The Abend Family Lecture: Steven Holl

The Department of Architecture welcomes Steven Holl for his lecture, "Art Drives Architecture." This lecture chronicles artist collaborations by Steven Holl Architects, including Walter De Maria for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vito Acconci for Storefront for Art and Architecture, choreographer Jessica Lang for “Tesseracts of Time,” and most recently Agnieszka Kurant for the competition-winning design for a new expo center in Tirana, Albania.

The lecture also details the new SHA-designed student performing arts center for the University of Pennsylvania. The building, which breaks ground fall 2024, is characterized by three suspended trapezoids floating above the ground, echoing the dynamic movements of performers. Sited along Woodland Walk and artist Jenny Holzer’s text-based sculpture celebrating the history of women at Penn, the new center will frame a new vibrant gateway at the northeast corner of campus.

Steven Holl was born in 1947 in Bremerton, Washington. He graduated from the University of Washington and pursued architecture studies in Rome in 1970. In 1976, he joined the Architectural Association in London and in 1977 established STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS. Considered one of America’s most influential architects, he is recognized for his ability to blend space and light with great contextual sensitivity and to utilize the unique qualities of each project to create a concept-driven design. He specializes in seamlessly integrating new projects into contexts with particular cultural and historic importance.

Steven Holl has realized projects both in the United States and internationally including the Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle, Washington (1997); the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland (1998); Simmons Hall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2002); the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (2007); the Horizontal Skyscraper, Shenzhen, China (2009), the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark (2009); the Linked Hybrid, Beijing, China (2009); Cité de l’Océan et du Surf, Biarritz, France (2011); Reid Building at the Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland (2014); the University of Iowa, Visual Arts Building, Iowa City, Iowa (2016); the Lewis Arts complex at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (2017); Maggie’s Centre Barts, London, United Kingdom (2017); the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia (2018); the Glassell School of Art for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (2018); The REACH, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C. (2019); Hunters Point Library, Queens Public Library, New York (2019); the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (2020); Cofco Cultural and Health Center in Shanghai, China (2021), and the Rubenstein Commons at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey (2022).

Steven Holl received the 2016 VELUX Daylight Award in Architecture, the 2014 Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award for Architecture, the 2012 AIA Gold Medal, the 2010 RIBA Jencks Award, and the first ever Arts Award of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in 2009.

Steven Holl is a tenured Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He has also taught at the University of Washington, Pratt Institute, and the University of Pennsylvania.
 

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