- Robert Somol
Robert E. Somol Jr. is an architectural theorist currently serving as the Director of the School of Architecture at the
University of Illinois at Chicago .Education
He holds an A.B. from
Brown University (1982), a J.D. fromHarvard Law School , and a Ph.D. in the history of culture from theUniversity of Chicago (1997).Academic career
Previously a professor in the Knowlton School of Architecture at the
Ohio State University , he has taught design and theory atPrinceton University ,UCLA , the University of Illinois at Chicago,Rice University ,Columbia University , the University of Michigan, and theHarvard Graduate School of Design .Writing
Somol is also an author and a contributor to several publications. His writings, which have appeared in publications ranging from "Assemblage" to "Wired", focus on modernism and its modes of repetition, the emergence of the diagram in postwar architecture, landscape and interior urbanism, and the criticism of contemporary architectural practices and pedagogy.
He was a guest editor for volume five of the contemporary architecture journal "Log" and served as a member of the editorial board of "ANY" magazine, which explored the cultural role of architecture and its relationships to other disciplines. He is also a member of the Research Board of the
Berlage Institute inRotterdam .Design
Somol was formerly a principal at the
Los Angeles architecture firm P XS. He is the co-designer of "off-use," an award-winning studio and residence in Los Angeles (2002) that extends his interest in combining the speculative discipline of modernism with the material excesses of mass culture or, as he describes it, "beinehe nichts meets la dolce vita".Books
*"Nothing to Declare" (essay collection, forthcoming)
*"Autonomy and Ideology: Positioning an Avant-Garde in America" (ed., 1997)Journal Articles
*Somol, R.E. and Whiting, Sarah. "Notes around the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism." Perspecta 33 (2002): 72-77.
*Somol, R.E. "Green Dots 101." Hunch 11 (2007): 28-37.
*Somol, R.E. "12 Reasons to Get Back in Shape." In Content, edited by Office of Metropolitan Architecture. and Rem Koolhaas. Köln: Taschen, 2004.External links
* [http://www.architectmagazine.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=1012&articleID=556490 Somol to Direct UIC School of Architecture]
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