Michael Sorkin, architect, author, teacher, and one of the most distinctive voices for social justice and sustainability in the design of the urban environment, died in New York on March 26, after contracting coronavirus. He was 71.

He was a professor and director of the urban design program at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York. He was a longtime contributing editor to Architectural Record, architecture critic for The Nation, and an essayist for the Village Voice. He wrote or edited 20 books. His output of essays, lectures and designs, all promoting social justice, established him as the political conscience in the field.

In lectures and in years of teaching, Mr. Sorkin inspired audiences and students to use architecture to change lives, resist the status quo, and help achieve social equity.

At the time of his death, he was distinguished professor and director emeritus of the graduate urban design program at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York.

[A personal note: I never met Michael Sorkin, but in a way I feel I knew him. A long-time friend, who was for many years chair of the architecture school, was a colleague of Michael Sorkin’s, and many of our conversations involved Mr. Sorkin’s theories of architecture, which corresponded to those of my friend. Both men believed strongly that architecture should serve the public need, not be an object that calls attention to itself.  SMB]