Nanako Umemoto and Jesse Reiser

Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto have practiced in New York City as Reiser + Umemoto, RUR Architecture P.C. since 1986.  Jesse Reiser is currently an Associate Professor of Architecture at Princeton University, and currently serves as the Director of Graduate.  Nanako Umemoto is currently a Visiting Professor at Columbia University and Pratt Institute, and leads a yearly design workshop at Hong Kong University.  Reiser + Umemoto, RUR Architecture P.C., an internationally recognized architectural firm, has built projects at a wide range of scales: from furniture design, to residential and commercial structures, up to the scale of landscape design and infrastructure.  Currently, Reiser + Umemoto carries tremendous momentum forward with the wins of two recent international competitions – the Kaohsiung Port Terminal and Taipei Pop Music Center projects - both of which are in early development.  The firm also recently completed O-14, a unique 22-story office tower in Dubai which has received numerous international honors, including the Concrete Industry Board’s 2009 Award of Merit and the American Council of Engineering Companies’ 2009 Diamond Award.  O-14 is scheduled to open in Summer 2011.Jesse Reiser received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Cooper Union in New York and completed his Masters of Architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and in 1985, was appointed as a fellow of the American Academy in Rome.  Architect and Landscape Architect Nanako Umemoto graduated from Cooper Union following her studies at the School of Urban Design at the Osaka University of Art.  In addition to teaching together at Columbia University, they have individually taught and lectured at various educational and cultural institutions throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, and their work has been widely published and exhibited for over 20 years.  The firm was awarded the Chrysler Award for Excellence in Design in 1999, and the Academy Award in Architecture by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2000.  In May 2008, Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto were awarded the Presidential Citation from President George Campbell of the Cooper Union for outstanding practical and theoretical contributions to the field of Architecture.