Richard Saul Wurman
Richard Saul Wurman (born March 26, 1935) is an American architect, author, information and graphic designer. Wurman has written, designed, and published over 90 books and created the TED conferences and TEDMED, conferences on health and medicine. Wurman received the Lifetime Achievement award from Cooper Hewitt and the AIGA Gold Medal for his work in information design.
Richard Saul Wurman

Rebecca Rex · Rebecca Rex (assistant to Richard Wurman) · CC BY 3.0
- Born
- 1935.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- graphic designer, architect, designer, cartographer and writer.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Richard Saul Wurman (born March 26, 1935) is an American architect, author, information and graphic designer. Wurman has written, designed, and published over 90 books and created the TED conferences and TEDMED, conferences on health and medicine. Wurman received the Lifetime Achievement award from Cooper Hewitt and the AIGA Gold Medal for his work in information design.
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Richard Saul Wurman (born 1935) is an architect, cartographer and designer, among other activities, of American nationality.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q2628226 · wikipedia · Richard Saul Wurman
In this article
Early life and education
Early life and education
In his book Information Anxiety (1989), Wurman developed the LATCH principles, or "Five Hat Racks", offering a framework for organizing information. LATCH, an acronym, stands for Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy. These principles provide a finite set of ways to structure information, regardless of the subject matter, making it easier to understand and navigate.
Wurman was born in Philadelphia on March 26, 1935. He received both his B.Arch. and M.Arch. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, completing his graduate degree with honors in 1959.
Career
Career
After graduating, Wurman practiced architecture for 13 years including working for Louis Kahn in 1960–1961, Charles and Ray Eames, and independently. In 1962, he took a teaching position at North Carolina State University's School of Design. Wurman chaired the IDCA Conference in 1972, the First Federal Design assembly in 1973, and the annual American Institute of Architects (AIA) conference in 1976. Wurman is the founder of TED conferences which later became TED Talks. He created and chaired the TED conferences from their creation in 1984 through 2002, TEDMED from 1995 through 2010, the EG conference, and the WWW conference. He sold the rights to TED in 2001 to the Sapling Foundation for a reported $14 million. He works with Esri and RadicalMedia on comparative cartographic initiatives for mapping urban settings, which is planned to culminate in the creation of a network of live urban observatories around the world. Wurman supports SENS Research Foundation, a nonprofit biotechnology organization that seeks to repair the damages of aging and extend healthy lifespan. He taught at University of Cambridge, North Carolina State University and Princeton.
Personal life
Personal life
Wurman lives on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, and in Golden Beach, Florida, after having previously lived in Manhattan in New York City. He's been married to novelist Gloria Nagy since 1980. They have four children and six grandchildren. Wurman is Jewish.

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Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1935
Richard Saul Wurman born at Philadelphia.
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Cedric Price, Richard Saul Wurman and Nicholas Negroponte, A History of Artificially Intelligent Architecture, 2023
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2023
- Lifeboat #5: Richard Saul Wurman, Journal of Information Architecture, 2011
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2011
- Richard Saul Wurman: Information, Mapping, and Understanding, Architectural Intelligence, 2017
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2017
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q2628226: Richard Saul Wurman
Unverified · Wikidata
reference work
- “Richard Saul Wurman”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Awards
Wurman was awarded the Arthur Spayed Brooks Gold Medal, several honorary doctorates, a Graham fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, numerous federal National Endowment for the Arts grants, and has served as a distinguished professor at Northeastern University. He is a recipient of the 2019 National Design Award in Lifetime Achievement category from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, an Annual Gold Medal from Trinity College, Dublin, 2004 Gold Medal from AIGA, and Boston Science Museum's 50th Annual Bradford Washburn Award in 2014. He is also an American Institute of Architects fellow and member of the Art Directors Club of New York Hall of Fame.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Walsh, Niall Patrick. 'What Is Truly Good About AI, Nobody Has Probably Thought of Yet'; A Conversation with Richard Saul Wurman. Archinect. 2023-07-25.
- 2.Genova, Ryan. History with Chuck: Richard Saul Wurman, 1953 Cheltenham grad, Lifetime Achievement Award winner, founder of TED Talks. Glenside Local. 2023-09-14.
- 3.Pedersen, Martin C. Richard Saul Wurman: “There's a Louis Kahn Cult, and I'm a Member!”. Common Edge.
- 4.His Architect. The Pennsylvania Gazette. 2021-02-19.
- 5.Dorris, Jesse. 10 Questions With. Richard Saul Wurman. Interior Design.
- 6.Richard Saul Wurman TED talks founder speaks at Design School Class Day 2013 Harvard Magazine. www.harvardmagazine.com. 2013-05-29.
- 7.Rankin, William. Radical Cartography: How Changing Our maps Can Change Our World. Viking. 2025. 978-0-525-55979-5.
- 8.Kahn - Richard Saul Wurmann Weitzman. www.design.upenn.edu.
- 9.The 30th birthday of TED: Richard Saul Wurman at TED2014. Blog.ted.com. 2014-03-17.
- 10.ROBERTSON, EMMA. Richard Saul Wurman. The Talks. 2014-10-22.
- 11.2004 AIGA Medalist: Richard Saul Wurman. AIGA the professional association for design.
- 12.Binkovitz, Leah. Why TED Founder Richard Saul Wurman Thinks TED Is So Last Century. Smithsonian Magazine.
- 13.Siclen, Bill Van. The power couple on Newport's mansion row. The Providence Journal.
- 14.Get Involved. SENS Research Foundation.
- 15.GROTHAUS, MICHAEL. The Founder Of TED Shares What It Takes To Build The World's Most Popular Conference. Fast Company. 2016-05-17.
- 16.Richard Saul Wurman: Innovation in Subtraction. The 8 Percent. 2016-04-21.
- 17.Richard Saul Wurman: A Big Talent Targets Health Care. Bloomberg. 2004-03-01.
- 18.Richard Saul Wurman - ADC Hall of Fame. Creative Hall of Fame.
- 19.Lifetime Achievement Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. 2019-08-23.
- 20.Designer, Author, and TED Founder Richard Saul Wurman on Being an Architect Weitzman. www.design.upenn.edu.
- 21.Green, Penelope. In Newport, but Not of It. The New York Times. 2010-09-08.
- 22.TED Founder Richard Saul Wurman to Discuss TED, Judaism at Hillel. The Cornell Daily Sun. January 30, 2018.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Cedric Price, Richard Saul Wurman and Nicholas Negroponte, A History of Artificially Intelligent Architecture, 2023Crossref registry
Verifiedscholarly publication
Verifiedscholarly publication
Richard Saul Wurman: Information, Mapping, and Understanding, Architectural Intelligence, 2017Crossref registry
Verifiedauthority record
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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