Witold Rybczynski

February 03, 2011
Lecturer(s): Witold Rybczynski

Witold Rybczynski, architect, educator and author, has been described as “one of our most original, accessible, and stimulating writers on architecture.” He is the architectural critic for the on-line magazine Slate and his essays appear in other media such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. He has written fifteen books on subjects as varied as the evolution of comfort, a history of the weekend, American urbanism, the development of a new community, and a search for the origins of a screwdriver. Home has been translated into ten languages. A Clearing in the Distance, a biography of Frederick Law Olmsted, received a Philadelphia Athenaeum Award. Recent books include My Two Polish Grandfathers: And Other Essays on the Imaginative Life, and Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers, co-authored with landscape architect Laurie Olin. Rybczynski received a professional degree in architecture from McGill University, and numerous honorary doctorates. In 2007 he received the National Building Museum’s Vincent Scully Prize and the Seaside Prize. He serves on the U.S Commission of Fine Arts.