Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects

Billie Tsien and Tod Williams

Tod Williams received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts and Architecture from Princeton University. Billie Tsien received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Yale and her Master in Architecture from UCLA. They started working together in 1977 and in 1986 they founded Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in New York City.

They are known for residential and institutional projects which pay careful attention to context, detail and the subtleties of materials. Their compelling body of work includes The American Folk Art Museum in New York, Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California, Cranbrook Natatorium in Michigan, Skirkanich Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, CV Starr East Asian Library at theUniversity of California at Berkeley, the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, and the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College. Current projects include the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, a performing and visual arts center at the University of Chicago, the Asia Society Center in Hong Kong, an information technology campus in Mumbai,
India, two new skating rinks in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, a dormitory at Haverford College, and a bioengineering laboratory at Princeton University.

Their buildings have been repeatedly honored by the American Institute of Architects and they have received numerous awards including the Brunner Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Medal of Honor from the New York City AIA, the President’s Medal from the Architectural League of New York, and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture. Both architects were elected as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In addition, their projects have been published extensively both in the United States and overseas. A monograph entitled Work/Life was released in the fall of 2000 by Monacelli Press.

Williams and Tsien maintain teaching careers parallel to their practice. Most recently, they held the Bishop Visiting Professorship of Architectural Design at Yale University in the fall of 2010. They are also interested in work that bridges realms of art and architecture. Billie serves on the advisory council for the Yale School of Architecture, and is a Director of the Public Art Fund, the Architectural League of New York, and the American Academy of Rome, where she was in residence in 1999. Tod Williams is also fellow of the American Academy of Rome and a trustee of the Cranbrook Educational Community.

The Proposal

Above Photos (6): Courtesy of Bridgette Meinhold

Click here to download the .pdf version of the Tod Williams Billie Tsien proposal.