About this Event
We are pleased to announce the 2026–27 season of Island Editions. Hosted by faculty members Peter Eisenman (B.Arch. '55) and Cynthia Davidson, this extraordinary series of conversations invite guests to offer candid reflections on their work and the many points of intersections of architecture in general with other disciplines.
Monday, Oct. 26 (7 pm): Preston Scott Cohen in Conversation with Peter Eisenman
Preston Scott Cohen is the Principal and Founding Partner of Preston Scott Cohen, Inc., an internationally acclaimed firm renowned for its new interpretations of conventional and non-typological forms and for its original approach to integrating buildings with their urban and landscape environments. His practice originated in theoretical projects and widely published and exhibited building designs, and grew to include first-prize honors in nine international competions. His built works include the Nanjing University Xianlin Campus Center; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Amir Building; the Taiyuan Museum of Art; and the Goldman Sachs Canopy in New York. Recently completed projects include the Anhui Province Science Museum; Congregation Beth Shalom in Overland Park, Kansas; the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning; the Keystone Academy Performing Arts Center in Beijing; Xining City Center; and Datong City Library.
Cohen is the author of Contested Symmetries and Other Predicaments in Architecture, which is recognized for establishing pedagogical strategies that combine typological analysis with studies in projective and other types of geometry; Taiyuan Museum; and Lightfall: Genealogy of a Museum. He has authored numerous theoretical and historical essays, including “Toroidal Architecture,” “Elegance, Attenuation, Geometry,” “Dexterous Architecture,” “The Hidden Core of Architecture,” “Successive Architecture,” and “The Lithic Idiom.” His forthcoming collection of essays, The Isomorphic Imperative, is scheduled for publication in 2027.
His honors include an Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, induction as an academician at the National Academy of Art and five Progressive Architecture awards. He is the Gerald M. McCue Professor and director of the post-professional Master of Architecture degree program at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he served as Chair of the Department of Architecture from 2008–13.
Peter Eisenman is an internationally recognized architect, writer, educator, and theorist who has, throughout his career, striven to reveal the critical function of architecture. His award-winning works include the Wexner Center for the Arts and Fine Arts Library at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio; the Koizumi Sangyo Corporation headquarters building in Tokyo; and in Berlin, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and IBA Housing at Checkpoint Charlie, each of which received a National Honor Award for Design from the American Institute of Architects. The firm’s Aronoff Center for Design and Art, the University of Phoenix Stadium for the National Football League’s Arizona Cardinals, and City of Culture of Galicia have each been the subject of hour-long television documentaries on PBS and the Discovery Channel. The firm’s work is also the subject of many books, including the monographs Tracing Eisenman (Thames & Hudson, 2006) and Peter Eisenman. Tutte le opere (Electa, 2007).
In 2020, Eisenman was honored with the Gold Medal in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as the Kanter Tritsch Medal in Architecture from the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2015, he received the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education in recognition of his distinguished contributions to teaching. In 2014, he received the Piranesi Prix de Rome for career achievement, awarded by the Accademia Adrianea di Architettura e Archeologia in Rome. Other honors include the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement awarded by the International Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2004, and in 2001, the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, as well as the Smithsonian Institution’s 2001 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture. Eisenman is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
ABOUT ISLAND EDITIONS
Island Editions launched in Fall 2025 to celebrate the Gensler Family AAP NYC Center's move to the Tata Innovation Center (Cornell Tech, Roosevelt Island). Previous guests have included Bernard Tschumi, Steven Holl, Nader Tehrani, Elizabeth Diller, Toshiko Mori, and J. Meejin Yoon. Fall 2026 speakers include:
Mon., Oct. 26: Peter Eisenman in Conversation with Preston Scott Cohen
Wed., Dec. 2: Cynthia Davidson in Conversation with Billie Tsien, TWBTA
Spring 2027 Island Editions speakers: TBD.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Regitration required for access to the Gensler Family AAP NYC Center (4th Floor of the Tata Innovation Center on Roosevelt Island). One registration per attendee. Duplicate registrations will be deleted. Doors open at 6:30 pm.
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Image: Anhui Province Science Center, 2025; Preston Scott Cohen Inc.
Event venue & nearby stays
Gensler Family AAP NYC Center, Tata Innovation Building, Cornell Tech, New York, United States
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