Résumé

Military service, US Army, 1956-1958.

Draftsman, I.M. Pei and Partners, Architects, New York, NY, c. 1960.

Draftsman, Edward Larrabee Barnes, Architect, New York, NY, c. 1961.

Draftsman, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Architects, New York, NY, c. 1961.

Director, City of New York, Department of City Planning, Manhattan Planning Office, 1966-1968. Weinstein worked on John Vliet Lindsay's (1921-2000) successful mayoral campaign in 1965 and later in Mayor Lindsay's administration in the Office of Planning and Development for Lower Manhattan.

Director, City of New York, Office of Planning and Development for Lower Manhattan, New York, NY, 1968-1974.

Architect, City of New York City, Planning Department, Urban Design Group, 1966- . According to architectural critic Christopher Hawthorne, "Weinstein worked there alongside a number of other young and ambitious architects and planners in close coordination with Lindsay’s policy guru, Donald Elliott. When Lindsay created new development offices for different parts of the city, he asked Weinstein to direct one covering Lower Manhattan. Among the Urban Design Group’s most important initiatives were the sale of air rights above shorter buildings to developers who wanted to build higher elsewhere, generating revenue for the city, as well as so-called incentive zoning." (See Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times.com, "Richard Weinstein, who jumped from New York City politics to architecture deanship at UCLA, dies at 85," published 03/08/2018, accessed 03/12/2018.) Other members of the Urban Design Group in New York included land-use attorney Donald H. Elliott (born c. 1933, Chairman of the NY City Planning Commission, 1966-1973), Jaquelin T. Robertson (born 03/20/1933 in Richmond, VA), Jonathan Barnett (born 01/06/1937 in Boston, MA) and Myles Weintraub (born 08/06/1937 in New York, NY).

Principal, Richard S. Weinstein Associates, Incorporated, New York, NY, 1974-c. 2016. In 2016, this firm was located at 200 Park Avenue, Suite #3024, New York, NY.

Project Director, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Expansion Projects, New York, NY, 1975-1977.

President, New Sources of Funding, Incorporated, New York, NY, 1978-1982.

Project Director, 42nd Street Redevelopment Projects, New York, NY, 1978-c.2016.

Teaching

Professor, Department of Architecture, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Westwood, Los Angeles, CA, 1985-2008; while at UCLA, he established the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.

Chair, Department of Architecture, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Westwood, Los Angeles, CA, 1985-1994. According to Hawthorne, "By the time Weinstein left the UCLA deanship, the architecture and urban planning programs had split apart, a change that disappointed him." (See Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times.com, "Richard Weinstein, who jumped from New York City politics to architecture deanship at UCLA, dies at 85," published 03/08/2018, accessed 03/12/2018.)

Weinstein was active in assembling the faculty that remained at UCLA from the 1990s into the 2010s, including Thom Mayne, Sylvia Lavin, Dana Cuff, Craig Hodgetts, Mark Mack, and others.

Member, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, Visiting Committee, Cambridge, MA.

Professional Activities

Weinstein's work was featured in a 1966 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

Member, New York Landsmarks Conservancy, Board of Directors, New York, NY.

Member, Architectural League of New York, Board of Directors, New York, NY.

Committee Chair, LA 2000 Report, compiled for Mayor Tom Bradley, 1989.

Jury Member, Disney Concert Hall Selection Committee, Los Angeles, CA.

Coadministrator, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angeles, Architectural Selection Process, Los Angeles, CA.

Weinstein was a speaker in a panel discussion entitled, "The Urban Design Group: Why Implementation Matters," at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA, on 10/09//2014.

Archives

A oral history interview, titled "Inside, outside oral history transcript, 1996-1997: Richard S. Weinstein," has been preserved at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (UCB). The Online Archive of California record for the interview summarized its contents: "The interview begins with Weinstein's childhood and education, then continues through his professional activities in the offices of I.M. Pei and Edward Larrabee Barnes, his involvement with NY mayor John V. Lindsay administration's Urban Design Group, and his tenure as dean of UCLA's Graduate School of Architecture and Urban planning. Major topics of discussion include the innovative use of zoning and future air rights as tools to guide urban development, the City at Forty-Second Street project, urban planning and city government in Los Angeles, LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall and its new cathedral project, UCLA's Grad. Sch. of Architecture and Urban Planning, and Weinstein's career as an architect." (See Online Archive of California, "Inside, outside oral history transcript, 1996-1997: Richard S. Weinstein," accessed 10/30/2018.)

High School/College

Graduate, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, NY, c. 1950.

Coursework, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, c. 1951.

B.A., Brown University, Providence, RI, 1954.

M.S., Clinical Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, 1955.

Coursework, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA, one year, c. 1958-1959.

M.Arch., University of Pennsylvania (Penn), Philadelphia, PA, 1961. At Penn, Weinstein studied with a collection of architectural superstars, including Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974), Romaldo Giurgola (1920-2016), space frame architect/engineer Robert Le Ricolais (1894-1977) and Robert Venturi (1925-2018).

College Awards

Recipient, Arthur Spade Brook Gold Medal for Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 1961.

Recipient, Prix de Rome, Scholar, American Academy, Rome, Italy, 1963.

Relocation

From at least 1985 until 2002, Weinstein lived at 1606 Carlyle Avenue, Santa Monica, CA.

Weinstein died from “...complications from a number of neurological and cardiac health issues.” (See Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times.com, "Richard Weinstein, who jumped from New York City politics to architecture deanship at UCLA, dies at 85," published 03/08/2018, accessed 03/12/2018.) In later life, Weinstein struggled with Parkinson's disease.

He passed away in Santa Monica, CA.

Spouse

Weinstein married twice, the first time to Sandra Cohen.

He wed Edina Mommaerts (born 11/10/1947) in 1984. Edina survived him in 2018.

Children

He had two sons with Sandra Cohen, Nicholas and Alexander.

Biographical Notes

Member, Theatre Development Fund, Board of Directors, New York, NY.

• Santa Monica, CA (Architect's Death)
  Santa Monica, CA

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• Manhattan, New York, NY (Architect's Birth)
  Manhattan, New York, NY

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