John Ochsendorf

Last updated

John Ochsendorf
Dr. John Ochsendorf 20110617 012 (5909879432).jpg
Ochsendorf on a tour in Washington DC (2011)
BornMay 22, 1974
Columbus, Ohio, US
Education Cornell University (BSc 1996)
Princeton University (MSc 1998)
University of Cambridge (PhD 2002) [1]
Occupation(s) Structural engineer, architectural historian, professor
Known forStudies of ancient architecture
SpouseAnne Carney [2]
Website John Ochsendorf at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning

John Ochsendorf (born May 22, 1974) is an American educator, structural engineer, and historian of construction; he is a professor in the Department of Architecture and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [3] He is widely known for becoming a MacArthur Fellow in 2008 [4] He served as the Director of the American Academy in Rome from 2017 to 2020. [5] In 2022, he was appointed the founding director of the newly created MIT Morningside Academy for Design.

Contents

Early years and education

Ochsendorf grew up in Elkins, West Virginia; [2] [6] he was educated at Elkins High School, Cornell University, [7] Princeton University, and the University of Cambridge. [3] His university degrees are in structural engineering and he minored in archaeology at Cornell.

He also studied in Spain as a predoctoral scholar under the Fulbright Program in 2000–2001. [8] [9]

Career

Ochsendorf joined the MIT faculty in 2002, and holds a joint appointment in the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the Department of Architecture. [2] He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, and serves on a number of faculty committees. [2] [10]

Ochsendorf is known for using architecture and engineering to study and restore ancient structures and sometimes draws upon ancient building methods for the benefit of modern construction. He has studied Incan simple suspension bridges [7] and the earthquake-worthiness of Gothic cathedrals. [6]

Ochsendorf also curated an exhibition Palaces for the People, featuring the history and legacy of Guastavino tile construction, which premiered in September 2012 at the Boston Public Library, Rafael Guastavino's first major architectural work in America. The exhibition then traveled to the National Building Museum in Washington DC, and an expanded version appeared at the Museum of the City of New York. Ochsendorf, a winner of the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant", also wrote the book-length color-illustrated monograph Guastavino vaulting : the art of structural tile, [11] and an online exhibition coordinated with the traveling exhibits. [12]

In addition, Ochsendorf directs the Guastavino Project at MIT, which researches and maintains the Guastavino.net online archive of related materials. [13] [14] [15]

In 2022, it was announced that Ochsendorf would be founding director of the new MIT Morningside Academy for Design (MIT MAD), an interdisciplinary center which is part of the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P). Initial funding came from a $100 million gift from The Morningside Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the T.H. Chan family. [16]

Engineering and artistic collaborations

Sean Collier Memorial

On April 29, 2015, MIT held special ceremonies dedicating the Sean Collier Memorial in honor of MIT Police officer Sean Collier, who had been killed by Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev two years earlier. [17] Ochsendorf and his students were deeply involved with the structural engineering of the design, which was led by J. Meejin Yoon, the head of the MIT Department of Architecture. [18] The memorial consists of 32 massive granite blocks precision-shaped under computer numerical control, and fitted together into a shallow open domed arch with 5 radial support wings splayed out like fingers of an open hand. [19] [20]

Lookout by Martin Puryear

In 2023, American sculptor Martin Puryear completed his first large-scale sculpture made of bricks, at Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York, in the Hudson Valley north of New York City. [21] [22] [23] Called Lookout, the artwork is an asymmetrical compound-curved domed shell, pierced by 90 small apertures for circular viewports. Visitors can walk around and into the sculpture, enjoying the views of the surrounding area.

The overall patterning of the bricks was influenced by kilns in the UK, and especially by Nubian masons in Mali. [21] Puryear had been thinking about his design for many years, when he had a conversation with Ochsendorf in 2019. [21] Ochsendorf had an ongoing interest in ancient and traditional architectural technologies, and had already done his own studies of the Nubian bricklaying practices. [21] They both immediately realized that a collaboration would advance the project, and began working together. They devised a two-layered brick structural shell sandwiching a steel grid for longterm structural stability of the relatively thin shell. [21]

Ochsendorf recruited and led a team of MIT students and alumni to work on the structural engineering aspects of the project. Two undergrads and four master's students worked on the analytical modeling of the project, including computing the number of bricks required. [21] The lead mason was Lara Davis, a former master's student, who also happened to be living and working near Storm King. Davis developed and tested a custom blend of natural cements to make up the high-strength mortar binding the masonry elements together. [21]

Personal life

From 2010 to 2017, Ochsendorf and his wife Anne Carney served as heads of house of the MIT graduate student dormitory called "The Warehouse". [2] He is an enthusiastic soccer player, and enjoys hiking, cycling, and camping. He has lived in Australia, England, Spain, and Italy, and speaks Spanish and Italian. [2]

Awards

Published works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span> Private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and science.

Martin L. Puryear is an Afro-American artist known for his devotion to traditional craft. Working in a variety of media, but primarily wood, his reductive technique and meditative approach challenge the physical and poetic boundaries of his materials. The artist's Liberty/Libertà exhibition represented the United States at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guastavino tile</span> Thin ornaments for a type of low brickwork vault

The Guastavino tile arch system is a version of Catalan vault introduced to the United States in 1885 by Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908). It was patented in the United States by Guastavino in 1892.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hearst Memorial Mining Building</span> United States historic place

The Hearst Memorial Mining Building at the University of California, Berkeley, is home to the university's Materials Science and Engineering Department, with research and teaching spaces for the subdisciplines of biomaterials; chemical and electrochemical materials; computational materials; electronic, magnetic, and optical materials; and structural materials. The Beaux-Arts-style Classical Revival building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is designated as part of California Historical Landmark #946. It was designed by John Galen Howard, with the assistance of architect and Berkeley alumna Julia Morgan and the Dean of the College of Mines at that time, Samuel B. Christy. It was the first building on that campus designed by Howard. Construction began in 1902 as part of the Phoebe Hearst campus development plan. The building was dedicated to the memory of her husband George Hearst, who had been a successful miner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Guastavino</span> Spanish-American builder and engineer

Rafael Guastavino Moreno was a Spanish building engineer and builder who immigrated to the United States in 1881; his career for the next three decades was based in New York City.

Akoustolith is a porous ceramic material resembling stone. Akoustolith was a patented product of a collaboration between Rafael Guastavino Jr. and Harvard professor Wallace Sabine over a period of years starting in 1911. It was used to limit acoustic reflection and noise in large vaulted ceilings. Akoustolith was bonded as an additional layer to the structural tile of the Tile Arch System ceilings built by the Rafael Guastavino Company of New Jersey. The most prevalent use was to aid speech intelligibility in cathedrals and churches prior to the widespread use of public address systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basilica of St. Lawrence, Asheville</span> Minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church in Asheville, North Carolina

The Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence the Deacon & Martyr is a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, United States. The church was designed and built in 1905 by Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino along with his fellow architect R. S. Smith and the Roman Catholic community of Asheville. Pope John Paul II elevated the status of the church to minor basilica in 1993. It is a parish church, located within the Diocese of Charlotte. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is the only basilica in western North Carolina. Its dome, inspired by the Basilica de los Desamparados of Valencia, has a span of 58 by 82 feet, and is reputed to be the largest, freestanding, elliptical dome in North America. The architectural style is Spanish Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Housing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span> Undergraduate and graduate dormitories

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), students are housed in eleven undergraduate dorms and nine graduate dorms. All undergraduate students are required to live in an MIT residence during their first year of study. Undergraduate dorms are usually divided into suites or floors, and usually have Graduate Resident Assistants (GRA), graduate students living among the undergraduates who help support student morale and social activities. Many MIT undergraduate dorms are known for their distinctive student cultures and traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span> Land parcel in Cambridge, MA

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology occupies a 168-acre (68 ha) tract in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The campus spans approximately one mile (1.6 km) of the north side of the Charles River basin directly opposite the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MIT School of Architecture and Planning</span> Architecture school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The MIT School of Architecture and Planning is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1865 by William Robert Ware, the school offered the first architecture curriculum in the United States and was the first architecture program established within a university. MIT's Department of Architecture has consistently ranked among the top architecture/built environment schools in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Dehon Little</span> American chemist, chemical engineer, and industrial research advocate

Arthur Dehon Little was an American chemist and chemical engineer. He founded the consulting company Arthur D. Little and was instrumental in developing chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is credited with introducing the term unit operations to chemical engineering and promoting the concept of industrial research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Church of Christ, Scientist (Cambridge, Massachusetts)</span> Church

First Church of Christ, Scientist is an historic redbrick 6-story domed Christian Science church building located at 13 Waterhouse Street, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was designed in 1917 by church member Giles M. Smith of the noted Boston architectural firm of Bigelow and Wadsworth, who patterned it after Thomas Jefferson's The Rotunda at the University of Virginia and the Pantheon in Rome. Due to cost constraints it was built in two phases between 1924 and 1930. The basement and ground floor levels topped by a belt course comprised the first phase, while the additional four stories and the massive dome comprised the second and final phase. The dome itself was designed and built by the noted Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company, which in 1898 had done the reconstruction of the dome in The Rotunda at UVA and the construction in 1906 of the dome of the Mother Church Extension in Boston. Guastavino used its patented tile arch system consisting of Akoustolith, a porous ceramic material resembling stone, on the interior, with limestone on the exterior. The tile was manufactured at its plant in nearby Woburn. In 1933 copper flashing was added to the exterior of the dome in order correct a leakage problem. An oculus provided light to the interior. The first services in the completed building were held on April 30, 1930, and after becoming debt free, it was dedicated on May 23, 1937.

Erik Winfree is an American applied computer scientist, bioengineer, and professor at California Institute of Technology. He is a leading researcher into DNA computing and DNA nanotechnology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Public Library, McKim Building</span> United States historic place

The McKim Building is the main branch of the Boston Public Library at Copley Square in Boston, Massachusetts. The building, described upon its 1895 opening as a "palace for the people", contains the library's research collection, exhibition rooms, and administrative offices. The building includes lavish decorations, a children's room, and a central courtyard surrounded by an arcaded gallery in the manner of a Renaissance cloister. The library regularly displays its rare works, often in exhibits that will combine works on paper, rare books, and works of art. Several galleries in the third floor of the McKim building are maintained for exhibits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Universalist Church</span> Historic church in Massachusetts, United States

Grace Universalist Church is a historic church building at 44 Princeton Boulevard in Lowell, Massachusetts. Built in 1896, the building housed a Universalist congregation until 1973, when it was sold to a Greek Orthodox congregation. It is now known as the St. George Hellenic Orthodox Church. The building is a 2+12-story brick structure, with an eclectic mix of Romanesque, Beaux Arts, and Classical Revival details. Its single most notable feature is a 70-foot (21 m) masonry dome designed by Rafael Guastavino Sr. and supervised by Rafael Guastavino Jr. in 1895.

Guy Nordenson is a structural engineer and professor of structural engineering and architecture at Princeton University School of Architecture. Guy has two children, Pierre and Sebastien Nordenson. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1977, followed by a Masters of Science in Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1978. After graduating from UC Berkeley he worked at Forell/Elsesser Engineers in San Francisco (1978-1982) and Weidlinger Associates in New York City (1982–1987), before establishing the New York office of Ove Arup & Partners in 1987 where he was a director until leaving in 1997 to begin his own structural engineering practice, Guy Nordenson and Associates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meejin Yoon</span>

Meejin Yoon is a Korean-American architect, designer, and educator. In 2014, Yoon was appointed as the first female head of the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In July 2018, she was named the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University. In 2004, Yoon founded Höweler+Yoon Architecture with partner Eric Höweler.

Gerald L. Chan is an American billionaire and the brother of fellow billionaire Ronnie Chan. They run the Hang Lung Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Collier Memorial</span> Abstract environmental sculpture at MIT

The Sean Collier Memorial is a large abstract environmental sculpture located on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was designed by MIT faculty and students in memory of Sean Collier, a member of MIT Campus Police, who had been killed at the site by the Boston Marathon bombers on April 18, 2013. The project was proposed, designed, funded, fabricated, and installed in less than two years, and formally dedicated on April 29, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baird Auditorium</span> American auditorium

The Baird Auditorium is a multi-purpose 530-seat venue located on the ground floor of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C..

References

  1. "John A. Ochsendorf". MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Warehouse Housemasters". The Warehouse: Graduate Residence at MIT. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  3. 1 2 "John A. Ochsendorf". MIT Morningside Academy for Design. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  4. 1 2 Rousseau, Caryn (September 23, 2008). "MacArthur Foundation awards 2008 'genius grants'". USA Today. Associated Press. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
  5. "American Academy in Rome appoints John Ochsendorf as Director" (PDF). January 23, 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
  6. 1 2 "Inspiring West Virginian: John Ochsendorf". West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
  7. 1 2 "Students and faculty honored for their achievements". Cornell Chronicle. May 23, 1996. Retrieved October 21, 2011. Students who won $1,000 first prizes in the National Student Paper Competition for the 1996 International Bridge Conference were Barbara J. Jaeger for 'Evaluation of a Post-Tensioned Bridge Using the Impact-Echo Method' and John Ochsendorf for 'An Engineering Study of the Last Inca Suspension Bridge.'
  8. "John Ochsendorf – MacArthur Foundation". Fulbright Program . Retrieved April 11, 2011.
  9. "A 2008 MacArthur Fellowship for John Ochsendorf, FAAR'08 in Historic Preservation and Conservation". September 23, 2008. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
  10. "John Ochsendorf – MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  11. Ochsendorf, John; Freeman, Michael (photographs) (2010). Guastavino vaulting : the art of structural tile. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN   978-1568987415.
  12. "(Homepage)". Palaces for the People: Guastavino and America's Great Public Spaces. Archived from the original on December 23, 2013. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
  13. Ochsendorf, John. "(Homepage)". Guastavino.net. John Ochsendorf. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
  14. Ochsendorf, John (2010). Guastavino Vaulting: The Art of Structural Tile. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  15. mituser. "John A. Ochsendorf". MIT CEE. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  16. Dizikes, Peter (March 14, 2022). "MIT Morningside Academy for Design created as a new hub for cross-disciplinary education, research, and innovation". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  17. Annear, Steve (April 29, 2015). "MIT dedicates monument to Sean Collier". Boston Globe. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  18. Yoon, J. Meejin. "Project: Sean Collier Memorial". MIT Architecture. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  19. Dizikes, Peter (April 28, 2015). "New memorial a labor of love: Architects and engineers detail their novel design for MIT's Collier Memorial". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  20. Humphries, Courtney (May 22, 2015). "The Making of MIT's Collier Memorial". Architect: the journal of the American Institute of Architects. Hanley Wood Media. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dizikes, Peter (October 27, 2023). "A marvel in masonry shows the art of the possible". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  22. Valentine, Victoria L. (September 26, 2023). "A Feat of Engineering and Craftsmanship, Martin Puryear's First Brick Sculpture Was a Decade in the Making: 'It's Been an Adventure and a Challenge'". Culture Type. Culture Type, LLC. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  23. Cortez, Benjamin (October 29, 2023). "Storm King Art Center Unveils "Lookout" Sculpture: A Fusion of Art and Engineering by Martin Puryear and MIT Collaborators". Hoodline. SFist LLC. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  24. Design Futures Council Senior Fellows http://www.di.net/about/senior_fellows/ [ permanent dead link ]