Peter Eisenman

Internationally renowned architect Peter Eisenman will be on campus to celebrate his 50th reunion at Cornell University this weekend. The winner of numerous architectural awards, Eisenman '54 earned his B.Arch. degree at Cornell's College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP). The Louis Kahn Professor of Architecture at Yale University last fall, he currently is designing a 68,000-seat multipurpose stadium for the Arizona Cardinals in Phoenix, among other projects.

"Being Eisenman," a special video portrait of Eisenman made over the past year by Phil Handler '62, B.Arch. '64, M.Arch. '65, will screen Saturday, June 12, at 9 a.m. in 157 E. Sibley Hall. Following that, Eisenman will talk informally about being back and answer questions about his life and work. In addition, "Box of Changes," an exhibition of Eisenman's design proposal for a competition for a museum in China will be on view in Sibley Hall's Hartell Gallery Thursday through Saturday, where the video will screen continuously on small-screen television.

"Cornell is an important part of Peter's life and an important generator of where he is today," said Handler. "The video shows that." The film includes tributes to Eisenman by such fellow architects and educators as Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, and Pritzker laureate Richard Meier '56, the designer of Cornell's new Life Science Technology building.

All events are free and open to the public. Hartell Gallery hours are Thursday, June 10, 2-5 p.m.; Friday, June 11, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Saturday, June 12, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Eisenman now is the principal architect at Eisenman Architects, New York. His was among the four final architectural teams asked to submit design proposals for rebuilding the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. His Wexner Center for the Visual Arts and Fine Arts Library at Ohio State University, completed in 1989, received a 1993 National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects. Other lauded projects include the Columbus (Ohio) Convention Center and the Aronoff Center at the University of Cincinnati. He has competed and won prizes at the International Architectural Biennale in Venice. Current Eisenman projects include a Holocaust memorial in Berlin and a museum, library and opera house in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.