Moshe Safdie

Moshe Safdie has been an innovative force in architecture and urban design since he first attracted global attention with Habitat '67, his seminal experimental housing project constructed for the Montreal World's Fair. Safdie has contributed meaningfully to the development of many building types – museums, libraries, performing arts centers, government facilities, airports and houses – and the realization of entire cities.

Moshe Safdie has been recognized as the national architect of both Canada and Israel, and while residing in Boston for the past 30 years, has made a major contribution to architecture and urbanism in the United States. Through his designs he has demonstrated the capacity of contemporary architecture to adapt and connect and be embraced in a diversity of cultures.

Safdie has not only been an active practitioner whose works have served as a model for others, but an important educator – Yale, McGill, and twelve years at Harvard where as Director of the Urban Design program he revamped the curriculum and introduced the model of international studios. A theorist and an author, he has brought architecture alive to the public at large. In his six books, including the best-selling Beyond Habitat (1970), he succeeded in presenting architectural theory to the lay public while provoking debate in the profession. In City After the Automobile (1998) he proposed a radical rethinking of urban transportation and the structure of the city.

Among Safdie's numerous awards are the Companion Order of Canada and the Gold Medal of the Royal Canadian Institute of Architects.