Faculty Profile

Christian F. Otto works in the areas of architecture and urban cultural history. His research focuses on meaning and memory, authorship and politics, the interpretative mechanisms of cartography and graphic representation, methodology, and historiography. In classes and seminars, he theorizes walking, play, and the experiential, employing the unorthodox and unpredictable as critical means of promoting enthusiasm, discovery, and belief in self among his students, while providing information, insight, and understanding. His contributions to Cornell include service on standing department, college, and university committees, with a special interest in curriculum and resources. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University.

• Arch 3819 Special Topics in the History of Architecture and Urbanism: SpaceCases
• Arch 6805 Practicum
• Arch 3815 History of the Present
• Arch 6801 Foundations of the Discipline
• Arch 9901 Dissertation in the History of Architecture and Urbanism

• “Architectural Settings,” The Worlds of Johann Sebastian Bach (2009)
• “Ernst May,” “Hannes Meyer,” “Balthasar Neumann,” “Mart Stam,”Oxford Companion to Architecture (2010)
• Weissenhof 1927 and the Modern Movement in Architecture, with Richard Pommer (1991)

• Graham Foundation for Advanced Study in the Fine Arts, grant for “Constructing Memory: City and Society in Central Europe, 1650–1800
• Outstanding Educator for Merrill Presidential Scholar, Cornell (1997)
• Fulbright in Vienna (1990)
• Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (1983–84)
• National Endowment for the Humanities grant (1976–78)

• Hamburg in Historical Views and Contemporary Photography, Cornell (2001)
• Balthasar Neumann — The Utility of Splendor, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell (1987)
• Cornelliani Neumannum Perscrutantur, Cornell (1986)