Branden Hookway
May 19, 1971 - August 14, 2021
Branden Hookway, 50, of Ithaca, New York, passed away on August 14, 2021 after a seven-and-a-half year battle with sarcoma. He is the author of two books, Interface (MIT Press, 2014) and Pandemonium: The Rise of Predatory Locales in the Post War World (Princeton Architectural Press, 1999). Called "a virtuoso in multiple disciplines," he had been continuing his research developing a cultural history of the airplane cockpit until passing.
A loving husband and father, he is survived by his wife Maria Park of fourteen years with whom he collaborated on art projects and together taught at Cornell University; children Lucy Park-Hookway (b. 2008) and Joseph Park-Hookway (b. 2011), who were the world to him; his parents Hugh and Judith and brother Ian. After growing up in Ohio, he graduated from Valparaiso University with a B.A. in Art (1993) and received a Master of Architecture from Rice University (1998) and a Ph.D. in History and Theory of Architecture from Princeton University (2011).
Professor Beatriz Colomina was Hookway's advisor for his doctoral dissertation that focused on developing a cultural history of the airplane cockpit — a topic that informed Interface and drove his most recent research. View Hookway's abstract in 2009/10 Workbook.
"It was a real privilege to rethink architecture with Branden," recalls Colomina. "So innovative, so bright, so warm. Interface is a hugely important book for the field of architecture but also for so many other fields. It flowed directly from his dissertation, which was immediately picked up by the eagle eye of MIT press. More importantly, it flowed from his unique spirit — insightful, philosophical, generous. Above all, Branden had a sense of our time. He was, and will always remain, our teacher on the technological world we live in, all the cockpits we unconsciously occupy."
His final resting place will be at Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, CA. He was deeply grateful for all the support he received on this journey. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to Lucile Packard Family Guidance and Bereavement Program at Stanford.
