Moshe Safdie
Moshe Safdie,
CC, B.Arch,
LL.D. , F.R.A.I.C., FAIA (born
July 14,
1938) is an
architect and
urban designer. He was born in the town of
Haifa in what was then the
British Mandate of Palestine, now
Israel. He moved with his family to
Montreal, Canada when he was a teenager, a move he disliked as a dedicated
Zionist and
socialist.
An excellent student, he studied architectural engineering at
McGill University and apprenticed under
Louis Kahn in Philadelphia. At age twenty-four his master's thesis was selected to be constructed as part of the
Expo '67 celebration. The
Habitat 67 project, a complex of cellular residences that could be lifted into place like
LEGO blocks, made him known around the world. In 1967, he returned to Israel, where he was part of the team that refurnished
Old Jerusalem. He lives in a renovated home in the old city and has dual Israeli-Canadian citizenship.
In 1976, he became a professor at
Harvard University and set up his firm's head office in nearby
Somerville, Massachusetts, where it remains today. The company also has offices in
Toronto,
Boston and
Jerusalem. In 1986, he was made an Officer of the
Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 2005. His nephew is
Dov Charney, the founder of the clothing company
American Apparel.
|
Modelled on the coliseum in Rome, Vancouver Library Square is one of Safdie's most recent Canadian commissions, and one of his most popular |
*
Habitat '67 at
Expo 67 World's Fair,
Montreal, Quebec * Coldspring New Town,
Baltimore, Maryland* The
National Gallery of Canada,
Ottawa, Ontario* City plan for the city of
Modi'in, Israel
* Former
Ottawa City Hall, Ottawa, Ontario
* Several major buildings, including the new central museum, opened 2005, at
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel
*
Hebrew Union College, first phase and
Merkaz Shimshon expansion,
Jerusalem,
Israel* Mamilla Centre and David's Village,
Jerusalem,
Israel*
Vancouver Library Square,
Vancouver, British Columbia* Main Branch of the
Salt Lake City Public Library,
Salt Lake City, Utah* Airside building of Terminal 3,
Ben Gurion International Airport, Israel
*
The Marina Bay Sands, Singapore's first integrated resort and casino
*
Beyond Habitat (1970)
*
Beyond Habitat by 20 Years (1987)
*
The City After the Automobile: An Architect's Vision (1998)
*
The Safdie Hypermedia Archive at McGill University.
*
Moshe Safdie and Associates*
CBC Digital Archives - Moshe Safdie: Hero of Habitat
