Diana Agrest facts for kids

Diana I. Agrest, born in 1945, is a talented architect and urban designer. She also writes and thinks deeply about how cities are planned and built. She lives and works in New York City.

From early in her career, Diana wanted to find new ways to think about cities. She felt that old ideas about city design weren't working well. So, she started to develop new ideas, both in her writing and in her building projects. She was one of the first to use a special way of thinking, called poststructuralism, to look at architecture and city planning in a new light.

Learning and Teaching Architecture

Diana Agrest is a professor of architecture at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union.

She began teaching at Princeton University School of Architecture in 1972. She was the very first woman architect to teach there! She taught both design classes and theory classes. One of her important courses was called "The Theoretical Practice of Architecture." In 1972, she also became a fellow at The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS) in New York. There, she studied the idea of "place" and how signs and symbols affect it. She also helped guide the design studios for students. Later, she became the director of an advanced workshop for architecture and city design.

In 1977, she started teaching at Cooper Union. Between 1987 and 1994, she taught at both Cooper Union and Columbia University. She has also been a guest professor at other famous universities like Yale University, Princeton University, and Paris 8 University.

Designing Cities and Buildings

Diana Agrest started her own architecture work very early. From 1969 to 1977, she worked on experimental projects and entered design competitions. In 1978, she helped start the firm Agrest and Gandelsonas. In 1980, it became Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects in New York.

As an architect and urban planner, she has designed and built many projects. Her firm has worked in the United States, Asia, Europe, and South America. These projects include large city plans, buildings for schools or public use, homes, and even interior designs. Her work has won many awards. She often focuses on large city projects, and the ideas from these big plans influence her smaller building designs.

Notable Projects and Buildings

Some of her recent projects include:

• The Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines, Iowa.
• The Des Moines Vision Plan, which is a big plan for the city's future.
• The Green Belt project in South Amboy, New Jersey.
• The International Film Center in Shanghai, China.
• A master plan for a large area in Xu Jia Hui, Shanghai, China.
• The Manhattan West master plan for the west side of Manhattan.
• A master plan for the Renault Trapeze Site in Boulogne Billancourt, France.

Her building designs include:

• A private home in the West Hollywood Hills.
• The Breukelen Community Center in Brooklyn, New York.
• The Melrose Community Center.
• Farm complexes in Uruguay and Sagaponack, New York.

Diana Agrest is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. This is a high honor for architects. She has also created her own special theoretical projects. These include a house for a musician in Majorca, Spain, and projects for Park Square, Boston and the China Basin in San Francisco.

Nature in City Design

Since 1989, Diana has been exploring how nature fits into city planning. Her project for China Basin was very forward-thinking. It looked at the connection between nature and cities without focusing on buildings. This made her a pioneer in what is now called "landscape urbanism." This idea focuses on using natural landscapes to shape urban areas. She wrote an essay called "The Return of the Repressed: Nature" about this topic. Since 2009, she has led a special research studio at Cooper Union, teaching students about nature in design.

Film and Urban Architecture

Diana Agrest has always loved film. She developed a new way to think about city architecture using ideas from film and film theory. She was the first to bring this topic into architecture as a serious subject. She first presented these ideas in 1973.

Film and the city have been the subject of many of her writings. They are also an important tool in how she teaches. In 1993, she was asked to create a program about film and the city at The Whitney Museum of American Art. She created and directed "Framing the City: Film, Video, Urban Architecture." In this program, she showed how films can help us "read" a city. This understanding can then help create new urban designs. She uses this approach in her design studios, which helps students think about urban design in new ways.

As a filmmaker, she wrote, produced, and directed a documentary film. It is called "THE MAKING OF AN AVANT-GARDE©: The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies 1967–1984." The film first showed at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2013. Since then, it has been shown at many museums, universities, and festivals.

Awards and Special Recognition

Diana Agrest's work has won many awards. These include:

• Excellence in Design Awards from the New York State AIA.
• Excellence in Design Awards from the New York City Chapter AIA.
• The Masterwork Award from the Municipal Art Society for the best building in New York City.
• The Society of Registered Architects NY Chapter Award of Merit.

In 2008, she became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She has received grants from the Graham Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts. She also received the AIA Brunner Grant. Private donors also helped fund her documentary film.

In 1996, she received the AIA International Book Award for her book The Sex of Architecture. She was nominated for the Chrysler Award several times. She was also nominated by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1967, she received a fellowship from the French Government to study in Paris.

In 2014, Diana Agrest was honored for her design of the Melrose Community Center. This project was a winner of Built by Women New York City. This competition celebrates amazing sites and spaces designed, engineered, and built by women.

Exhibitions of Her Work

Diana Agrest's work has been shown in many museums, galleries, and universities. These include:

• The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
• The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
• The Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art.
• The Fogg Museum at Harvard.
• The Centre Pompidou in Paris.
• The Triennale di Milano.
• The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
• The Architectural League in New York.
• The Yale University School of Architecture Gallery.
• Cooper Union.

She has also given many talks and been a main speaker at conferences around the world.

About Diana Agrest

Diana Agrest is an American citizen. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1945. She started studying architecture at age 16. She received her architecture degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1967. After graduating, she left Argentina with a fellowship from the French government. She did more studies in Paris from 1967 to 1969. In 1971, she moved to New York to join the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies.

See also

In Spanish: Diana Agrest para niños