Mitchell Schwarzer (born 1957), is an American architectural historian, and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

. He writes on architecture and the built environment. He was a professor of architectural and urban history in the department of the history of art and visual culture at

California College of the Arts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in ...

Biography

Mitchell was born in 1957, at the

Norton Air Force Base Norton Air Force Base (1942–1994) was a United States Air Force facility east of downtown San Bernardino in San Bernardino County, California. Overview For the majority of its operational lifetime, Norton was a logistics depot and heavy-l ...

hospital in

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

; to parents Sigmund and Genia Schwarzer, Polish Holocaust survivors. His family moved to an apartment in

Queens, New York Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

; and eventually to a ranch house in Manhasset Hills on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. He attended Denton Avenue Elementary School, Shelter Rock Junior High School, and graduated from

Herricks High School Herricks High School is a comprehensive public high school, located in Searingtown, Nassau County, New York, United States. The sole high school within the Herricks Union Free School District, the school is accredited by the New York State Boa ...

in 1975. Subsequently, he received his BA from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

in 1979 (including a junior year abroad program in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

), and his Masters in

City Planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1981. Upon graduation, Schwarzer worked for an environmental consulting firm in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

and later the San Francisco Department of City Planning where he was one of the authors of the Downtown Plan (1985). In 1986, he began doctoral study in the history, theory and criticism of architecture at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, and received his Ph.D. in 1991. While researching his dissertation on

Adolf Loos Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was inspired by modernism and a widely-known c ...

he lived for a year as a

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...

in Vienna, Austria. Schwarzer's first academic position was at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

, where he taught at the art history department from 1991 to 1995. He began full-time teaching at

in 1996, and co-founded the school's masters program in visual criticism (now called visual and critical studies). His wife

Marjorie Marjorie is a female given name derived from Margaret (name), Margaret, which means pearl. It can also be spelled as Margery (name), Margery, Marjory or Margaery. Marjorie is a medieval variant of Margery, influenced by the name of the herb marjor ...

is a museologist and professor of

museum studies Museology (also called museum studies or museum science) is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including curating, preservation, public programming, and ed ...

. He has taught lecture classes on the history of architecture and art as well as seminars on architectural, urban, and landscape theory,

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

cultural criticism Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these gro ...

, the

avant garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

visual perception Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual percept ...

, and film and literature of the city. He has lectured widely in the United States and given talks in Austria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Vietnam.

Books

*''Hella Town: Oakland's History of Development and Disruption"", University of California Press (2021) *''Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Area: History and Guide'', William Stout (2006) *''Zoomscape: Architecture in Motion and Media'', Princeton Architectural Press (2004) *''Architecture and Design: SF'', Understanding Business (1998) *''German Architectural Theory and the Search for Modern Identity'', Cambridge University Press (1995)

References

American architectural historians American male non-fiction writers Living people Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni 1957 births California College of the Arts faculty People from San Bernardino, California People from Queens, New York Washington University in St. Louis alumni MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni University of Illinois Chicago faculty People from Manhasset, New York Historians from New York (state) Historians from California Herricks High School alumni

External links

Schwarzer's faculty page at the California College of the Arts.
* https://placesjournal.org/author/mitchell-schwarzer/?cn-reloaded=1 * https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-schwarzer-42b83019/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarzer, Mitchell