ANNOUNCEMENT – Canadian Architect – "Marco Frascari, Director of the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism: 1945-2013"

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“Marco Frascari, Director of the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism: 1945-2013
2013-06-25

Professor Marco Frascari passed away on Sunday, June 2, 2013 at the age of 68. He was the founder of the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism’s PhD program at Carleton University, and he is remembered as a visionary director and an inspiring teacher. He personified the notion of Vita Beata and material imagination. His generous spirit animated the Architecture building for eight magical years. He is and will be missed.

–Sheryl Boyle, on behalf of the faculty, students and staff at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism.

Marco Frascari delighted in his origins. He was born in 1945 in Mantova, the city of Alberti’s Basilica of Sant’Andrea. He grew up surrounded by majestic Renaissance architecture, art and history. He received his first degree from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice (Diploma di Professore di Disegno). He was a student and later an assistant of Carlo Scarpa and Arrigo Rudi at the Istituto Univeritario di Architettura in Venice, and worked as an apprentice for both, being initiated to the practice of architecture before establishing his own firm in Verona. Later, he moved to the US with his family and continued his studies at the University of Cincinnati (Master of Architecture) and the University of Pennsylvania where he received his PhD under the guidance of Dean Holmes Perkins.

Marco Frascari distinguished himself immediately as an exceptional educator and an eminent theorist and scholar. He is considered one of the most influential authors in contemporary architectural theory. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania for almost two decades where he worked alongside Joseph Rykwert and later became the Director of the PhD program. Frascari taught and lectured at leading architectural institutions worldwide, including the Architectural Association, Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Georgia Tech, Nottingham University, School of Art and Design at Auckland University, and many others. As an international critic, researcher and conference panelist, he was frequently invited to provide guidance and direction for the architectural community. His lectures inspired students, academics and practitioners through his engaging storytelling style, his critical yet playful drawings and his profound understanding of architecture. From 1998 to 2005 he held the distinguished chair of G. T. Ward Professor at Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center at Virginia Tech, where he established and led the PhD program in architecture. Afterwards, he took on the Directorship of the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University in Ottawa in 2005, where he had recently founded the new PhD program in architecture that is hinged on the culture of practice.”

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(Source: Canadian Architect)

(Cover image: Courtesy of “Weird birds – a personal sketchblog“)