Verso: Mike Davis pays tribute to architect and critic Michael Sorkin

Michael Sorkin died today of coronavirus in an overcrowded hospital and it is a shattering loss. If some people consider me an ‘urban theorist’ it’s only because in 1992 Michael conscripted me to write a chapter in his volume ‘Variations in a Theme Park.’ His ideas have had an immense influence in shaping my own. He was by any measure the most important radical theorist of city life and architecture in the last half century. New Yorkers old enough to have been Village Voice readers in the 1980s when he was the paper’s architecture critic will never forget the war he waged against mega-developers and urban rapists like Donald Trump. Or how in Whitmanesque prose he weekly sang the ballad of New York’s unruly, democratic streets. At a time when postmodernists were throwing dirt over the corpse of the twentieth century, Michael was resurrecting the socialist dreams and libertarian utopias that were the original soul of architectural modernism. When the peoples’ city was under attack he was inevitably the first to march to the sound of the guns. And then … his devilish glee, his kindness, his soaring imagination, his 50,000 volts of creative energy…. I’m drowning my keyboard in tears. Michael, you rat, why did you go when we need you most?

Mike Davis

e-flux: Michael Sorkin (1948–2020)

It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of our friend and comrade Michael Sorkin yesterday due to complications associated with COVID-19. Michael was an inspiration to all who saw the city as a battleground for emancipatory and progressive politics.

Michael was, among many other things, a prolific writer who approached the world with boundless energy, unrivaled dedication, and serious play. He was the principal and founder of Michael Sorkin Studios, Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design at City College of New York, the President of Terreform and Editor-in-Chief of Urban Research (UR). 

To honor Michael's legacy, we thought it most suitable to republish a text Michael wrote for us in 2018, a manifesto for the city. Dealing with issues of accessibility and public space, his ideas presented in this text are perhaps more relevant now, in global lockdown, than ever. But they always have been, and always will be. His thoughts, and his dreams will always have something more to teach about how the city should be.

Dezeen: "Fierce and brilliant architect Michael Sorkin dies of coronavirus

Eleanor Gibson, March 27 2020

Tributes have poured in for architect and critic Michael Sorkin, who has died aged 71 of complications caused by Covid-19.

Based in New York, Sorkin headed architecture firm Michael Sorkin Studio and was president of non-profit research group Terreform.

His death triggered shock and an outpouring of warm tributes from architects, critics and writers around the world.

"He was a supremely gifted, astute and acerbic writer"

"I am heartbroken. This is a great loss," tweeted New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman. "He was so many things. He was a supremely gifted, astute and acerbic writer. He wrote with moral force about big ideas and about the granular experience of life at the level of the street."

"Whether or not one agreed with Michael Sorkin didn't matter in the end," added Chicago Tribune critic Blair Kamin. "He was a great activist critic – fearless, unafraid to challenge received wisdom or powerful figures, and, because of his wit and insight, a pleasure to read."

"The architecture world has lost a brilliant mind," said Harriet Harriss, dean of New York's Pratt Institute School of Architecture.

Financial Times architecture correspondent Edwin Heathcote described Sorkin as a "fierce and brilliant critic, perhaps the best".

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