Cesar Pelli

Background

Pelli, Cesar was born on October 12, 1926 in Tucuman, Argentina. Son of Victor V. and Teresa S. (Suppa) Pelli. came to the United States, 1952, naturalized, 1964.

Education

He studied architecture at the University of Tucumán, earning his Bachelor's of Architecture in 1949. In 1952, an Institute of International Education scholarship led Pelli to the University of Illinois School of Architecture in Champagne-Urbana, where he earned a Master's degree in Architecture in 1954.

Career

After his graduation Pelli served as director of design at OFEMPE, a government organization sponsoring and building subsidized housing in Tucumán. For the next ten years, Pelli worked as a designer with the firm of Eero Saarinen & Associates in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Hamden, Connecticut. With Saarinen, whom Pelli credits as one of his greatest influences along with Le Corbusier, he served as project designer for the TWA Terminal Building at JFK Airport, New York, and the Morse and Stiles Colleges at Yale University. Though he had briefly returned to Argentina to teach architectural design at his alma mater, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán in 1960, Pelli became a U. S. citizen in 1964. The same year, Pelli took the position of director and vice president of design with Daniel, Mann, Johnson, & Mendenhall (DMJM) in Los Angeles. In 1968, he served as partner for design at Gruen Associates in Los Angeles and for two of his eight years with Gruen, Pelli was a visiting professor at the University of California. In 1977 Pelli moved to Connecticut to become the Dean of the School of Architecture at Yale University. That same year, he founded Cesar Pelli & Associates in New Haven with his wife Diana and Fred W. Clarke. Since the firm's inception, Pelli has designed each of its projects, although he actively solicits input from the more than 60 architects and designers who are employed in his studio. In 1984, he resigned his post at Yale, devoting full attention to his firm, but continues to lecture on architecture. One of the jewels in Pelli's crown of large-scale design is the World Financial Center and Winter Garden at Battery Park City in Manhattan. Begun in 1991, this project features 4 office towers ranging in height from 34 to 51 stories, the Winter Garden, and a 3. 5 acre landscaped public plaza. Other gems in Pelli's portfolio include the expansion and renovation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City; the North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte; the Arnoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati; the Francis Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College; Herring Hall at Rice University; and the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine at Yale University.

Achievements

• Acclaimed by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1991 as one of the ten most influential living American architects, Cesar Pelli has designed some of the most remarkable buildings-ranging from high-rise office towers to private homes-in the late 20th century. Chief among Pelli's award-winning achievements are the San Bernardino City Hall in San Bernardino, California; the Pacific Design Center Phases I and II in Los Angeles, California; the United States Embassy in Tokyo, Japan; and the World Financial Center and Winter Garden at Battery Park, New York, which has been hailed as one of the ten best works of American architecture designed since 1980. During this period, Pelli designed several award-winning projects, including the San Bernardino City Hall, the Commons of Columbus in Indiana, the Pacific Design Center, and the U. S. Embassy in Tokyo. In his distinguished career as an architect, Pelli has been the recipient of numerous awards from such institutions as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Institute of Architects, the National Academy of Design, and the International Academy of Architecture. He has been awarded the 1995 AIA Gold Medal and the Charles Bulfinch Award; in addition, he is the only architect to have received a Connecticut State Arts Award and is among one of the few American architects to receive First Class licensure in Japan. Several honorary degrees have been bestowed upon Pelli, including any honorary doctorate from the Pratt Institute in New York City.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Petronas Towers: The Architecture of High Construction

    (In a world with Jumbo jets, microchips and artifical hear...)

  • Sections Through a Practice: Cesar Pelli & Associates

    (Builders of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the tall...)

  • Observations for Young Architects

    (World-renowned architect Cesar Pelli has distilled the wi...)

  • Cesar Pelli: Life in Architecture

    ( • Showcasing one of the world's leading architectures, ...)

  • Portfolio Design (Fourth Edition)

    ( Full color and the latest in presentation techniques co...)

  • Cesar Pelli: Selected and Current Works (The Master Architect)

    (THE MASTER ARCHITECT SERIES is a series of monographs on ...)

  • Cesar Pelli: Recent Themes

    (Cesar Pelli, born in Argentina, heads on of the most reno...)

Views

Quotations: "We should not judge a building by how beautiful it is in isolation, but instead by how much better or worse that particular place . .. has become by its addition. If the city has not gained by the addition, we should seriously question the design and the building itself, no matter how beautiful and theoretically correct it may be. "

"Construction is a matter of optimism; its a matter of facing the future with confidence. "

"I am a strong believer that as one moves toward the future, the strongest and clearest way to do it is if you have a good sense of your past. You cannot have a very tall tree without deep roots. "

"The Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration will be a building that will connect the excitement of science to the surrounding streets, river and highway. These forms are ambitious and dynamic. They appear to reach out beyond their physical limits. "

"The World Trade Center was for me not only out of scale vertically, but it was also out of scale in plan. It occupied several blocks that were all massed together. "

"I always look forward to the next project. That is one of the wonderful things about architecture - you always can hope for another project to design. "

"I see my buildings as pieces of cities, and in my designs I try to make them into responsible and contributing citizens. "

"Im particularly interested in the public role that all buildings play. I believe that we architects should try to go beyond our basic obligations to the public, and our opportunities to do so are many. "

"One of America's strengths has always been its openness to the new: both new ideas and new people. "

"When I started designing in school, I discovered that I had a knack for it. I fell completely in love with architecture, and I remain in love with it. "

"My buildings are like my children, so I cannot have favorites. "

"When I finished high school, I was 16, and in Argentina you have to choose a career right after high school. There is no such thing as a liberal arts education. "

"I realize that having a style would be very beneficial for my practice from a marketing standpoint, but I can't do it. I believe my responsibilities as an architect are to design the most appropriate building for the place. Each place has a distinct culture and function, which for me requires an appropriate answer. "

Membership

Fellow American Institute of Architects (Firm award 1989, named to top ten list of living American architects 1991, Gold medal 1995). Member National Academy of Design (Arnold M. Brunner Memorial prize 1978), American Academy Arts and Letters (academician), International Academy Architecture (academician).

Personality

Perhaps Pelli's greatest reward, however, is to explore one of his completed structures; as he stated in his 1988 Architectural Digest essay, "[there] is nothing quite so pleasurable for me as to visit my buildings when they're finished and occupied. It is like being part of a miracle taking place. Months and even years of caring and dreaming become a reality. "

Connections

After graduating, Pelli married fellow student Diana Balmori, who has become an accomplished landscape and urban designer and who founded the firm Balmori Associates.