Architectural Firm Headed by Two UB Faculty Members Listed Among "Most Intriguing, Innovative and Intrepid" in the World

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Studio for Architecture, the award-winning Buffalo architectural firm of Mehrdad Hadighi, associate professor of architecture, and Shadi Nazarian, clinical associate professor of architecture, both in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, was named one of the "25 most intriguing, innovative and intrepid architecture firms, from all over the world" by Wallpaper* magazine in its July, 2004 Annual Design Directory issue.

The firm, located at 312 Bryant Street, was cited for projects that include "Tall Acres," Hadighi's reconstruction of a 1970s tract house near Rochester, in which he docked a vast 75-ton "tube" of black polished concrete with the original house, its weight mirroring that of the existing, vinyl-sided structure.

The 2003 Design Vanguard issue of Architectural Record magazine named the Studio for Architecture one of "10 Young Firms Reshaping the Globe."

Nazarian is affiliated with the UB's Center for Virtual Architecture. She is an award-winning writer, theorist and architect who has participated in widely exhibited and published international design competitions. Her multidisciplinary research into representation and perception of space and form is articulated through multimedia and site specific installation. In her work, she explores the intersection of the material and the virtual, as well as theories of new media in architecture.

Hadighi's scholarly work focuses on the parallels between 20th-century theory and criticism and the constructive principles of architecture. He was named one of the country's six Notable Young Architects by the Architectural League of New York in 1996.