Andrea Simitch

Andrea Simitch is the Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and previous Chair of the Department of Architecture at Cornell University (2017-21). She teaches courses in architectural design, architectural representation, and furniture design.

Simitch served as director of the bachelor of architecture program from 2011–14, as director of undergraduate studies from 2007–08, and as associate dean of AAP from 2002–03. She has been a panelist on the New York State Council on the Arts, a department representative for the Cornell Council for the Arts, and was a faculty collaborator with the Andrew Goldsworthy workshop at Storm King. Student work from her furniture design course has been exhibited at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City. Val K. Warke and Simitch partner in a collaborative architectural practice. Their recent projects include the Seneca House, as featured in Architectural Record; Nalati National Park Resort, and the Eco-Tourism Strategic Planning Proposal, both in Nalati, PRC; as well as numerous collaborative design competitions that include Arbedo Castione school in Ticino, Switzerland, Center for Promotion of Science of the Republic of Serbia Competition, Benetton for Designing in Teheran Competition, and Stockholm City Library Competition.

Simitch has taught extensively for Cornell in numerous international venues that include Europe and Central and South America. She is regularly invited to lecture and participate in diploma juries and symposia at peer institutions, most recently in Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Recently, Simitch delivered the keynote lecture at the Architecture Society of China Annual Meeting in Shanghai, as well as the keynote lecture at the School of Architecture, China Academy of Art's Architectural Education Leadership Forum in Hangzhou. She is also an advisory board member for ARCHITECTEM, an architecture platform based in Dubai. She was a 2015 Fellow at the Baer Art Center in Hofsós, Iceland. The Language of Architecture: 26 Principles Every Architect Should Know, a book she co-authored with Warke and published by Rockport Publishers (June 2014), has been translated into seven languages. She received her B.Arch. from Cornell in 1979 and also attended Occidental College and l'École Spécial d'Architecture in Paris, France. In 2017, Design Intelligence (DI) named her one of the 25 Most Admired Educators.

 

Related Links

• "Seneca House by Simitch and Warke Architecture," in Architectural Record

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Classes (Selected)

• ARCH 5112 Core Design Studio IIFocus on relational and ecological design thinking through interpretive, analytical, programmatic and generative uses of digital media. Emphasis on context, architectonics and systems in the design of a mid-scale building as informed by the analysis of precedents.
• ARCH 4509/6509 Special Topics in Visual Representation: MonographThis course addresses pertinent issues relative to the subject of Visual Representation. The instructor(s) of the course are drawn from the permanent and visiting faculty who may either broadly or narrowly define the course's scope and content. For precise content, please see the Architecture Department webpage.
• ARCH 4509 Special Topics in Visual Representation: Form, Color, CollageThis course addresses pertinent issues relative to the subject of Visual Representation. The instructor(s) of the course are drawn from the permanent and visiting faculty who may either broadly or narrowly define the course's scope and content. For precise content, please see the Architecture Department webpage.
• ARCH 4509/6509 Special Topics in Visual Representation: Tactics of RepresenationThis course addresses pertinent issues relative to the subject of Visual Representation. The instructor(s) of the course are drawn from the permanent and visiting faculty who may either broadly or narrowly define the course's scope and content. For precise content, please see the Architecture Department webpage.
• ARCH 1501 Drawing I: Freehand Constructed DrawingsIntroduction to freehand drawing as an analytical tool within the design process.

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

• Outstanding Educator for Merrill Presidential Scholar Cornell (1995, 2000, 2013, 2018)
• Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow (2017)
• 25 Most Admired Educators for 2017–18, Design Intelligence (DI) (2017)
• Resident Fellowship Award BAER ART CENTER, Hofsós Iceland (2015)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

• "Context Matters - Pedagogy in an Expanding Landscape," lecture, The Cooper Union (2020) 
•  "Radical Pedagogies" keynote lecture, Architecture Society of China Annual Meeting Beijing, PRC (2019)
• "Processes of Design" lecture, Syracuse University in Florence (2019)
• "Instrumental Processes," keynote speaker for "Return to Reality – the experimentation and future development direction for architecture education," School of Architecture China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China (2017)
• "Collage as Urban Tactic," senior presenter for "Build the Built" conference at Ultzama Campus, Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad, Zenotz, Ultzama Valley, Navarra, Spain (2015)

Publications (Selected)

• "Introduction," Fifty Paintings, by Anthony Ames, ORO editions, 2021
• "Language of Architecture: 26 Principles Every Architect Should Know," with V. Warke, Rockport Publishers; III Edition (June 2014)
• "Unfinished: Ideas, Images, and Projects from the Spanish Pavilion at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale," I. Carnicero, C. Quintáns, Interview and Essay by A. Simitch, Actar (July 2018)
• "RE-Collage," Cornell Journal of Architecture volume 8, "RE" (2010)
• "Aqueromane," a record of the urban ephemeral as recorded (photographed) through its aquatic infrastructures, blurb (2009)
• "The Nomadic Surface," ed. Sheila Kennedy, The Luminescence Studio, Harvard GSD (2001)