Thom Mayne
Day in the Life
"At this point, I’ve coming to realize the most powerful thing you can do when a student asks what you think about his or her work is to say: “I don’t know. What do you think?” If I’ve succeeded, my students take away a certain kind of openness, inquisitiveness, an ability to ask questions in a way that never occurred to them before, regardless of where in the world they come from or may go back to." –Thom Mayne, Distinguished Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Design
One can point to the many precedent-setting, award-winning buildings that he has realized around the world; to the provocative thought leadership that he has provided in response to the increasingly complex urban challenges that we face in the 21st century; or to the dozens of students whom he has mentored, academically and professionally, and who have gone on to build their own practices and legacies as educators. What is undeniable is his impact—as one fo the most celebrated and influential architects of our time; as a dedicated educator who relentlessly seeks new methods and models to best train the next generation of designers, urbanists and creative problem solvers; as a thought leader whose contributions will resonate within our society for generations to come.
For the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne, education is a profoundly cultural experience. He believes that his essential role at UCLA is to ask questions, to provide the intellectual and creative framework in which students can grapple with the some of the big social, political, environmental and economic challenges of the 21st century.
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