Rose Marie Mendez

Mendez, Rose Marie
Rose Marie Mendez, architectural designer and educator, died in Los Angeles Saturday, Sept. 7, 2002 of cancer. She was 32. Rose turned candor into virtue and rendered life with startling clarity. It was infectious. And beautiful. Born in New Jersey, Rose received undergraduate and masters degrees in architecture from Cornell University. She practiced architecture at Morphosis in Los Angeles and received the Grand Prize in the 1997 San Francisco Prize for her redesign of Union Square, now part of the SFMoMA's Permanent Collection. She taught at Cornell University, State University of New York at Buffalo, Southern California Institute of Architecture, and UCLA. She is survived by her husband, Gregory Fischer; her mother, Maria Bornia-Mendez, and her sister, Ligia Mendez Goodwillie. A memorial gathering will take place Saturday, Sept. 14, at 6 PM, at SPF:a Gallery, 3384 Robertson Place, Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Rose Mendez Undergraduate Architectural Memorial Scholarship at Cornell University, Department of Architecture, Art and Planning, 129 Sibley Dome, Ithaca, New York, 14853.