Guy Nordenson is a structural engineer and professor of architecture and structural engineering at Princeton University. He was the engineer of the Santa Fe Opera House, the Toledo Glass Pavilion, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the International African American Museum and Emmanuel Nine Memorial in Charleston SC. Recent projects include the Museum of Fine Arts expansion, Glassell School of Art, Rice Moody Center, Menil Drawing Institute, and Rothko Chapel restoration, all in Houston TX. In 2014–2021 oversaw the design and engineering of David Hammons’ Day’s End sculpture in the Hudson River.
He has had a decades-long relationship with the MoMA including co-curating the 2004 exhibition “Tall Buildings,” and publishing Tall Buildings (MoMA 2004), Seven Structural Engineers, the Felix Candela Lectures (MoMA 2008), and Structured Lineages: Learning from Japanese Structural Design (MoMA 2019). The sponsored research project On the Water | Palisade Bay (Hatje Cantz 2010) served as the inspiration and research for the 2010 MoMA exhibition Rising Currents co-curated with Barry Bergdoll.
He was a Commissioner of the New York City Public Design Commission and a member of the NYC Panel on Climate Change and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.
Guy Nordenson and Associates website
The Berlage Keynotes is an ongoing lecture series featuring internationally prominent architects, designers, and thinkers who are at the forefront of design discourse and innovation. A selection of speakers working from different disciplinary perspectives and in different geographic, cultural, and political contexts present how their work engages with contemporary issues and debates. This spring semester, speakers include Guy Nordenson, Office Winhov, Dyvik Kahlen, Alice Bucknell, Studio MNM, Luis Fernandez-Galiano, and Adamo-Faiden.