Douglas Cooper Bio

Since 1990, Douglas Cooper has created large panoramic murals in various cities, worldwide. In many of these projects, he has worked with local residents and incorporated their life stories into the works—often with drawings in their own hands. The combination of story, history and collective memory has become a general theme of Cooper’s work—even non-collaborative works. The 200 foot-long mural for the University Center at Carnegie Mellon (1996) shows Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Mellon Campus in three different time periods. His collaboration with his nephew Gregoire Picher, with his background in animation, has brought a more significant figurative content to Cooper’s work. Cooper has authored three books: Drawing and Perceiving, a widely used text on drawing; Frankfurt Panorama, a book about the making of the Frankfurt mural; and Steel Shadows about his murals and drawings in Pittsburgh (2000). In 2000, he received a national award from the American Institute of Architects for the collaborative contribution of his murals to the profession of architecture at large.

	*Douglas Cooper, Andrew Mellon Professor of Architecture*
	Since 1990, Douglas Cooper has created large panoramic murals in various cities, worldwide. In many of these projects, he has worked with local residents and incorporated their life stories into the works—often with drawings in their own hands. The combination of story, history and collective memory has become a general theme of Cooper’s work—even non-collaborative works. The 200 foot-long mural for the University Center at Carnegie Mellon (1996) shows Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Mellon Campus in three different time periods. His collaboration with his nephew Gregoire Picher, with his background in animation, has brought a more significant figurative content to Cooper’s work. Cooper has authored three books: Drawing and Perceiving, a widely used text on drawing; Frankfurt Panorama, a book about the making of the Frankfurt mural; and Steel Shadows about his murals and drawings in Pittsburgh (2000). In 2000, he received a national award from the American Institute of Architects for the collaborative contribution of his murals to the profession of architecture at large.