New Face at Moma
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The Museum of Modern Art has a new top curator for architecture and design: Barry Bergdoll. He will assume his position, which is officially called the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, on January 1, 2007. He succeeds the former chief curator, Terence Riley, who left the museum in March in order to become director of the Miami Art Museum.
Mr. Bergdoll was the 2002 winner of the Philip Johnson Award of the Society of Architectural Historians for his contributions to the book “Mies in Berlin.” He was appointed by the director of the museum, Glenn Lowry, who called Mr. Bergdoll the “ideal choice” in a statement.
Mr. Bergdoll has served on the board of directors of the Architectural League of New York from 1986 to 2004. In 2004, he was elected chair of the department of art history at Columbia University, the school from which he holds a B.A. and a Ph.D. and where he was a member of the faculty for almost 20 years.
Mr. Bergdoll has been a professor of 19th- and 20th-century architectural history and authored such books as “European Architecture, 1750-1890.” His next book, due out in 2008, is about Marcel Breuer, one of the fathers of modernism. Mr. Bergdoll has also conducted research on the relationship between architecture and natural science.
