Peter Eisman, Cristobal Gabarron Foundation International Award in Visual Arts 2003

Peter Eisenman was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1932.

He obtained a degree in Architecture from Cornell University, and obtained a Master in Architecture from Columbia and Cornell Universities, where in Cornell he got his doctorate in Philosophy as well. He is, as well, an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts,  University of Illinois, Chicago.

His professional activity began in 1960. During his beginning years he collaborated with Michael Graves. In 1967 he designed the House I, a project where his will to go further with the modern movement could be perceived, through the breakdown in plans, the stratification of shapes, playing with the forms and perspectives that go further than those already established.

Later, other projects came to him, housing projects in Harwick, Lakeville, etc. A characteristic of Eisenman’s work in that time was the breaking down of volumetric areas through a simple outline, normally a simple cube, that divides, shifts, turns or suspends itself.

The work of Peter Eisenman until 1980 was mainly focused in theoretical study, teaching architecture and in the publication of his work. Two architectural exhibitions organized by the MOMA of New York had great repercussions where Eisenman took part: “Five Architects” in 1969 and “Deconstructivist Architecture” in 1988.

In 1980 he established himself professionally in his studio  in New York dedicating his time to his profession but not forgetting his teaching activity in different Universities: Cambridge, Princeton, Yale and Ohio State. From 1982 until 1995 he was a professor in  Harvard University.

In 1985 he received the Stone Lion award (first prize) for his project Romeo and Juliet in the Third International Architectural Biennale in Venice. He was also one of the two architects that represented the United States in the Fifth International Architectural Biennale Exhibition in Venice celebrated in 1991. The project the City of Culture of Galicia has been chosen as well to participate in the Biennale in Venice that was celebrated in September of 2002.

With the office building Koizumi Sangyo Corporation of Tokyo (1988-1990) Eisenman received the National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1991. He received this award for a second time in 1993 for the Wexner Center for Visual Arts at the University of Ohio, an artistic center made of steel and glass.

Other awards and honors in his professional trajectory are the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Brunner Award from the American Academy of Art and Letters, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

Besides the buildings already mentioned, he designed other important projects like  the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Ohio, the Aronoff Center for Art Design in Cincinnati, and another office building in Tokyo, the Nunotami Headquarters Building. He has also participated in the reconstruction plan of Berlin with a monument to the  Holocaust.

Eisenman is the author of various books, amongst which include: House X (Rizzoli), Din d’Ou T HouS (The Architectural Association), Moving Arrows, Eros and Other Errors (The Architectural Association), and Houses of Cards (Oxford University Press). He has also edited the publications, Oppositions Journal and Oppositions Books and has published numerous essays and articles about architectural theory in magazines and  international publications.