AAP Announces Two Finalists for Architecture Chair

Dean of College of Architecture, Art and Planning Kent Kleinman announced in an e-mail on Friday that the search committee for a new architecture department chair had narrowed their search to two finalists, Mehrdad Hadighi and Dagmar Richter.
Hadighi is an associate professor in architecture at the University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning. He completed his post-professional studies at Cornell and received professional degrees in architecture and studio art from the University of Maryland. Wallpaper magazine selected Hadighi as one of the “25 most intriguing, innovative and intrepid architects from all over the world” in 2004.
Richter is a professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of California Los Angeles. She received her preliminary diploma at the University of Stuttgart and then transferred to the Royal Art Academy in Copenhagen, from which she received her full diploma. She has won several international design and architecture competitions.
In February, architecture students called for more openness from the administration in relation to the search for the new architecture department chair. As a result, Kleinman formed a search committee which he asked to provide him with two names for prospective chairs. The search committee consists of four tenured faculty members and one graduate student, who was added later in the process.
Hadighi and Richter were chosen from an initial group of five candidates that the search committee had selected. All five were invited to campus to give an open lecture, have dinner with the search committee, have breakfast with the current chair Mark Cruvellier and have three separate hour-long meetings with faculty, staff and students.
According to Andy Linn ’11, a student representative who is involved in the search process and a member of The Sun’s Opinion staff, everyone that met with the candidates filled out a questionnaire which was reviewed by the search committee.
Additionally, around a dozen student representatives that had been active in the search process met with the search committee and the dean, “so that our feedback was more than just a few answers on a piece of paper,” Linn said.
He added that most students were happy with the questionnaire and simply wanted a more in-depth discussion.
At an open talk last Monday, Kleinman said that he would either decide between the two finalists himself or invite them back for further interviews.