Remembering Professor Michael Sorkin
Words by Andrew James
Yesterday faculty received news of the passing of renowned architect and esteemed professor, Michael Sorkin from complications from the viral COVID-19. He was 71. Two weeks earlier, President Burdeau notified students that a faculty member from the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture had been showing symptoms of the disease resulting in the building to close. No further updates had been given until yesterday when the school announced his passing in this remembrance.
Born in Washington, DC, Sorkin received his master’s in architecture from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His passion for urban planning led him to create a firm with environmentally friendly approaches on a global scale, Michael Sorkin Studio, and later Terreform ONE, whose offices operate in Shanghai and Xi’an, China.
He taught urbanism at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1993-2000 when he moved into his longtime position at The City College of New York as a professor of architecture and urban planning in the Spitzer School.
He was one of the architects who proposed designs for the World Trade Center site following the events of September 11, 2001, many of which included environmental oases to reflect rebirth or recovery. At the time of his death, he tried to address China’s pollution problems by proposing parks or reinventing cities to accommodate sustainability.
In a letter to Mayor Di Blasio, Sorkin expressed his concern that New York became “too skewed toward money and away from people.” He felt that “the capacity of neighborhoods to meaningfully participate in planning their own destinies—and that of the larger realms we all share—is fundamental. Wisdom doesn't belong to any particular group.”
He leaves behind a wife Joan, fellow colleagues, and his CCNY community of aspiring artists who want to change the world.
This page has been set up in Professor Michael Sorkin’s honor for friends, students, colleagues, and collaborators to post their thoughts and condolences.
