Peter Pran FAIA

Peter Pran FAIA, MNAL (MArch IIT 1969) a native of Norway, helped shape the design culture of Ellerbe Becket (1986-96) and at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (1966-69) before joining NBBJ in 1996, where he currently holds the position of Design Principal as well as his current appointment as Distinguished Professor of Architecture at The University of Kansas.

Over the course of his career, he has created an extraordinarily innovative body of work, distinguished by its energy, fluidity, and complexity. Pran's influence extends well beyond his own work and his firm's practice, to the countless students he has taught in the US, Japan, Italy, and Denmark. He has made it his mission to persuade young seekers to think broadly, to design with integrity, and to embrace not only the aesthetic delights but also the social and moral responsibilities of architecture. He shares his insights generously and widely, as jury member and critic, guest lecturer, and participant in national and international symposia.

Books documenting his projects and thinking include the 1998 NA Monograph Peter Pran -- An Architecture of Poetic Movement, with supporting essays by Christian Norberg-Schulz, Kenneth Frampton, Fumihiko Maki, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Daniel Libeskind. Over the last decade, he has won 15 international architecture competitions, and numerous design awards, including two national from Progressive Architecture, three national from the AIA, 12 from AIA New York, and two from AIA Chicago, have recognized his work. "Peter Pran - Recent Works," in the Academy Editions series on the world's leading architects, remained a #1 bestseller among professional publications in the US for four months.

Peter Pran worked with Mies van der Rohe as Project Designer on the Berlin National Gallery in Germany, the Chicago Federal Center, and the Toronto Dominion Center; and with SOM as Project Designer on the Sears Tower (in schematic design), and on the Jeddah International Airport in Saudi Arabia. Selected recent projects include the Deloitte and Touche Headquarters, Wilton, Connecticut; Telenor Headquarters; Oslo; Paul Allen Vulcan Headquarters, Seattle; Seoul Dome, Kwun Tong Town Centre; Hong Kong; New York Psychiatric Institute, Manhattan; and Manggarai Integrated Transportation Terminal, Jakarta.

The nomination supporting his induction into the AIA College of Fellows, in 2000, cites the "intellectual courage, professional vitality, and moral leadership" [which] have won him international recognition, profoundly transformed the architecture practices whose design efforts he has directed, and extended his powerful influence throughout the architectural community worldwide."

Original posting 2003