Cornell dean will head Harvard design school
A Cornell University dean with Harvard ties has been tapped to replaced the controversial outgoing leader of Harvard's Graduate School of Design.
Mohsen Mostafavi, dean of Cornell University's architecture school, will become dean of the Harvard school in January, Harvard announced yesterday.
Mostafavi, a former associate professor of architecture at Harvard, will replace Alan Altshuler, who announced his resignation as dean of the Graduate School of Design in October. Altshuler, who was appointed permanent dean in early 2005 after serving as interim dean, was reportedly threatened with a no-confidence vote in spring 2006 by some members of the design school's faculty, just one week after Harvard's former president, Lawrence H. Summers, announced his resignation.
Altshuler was the state transportation secretary in the 1970s.
Altshuler's relationship with faculty had no bearing on Mostafavi's appointment, a university spokesman said yesterday.
"This has nothing to do with what may or may not have happened a year-and-a-half ago," said B.D. Coen.
A native of Iran, Mostafavi studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, where he later served as chairman from 1995 to 2004.
Mostafavi has led Cornell's architecture school since 2004, overseeing about 100 faculty members and 800 students from more than 30 countries. He taught at Harvard from 1990 to 1995.
Ryan Haggerty can be reached at rhaggerty@globe.com. 