#COOPERMADE

COOPERMADE - LINES, DOTS, AND COLOR

With the anticipated release of Harold and the Purple Crayon, a film adaptation inspired by Cooper Union alumnus Crockett Johnson's children's book classic, we are presenting a sample of the many Cooper graduates who have created memorable volumes for children. While we only feature three authors and illustrators here, you can explore the Alumni Children's Book Collection in the Cooper Union library.

Elliott Kreloff A'71

Ann Jonas A'59

Donald Crews A'59

COOPERMADE - FROM GASTROTYPOGRAPHICALASSEMBLAGE TO NEON AT CBS

The imagery of the Columbia Broadcasting System, more commonly known as CBS, benefits from the talent of many Cooper-trained artists, two of whom—Lou Dorfsman and Lena Imamura—are featured in this week's COOPERMADE.

Lou Dorfsman A'39

Lena Imamura A'08

COOPERMADE - PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT, BREAKING GLASS CEILINGS

As we transition from Women’s History Month to Earth Month, this edition of CooperMade highlights the accomplishments of Shannon Spence, who entered Cooper Union in her mid-30s as a transfer student. Her post-Cooper career has focused on engineering projects at water and wastewater engineering firms and utilities.

Shannon Spence CE'96

COOPERMADE - FROM THE 5 BOROUGHS TO THE COSMOS

The discoveries of mid-20th century engineers and scientists have dramatically changed the world we live in and informed our knowledge of the many universes beyond our atmosphere. Numerous Cooper Union alumni were part of that era of post-war discovery, including the three New Yorkers featured here, all of whom made outsized contributions to space exploration.

Israel Taback ME'43

Edwin King Stodola EE'36

Howard T. Wright EE'56

COOPERMADE - FROM LITTLE IMAGES TO EXPANSIVE SCALE

As we head into the end-of-year holidays, The Cooper Union looks back at one of our most accomplished alumni, painter Lee Krasner. Her extraordinary paintings document the life of an artist who constantly searched for new, expressive possibilities in the medium.

Lee Krasner A’29

COOPERMADE - FROM FORM TO FUNCTION

This week's edition of CooperMade begs the question: what is the line between sculpture and furniture? As the work of our three featured alumni shows, the distinction is largely irrelevant. Taking the lead from the materials they're attracted to, all three refuse to separate functionality from aesthetics with profoundly different results.

Thomas O'Brien A’86

Natalie Shook A ’06

Nik Gelormino A ’08

COOPERMADE - FROM STUDENT TO EDUCATOR

With the new academic year about to get underway, CooperMade presents three of the numerous alumni who have returned to their alma mater as educators. In addition to teaching, all three—Professors Hayley Eber, Mike Essl, and Ruben Savizky—serve as deans who help shape their respective programs. They spoke to us about classroom methodologies they developed that are tailored to their students and their fields of study.

Hayley Eber AR’01

Mike Essl A ’96

Ruben Savizky ChE ’98

COOPERMADE - THE 12-INCH CANVAS

Though vinyl records have gone the way of hand-cranked car windows and princess telephones, album covers provided a popular, widely distributed medium for designers to comment not only on the music at hand, but the culture that produced it. No wonder that alumni from The Cooper Union—a school that’s produced some of the most important graphic designers of the last century—had a direct hand in shaping the genre. In this edition of #COOPERMADE, we bring three of the many who made the most of a 12 x 12-inch canvas.

John Berg A’53

Victor Moscoso A’57

Carin Goldberg A’75

COOPERMADE - BEER!

Since 2016, Associate Professor Sam Keene, a member of Cooper’s electrical engineering faculty, has been offering a course called The Science and Art of Brewing. The class covers the history of brewing alongside recent brewing innovations and entrepreneurship. As for the technical aspects, students learn the fundamentals of water chemistry, sanitation, wort production and equipment, microbiology and yeast health, fermentation, the design of beer and the diagnosis of off-flavors. Though it might seem an unorthodox subject, the making of beer is not only an excellent medium for teaching the chemistry of fermentation, it also has ties to the school thanks to Peter Cooper’s father who briefly had a brewery in Peekskill, NY. In this issue, we consider the work of three alumni who have in one way or another been inspired by the brewing of beer. Cheers!

Milton Glaser A ’51

Leo Wallerstein E 1904

Helen Ho ChE ’18

COOPERMADE Wangechi Mutu

1996 graduate of the School of Art Wangechi Mutu is the subject of a major solo exhibition at New York’s New Museum, Intertwined. The show, which opened this March and runs until June, takes up the entire museum and loosely follows a chronology of the artist’s career. On view are more than one hundred paintings, collages, drawings, and sculptures presenting a full breadth of her practice from the mid-1990s to today. Included are pieces from her time at The Cooper Union.

In a glowing review of the New Museum exhibition, art critic Roberta Smith noted that as accomplished an artist as she knew Mutu to be, seeing such a large body of her work in one place reveals the extraordinary inventiveness of the artist who works as a painter, video artist, and sculptor while using materials as diverse as soil from her native Kenya to bronze to tree limbs to fabric. Calling Mutu one of the most important artists of her generation, Smith said, “There doesn’t seem to be anything Mutu can’t manage.”

Wangechi Mutu A’96

COOPERMADE Earth Month

Earth Month, a celebration created in 1970, grew out of a growing awareness of the ways industrialization inflicted great damage on our environment. Unfortunately, in these 50 years, the devastating impacts of climate change is a more pressing issue than ever before. Many Cooper alumni are dedicating their careers to finding ways to radically improve the environment while mitigating the harm already exacted.

Chris Benedict AR’86

Sebastien Tilmans CE’07

Basar Girit AR’05

COOPERMADE Notable Cooper Women

As one of the few schools that matriculated women since its inception, The Cooper Union has always understood the need for all people to have access to an education. In honor of Women's History Month, COOPERMADE again pays tribute to three of the many women who launched their stellar careers with a Cooper education in architecture, art and engineering:

Karen Bausman AR’82

Lois Dodd A’48

Jennifer Weishaupt ChE’95

COOPERMADE Notable Cooper Women

During Women’s History Month, COOPERMADE is featuring just a few of the extraordinary women who have attended The Cooper Union. We present three women who have made outsized contributions to the fields of architecture, engineering, and art:

Toshiko Mori AR’76

Marisa Lago Ph’77

Eva Hesse A’57

COOPERMADE Founders and Presidents

In honor of Presidents’ Day, we present just a few of the many Cooper alumni who’ve held the position of founder or president—whether for their own business or for a professional organization.

Dr. Charles Fan EE’95, George Reeves ME’64 and Adah Bell Samuels Thoms made an outsized impact on our world.

Dr. Charles Fan EE’95

George Reeves ME’64

Adah Bell Samuels Thoms

COOPERMADE Transportation

With President Biden’s announcement of Gateway, a $292 million project to build an additional railroad tunnel under the Hudson River, COOPERMADE turns its attention to some of the many Cooper alumni who have designed, built, restored, and maintained transportation systems around the country.

Richard Sarles CE’67, Aviva Oppenheim ME’02, and Phillip Eng CE’83 made an outsized impact on the Transportation industry.

Richard Sarles CE’67

Aviva Oppenheim ME’02

Phillip Eng CE’83

COOPERMADE Alex Katz: A Conversation with Paint

As one of the best known and prolific artists of his generation, Alex Katz has dedicated his oeuvre to intense observations of the everyday. By deploying bold colors and flattened figures and landscapes, his canvases demonstrate the power of visual perception.

Alex Katz

COOPERMADE Wearables

A hallmark of Cooper's School of Art is its multidisciplinary pedagogy, which requires students to try many artistic methods and to eschew traditional majors. This results in our graduates entering a wide range of fields, including fashion - with some becoming household names.

The Power of Street Style

Accessories Take Center Stage

Dressing the Part

Workwear as High Style

COOPERMADE Seismic Research in Action

Many Cooper engineering alumni have dedicated their careers to creating necessary structures for transportation, water distribution, and energy delivery. These featured alumni have undertaken the important work of protecting those critical pieces of infrastructure from the hazards of earthquakes.

Seismic Research

COOPERMADE Iconic Package Design

Cooper alumni have been behind some of the most iconic package designs of the past 50 years, including the bold orange wrapper of a Reese’s and the jolly mayhem of Wacky Packs. While some of their designs have been updated over the years—including Reese's and the Happy Meal box—their initial concepts still animate much of today's commercial landscape.

Reese's

Happy Meals

Wacky Packs

COOPERMADE Excellence in Athletics

Alumni from each of The Cooper Union’s three schools—architecture, art, and engineering—have made critical contributions to the planning, identity, and history of organizations dedicated to excellence in athletics: the Olympics, the Paralympics, and the Special Olympics.

Olympics, Paralympics & Special Olympics

COOPERMADE Museum & Exhibition Design

As a school dedicated to architecture, art, and engineering, it’s no surprise that numerous Cooper alumni have worked in different aspects of museum design. The three firms featured in this week’s #COOPERMADE have wide and varied practices. This story highlights their work for museums, work that merges the disciplines of a Cooper education.

Exhibition & Building Design

Building a Narrative

Capital Projects for Non-Profits

COOPERMADE Infrastructure Reimagined

The firm Ballman Khapalova has developed an extraordinary plan to convert a NYC rotary into a multi-use park and community / arts center while keeping it a functioning roadway.

Rotary Park

COOPERMADE Texts on Type

The Cooper Union has produced some of the world’s best known graphic designers and typographers. Not so surprising, then, that Cooper is also the alma mater of authors who’ve written highly influential texts on typography and type design.

Designing with Type

Typography Essentials

Thinking with Type

COOPERMADE Film

From iconic movie posters to reimagined silent films to superheroes, we look at four of the many Cooper alumni who have had extraordinary careers related to cinema. Whether as directors, designers, or typographers, they have influenced how stories are told on film.

Iconic Posters

Fellini Film Titles

Reimagined Films

Wonder Woman

COOPERMADE Medical Arts

These alumni prove that a Cooper education can provide an extraordinary foundation for careers in medicine, whether as a physician, researcher, or inventor. From public health to cancer screening to personalized medicine to computer-assisted surgery, learn more about these #COOPERMADE medical arts!

EpiBone

GPS for the Brain

ThinPrep Pap Test

Combatting the AIDS Crisis

COOPERMADE HAND-DRAWN

Famed illustrator Edward Sorel A’51 reviews his storied career in his new book Profusely Illustrated. From Edward G. Robinson to George W. Bush, he has drawn them all!

Ed Sorel, A Memoir

COOPERMADE Holiday Fun

From iconic toys to the 5th Avenue holiday window displays, these Cooper alumni make the holidays bright!

Remco Toys

The Hoberman Sphere

NYC Holiday Window Displays

COOPERMADE Jewelry Design

Jewelry designed by these Cooper alumni spans styles and eras, breaks boundaries of color and sexuality, and defines iconic moments both historic and contemporary. Learn more about these #COOPERMADE pieces that express, adorn, and inspire!

Post-War Biomorphic Designs

Iconic NYC Adornment

Wearable Art History

COOPERMADE Gadgets and Gizmos

Alumni of Peter Cooper's institute have followed in our founder's footsteps by creating countless inventions that we use every day. From escalators to wireless telephones, the revolutionary gadgets and gizmos that move society forward are #COOPERMADE!

Wireless Telephones

Multi-Angled Mirrors

Escalators

Lionel Toy Trains

Childproof Caps

COOPERMADE Architecture with Impact

Cooper’s architecture graduates learn not only how to design a structure, but also how to make it live in the environment and community around it. These alumni each found a space, whether physical or social, where their work would make a difference.

Recyclable Refugee Shelters

An Eco-friendly Community Park

IT Houses

Design with FRANK

COOPERMADE Photography

Whether staged or candid, great photography sheds light on the ordinary and extraordinary alike. It may condemn injustice, celebrate beauty, or point out the ridiculous. This week we consider just a few alumni who have made their mark in the art world as photographers of note. Join these alumni in seeing the world through a new lens.

Images of Life Under Apartheid

Landscapes of Imagination

Portraits of Imagination

COOPERMADE From the Theater to the Stage

From beloved musicals to iconic NYC theaters, Cooper alumni have contributed in big ways to the world of Broadway. As we look forward to a safe return to the art and music we love, we celebrate our graduates who make sure that "the sun will come out tomorrow."

Annie

New York's Theater District

COOPERMADE 9/11 Memorials and Monuments

Twenty years ago the events of 9/11 made an indelible impact on our country, and on the Cooper community. Today, and every day, we remember the Cooper alumni who lost their lives that day, and mourn the loss to our community.

Michael Boccardi ME’92
Deborah Gittleman Kaplan CE’77
Eugen Lazar CE’96

Alumni including T.J. Gottesdiener AR’79, Julian LaVerdiere A’93, John Leeper AR'85, and Daniel Libeskind AR’70 contributed the skills they learned at Cooper and a wealth of professional experience and personal meaning to construct New York's memorials and monuments in remembrance of the lives lost that day.

Tribute in Light

One World Trade Center

National 9/11 Memorial Museum

COOPERMADE Seats at the Table

Whether engineering new flavors or creating new community spaces, these Cooper alumni offer you a seat at their table.

Arancini Bros.

Eugene J. Candy Co.

Ruby Slipper

COOPERMADE Air and Space

After Cooper Union launched their careers, these alumni launched our imaginations to the stars and beyond.

A Nobel Prize in Physics

The Voyager Probe Missions

GPS

The Manhattan Project

COOPERMADE NYC Landmarks and Legends

From Central Park monuments to the High Line, our alumni have shaped the public spaces and aesthetics of New York for over a century thanks to the education they received at The Cooper Union.

NYC Sculpture and Monuments

The High Line

Monument to Women's Rights Pioneers

COOPERMADE Kids Characters

From classic cartoons of the 30s and 40s to picture books we still read to our kids today, the characters of our imagination are #COOPERMADE!

COOPERMADE At Home

From the water in your tap to the internet in your home office, so many aspects of day-to-day life are #COOPERMADE!