Peter Q. Bohlin, FAIA - Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

Peter Q. Bohlin, FAIA
2010 Gold Medalist
American Institute of Architects
The Gold Medal is the highest honor that the American Institute
of Architects can bestow on an individual. It is conferred by the
national AIA Board of Directors in recognition of a significant body
of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of
architecture.
It is the profession’s highest honor that an individual
can receive. Peter Bohlin is the 66th recipient of the award since
its inception in 1907.
“This award reaffirms the set of beliefs that we carry around with us and we practice — all of us and not just me as an individual.”
— Peter Q. Bohlin, FAIA
Peter Q. Bohlin, FAIA
2010 AIA Gold Medal Candidate
Presentation to the AIA Board of Directors
by James Timberlake, FAIA
3 December 2009
Ladies and gentlemen, I am honored and privileged to be here today to speak on behalf of the 2010 AIA Gold Medal
nominee, Peter Q. Bohlin, FAIA, a wonderful colleague, friend and mentor.
Peter is a true American original. He represents the quintessential American qualities of innovation and inventiveness,
combined with pragmatism. Despite his commanding presence and the very large shoes he wears, Peter does not shout
in a room or in his architecture; instead, he speaks calmly and from a profoundly centered well-spring in his being. His
is not a work of grandiose egotism, or of vanity, but an ethically intelligent architecture of constructive logic that springs
from the nature of circumstance. Peter’s work serves to mend, rather than to create a continuing cultural divide in modern
architecture. He has mentored a universe of architects and clients alike. He has contributed to the architectural profession
not only through this Institute but also by the highest quality original examples in his own work. Peter is an architect who
never had to ‘find’ or ‘embrace’ an environmental ethic, material sensitivity, sustainable practices, or deeply rooted tectonics.
These ethics have always been there – from his earliest days as a student at RPI, and at Cranbrook during the time of
Eero Saarinen’s epic works.
Peter Q. Bohlin
Peter’s work demonstrates incredible breadth and depth, from conception through execution of the smallest detail. He
designs for people, and his work is always humane and human scale. His work encompasses a broad spectrum of
program, typology, site, construction methodology and client. His craft is widely known internationally among those who
appreciate, practice, teach and buy architecture. This is an architect who has won nearly 500 awards, world-wide.
In 1984, The Shelly Ridge Girl Scout Center incorporated solar design strategies, winning nine awards including an
Institute Honor Award and a commendation from the US Department of Energy.
Shelly Ridge Girl Scout Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ledge House, another Institute Honor Award winner, was described by the jurors as a ‘thoroughly American building’.
This is a place that fits the land, materials are celebrated and subtleties of light, view and sound are revealed.
Ledge House
Catoctin Mountains, Maryland
34 years ago, Forest House, for his parents in Connecticut – was shown on the cover of The New York Times Magazine – a
project that I remember resonating among my fellow student colleagues who were channeling architectural styles, weekly
(weakly). This house seemed to be above style and simple in origins. Imagine, if the house were removed that the site would
left completely intact, an extremely sensitive approach to its intrusion upon nature.
Forest House
West Cornwall, Connecticut
Combs Point, a house in New York State, uses the grace of the land to place itself.
Combs Point Residence
Finger Lakes Region, New York
It begins in a ravine which extends to the edge of the lake.
Combs Point Residence
Finger Lakes Region, New York
At the end, at that moment, it evaporates into the lake. What do we see in these projects?
We see architecture OF nature. Not IN it, above it or instead of it.
Combs Point Residence
Finger Lakes Region, New York
Beyond these extraordinary structures it has been Peter’s work for Apple, and Pixar, and the people of Apple that extends
being OF nature to its extreme and fullest. How does this happen in the cacophony of urban noise?
Pixar Studios and Headquarters
Emeryville, California
Ada Louise Huxtable, critiquing the Fifth Avenue Apple Store, stated: ‘who could have imagined that the
General Motors Building, (which) brought mediocrity to the most elegant part of New York’s Fifth Avenue,
would be redeemed by the Apple Store’s magic crystal cube?’
Apple Store Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
To experience this store is a descent of fantasy gradually revealing a cleanly organized, elegant, light and
rigorously detailed space, all teeming with people.
Apple Store Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
Departing this serene and stimulating world, the visitor, informed and energized, is drawn to the
daylight and back out into the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, leaving behind the ‘little apple.’
Apple Store Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
Beyond the profound nature of this simple, single act of architecture,
who amongst us in this profession could do hundreds of them, worldwide,
Apple
Stores
Worldwide
Apple
Stores
Worldwide
working with a brilliant individual and iconoclast such as the CEO of Apple? Who amongst us might
see ourselves so comfortably in this picture? What then naturally lies beyond this architectural core of Apple?
Ron Johnson, Steve Jobs and Peter Bohlin
George Inness, one of the great Hudson River School artists, painted this work Lackawanna Valley, enshrined here at the
National Gallery, which is, I imagine, a view of Peter’s domestic origins. This image captures the spirit of Peter’s work and his
ethos. Notice in this view a young man is pondering nature – and imagining man’s intervention within it – and the meaning of
the environment and our world derived from this juxtaposition. I suspect this is Peter.
George Inness, Lackawanna Valley
These sensitivities to nature and its beauty are depicted by another well-known Hudson River School artist Asher Durand.
His great work Kindred Spirits on the left shows the poet and the painter on a ledge overlooking a ravine. Durand paints the
immensity of nature with man subordinated, small, part of, but IN nature. Compare this painting with the view on the right.
This is the site of Peter’s Creekside House in California, where the poet and the painter come to create an opera of originality
and purpose.
Asher Durand, Kindred Spirits
Creekside House, Woodside, California
At Creekside, a first glimpse of man’s relationship to nature is not a building, but of ‘crutches’ assisting the old tangled oak
last another century. The crutches are a helping hand; they are a first act of design by the architect, a simple humane detail,
the essence of the relationship of this house to its surroundings.
Creekside House
Woodside, California
In Peter’s sketch, eerily resembling the tangled oak, site and structures sit quietly together in the landscape –
Creekside House
Woodside, California
a simple palette of concrete and solid walls generally to the west, glass and open to the east and the creek.
Creekside House
Woodside, California
These exquisitely conceived and beautifully made buildings weave construction, material and
structure vital to Peter’s architecture intricately, poetically, painter-like, all with a wonderful logic.
Creekside House
Woodside, California
Like the Apple Store, and many other projects of Peter’s, there is a cool rigor to the cadence, detail and dimension.
Creekside House
Woodside, California
Unique to the house is its great warmth in color, finish, and what a human being touches.
A handle begs to be grasped, pivoting walls opened and cantilevered planes assist the eyes gaze.
Creekside House
Woodside, California
Among the farthest reaches of the house, after the guiding path of the hallway,
Creekside House
Woodside, California
and the hardware which guides the hand,
Creekside House
Woodside, California
is a modern antique desk and chair, by Pierre Chareau, in a glass alcove overlooking the tangled oaks.
This gentle place desires pondering: it touches the land lightly, yes, but emphatically and masterfully.
Creekside House
Woodside, California
The depth and breadth of Peter’s oeuvre includes intricately conceived, well-crafted, intelligent, sustainable
buildings of increasing scale. The Pocono Environmental Center has a shingled entrance wall of abandoned,
reclaimed automobile tires fished from a nearby stream and pond. It broadens our understanding of the
interdependent relationship we have with nature.
Pocono Environmental Education Center
Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania
Alternatively, the Trinity College Admissions Building is a pavilion marking the primary entrance to a historic campus now
intentionally reclaimed by nature, overgrown with vines.
Hartford Connecticut
The Nealon Federal Building and Courthouse in Scranton is urbane and broad shouldered.
Peter understands that gritty town as only a former ‘homie’ might.
William J Nealon Federal Building and US Courthouse
Scranton, Pennsylvania
The new structure embraces the older, renovated structure in dialogue as a partner at work.
William J Nealon Federal Building and US Courthouse
Scranton, Pennsylvania
I have been to Seattle much over the years. I believe this youthful city has never had its civic life so elegantly and grandly
expressed until Peter’s City Hall.
Seattle City Hall
Seattle, Washington
His work conveys the goals and objectives associated with great public architecture today: dignity, presence, openness,
functionality, value and a true relationship with the locality.
Seattle
CityCity
HallHall
Seattle
Seattle,
Washington
Seattle,
Washington
Gardens, water and sky slice through the block in a series of landscapes including pools, stair cascades and skylights
Seattle City Hall
Seattle, Washington
providing place for protest
Seattle City Hall
Seattle, Washington
and respite alike.
Seattle City Hall
Seattle, Washington
Shaped with a deep understanding of democratic principles the council chamber never separates itself
from the city and environment.
Seattle City Hall
Seattle, Washington
This building reflects the dynamic nature and exuberance of this energetic city.
Seattle City Hall
Seattle, Washington
Six hours to the west of Seattle, Waipolu Gallery intersects the landscape from volcanic crater to seaside. This is a singular
space in distinction to Seattle’s collective space; a serene envelope for a contemporary art collection with spaces for living.
Waipolu Gallery
Oahu, Hawaii
It does this without ignoring its place and time and the magnificent sculptural presence of the
dynamic natural force outside of its walls.
Waipolu Gallery
Oahu, Hawaii
Like congealed magma, all voids and crevasses, this gallery flows against, down and out of the volcano.
Waipolu Gallery
Oahu, Hawaii
The question before you is: In this trying time, what characteristics should an AIA Gold Medal honoree have? Is it about
current and rising luminosity? The currency of design taste? Or, is it about a deeply founded ethic, principle and the results
of those foundations? Not in fifty years has an American architect emerged who has created a body of work as authentic
and quintessentially original as Peter Bohlin. His work captures the complex character, heritage and values of American
culture. It incorporates the deepest respect for materials and their substance, marrying place with utility. His work is of quiet
beauty or urbane exuberance – where appropriate. Common to all of Peter’s projects are his sense of principles, propriety
and purpose.
Lastly, he makes great architecture for people. Peter moves from the log cabin to the glass box, from the initial conceptual
sensibilities to the finely executed detail, from the abode to the civic center, with the same unassailable ethic. His is not the
too often pretentious work of an egotistic genius – it is the profoundly inspired work of a modest man who touches the
ground lightly – literally and figuratively – yet moves us in ways we have never been moved. In this searching time, Peter
Bohlin reconnects us to that sense of awe and wonder of architecture in the presence of the landscape – herein broadly
defined. His work teaches us about our culture, our environment, and most significantly, about ourselves. Peter is one of the
finest architects our nation has produced. In him, the AIA Gold Medal is well represented for generations to come.
Peter Q. Bohlin
Observations about the architecture of Peter Bohlin
“…there has emerged a strong group of…architects who, like poets, work directly and primarily from the realities at hand, who see
their role as revealing the nature of immediate circumstance, and who approach their tasks with an openness and a refreshing
“... as well conceived as one could imagine…tall and grand yet comfortably proportioned, it is rich in light and
innocence that goes directly to the point. Such is the work of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, who, for nearly thirty years, have led this
open to its glorious setting…”
movement. Nothing is private or closed about what they do. Their buildings inform, but not so rigidly as to control. They see the
— Paul Goldberger, The New York Times Magazine, September 26, 1976
act of building as a revelation, and the role of the architect as one of communicating the nature of the circumstances at hand and
conveying how the building got that way.
“Richly varied yet consistently excellent, the firm’s work demonstrates that good design derives from unwavering responsiveness to
the unique needs of client, site, and program. Vibrant, fresh, and always innovative, its diverse architecture embraces technology
“Buildings were; they were there. They could be imposed on the landscape, and if they didn’t fit, one could interpose “landscape
while remaining fully human and respects the natural environment while celebrating the enriching power of the man-made.”
architecture” — gardens or built structures — to make the transition. Not so with the work of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, where
— Jury Comment, AIA Firm Award, May 1994
buildings are slipped into the landscape as though they had always been there. These architects have not been seduced by arcane
ideology, nor have they been tempted to appliqué any wit or humor on the building. What is remarkable is the degree to which they
“Peter Bohlin’s architectural firm is more than just remarkable. It is exemplary. Amazing. For 42 years it has been at the top of its
achieve the highest possible technical standards of construction, of energy management, of sophisticated program requirements,
craft, esteemed for the elegance of its design and the quality of its construction. Any individual or group that is this good this long
and still preserve such freshness and openness. The work of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson has a generosity that is an example to all of
has found the secret of self-renewal ... a dream we all have and few of us achieve. I suspect the answer lies in a deep curiosity
us and an openendedness we can all build on. A study of their work is nothing but pleasure.”
about the world and about architecture. Curiosity about how things work, how they go together, how they communicate. Curiosity
— Joseph Esherick, The Architecture of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, 1994
keeps us actively seeking, not just responding; it welcomes change and challenge as raw material for thinking and working.
— Edward M. Baum, FAIA, Dallas Architecture Forum, January 2008
“... the Ledge house is a tour de force, which qualifies it as a masterwork...”
— Kenneth Frampton American Masterworks: Houses of the 20th and 21st Centuries, revised edition, 2008
“In this work, extremes, edges, and eccentricity combine to form an original, inspired whole. This is a moment at a clearing in the
woods where stone meets log, idea meets reality, invention meets craft, function meets beauty, and the past meets the present. It
is a place where the magic of architecture inspires one to relax and dream what might be!”
— Will Bruder, The Ledge House December 1997
“A tour de force, a deeply American building.”
— Jury Comment, Ledge House, Catoctin Mountains, Maryland, Winner, AIA National Honor Award, 1996
“An unusually sensitive and thoughtful house… Exciting spatial sequence to an imaginative plan opening to the heavily wooded
site… If the house were removed, the site would be completely intact; an extremely sensitive approach to the intrusion with nature.”
— Jury Comment, Forest House, Connecticut Society of Architects, Honor Award, 1975
“The Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center is a masterful work by a master architect. It interprets and celebrates the nature of
Jackson Hole, while it recognizes and acknowledges our ephemeral place in this landscape.”
— Tom Kundig, FAIA, Grand Teton A National Park Building, 2009
“In appearance it is both spectacularly modern and an inspired nod to the Ballard community’s rich maritime tradition. Moreover, it is
a ‘green’ building, showcasing state-of-the-art recycling, energy efficiency, and water conservation.”
— Fred Moody “Ship Shape: In a New Maritime-Inspired Branch Library, a Seattle Neighborhood
Has Gotten a Design that Perfectly Fits its Values” Metropolis, March 2006
“This building is much more than its simple shed design might initially suggest. The wall of recycled tires is beautiful, textural
and compelling as an educational statement, and it is reflective of the entire building’s mission to serve as a tool for
environmental education.”
— Jury Comment, Pocono Environmental Education Center 2008 AIA/COTE Top Ten Awards
“...demonstrates the artful integration of a modern building into a historic campus center. The siting is very sensitive to its
surroundings. The massing and shifting scale of the building takes advantage of the topography. There is clarity in the plan and
constraint in its interior design. It radiates a sense of nobility.”
— AIA Pennsylvania Jury Comment, Admissions Building, Trinity College, Honor Award for Design, 2002
“[the addition] expresses the dignity of the federal courts without resorting to historicist imagery. Mainly, it achieves this through the
grandeur of its major public spaces, and through the fine detailing that creates a contemporary analogue to classical architecture.”
— Steven Litt, “Critique” Architecture, January 2001
“...Seattle has never seen such a grand and elegant expression of civic life in a built form.”
— Mark Hinshaw, “Expressing City Government,” Landscape Architecture, October 2005
“Who could have imagined that... the General Motors Building that brought mediocrity and a dismal, redundant plaza to the most
“His influence in Pennsylvania is prolific. The early practice emerged amid the 1972 Agnes Flood and prolonged economic adver-
elegant part of New York’s Fifth Avenue would be redeemed by the Apple Store’s magic crystal cube on a newly elevated plaza,
sity in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Steadfastly, it grew and performed, eventually touching Pennsylvania’s most civic infrastructure,
turning disaster into triumph?”
shaping its venerated universities, interpreting its history and celebrating its natural environment. His idea of Architecture is integra-
— Ada Louise Huxtable, On Architecture, 2008
tive and additive, making the most of people, places, nature and the act of building. His approach to design makes us learn about
ourselves, our culture and our environment....
“The new plaza in front of the General Motors building on Fifth Avenue at 59th Street is a triumph of urban design. Suddenly, as if
out of nowhere, New York has a new public space that will prove to be a source of civic pride and aesthetic delight.””
— James Gardner, New York Sun, (about the Apple Store Fifth Avenue), 2008
Across an incredible array of environments, building types, scales, visual expressions and human circumstances, Peter Bohlin’s
career illustrates that Architecture is a full-bodied calling. He shows us that as a life work, it demands our best humanity, intellect,
tenacity and community.”
“Within a vocabulary of architecture infused with personal style and values, the work concerns itself with the human condition. But
it is exactly this most beguiling juncture that the balancing act between architectural facility and profundity come into question. This
balancing act is of the most laudable sort; it is one that attracts very few daring and highly skilled performers to the high wire. Why?
Because there is no safety net.”
— Mack Scogin, The Architecture of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, 1994
“This is a thoroughly professional and incredibly subtle job—both inside and out. It shows a level of architectural maturity that is just
astonishing.... When it speaks of stone, it speaks of the weight and the permanence of stone. When it speaks of metal and glass, it
speaks of their fragility and strength. At some future date observers may have a hard time figuring out when this building was actually built. In the best sense of the word this is really a timeless building.”
— Jury Comments, 1989 Tucker Award, for the Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University
— Jury Comments, AIA Pennsylvania Medal of Distinction, 2008
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
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