Moshe Safdie was born in 1938 and graduated from McGill University in 1961 with a degree in architecture. After apprenticing with Louis I. Kahn in Philadelphia, he returned to Montreal, taking charge of the master plan for the 1967 World Exhibition, where he also realized an adaptation of his thesis as Habitat '67, the central feature of the World's Fair.
In 1970, Safdie established a Jerusalem branch office, commencing an intense involvement with the rebuilding of Jerusalem. He was responsible for major segments of the restoration of the Old City and the reconstruction of the new center, linking the Old and New Cities. Over the years, his involvement expanded and included the new city of Modi'in, the new Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, and the Rabin Memorial Center. During this period, Safdie also became involved in the developing world, working in Senegal, Iran, Singapore, and in the northern Canadian arctic.
In 1978, following teaching at Yale, McGill, and Ben Gurion Universities, Safdie relocated his residence and principal office to Boston, as he became Director of the Urban Design Program and the Ian Woodner Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In the following decade, he was responsible for the design of six of Canada's principal public institutions, including the Quebec Museum of Civilization, the National Gallery of Canada, and Vancouver Library Square.
In the past decade, Safdie's major cultural and educational commissions in the U.S. have included: the United States Institute of Peace Headquarters on the Mall in Washington, D.C.; the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum in Los Angeles, CA; and Exploration Place in Wichita, KS; educational facilities such as Eleanor Roosevelt College at the University of California in San Diego; civic buildings such as the Springfield, MA, and Mobile, AL, Federal Courthouses; and performing arts centers such as the Kansas City, MO, Performing Arts Center. In addition to major works of urbanism, Safdie's current work includes two airports - Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto and Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.
Recent building openings include the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia (2006), The Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem (2005), the Lester B. Pearson International Airport (2004), the Ben Gurion International Airport (2004), the Salt Lake City Main Public Library (2003), and the Peabody Essex Museum (2003).
Major complexes currently under construction include the Khalsa Heritage Memorial Complex, the national museum of the Sikh people in the Punjab, India; the Federal Building in Washington, D.C.; and the Springfield Federal Courthouse in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The most recent commissions are Marina Bay Sands, an integrated resort in Singapore, the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem, the renovation and expansion to the Central Library in Philadelphia, the West Edge project, a mixed-use facility in Kansas City, Missouri, the Renaissance Square project in Rochester, New York, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
In addition to numerous articles on the theory and practice of architecture, Safdie has written several books, most notably, Beyond Habitat (1970), For Everyone a Garden (1974), Form and Purpose (1982), and Jerusalem: The Future of the Past (1989). The City After the Automobile (1997), details Safdie's ideas about urbanism and city planning. A comprehensive monograph of his work, Moshe Safdie, was published in 1996. His upcoming theoretical work discusses the architecture of humanity in the age of mega-scale.
Safdie has been featured in several films, including Moshe Safdie, The Power of Architecture, which is a portrait film (directed by Donald Winkler, 2004), My Architect: A Son's Journey about Nathaniel Kahn and his father Louis I. Khan (directed by Nathaniel Kahn, 2003), The Sound of the Carceri, about Bach and Piranesi, with Yo-Yo Ma (directed by Francois Girard, 1997), Coldspring New Town (National Film Board of Canada, 1973), and The Innocent Door (National Film Board of Canada, 1973).
Safdie has been the recipient of numerous awards, honorary degrees, and civil honors, including the Companion Order of Canada and the Gold Medal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
