Architectural historian, curator, author, and founder of The Architect’s Newspaper William “Bill” Menking died on April 11 at his home in New York City following a long battle with cancer. He was 72.
Born at the Ramey Air Force Base in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, in 1947, Menking grew up in California and attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied architecture and urban studies. Menking went on to earn his M.S. from the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College, London; his M.S. in city and regional planning from Pratt Institute; and his Ph.D. in art history from the City University of New York.
Menking began his circuitous route to a career in architecture first working to help establish labor unions for the United Farm Workers in California and later moving to New York, where he worked as a server at Studio 54. In New York, Menking connected with the local art scene and ultimately became a location scout for film and TV in the 1980s, later taking a job as an art director for the show Miami Vice in Miami. In 1980, Menking attended the first Venice Architecture Biennale, an event he would attend every two years until his death. In 1990, Menking joined Pratt University’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment and ultimately became a tenured professor.
“During his time at the Institute, Bill made an indelible impact, as he taught both architecture and planning students,” Pratt writes in a release. “He encouraged students to build bridges between those disciplines and inspired them to integrate social issues into their professional work.”
Inspired by the work of The Architects’ Journal and Building Design, Menking and his wife Diana Darling founded AN in 2003. Also a prolific curator, Menking spearheaded the 2008 U.S. pavilion of the Venice Biennale of Architecture and organized exhibits including Superstudio: Life Without Objects (2003) and The Vienna Model: Housing for the Twenty-First Century City (2016).
In an obituary, AN announced that it will launch a memorial landing page to post tributes to Menking.
Menking is survived by his wife and their daughter Halle.
