Neil Denari

Founder of NMDA, Los Angeles

Neil Denari founded Los Angeles firm Cor-Tex Architecture in 1988, which later became Neil M. Denari Architects (NMDA), Inc. In the late 1980's Denari's work began to achieve international recognition, most notably through his 3rd place finish in the Tokyo International Forum Competition. This launched his now 18 year association with Japan, a country where he has taught and lectured on a regular basis. While teaching at the Shibaura Institute of Technology in 1990, Denari lived for 8 months in Tokyo. His experiences there, like those of Paris, have been a constant reference on phenomena as diverse as urban morphology and fashion design. With NMDA, Denari has focused on a diverse range of design endeavors that look at manifold issues pertaining to architectural speculation.

Since 1986, Denari has had a distinguished career as a teacher, marked by his last two appointments. From 1997-2001, he was the Director of SCI-Arc, the Southern California Institute of Architecture. He now holds the position of Professor-in-Residence in the Architecture and Urban Design Department at UCLA. He has also taught at Columbia University, the Bartlett, and UT Arlington. In the fall of 2007, Denari was a Visiting Professor at both UC Berkeley and Princeton University.

Neil Denari is the author of two bestselling books, Interrupted Projections (TOTO 1996) and Gyroscopic Horizons (Princeton 1999). In 2002, he was given both the Richard Recchia Award and the Samuel F.B. Morse Medal for architecture from the National Academy of Design in New York for distinguished work in the field. He is a registered architect in New York and California, is a member of the American Institute of Architects, and has given more than 160 lectures around the world on his work.

http://www.nmda-inc.com/