Henry Nichols Cobb (April 8, 1926 – March 2, 2020) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and founding partner with I.M. Pei and Eason H. Leonard of

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is an American architectural firm based in New York City, founded in 1955 by I. M. Pei and other associates.

, an international architectural firm based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Early life

Henry N. Cobb was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Elsie Quincy (Nichols) and Charles Kane Cobb, an investment counselor. He attended

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

, and the

Harvard University 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 ...

Career

Cobb was an architect. Additionally, he was the chairman of the Department of Architecture at Harvard University from 1980 to 1985. He received honorary degrees from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In 1983, he was elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the ...

as an Associate Academician, and became a full Academician in 1990. Cobb won the

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is an international body in the field of tall buildings and sustainable urban design. A non-profit organization based at the Monroe Building in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States ...

's 2013 Lynn S. Beedle Award, and was awarded the

Architectural League of New York The Architectural League of New York is a non-profit organization "for creative and intellectual work in architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines". The league dates from 1881, when Cass Gilbert organized meetings at the Salmagundi Club fo ...

's President’s Medal in 2015.

Personal life and death

Cobb lived in

and

North Haven, Maine North Haven is a town and island in Knox County, Maine, United States, in Penobscot Bay. The town is both a year-round island community and a prominent summer colony. The population was 417 at the 2020 census. North Haven is accessible by th ...

. He died on March 2, 2020, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

at the age of 93.

Notable buildings

Notable buildings for which Cobb was principally responsible include: *

Place Ville Marie Place Ville Marie (PVM for short) is a large office and shopping complex skyscraper in Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, comprising four office buildings and an underground shopping plaza. It serves as the main and official headquarters for Roya ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

(1962) *Campus of the State University of New York Fredonia (1968) *

Harbor Towers The Harbor Towers are two 40-story residential towers located on the waterfront of Boston, Massachusetts, located between the New England Aquarium and the Rowes Wharf mixed-use development. Harbor Towers I, the taller of the two towers, stands ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

(1971) *

John Hancock Tower 200 Clarendon Street, previously John Hancock Tower and colloquially known as The Hancock, is a 60-story, skyscraper in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. It is the tallest building in New England. The tower was designed by Henry N. Cobb of ...

(1976) *Wilson Commons at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of ...

(1976) * World Trade Center,

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

(1977) * One Dallas Centre,

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

(1979) *

Johnson and Johnson Plaza Johnson and Johnson Plaza is the world headquarters for Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The 16-story building opened in 1983. Its construction is considered to represent the beginning of revitalization of the city's central busines ...

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city in and the seat of government of Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.ARCO Tower ARCO ( ) is a brand of gasoline stations currently owned by Marathon Petroleum after BP sold its rights. BP commercializes the brand in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States and ...

(1983) *

Charles Shipman Payson Building The Charles Shipman Payson Building is the most recent expansion of the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) in Portland, Maine, located on the corner of High Street and Congress Square. Brenson, Michael. "New Portland Museum Pursues a Human Scale." ''The ...

Portland Museum of Art The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S. state of Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine. ...

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

(1983) *

Pitney Bowes Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment and services, and with expansions into e-commerce, software, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who ...

World Headquarters,

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 202 ...

(1985) * Library Tower,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

(1989), now U.S. Bank Tower *

Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston (also known as CSFB and CS First Boston) is the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York. The company was created by the merger of First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse Group in 1988 ...

headquarters at

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lon ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

(1992) *

UCLA Anderson School of Management The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management, also known as the UCLA Anderson School of Management, is the graduate business school at the University of California, Los Angeles, one of eleven professional schools. The school offers MBA (ful ...

at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

(1995) *

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

headquarters, Washington, D.C. (1996) * John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse and Harborpark,

(1998) * College-Conservatory of Music at the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,0 ...

(1999) * World Trade Center Barcelona,

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

(1999) *

National Constitution Center The National Constitution Center is a non-profit institution devoted to the Constitution of the United States. On Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the center is an interactive museum and a national town hall for constitutional dia ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

(2003) * Hyatt Center,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

(2005) *

Palazzo Lombardia Palazzo Lombardia ("Lombardy Palace") is a complex of buildings in Milan, Italy, including a 43-storey, tall skyscraper. It is the main seat of the Lombardy regional government, located in the Centro Direzionale di Milano (CBD, Central Business ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

(2005) *

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

Headquarters 2, Washington, D.C. (2005) *Center for Government and International Studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

(2005) *

1 Memorial Drive 1 Memorial Drive is the headquarters complex of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The 618,000 square foot complex consisting of a 14-story tower and two-story base containing its cash processing and operations facilities was designed by Pei ...

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is located in Kansas City, Missouri and covers the 10th District of the Federal Reserve, which includes Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and portions of western Missouri and northern Ne ...

(2008) *

Torre Espacio The Torre Emperador Castellana, simply known as Torre Emperador and formerly named Torre Espacio (Spanish for Space Tower) is a skyscraper in Madrid, Spain, measuring 230 metres (755 feet) tall and containing 57 floors. It is currently the four ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

(2008) *

200 West Street 200 West Street is the global headquarters of the Goldman Sachs investment banking firm in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The building is a , 44-story building located on West Street, between Vesey and Mu ...

, New York (2009) *

(2010) * 7

Bryant Park Bryant Park is a public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Privately managed, it is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas ( Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. Th ...

, New York (2016) *

Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences, One Dalton Street One Dalton is a skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third tallest building in Boston, the tallest residential building in New England, and the tallest building constructed in the city since Hancock Place in 1976. It is located in t ...

, Boston (2019)

Gallery

File:John Hancock Tower, Blue Hour.jpg, 200 Clarendon, formerly John Hancock Tower,

Boston, MA Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most ...

(1976) File:JohnsonJohnson HQ building.jpg,

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company i ...

Headquarters, New Brunswick, NJ (1983) File:Torre Espacio (Madrid) 07.jpg,

(2008)

Bibliography

* ''Henry N. Cobb: Words & Works 1948-2018: Scenes from a Life in Architecture'' (2018). Monacelli Press. .

References

External links

Cobb biography on website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
*Thomas Farragher
Special Report on the Boston Globe; "The Hancock at 30" includes Henry Cobb audio slideshow
(paywalled) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobb, Henry N. 1926 births 2020 deaths Architects from Boston People from North Haven, Maine Architects from New York City Phillips Exeter Academy alumni The Harvard Lampoon alumni Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni 20th-century American architects 21st-century American architects Harvard College alumni Presidents of the American Academy of Arts and Letters