Preston Scott Cohen
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Preston Scott Cohen is a professor of
Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...
(GSD). In 2004, he established a partnership with two registered architects, Amit Nemlich and Gilles Quintal, and became the Design Principal of Preston Scott Cohen, Inc. based in Central Square
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
. Preston Scott Cohen, Inc. is renowned for the design of cultural, educational, commercial buildings and urban design projects around the world. Projects include the Sarmiento Performing Arts Center in Bogota, Colombia; a new building for Taubman College at the University of Michigan; the Taiyuan Museum of Art in Taiyuan, China; the Datong City Library; the Amir Building, Tel Aviv Museum of Art; and the Goldman Sachs Canopy in New York. The firm is also well known for non-profit projects including the Cape Rep Theater, Temple Beth El in Springfield, MA, and the Detroit Chabad. Cohen has received numerous honors including induction as an academician at the National Academy of Art, five Progressive Architecture Awards, first prizes for seven international competitions and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Cohen is the author of ''Lightfall'' (Skira Rizzoli, 2016), ''The Return of Nature'' (2015), ''Contested Symmetries'' (2001), and numerous theoretical essays on architecture. His work has been widely exhibited and is held in numerous museum collections.


Academic career

Cohen received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture degrees from the
Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...
in 1982 and 1983 (respectively). In 1985, he received his Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard GSD. Gaining professorship there in 2003, he also served as the Director of the Architecture degree program. In 2008, he was appointed Chair of the GSD, a position held previously by
Rafael Moneo José Rafael Moneo Vallés (born 9 May 1937) is a Spanish architect. He won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2003 and La Biennale's Golden Lion in 2021. Biography Born in Tudela, Spain, Moneo studied at ...
, Mack Scogin,
Henry N. Cobb Henry Nichols Cobb (April 8, 1926 – March 2, 2020) was an American architect and founding partner with I.M. Pei and Eason H. Leonard of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, an international architectural firm based in New York City. Early life Henry N. ...
and
Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
.


Geometry in architecture

Cohen's design approach is based on the projective geometry of the 17th century, but he shows a novel application by using
oblique projection Oblique projection is a simple type of technical drawing of graphical projection used for producing two-dimensional (2D) images of three-dimensional (3D) objects. The objects are not in perspective and so do not correspond to any view of an ...
s. This approach is supported by computer modelling. The calculations are rapid, sometimes preprogramed, and the transformation from two
dimension In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a Space (mathematics), mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any Point (geometry), point within it. Thus, a Line (geometry), lin ...
s to three is a complex procedure.
Geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
is returned to its independent status after having served primarily the needs of technology during the industrialization of the West. It is no longer a tool for the production of machinery. In the case of the Wu House, renderings of which have been collected by the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
, the curves are the intersections of cylindrical volumes. The spaces are three-dimensional images of geometrical operations. The vitality of the intersection lines reflects an idea of
design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
which is far from the preconceived rules of the
aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...
that usually arise from these geometric forms.


Tel Aviv Museum of Art

In January 2004, Cohen was the winner of the Herta and Paul Amir Competition to design a new building for the
Tel Aviv Museum of Art Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( he, מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art from Israel and aroun ...
(estimated $45 million budget to build flexible gallery spaces, concessions, as well as the restoration of labs and offices). The building is noted for its
hyperboloid In geometry, a hyperboloid of revolution, sometimes called a circular hyperboloid, is the surface generated by rotating a hyperbola around one of its principal axes. A hyperboloid is the surface obtained from a hyperboloid of revolution by defo ...
form, and is to be finished with Israeli stone. Renderings of the project were shown at the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...
in a 2006-2007 exhibition entitled ''Skin + Bones: parallel practices in fashion and architecture''.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...

''Skin + Bones: parallel practices in fashion and architecture''
, accessed 7 September 2009


Publications

* The 2001 monograph ''Contested Symmetries, The Architecture and Writings of Preston Scott Cohen'', Princeton Architectural Press * ''The Return of Nature'', with Erika Naginski, 2014, Routledge * ''Lightfall'', 2016, Skira Rizzoli * Peter Eisenman, Preston Scott Cohen et al., ''Peter Eisenman: In dialogue with architects and philosopher''(
Vladan Djokić Vladan (, sr-Cyrl, Владан) is a Serbo-Croatian masculine given name, a shorter form of Slavic dithematic names with the element ''vlad'' meaning "to rule, ruler". It is attested in Serbian society since the Middle Ages. The patronymic surnam ...
and
Petar Bojanić Petar ( sr, Петар, bg, Петър) is a South Slavic masculine given name, their variant of the Biblical name Petros cognate to Peter. Derivative forms include Pero, Pejo, Pera, Perica, Petrica, Periša. Feminine equivalent is Petra. ...
(eds.)), Mimesis International. 2017,


Notes


External links


Preston Scott Cohen Inc.

Preston Scott Cohen at the Museum of Modern Art

Preston Scott Cohen photographed by Jeff Barnett-Winsby for Mark Magazine





Talking Practice Podcast
Interview of Scott Cohen by
Grace La Grace La (United States, 1970; Korean: 나은영; Korean pronunciation: Na Eun Young) is a first generation, Korean-American designer, Professor of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), and Principal of LA DALLM ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Preston Scott Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American architects Rhode Island School of Design alumni Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty Living people 21st-century American architects