Bartholomew Voorsanger (b.1937)
Bartholomew (Bart) Voorsanger was born in Michigan and raised in San Francisco. He graduated with honors from Princeton University in 1960, and received his Masters in Architecture from Harvard University in 1964. He received a Doctor Honoris Causa from the University for Architecture and Urbanism “Ion Mincu” in Bucharest, Romania in 2005.
Mr. Voorsanger worked for urban planner Vincent Ponte in Montreal, Canada for three years, then for I.M. Pei & Partners as a design associate for ten years. In 1975 his first completely solo project, the Martha’s Vineyard Residence, won The American Institute of Architects (AIA) merit award for vacation homes. In 1978, Voorsanger and Edward Mills left Pei’s office and began their own firm, Voorsanger & Mills Associates. Mr. Voorsanger became a Fellow of the AIA in 1985. In 1990 Voorsanger and Mills parted ways and the firm was reorganized as Voorsanger & Associates Architects, later Voorsanger Architects PC (around 2003).
Mr. Voorsanger taught architecture at Columbia University, Harvard University, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Pennsylvania. He presented many lectures and talks at professional symposia, served as a jurist on national and international design award juries, was an invited guest lecturer and critic, and wrote a variety of articles for design and art periodicals. Mr. Voorsanger was the president of the New York Chapter of The American Institute of Architects (AIA New York) and the New York Foundation for Architecture. He served on the board of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) and remains a member of the SAH development committee. His work has been exhibited at museums and galleries around the world including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Museum of Finnish Architecture, the Frankfurt Museum of Architecture, the Spanish Ministry of Construction Gallery, and the National Academy of Design. In 2017 the biography Unfolded: How Architecture Saved My Life: Bartholomew Voorsanger by Alastair Gordon was published, highlighting Mr. Voorsanger’s life and forty-plus year career.