Nader Tehrani
NADAAA - Boston, MA
"The Sixth Elevation"
Thursday, September 17, 2026 | 6:00PM | ARCH 132 DF Pray Lecture Theatre
For his contributions to architecture as an art, Nader Tehrani is the recipient of The American Academy of Arts and Letters’ 2020 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize. Tehrani has also been named the 2022 National Design Awards Design Visionary by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; honored for his innovation and impact on the field of architecture.
Working on interdisciplinary platforms, Nader Tehrani’s research has been focused on the transformation of the building industry, innovative material applications, and the development of new means and methods of construction, as exemplified in his work with digital fabrication. Tehrani’s work has received many prestigious awards, among which are an unprecedented eighteen Progressive Architecture Awards. The works of Nader Tehrani have been widely exhibited at MOMA, LA MOCA, and ICA Boston. His work is also part of the permanent collection of the Canadian Center for Architecture and the Nasher Sculpture Center.
Tehrani is the former Dean of The Cooper Union’s Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture where he served from 2015-2022 and former Head of the Department of Architecture at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning where he served from 2010-2014. Tehrani has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he served as the Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair in Architectural Design, and The University of Toronto where he served as the Frank O. Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architecture. He also served as the William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome.
Based in Boston, NADAAA has evolved over three decades as a multi-disciplinary practice dedicated to bridging design disciplines; from landscape to urbanism, architecture to interiors, and industrial design to furniture. With an eye towards integrated thinking, we enter the discourse on technology, aesthetics, and building protocols as part of a holistic process. Rather than focus on typology, NADAAA’s portfolio is built on process, with examples of institutional, academic, housing, commercial, retail, and civic projects.
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