Cornell has hired an architect to design permanent barriers on gorge bridges. Nader Tehrani, of the firm Office dA, will create designs for suicide deterrents on six bridges.

The temporary fences now on the bridges will remain until Cornell and the City of Ithaca find an acceptable permanent design, the city's Common Council has said. The city owns two of the bridges; Cornell owns four.

Tehrani, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he received a B.A. in fine arts and a B.A. in architecture, and at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he received an M.A. in urban design.

Office dA, based in Boston, has completed RISD's main library, the first phase of the Tongxian Art Center in Beijing, and Helios House, a sustainable gas station in Los Angeles.

Two public forums on bridge barriers are upcoming (times and locations to be announced), at which Vice President for Student and Academic Services Susan Murphy will update the campus community, and Tehrani will explain the process for developing permanent barriers.

The city has required Cornell to propose designs for permanent barriers by May 2011 or remove the temporary fences.