Lecture
Location
Abby and Howard Milstein Auditorium
Milstein Hall
Contact
Department of Architecture
Related Links
Abstract
“Scales of the City” examines the layered complexities of urban life. Drawing from his work across infrastructure, housing, and cultural institutions, Michael Maltzan positions the city as both a physical and conceptual framework shaped by connection and fragmentation. Using Los Angeles as a testing ground, he explores how architecture can operate across multiple scales to address social polarization and reestablish civic cohesion.
Biography
Michael Maltzan, Founding Principal, Michael Maltzan Architecture
Michael Maltzan founded Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc. in 1995. His projects cross a wide range of typologies, from cultural institutions to city infrastructure. Michael’s notable projects include the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, MoMA QNS, Star Apartments, the Pittman Dowell Residence, the new Sixth Street Viaduct, MIT Vassar Street Residential Hall, the UCLA Hammer Museum, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery Inuit Art Centre.
Maltzan received an M.Arch. from the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, and B.F.A. and B.Arch. degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and received the 2016 AIA Los Angeles Gold Medal. He is a recipient of a 2012 American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award and was inducted as a member of the Academy in 2023. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 2020, and currently serves on the Deans leadership council at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Visiting Committee to the GSD. He was featured in the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s 2019 film, What It Takes to Make a Home, delivered the 20th Annual John T. Dunlop Lecture for the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, and his work was named as one of the 25 Best Inventions of 2015 by Time magazine.
Maltzan’s work has gained international acclaim for innovation in both design and construction. It has been recognized with five Progressive Architecture awards, 52 citations from local, state, and national chapters of the American Institute of Architects, the Rudy Bruner Foundation’s Gold Medal for Urban Excellence, the Zumtobel Group Award for Innovations for Sustainability & Humanity in the Built Environment, a 2020 Best of the Millennium AIA LA Honor Award, the 2025 AIA California Maybeck Award, and the 2025 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture.
The firm and its projects have been widely featured in national and international publications and have been exhibited in museums worldwide, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art New York, the Heinz Architectural Center, the Canadian Center for Architecture, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. The firm’s work was selected for the 2006, 2018, and 2020 La Biennale di Venezia and is included in the permanent collections of Carnegie Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
