Internationally known architect and scholar Peter Eisenman '54, B.Arch. '55, has been appointed Cornell's newest Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor. Eisenman's works include large-scale housing and urban design projects, facilities for educational institutions and private houses. He has studied and made formal use of concepts from linguistics, philosophy and mathematics in his designs.

His recent projects include the University of Phoenix Stadium, home to the Arizona Cardinals and site of Super Bowl 2008; the unfinished, six-building City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela, Spain; a railroad station in Pompeii, still in development; and the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. Earlier projects include the Aronoff Center for Art and Design at the University of Cincinnati and the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts at Ohio State University.

Prior to establishing his architectural practice (Eisenman Architects in New York) in 1980, Eisenman was primarily an educator and theorist. In 1967, he founded the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, an international think tank for architecture. In 1969, through an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, he became associated with a group of young architects who became known as the New York Five. The group included Richard Meier '56, Charles Gwathmey, Michael Graves and John Hejduk.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. After Cornell, Eisenman earned an M.S. in architecture from Columbia University in 1960, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cambridge in 1962 and 1963. Eisenman holds the Louis I. Kahn Professor of Architecture Chair at Yale for a limitless term. His academic career includes teaching at the universities of Cambridge and many years at Princeton, Yale and Ohio State.

His recent books include "Code X: The City of Culture of Galicia" (2005); "Eisenman: Inside Out, Selected Writings 1963-1988" (2004); "Giuseppe Terragni: Transformations, Decompositions, Critiques" (2003); and "Written Into the Void, Selected Writings 1990-2004" (2007).

Rhodes professorships at Cornell are awarded for a period of three years (with an option to renew for two additional years) to those at the pinnacle of their careers in scholarship, public life, government, international affairs, health, nutrition, agriculture, business and industry, the professions, the arts, communication, or any comparable field. Rhodes professors visit Ithaca for one week during each year that they serve.