Pérez-Gómez, Alberto 1949–

(Alberto Perez Gomez, Alberto Perez-Gomez)

PERSONAL:

Born December 24, 1949, in Mexico City, Mexico; son of Jorge (an aeronautical engineer) and Angela Pérez; children: Alejandra, Beatriz. Ethnicity: "Hispanic." Education: Instituto Politécnico Nacional de México, diploma (architectural theory), 1970; National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico, diploma (architectural engineering; with honors), 1971; Cornell University, diploma (urban development and history of architecture), 1972; University of Essex, M.A., 1975, Ph.D., 1979.

ADDRESSES:

Office—School of Architecture, Macdonald-Harrington Bldg., McGill University, 815 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, Quebec H3A 2K6, Canada; fax: 514-398-7372. E-mail—alberto.perez-gomez@mcgill.ca.

CAREER:

Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico, lecturer in vocational education, 1969-71, lecturer in architecture, 1972-73; Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, England, instructor in design, 1975-77; University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, lecturer, 1977-78, assistant professor of architecture, 1978-79; Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, assistant professor, 1979-80, associate professor of architecture, 1980-81; University of Houston, Houston, TX, associate professor of architecture, 1981-83; Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, associate professor of architecture and director of School of Architecture, 1983-86; McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, visiting professor, 1986, Saidye Rosner Bronfman Professor of the History of Architecture, 1987—. Universidad Anáhuac, part-time lecturer, 1972-73; Polytechnic of Central London, instructor, 1976-77; University of Essex, lecturer, 1977; frequent visiting lecturer at universities and colleges in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Western Europe. Member of Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Committee, 1986-88; Canadian Centre for Architecture, member of advisory board, 1986—; Institut de Recherche en Histoire de l'Architecture, director, 1990-93; Journal of Architectural Education, member of editorial board.

MEMBER:

Mexican Academy of Architecture (fellow), Sociedad de Arquitectos Mexicanos, Asociación de Ingenieros Arquitectos del Estado de México, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Alice Davies Hitchcock Book Award, Society of Architectural Historians, 1983, for Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science.

WRITINGS:

Eclosion (poetry; title means "Blooming"), privately printed (Mexico), 1967.

Iber (prose poem), privately printed (Mexico), 1968.

Le teoria de la arquitectura (title means "The Theory of Architecture"), Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Mexico City, Mexico), 1969.

La genesis y superación del funcionalismo en arquitectura (title means "The Origins and Limitations of Functionalism in Architecture"), Limusa-Wiley (Mexico City, Mexico), 1980.

Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 1983.

Polyphilo; or, the Dark Forest Revisited: An Erotic Epiphany of Architecture, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 1992.

(Editor, with Louise Pelletier) Architecture, Ethics and Technology, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1994.

(With Louse Pelletier) Anamorphosis: An Annotated Bibliography with Special References to Architectural Representation, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1995.

Architectural Representation and The Perspective Hinge, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 1997.

(Editor, with Ulrich Franzen and Kim Shkapich) Education of an Architect: A Point of View, the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture, Monacelli Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Built upon Love: Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2006.

Author of introduction, Ordonnance for the Five Kinds of Columns after the Method of the Ancients, by Claude Perrault, University of Chicago Press, 1990. Series editor (with Stephen Parcell), "CHORA: Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture," McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994-2004. Contributor of articles and reviews to architecture journals and newspapers, including Fifth Column, Modernity and Popular Culture, and Urban Design and Preservation Quarterly.

Some of Pérez-Gómez's writings were translated into French and (without authorization) Korean.

SIDELIGHTS:

Alberto Pérez-Gómez once told CA: "My current focus is on the nature of architectural theory and its history, the problem of the city as urban stage and its modern deterioration, and issues concerning theoretical projects in architecture. Particularly crucial is the understanding of architecture in relation to contemporary art and philosophy and to the problems of modern culture at large."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Times Literary Supplement, August 3, 1984, review of Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science, p. 876.