AD Interviews: Eugene Kohn & William Pedersen / KPF

Feb 2011

By David Basulto — Filed under: ArchDaily Interviews ,Featured ,Videos , Eugene Kohn, KPF, William Pedersen

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Founded by Eugene Kohn, William Pedersen, and Sheldon Fox, on July 4th 1976, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) has a reputation as one of the world’s preeminent architecture practices. Focusing on design excellence coupled with collaboration and dialogue, KPF encourages an open exchange of ideas throughout the creative process both within the firm and between clients.

The firm’s diverse portfolio of scale, type, and location (projects are located in 35 countries), is a direct reflection of their 500+ staff that are from 43 different countries, and speak more than 30 languages. They have also been amongst the leaders in promoting high-performance design, obtaining environmentally responsible affordable solutions.

Gene Kohn serves as Chairman of KPF and also teaches at the Harvard Business School, since 2006. Teaching one of their most popular courses, Real Estate Development, Design and Construction, where he concentrates on communicating to students the value of design in business, specifically its relationship to real estate. Most recently Mr. Kohn received the Soane Foundation Honors and the 2010 Alumni Award of Merit by the University of Pennsylvania, the highest University wide award presented to Alumni of Penn.

Bill Pedersen serves as the Principal Design Partner of KPF. His design philosophy embraces the relationship between internal and external elements, focusing on the connection of the building and its surrounding community. KPF’s work evokes response by drawing together the past and the present, striving to embody both memory and invention.

The firm has received seven AIA National Honor Awards: 333 Wacker Drive in Chicago, Illinois (1984); the Procter & Gamble World Headquarters in Cincinnati (1987); Westendstrasse 1/DG Bank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany (1994); the World Bank in Washington D.C. (1998); the New Academic Complex, City University of New York/Baruch College (2003); the Gannett/USA Today Headquarters in Virginia (2005), and One Jackson Square in New York (2011), which they will receive at the National Convention in New Orleans this May.

KPF projects recently featured at ArchDaily:

About David Basulto: Graduate Architect. Co Founder and Executive Editor of ArchDaily.com. Architecture geek.

Cite:
Basulto , David . "AD Interviews: Eugene Kohn & William Pedersen / KPF" 28 Feb 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed 22 May 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/115667>