Bassam Komati joined Rafael Viñoly Architects in 2006 and became a partner at the firm in 2019. During his time at the firm, 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 Partner-in-Charge for the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas – a commission which Rafael Viñoly Architects won in a 2019 competition – 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 rail line 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 fit-out for The Rockefeller University Stavros Niarchos-David Rockefeller River Campus.
As Partner, Bassam shares primary responsibility for Design with Jim Herr and speaks regularly in public forums, while also serving on design juries at schools of architecture in the United States and abroad.
Harvard University, Master of Architecture
American University of Beirut, Bachelor in Architecture
American Institute of Architects
Order of Engineers and Architects in Beirut
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