhumanity of Oscar Niemeyer’s Architecture” The New Republic, 2012. “Living High” The New Republic, 2012. New models for high density residential living from Asia, features the work of WOHA.
“Death By Nostalgia” Op-Ed, The New York Times, 2011. Why historic preservation can’t and shouldn’t substitute for urban planning.
“In Praise of Sea Ranch, A Sublimely Beautiful Example of Environmental Architecture” The New Republic, 2011. “Valuable China” The New Republic, 2011. China’s urbanization has problems, but we can still learn from what they’re doing right.
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“How Steve Jobs Turned Design Into a Necessity” The New Republic, 2011. “When Did Architecture’s Top Prize Become So Predictable and Boring?” The New Republic, 2011. The Pritzker Prize Committee needs to take a look at the world. “On Background: Was Architecture Really a Non-factor in Byzantine Art?”, The New Republic, 2010.
“Tarnished Stirling” The New Republic, 2010. On “Notes from the Archive: James Fraser Stirling, Architect and Teacher,” Exhibition curated by Anthony Vidler at the Paul Mellon Center for British Art, Yale University.
“Stick Stuck” The New Republic, 2009. On “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and the real promise of prefabricated architecture.
“Park Here” The New Republic, 2010. On the importance of Great Urban Parks in Chicago, St. Louis, and New York City. Winner, Best Article of the Year, American Society of Landscape Architects.
“Moshe Safdie” Design Observer, 2010. “Only Skin and Bones” The New Republic, 2007. On the exhibition “Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Architecture and Fashion” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
“Place of Grace: Peter Zumthor” The New Republic, 2009. No one does experiential architecture better.
“Stopped Making Sense” The New Republic, 2008. SANAA’s Failed New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.
“Making Waves: Enrique Miralles, the Real Frank Gehry” The New Republic, 2008. Miralles’ Scottish Parliament and parks in Barcelona demonstrate his lasting brilliance.
“American Collapse” The New Republic, 2007. The alarming decrepitude of American infrastructure. Reprinted in U.S. Infrastructure: The Reference Shelf, edited by Paul McCaffrey, H. W. Wilson, 2011.
“Dorm Art” The New Republic, 2006. Student centers by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects and Morphosis show a new attitude among architects to landscape.
“Extra-Large” The New Republic, 2006.
6 Rem Koolhaas’ brilliant architecture and atrocious urbanism.
“For the Birds: Santiago Calatrava’s Moment” The New Republic, 2006. The Ascendance of Kitsch.
“Putting Some Pizzazz Back in the Skyline” Op-Ed, New York Times, February 15, 2003. “Our Degraded Public Realm: The Multiple Failures of Architectural Education” Chronicle Review (a weekly publication of the Chronicle of Higher Education), cover story, January 2003. “Kool Houses, Kold Cities” American Prospect, June 2002. “Boring Buildings: Why is American Architecture So Bad ?” The American Prospect, December 2001. “Bringing the Mall Back Home” Architectural Record, September 1985 (published under Sarah Williams”. Book Reviews Mark Wigley, White Walls, Designer Dresses, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 1997. Michael J. Lewis and Eugene Johnson, Drawn from the Source: The Travel Sketches of Louis I. Kahn, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 1997. Meredith Clausen, Pietro Belluschi, Modern American Architect, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, December 1995. Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History, GSD News, Fall 1995. Lawrence J. Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity, Design Book Review, Summer/Fall, 1993. Dolores Hayden, Redesigning the American Dream: The Future of Housing, Work and Family Life, Architectural Record, 1984. “The International Style in Israel: From Europe’s Utopian Dreams to the Pragmatism of Palestine,” Architectural Record, 1985. LECTURES, CONFERENCES, APPEARANCES (selected) Inaugural Lecturer, Vincent Scully Series, University of Miami, fall 2017.
7 Speaker, Equality in Design series, Yale University School of Architecture, November 2016. “Dream Big: The Future of Public Libraries”, Cambridge Public Library Foundation, Cambridge, MA, October 2016. Art, Architecture, and Design Keynote: Sarah Williams Goldhagen with Moshe Safdie, Boston Book Festival, 2015. Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2015. Panelist on AIANY Global Dialogues, “Viral Voices IV: Storytelling: Media, Representation, and Narrative” Center for Architecture, New York, 2015. “How to Judge a Building: Critical Criteria,” Fay Jones School of Architecture Dean’s Lecture Series, 2015. Speaker, “Neuro Logics: Architecture, Starting with the Brain” symposium, School of Architecture, University of Toronto, 2014. “Re-envisioning New York’s Branch Libraries” panelist, 2014, conference sponsored by Center for an Urban Future, the Revson Foundation, and the Architectural League. “Pritzker Winner Finds Inspiration in Air, Wind, and Water,” WBUR, 2013 (at www.wbur.org). Panelist, Discussion on Fritz Lang’s “M”, Forum on Law, Culture, and Society, New York, 2011. “Metaphors We Live In.” École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, 2011. “Metaphors in Architecture.” MIT School of Architecture lecture series, 2011. “Fritz Lang’s Urban Vision: M.” Forum on Law, Culture, and Society at Fordham University, 2011. “Rethinking Kahn.” City College of New York School of Architecture, Dean’s lecture series, 2011. “Moderators of Change: Architecture that Helps,” conversation with Andres Lepik, Van Alen Books, 2010. Moderator, “Civic Infrastructure” panel, Northeastern University School of Architecture, 2009, with Marilyn Jordan Taylor and Charles Waldheim. “A Bridge to Somewhere: the Case for a National Infrastructure Policy.” Architecture, 2009.
8 Article on “American Collapse,” The New Republic, 2007. “A Conversation with Critics: Imagining the Future of the City,” panel discussion with Jonathan Glancey, Paul Goldberger, and Blair Kamin, moderated by Edward Lifson, in conjunction with Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Visionary Cities series. “Odessey,” Chicago Public Radio, February 2005. “The Museum of Modern Art’s Other Tradition”, “When Modern was Modern” symposium, Yale University School of Architecture, 2004. School of Architecture, SUNY Buffalo, 2004. “Public eye: Sarah Williams Goldhagen says Americans would get better architecture if our schools taught us how to look at it.” Q&A Interview conducted by Martin Pederson, Metropolis, 2003. “The Independent Group and its Legacy,” Symposium on the Independent Group and its Legacy,” organized by Anne Massey and Nigel Whiteley, Tate Britain, London, March 23-24, 2007. Dean’s lecture series, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin, March 2006. Dean’s lecture series, School of Architecture, Rice University, March 2006. “William Jordy – A Commemorative Symposium,” Department of Art and Art History, Brown University, March 2006. Keynote Speaker, Annual Meeting, Society of Architectural Historians, Southwest Chapter, Fort Worth, Texas, October 2005. “Snapshots: Monumentality in Postwar Architecture,” in “Architecture between Spectacle and Use,” symposium organized by Anthony Vidler, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, Spring 2005. “The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Modern Architectural History,” Session Chair, Society of Architecture Historians, Annual Conference, Vancouver, 2005. “Eero Saarinen, Formgiver of the American Century,” School of Architecture, Yale University, March-April, 2005. “Constructing Modernism at MoMA in the 1930s” in “When Modern was Modern” conference, School of Architecture, Yale University, October 2004. Investigation of MoMA’s construction of a more inclusive modernism after “The International Style” exhibition of 1932.
9 Dean’s Lecture Series, School of Architecture, SUNY Buffalo, March 2004. “Kahn and His World,” at “Engaging Louis I. Kahn: A Legacy for the Future,” symposium sponsored by the Yale Center for British Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Yale University School of Architecture, January 2004. School of Architecture, Technical University, Delft, the Netherlands, December 2003. School of Architecture (AHO), Oslo University, Norway, November 2003. Halverson Lecture on American Architecture, Department of Art and Art History, Wellesley College, May 2003. “Monumentality in Postwar Architecture,” in “Monuments to Be Reconsidered: The Raison d’Etre of the Modern Heritage” session, chaired by Maristella Casciato, Society of Architectural Historians annual meeting, 2003. “Trends in Contemporary Architecture,” Board of Trustees, Boston Museum of Science, 2003. Keynote speaker, New England/Society of Architectural Historians annual meeting, 2002. Dean’s Lecture series, School of Architecture, University of Toronto, 2002. Architecture Department Lecture Series, School of Architecture, Northeastern University, 2001. “Modernism and Post-Modernism in Late Twentieth-Century Architecture,” architecture session, Modernist Studies Association, annual conference, 2000. “Reconceptualizing the Modern: Postwar Architectural Culture 1944-1968” Organized a three-stage initiative to open up the field of postwar architectural culture. The first in spring 1998 was a public conference with twenty-four panelists held over two days at the Harvard Design School. The second in spring 1999 was an intensive two-day follow-up workshop with eighteen participants at Canadian Centre for Architecture. The third was the publication of Anxious Modernisms. Sponsored by Harvard Design School, Canadian Centre for Architecture, and Graham Foundation.
TEACHING POSITIONS History or Art, Wellesley College, 2006-2007. Architectural History and Theory, Harvard Design School, 1995-2006. Architectural History and Theory, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin, 19941995.
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Architectural History, Department of Art, Vassar College, 1993-1994. Architectural History, School of Architecture, Columbia University, 1991. Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, 1988-1991. Courses Architectural Theory and Practice After 1960; Seminar, Wellesley College, 2007. Modern American Architecture and Urbanism; Lecture, Wellesley College, 2006. The Architecture and Urbanism of Louis Kahn; Seminar, Wellesley College, 2006; Harvard University, 1996; University of Texas at Austin, 1995. Modernism/Modernity; Seminar, Harvard University, 2005. The Dimensions of Modernism; Lecture, Harvard University, 2002. Buildings, Texts, and Contexts: Case Studies in Modern Architecture; Lecture, Harvard University, 1995-2005 (team taught with K. Michael Hays 1995-2001). Reconceptualizing the Modern (previously entitled The Dissolution of the Modern Movement and the Birth of Team 10); Lecture, Harvard University, 1996-2001. Methodologies of Architectural History; Ph.D. Seminar, Harvard University, 1999 (co-taught with Alice Jarrard, Department of Art and Architectural History). Ideologies of Theory: Architecture and Culture After World War II; Seminar, Harvard University and University of Texas at Austin, 1994-1995. Architecture of the Twentieth Century; Lecture, University of Texas at Austin, 1994-1995. Modern Architecture 1850-1930; Lecture, Vassar College, 1993. The Spread of Modernism, Modernist Critiques: Architecture 1930-1970; Lecture, Vassar College, 1994. Art and Architecture from Prehistory to Postmodernism; Lecture, Vassar College, 1993-1994 (team-taught by the Department of Art). Art Humanities (Monuments of Western Art and Architecture); Lecture/Seminar; Columbia University, 1988-1992.
11 SERVICE, CONSULTING, AND ADVISING Jury, Kohn Pederson Fox student travel award, 2016. Jury, Womens’s Design Awards, sponsored by Architectural Record (2013-present). Reviewer, Yale University Press, MIT Press, University of Minnesota Press, 2010-1995. Reviewer, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2000-2009. Member, Committee for Philip Johnson Award, Society of Architectural Historians, 2007. Organizer, Interdepartmental Faculty Colloquium in Architectural History and Theory, Harvard University, 1996-2004. Consultant, Kansas City Design Forum, Kansas City, Missouri, 2004. Consulted the Architect Selection Committee, Museum of Science, Boston, 2002. Consultant to the Architect Selection Committee, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 19992000. EDUCATION Ph.D. Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, 1995. Specialties: Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Contemporary Theory M.A. Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, 1987. B.A. Department of English and American Literature, Brown University, 1982. With Honors; Minor in Art History.
