Thom Mayne founded Morphosis in 1972. As design director and thought leader of Morphosis, Thom provides overall vision, project leadership and direction to the firm.

Thom’s distinguished honors include the Pritzker Prize in 2005 and the AIA Gold Medal in 2013. He was appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 2009, and was honored with the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Gold Medal in 2000.

With Morphosis, Thom has been the recipient of 25 Progressive Architecture Awards, over 100 American Institute of Architecture Awards and numerous other design recognitions. Under his direction, the firm has been the subject of various group and solo exhibitions throughout the world, including a large solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2006. Other notable exhibitions include those at the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Walker Arts Institute in Minneapolis, the Ministerio de Fomento in Madrid in 1998, and a major retrospective at the Netherlands Architectural Institute (NAI) in 1999.

In addition to these solo exhibitions, Morphosis has been included in prestigious group exhibitions in Tokyo, London, Vienna, Buenos Aires, at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, as part of the “End of the Century: 100 Years of Architecture” exhibition, and at the 2002, 2004 and 2006, and 2008 Venice Architecture Biennales.

Drawings, furniture, and models produced by Morphosis are included in the permanent collections of such institutions as the MOMA in New York, San Francisco MOMA, the MAK in Vienna, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the FRAC Center in France.

Morphosis buildings and projects have been published extensively; the firm has been the subject of 25 monographs, including five by Rizzoli, two by Korean Architect, two by El Croquis (Spain), two by G.A. Japan, and one by Phaidon.

Thom has also remained active in the academic world throughout his career. In 1972, he helped to found the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Since then, he has held teaching positions at Columbia, Yale (the Eliel Saarinen Chair in 1991), Harvard Graduate School of Design (Eliot Noyes Chair in 1998), Berlage Institute in the Netherlands, Bartlett School of Architecture in London, and many other institutions around the world.

His commitment to the education of young designers has not wavered. Currently, he holds a tenured faculty position at the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture.