William Morrish

B.Arch., University of California;
M.Arch./U.D., Harvard Graduate School of Design

Elwood R. Quesada Professor of Architecture

A licensed architect, urban designer and educator, William was born in California, in 1948.

Since 2001, he has held the Elwood R. Quesada Professor of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban and Environmental Planning, at the School of Architecture, University of Virginia.

In 1994, William Morrish was hailed by New York Times architecture critic, Herbert Muschamp; ?as the most valuable thinker in urbanism today.? This work is exemplified by his innovative urban design plan for The City of Phoenix, Arizona?s public art plan which unites artist and public work engineers in the transformation of city utilities into the a citywide cultural setting and new public realm. Morrish?s urban design work approaches infrastructure as a cultural landscape — the connective safety net that knits citizens, public spaces, social institutions, cultural expression and the natural environment into multi-operational urban landscape networks.

In addition to infrastructure, his research work involves working on the development of models for compact mid-density affordable housing to be located inside existing single ring suburban towns and inner city neighborhoods. In collaboration with the Charlottesville Community Design Center director Katie Swenson, he is writing a book called, Growing Urban Habitats, ?Re-Framing American Multi-Family Housing?.

With architects Rafael Vinoly and Fredric Schwartz, in 2002, Morrish was a member of the architectural collaborative called, THINK. This interdisciplinary team competed against six national and international architectural firms in the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation of New York -?Innovative Design Competition?- for the future master plan of the World Trade Center. THINK won the competition.

A former resident of New Orleans, he has been working for the last year and half in collaboration with local and national design firms and not for profit agencies on the processes of rebuilding the City of New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina. He is writing a book on his experience working to rebuild city and the lessons that might be drawn from this effort for other American cites, called, Re-float NOLA ?and American Cities will rise.

He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Architecture (1971) and Harvard Graduate School of Design, with a Master of Architecture in Urban Design (1978).

William Morrish is the author of, Civilizing Terrains, ?Mountains, Mounds and Mesas?, William Stout Architectural Books, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2004