16—O. M. Ungers Remembered
UNGERS, REMEMBERED. Oswald Mathias Ungers died on September 30, 2007. He was 81. His passing brought to a close the career of one of Germany’s most influential postwar architects. A native of Cologne, Ungers served as a visiting critic at Cornell from 1965–67 and as Chairman of the Department of Architecture from 1969–1975. His best known built works include the Wallraf Richartz Museum in Cologne, the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, the German Museum of Architecture in Frankfurt, libraries in Karlsruhe and Cologne, the Family Court in Berlin, and the Frankfurt Exposition buildings. His only built work in the United States is the residence of the German ambassador (1994), at 1800 Foxhall Road, NW, Washington, DC. Ungers was perhaps more widely and internationally known in academic circles for his theoretical projects and work, much of which was exhibited at the New National Gallery in Berlin in the exhibition “Cosmos of Architecture,” held last year on the occassion of his 80th birthday. “Ungers’ contributions to Cornell, and to the world of architecture while at Cornell, were heroic and inspirational,” says associate professor of architecture Arthur Ovaska, “and he will be fondly remembered as a leader, as a colleague, and as a mentor of exceptionally dynamic nature.” Both Ovaska and professor of architecture Werner Goehner attended the early October funeral in Cologne. In February, faculty and students of the department of Architecture gathered at Sibley Hall for a symposium “O. M. Ungers at Cornell, 1969–1983.” The event featured presentations by Goehner, Ovaska, and visiting architecture critic André Bideau. At the symposium, Goehner presented an extensive listing of Ungers’s work during his years at Cornell, including multiple academic publications and entries in architectural design competitions that became internationally known. Ungers also attracted a globally diverse mix of master’s students and visiting faculty. These international guests have had a lasting influence on the college, Goehner said. Ovaska, who worked with Ungers in Ithaca and in Cologne, admitted to being partial in describing his mentor. “I have a hard time being critical,” he said, “because it’s kind of like talking about your father.” Ungers stressed the importance of the concept of each project as “part of a larger cosmos, a larger order of form,” said Ovaska, who showed works exemplifying Ungers’s themes of transformation, interpretation, typology, and metamorphosis. Bideau placed Ungers in a period when architecture was being reinstituted as high art in America, returning to a classical form of modernism. The Cornell years, Bideau said, were transformative for Ungers’s career and for his identification with the international postmodern community. Bideau contended that German influences remained with Ungers, shaping his work at Cornell. Well known for his often controversial designs, Ungers won a competition in 2000 to redesign the Pergamon, the largest of five museums in Berlin’s Museum Island, significantly renovating buildings which had been untouched since the 1930s. The project is expected to be completed in 2010. He is survived by his wife Liselotte Ungers and his daughters Sybille and Sophia, both graduates of Cornell’s Department of Fine Arts. AAP Adapted from an article by Daniel Aloi on Cornell Chronicle Online; used with permission. Photo left to right: Werner Seligmann, unidentified, Fred Koetter, O. M. Ungers, Jerry Wells
BILL STAFFELD
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