Mr. Farcus has been involved in the design of cruise ships for over twenty-five years.  His first assignment in that industry was to lead the redesign & refit of Carnival Cruise Lines second ship, the T.S.S. CARNIVALE in 1975. 

 

In 1977 Mr. Farcus opened his architectural office.  One of his first projects was the refit of Carnival’s third ship, the T.S.S. FESTIVALE.  Since then his practice has become a specialist in cruise ship design.  From then until now Mr. Farcus has designed the entire Carnival fleet, including the Carnival Destiny, which was delivered in October of 1996 and is the first passenger ship ever to exceed 100,000 tons (101,000).  He is featured in The 1998 Guiness’ Book of World Records as the Interior Architect for this groundbreaking ship.  In addition he participated in the design of the STATENDAM class of four vessels for Holland America Line, and was responsible for the complete designs of the main  & disco/observation lounges aboard.  He is currently involved in the design of two new classes of cruise vessels for Carnival Cruise Lines & another two for Costa Crociere.  He has consulted on the general arrangement plans for a new class of Holland America Line ships, as well as Cunard’s Queen Mary 2.

 

During this period Mr. Farcus has also designed an award winning twenty-three story condominium building in Miami, as well as a 500 room hotel in Nassau, Bahamas.  At this time Mr. Farcus has designed 27 delivered ships for Carnival Cruise Lines & 6 delivered ships for Costa Crociere.   On the boards now are the new designs for two CARNIVAL SPLENDOR class ships & three new mega-cruisers for Costa Crociere.

 

Today Mr. Farcus is internationally recognized as a leader in cruise ship design, whose work has been influential in the industry at large.  His designs are regularly featured in the world cruise and travel media.  He has presented  papers to the Modern Ship Architecture International Conference at the National Maritime Museum, London (1996),  Seatrade International Cruise Ship Convention for several years including 2007, Miami Beach, as well as other national & international conferences.  He is contributing design work for inclusion in the permanent collection of the National Maritime Museum, London.  In November of 1997 year Mr. Farcus was the featured speaker at the Royal Institution of Naval Architects’ 1997 President’s Invitation Lecture in London.  He is listed in Who’s Who in the World & Who’s Who in America.   His ship design work was part of a show at the Design Museum in London, entitled Design: Process, Progress, Practice, which ran until the end of January 2000.  He was a guest lecturer at Yale University in 2004 on cruise ship design.  He & his work were the subject of a symposium in 2006 sponsored by the Genoa Maritime museum & another in 2007 for University of Genoa, Italy.

 

Mr. Farcus received his architectural degree from the University of Florida in 1967.  He became licensed as a Registered Architect in 1969 and at that time was the youngest corporate member of the American Institute of Architects in the U.S.A.  He received national certification in 1970.  He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Miami Art Museum & is on the Board of Governors of the American Jewish Committee. He is married to Jeanne Cohen Farcus & has three children.  Mr. & Mrs. Farcus reside in Miami Beach, Florida.  Listen to the show