Jorge Silvetti

Machado-Silvetti Architects, Boston, MA

Recent Work of Machado and Silvetti

Tuesday, September 26th, 7:00 PM

Max Abramovitz Distinguished Lecture

Jorge Silvetti

Jorge Silvetti was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he received his diploma in architecture from the University of Buenos Aires. He continued studies at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving his Master of Architecture degree and pursuing post graduate work in the area of architectural theory and criticism. Mr. Silvetti’s architectural practice with Rodolfo Machado began in 1974. Their firm, Machado and Silvetti Associates, was incorporated in 1985 and is now a forty-person office. An architecture and urban design firm known for distinctive spaces and unique works of architecture in the United States and abroad, Machado and Silvetti Associates has completed projects of diverse size and scope.

Since 1975, he has taught architecture at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, where he became Professor of Architecture in Design and Design Theory in 1983, was Director of the Master of Architecture program from 1985 to 1989, and was named Nelson Robinson, Jr. Professor of Architecture in 1990. From 1995-2002, he chaired the Department of Architecture at Harvard, where he continues to teach. He also has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, Carnegie-Mellon University, the Polytechnic Institute of Zurich, the University of Palermo, Sicily and Nihon University, Tokyo.

In addition to his architectural practice and teaching responsibilities, Mr. Silvetti served as a juror for the Pritzker Architectural Prize from 1996 to 2004 and regularly serves on juries for architectural competitions and awards. Mr. Silvetti was the first person to receive Progressive Architecture awards in all three categories of architecture, urban design, and research. He was awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome for the year 1985-86. Mr. Silvetti’s writings have appeared in numerous architectural and urban design magazines, including Oppositions, Controspazio, Daidalos, Metamorfosi, Harvard Architectural Review, and Assemblage.

Rodolfo Machado

Rodolfo Machado was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is a graduate of the Universidad de Buenos Aires School of Architecture. He studied urban design at the Centre de Recherche d'Urbanisme, in Paris, France and continued studies at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving his Master of Architecture degree and pursuing postgraduate work in the area of architectural theory and criticism. After working for several notable Bay Area firms, Mr. Machado’s formed an architectural practice with Jorge Silvetti in 1974.

Machado and Silvetti Associates has received three National Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects: a 1993 award in architecture for the Princeton University Parking Structure, a 1998 urban design award for Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park, and a 2003 award in architecture for the Honan-Allston Branch of the Boston Public Library. The firm has also received nine Progressive Architecture awards, eleven Boston Society of Architects Awards, including the 2003 Harleston Parker Medal, eight awards from the New England chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and the First Award in Architecture given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Three monographs have been produced on the office, Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti: Buildings for Cities (1989), Casas 40: Rodolfo Machado & Jorge Silvetti (1995), and Unprecedented Realism: The Architecture of Machado and Silvetti (1995).

A member of the Harvard University faculty since 1986, Mr. Machado is a Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design and currently chairs the Department of Urban Planning and Design. He has also taught at Carnegie-Mellon University and at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he chaired the Department of Architecture from 1978 until 1986. Mr. Machado has conducted seminars, lectured, and has been a visiting critic at many schools of architecture in this country and abroad. In 1995, Mr. Machado curated an exhibition entitled “Monolithic Architecture” at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. His drawings and projects have been extensively published and exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.