Michael Trencher

Since coming to Pratt over 40 years ago, I have taught a broad range of courses, held multiple administrative posts and engaged in academic coordination at various curriculum levels. Presently I teach and coordinate two required courses focusing on materials and assembly systems, a comprehensive design studio exploring issues of public assembly and long span systems, and an advanced studio focusing on high-rise design that includes a research seminar on high-rise systems. Additionally, I offer an advanced elective on the works of the Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto. TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES: Arch 400 High-Rise Design Studio and seminar; Arch 302 Comprehensive Design Studio-Long Span/Public Assembly; Arch 110 Materials; Arch 216 Assembly Systems; Arch 579 Alvar Aalto. REGISTRATION: Architectural License: NYS #012544; American Institute of Architects; American Society of Civil Engineers/Architects. TEACHING EXPERIENCE: 1969-Present: Pratt Institute, Tenured Professor AWARDS AND HONORS: Graham Foundation Grant: $10,000 for completion of book, “The Alvar Aalto Guide”–1991; Faculty Development Fund Grant: $3500 Pratt Institute, 1997 for promotion of programs honoring Alvar Aalto's Centennial in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art's Centennial Exhibition; Fellowship, ACSA Construction Materials and Technology Institute, Savannah, Ga. July 1993. RESEARCH, SCHOLARSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: Research: 1978-present, The Life and Works of Alvar Aalto; The Bauhaus; Teaching the Morphology of Architecture; Music as a Architectural Analog; Designing High-rise Buildings in the Post 9/11 Era; The Evolution of Intelligent Building Skins. Publications: “The Alvar Aalto Guide” Princeton Architectural Press, 1997; “Alvar Aalto: Masterworks” Universe/Rizzoli Press,1998, Introduction and over 85 images; “Alvar Aalto and The Baker Dormitory–The Individual and Mass Housing: The Delicate Balance” Architectural Quarterly, London, 2000, from a lecture given at MIT at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Baker Dormitory; “Alvar Aalto and the Baker Dormitory”expanded article prepared for publication in commemorative anthology, Yale University Press; “Drawing Conclusions” Architecture Magazine, April, 1998, Review of MOMA Aalto Centennial Exhibit; Aalto and Fascism, Letter to the Editor, The New York Review Of Books, 9/28/98; “Public Safety in High Rise Design in the Post 9/11 Era”, NPR Interview, 12/28/04; “Abstract Art and Nature in the Works of Alvar Aalto” Finnish Television, 1986; consolidation and editing of manuscript by Goran Schildt for publication “Alvar Aalto-His Life.” Specialized Lectures: “Alvar Aalto and the Baker Dormitory”, Cambridge, Mass, MIT Symposium, 1998; “The Evolution of Organic Modernism in the Works of Alvar Aalto:1929-39” Los Angeles, 1984; “Alvar Aalto-From Classic to Modern” Light and Archetypal Motifs” University of Arizona, Phoenix, 1983. Professional Activities: The Skyscraper Safety Campaign, Member Advisory Board; Architectural Review Board, North Salem New York.

B.A. English Literature, Yale College; B.Arch., M.Arch., Columbia University; M.S. Urban Design.