Lecture Series

Daniel Libeskind of Studio Daniel Libeskind

Thom Mayne of Mophosis
(Two weeks ago named as part of Obama's Committee on the Arts and Humanities)

Last week was a big week for the AAP Lecture series as two big name architects joined us on campus: Daniel Libeskind and Thom Mayne. What I found truly amazing, was how different they were. Both are fairly successful. Both dress in the architect's black. However they embodied two completely different models of working.

Libeskind, first of all, made the mistake of presenting a generic presentation to a highly intellectual, architectural audience. He also spoke singularly and possessively of his work: "I do this" or "I do that." Thom Mayne had a much more advanced presentation (still based on his studio's work) but also spoke collectively about the design process: "We choose" or "We tried."

If you really want a breakdown of how they view the architectural practice just look at what they chose to name their respective studios.