Toshiko Mori Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Toshiko Mori
森俊子

Born	1951 (age 73–74) Kobe, Japan
Education	Cooper Union

Toshiko Mori (born in 1951) is a famous Japanese architect. She started her own architecture companies, Toshiko Mori Architect, PLLC and Vision Arc, in New York. She is also a special professor of architecture at Harvard University. In 1995, she made history by becoming the first woman professor to get a permanent teaching position (called tenure) in architecture at Harvard.

Learning and Education
Her Work as an Architect
Awards and Recognition
- Awards and Honors
Exhibitions of Her Work
Important Buildings She Designed
- Gallery
See also

Learning and Education

Toshiko Mori studied at Cooper Union, a well-known school for art, architecture, and engineering. She graduated in 1971 and then from the Cooper Union School of Architecture in 1976. Later, in 1996, she received an honorary Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Her Work as an Architect

Before starting her own company, Toshiko Mori worked for another architect named Edward Larrabee Barnes. She is officially allowed to design buildings in many places across the United States.

At the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, she became a tenured professor in 1995. This means she had a permanent teaching job. She also led the Department of Architecture from 2002 to 2008. Besides Harvard, she has taught architecture to graduate students at Cooper Union, Columbia University, and Yale University.

Mori is known for her special way of designing. She focuses on using new and interesting materials and making her designs very clear and simple. Some of her projects include:

The A.R.T. New York theater
A special canopy (a roof-like cover) at the Brooklyn Children's Museum
Pembroke Hall at Brown University
Designing exhibits for museums like MoMA and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Many homes in the United States, Taiwan, China, and Austria.

Toshiko Mori also helps think about the future of cities. She is part of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council. In this role, she studies how to make cities better places to live, more environmentally friendly, and how to create good services for people. She also serves on the board of Architecture For Humanity, a group that uses design to help communities.

In 2015, Mori designed an amazing building in Sinthian, a village in Senegal, Africa. This building is an ecological cultural center. Its unique slanted roof collects rainwater and stores it in a tank. This system provides 30% of the village's water! In 2019, she also opened a school and teachers' homes in Fass, another village in Senegal.

She is also an independent board member for Dassault Systèmes, a company that makes design software.

Awards and Recognition

Toshiko Mori has received many awards and honors from around the world. Her work has been shown in many exhibitions and featured in books.

In 2003, she won the first John Hejduk Award from Cooper Union.
In 2005, she received the Academy Award in Architecture and the Medal of Honor from the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter.
Her projects have been displayed in major museums like the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the Guggenheim Museum.

A book about her designs, called Toshiko Mori Architect, was published in 2008. She has also written for many publications and edited a book about materials called Immaterial/Ultramaterial.

In 2014, Mori was recognized for her design of the Poe Park Visitor Center in New York City. This project was a winner in the "Built by Women New York City" competition, which celebrates amazing buildings designed by women.

Awards and Honors

2019 Louis Auchincloss Prize
2019 ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education Award
2017 AIA National 2017 Institute Honor Awards, Thread: Artists’ Residency + Cultural Center
2016 Architectural Digest’s 2017 AD100
2016 The Plan Award 2016 winner: Culture, Thread: Artists’ Residency + Cultural Center
2016 Aga Khan 2014-2016 Award finalist, Thread: Artists’ Residency + Cultural Center
2016 University of Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning Dean’s Medal
216 Architizer A+ Award: Architecture + Community, Thread: Artists’ Residency + Cultural Center
2016 Architizer A+ Award: Architecture + Humanitarianism, Thread: Artists’ Residency + Cultural Center
2016 Architizer A+ Awards finalist, Peter Freeman Gallery
2015 Architectural Digest 2016 AD100
2015 AIA New York State Award of Merit, House on Maine Coast
2014 AIA New York Chapter Projects Merit Award, Sinthian Cultural Center and Artists’ Residence
2014 AIA New York Chapter Architecture Merit Award, House in Ghent
2013 AIA New York Chapter Interiors Honor Award, Sean Kelly Gallery
2012 American Architecture Awards, Syracuse Center of Excellence
2010 World Architecture Festival Award Finalist, Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion
2009 AIA Buffalo/Western New York Honor Award, Eleanor & Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion
2009 AIA New York State Award of Excellence, Newspaper Café
2008 AIA New York State Award of Excellence, Addition to House on the Gulf of Mexico I
2005 American Institute of Architects/New York Chapter Medal of Honor
2005 Academy Award in Architecture, American Academy of Arts and Letters
2003 Cooper Union Inaugural John Hejduk Award
2002 American Academy of Rome: Bernoudy Visiting Architect Fellowship

Exhibitions of Her Work

Toshiko Mori's designs have been shown in many art and architecture exhibitions:

2016: "Miami & the Tropical World" at Korach Gallery, University of Miami, Florida
2015: "Afrika" at Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk, Denmark
2015: "Built x Women NYC" at The Center for Architecture, New York, NY
2014: "Office US" (featuring Sinthian Cultural Center/Thread) at the Fourteenth International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
2012: "Dialogue in Detail" at the Thirteenth International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
2010: "Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum" at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
2009: "Detour Tokyo" at Moleskin, Tokyo, Japan

Important Buildings She Designed

Here are some of the major projects Toshiko Mori has designed:

Fass School and Teachers’ Residence – Fass, Senegal (2019)
Stephen Robert '62 Hall, Watson Institute, Brown University - Providence, RI (2018)
Center for Maine Contemporary Art - Rockland, ME (2013-2016)
Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University - Providence, RI (2013)
Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research Laboratory Building - Cambridge, MA (2011–15)
Paracoustica: Portable Concert Hall (2011-)
Brooklyn Public Library - Brooklyn, NY (2009-)
Hudson Park and Boulevard - MTA Canopies and Café, New York, NY (2008-)
Pembroke Hall, Brown University - Providence, RI (2008)
Thread - Sinthian, Senegal (2012-2015)
Syracuse Center of Excellence - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY (2005–10)
Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion, Darwin D. Martin House- Buffalo, NY (2002–09)
New York University Masterplan - New York, NY (2007)
The Newspaper Café - Jinhua, China (2004–07)