Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
This summer, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art plans to break ground on a new academic building designed by the architecture firm Morphosis.
In describing the building at a fund-raising dinner on Tuesday, the president of the university, George Campbell Jr., said it would help transform the East Village. “Cooper Union is committed to good urban citizenship,” he said.
And clearly, some powerful urban citizens are committed to Cooper Union.
“I like it so much, I walk by there every day. I peer in the windows, just to see what’s happening,” artist Jenny Holzer said as she accepted her Urban Visionaries award, after a meal that included fresh pea soup, poached filet of beef, black rice, and a dark chocolate dome.
The architects (and couple, both Cooper Union alumni) Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio were more technical in their acceptance speech. “I realize that 38% of my life has had some connection to Cooper Union. For Ric, it’s been 75% of his life,” Ms. Diller said. (The difference is that Mr. Scofidio is on the faculty there.)
“Elizabeth realized that I was taking this night seriously when I put on a tie,” Mr. Scofidio said.
Honoree Nicholas Donofrio, an IBM executive, confessed he didn’t get into Cooper Union, while honoree Simon Lok, a technology entrepreneur, expressed his gratitude to his alma mater. “I can truthfully say Cooper really started it all for me,” Mr. Lok said. Also honored was the president of the Museum of Modern Art, Marie-Josee Kravis. The dinner raised more than $800,000 under chairmen Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, Samuel Palmisano, Jack Rudin, and Frank Sciame.
