Bassam Komati OEAB

Partner

Bassam Komati joined Rafael Viñoly Architects in 2006 and became a partner at the firm in 2019. During his time at Rafael Viñoly Architects, he has contributed to the development of a wide range of large and complex projects in locations spanning four continents. For nearly two decades, Bassam worked directly with Rafael Viñoly developing conceptual designs and subsequently leading design evolution and coordination across a range of digital and Building Information Modeling platforms. He has most recently served as a project manager on cultural and institutional projects.

As the project manager for the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas – a commission which Rafael Viñoly Architects won in a competition in 2019 – Bassam has managed design, documentation and coordination from the competition phase through to construction. In this role, he leads presentations to stakeholders and user workshops, and coordinates engineering disciplines and builders through his direct management of BIM systems.

In working with corporate and commercial clients, Bassam has managed large architectural design and consultant teams to document flexible workplace environments in diverse settings. These experiences include a 500,000-square-foot mixed-use office complex straddling two lots and bridging over an active railline in central Buenos Aires, and a confidential corporate headquarters and conference center for a major American biotechnology company in the midwestern United States.

Over the course of his tenure at the firm, Bassam collaborated on the design and development of projects from concept stages through to execution for projects such as the Battersea Power Station Master Plan, a redevelopment in London’s rapidly transforming Nine Elms district consisting of a self-sufficient new community organized around adaptive reuse and creation of a zero-carbon energy plant; and New York University’s new Abu Dhabi campus, a multi-building development comprising educational, research, cultural, campus life, residential, and infrastructure functions distributed across 29 buildings.

Bassam’s experience with research and healthcare organizations includes coordinating design with fast-track delivery processes, including the Perelman Medicine Complex South Tower and Jordan School of Medical Education, and the laboratory fitout for The Rockefeller University Stavros Niarchos-David Rockefeller River Campus.

On behalf of the firm, Bassam speaks regularly in public forums in public. He also serves on design juries at schools of architecture in the United States and abroad.

Education

Harvard University, Master of Architecture, 2006

American University of Beirut, Bachelor in Architecture, 2003

Honors and Awards

Teaching Assistant, Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2004

Teaching Assistant, American University of Beirut, 2002

Design Project: “The Museustore,” Harvard Graduate School of Design, published in Berlin, 2004

Design Project: “The Follies in Puntizela,” Harvard Graduate School of Design, book publication, 2005

Speaking Engagements

American University of Beirut

Boston Architectural College

Catholic University of America

Harvard University, Graduate School of Design

Syracuse University, School of Architecture

Pratt Institute, School of Architecture

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

University of Pennsylvania, Weitzman School of Design