Architect Michael Sorkin, who made an impact in architectural writing with his original and provocative ideas, has died. It is reported that he succumbed to complications brought on by COVID-19.
Sorkin earned his masters in architecture from Massachussetts Institute of Technology in 1974 and went on to open his design practice Michael Sorkin Studio where he was the founding principal. Here he worked on consulting planning and design projects globally. Throughout the 1980s, Sorkin was the architecture critic for The Village Voice. In addition to being a regular contributor to publications such as The Architectural Record, The New York Times, he authored many books on architecture, city planning, the public sphere and design.
In 2005 Sorkin founded and became president of Terreform, a centre for urban research, which launched the imprint Urban Research where he was editor-in-chief. He was also a professor of architecture and director of the graduate program in urban design at City College of New York. Throughout his career, he received several awards including the Design Mind from the National Design Award in 2013 and Fellow in the field of architecture planning and design from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2015.
27 March 2020
