Nader Tehrani, Office dA
architect & designer / BostonMarch 7 – Anchorage (4th floor of the museum)
March 8 – Fairbanks
March 9 – Juneau (this lecture will start at 5pm)sponsored by AIA Alaska
Office dA is a Boston-based architecture and design firm led by partners Nader Tehrani & Monica Ponce de Leon. The firm’s work ranges in scale from furniture to urban design and infrastructure, with a focus on architecture. Office dA seizes on the challenges unique to each project – the peculiarities of a site requirements of a program, and the specifics of a target audience – as catalysts for transformation in architecture.
An investigation of potenials of materials an construction techniques, often imported from fields outside of architecture, is the foundation of every design. Office dA explores unique material qualities in conjunction with both traditional and digital techniques of design and assembly, and resolves every project to a high level of detail. Office dA’s simultaneous rigor and sensitivity have allowed the firm to develop a portfolio of projects around the world – from Boston to Caracas to Beijing – which uniquely marry local craft and tradition to global and contemporary techniques.
Office dA has completed the main library for the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, MA, as well as the first phase of the Tongxian Art Center in Beijing. Helios House, a sustainable gas station, has just been unveiled in Los Angeles. Office dA has designed the first LEED-certified, environmentally sensitive, multi-housing building in Boston (the 140-unit Macallen Building).
Office dA has received notable recognition fro the firm’s work, including an award in architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as nine progressive architecture awards in both architecture and urban design. Recently, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum honored Office dA with the prestigious National Design Award in architecture. Office dA was granted the 2002 Harleston Parker medal from the Boston Society of Architects. In addition, I.D. magazine has prized Office dA with four awards.
Office dA’s work has been exhibited and published extensively. Office dA work was displayed in the Skin And Bones exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, as well as the Tilton Gallery in New York. The Tongxian Art Center was part of the exhibition “Intricacy” at the ICAS in Philadelphia and Yale. Office dA’s proposal for “a new World Trade Center” was exhibited in 2002 at the Max Protetch gallery (New York) and the Venice Biennale. The firm’s work in “Fabrications: The Tectonic Garden” at the Museum of Modern Art (New York) received rave reviews from the New York Times, among other publications.
