Архитектор и урбанист Стивен Петерсон скончался в возрасте 85 лет

Architect and Urban Designer Steven Peterson Dies at 85 New York–based architect and urban designer Steven Kent Peterson died August 25 at his home in Manhattan from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 85. The office, Peterson Littenberg Architecture & Urban Design, which Peterson formed with his wife and partner Barbara Littenberg in 1978, received numerous awards for its urban design plans. Regarding the body of work, Jonathan Barnett, emeritus professor of practice in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania comments: “Steven’s intelligent and knowledgeable urban designs and writings with Barbara Littenberg, which explore how to apply traditional design principles in today’s cities, continue to require close attention.” Arguably the firm’s best-known plans were conceived for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Vision for Lower Manhattan released in December 2002. Peterson and Littenberg executed the schemes in response to the replanning of the World Trade Center site after 9/11, when they acted as consultants to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC). While Peterson Littenberg’s proposals met with resistance from various parties involved in the fraught dynamics of planning the new World Trade Center, Alex Garvin, LMDC’s vice president for Planning, Design and Development, commended their ideas for being well received by the general public. Concept design model of 1 World Trade Center by Peterson Littenberg. Image courtesy Peterson Littenberg Many observers later regretted that the key components, a five-acre “Memorial Garden” and a three-quarter mile “Memorial Boulevard” replacing West Street, a state highway, came to nothing. Michael Dennis, a Boston-based architect and professor of architecture emeritus at M.I.T., says, “In a time of limited urban intelligence among architects, Peterson Littenberg’s popular project for the World Trade Center, had it been built, would have joined Rockefeller Center as the two best modern urban spaces in America.” Peterson Littenberg’s emphasis on the importance of streets, blocks, and architectural enclosures as crucial elements of the urban fabric indicate the influence of Colin Rowe, the historian of architecture and urban studies with whom both studied at Cornell University. Peterson, who grew up in Chicago and pursued his B. Arch. at Cornell, graduated in 1965 during Rowe’s influential 28-year tenure at the university. After Cornell, Peterson spent four years in the Chicago office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, before returning to Cornell to get his master’s in urban design (1969), a program established by Rowe. Peterson and Littenberg pictured in Turkey. Photo courtesy Miriam Peterson. In 1970, Peterson formed a practice with Alan Chimacoff, another Cornell architecture alum, during which time the firm was a winner of a Record House in 1976. He also spent a year acting as assistant chief deputy architect in 1971–1972 at Milton Keynes New Town in England, before returning to his private practice in the U.S. Teaching at Cornell, Princeton University, and Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation provided another commitment for Peterson during this time. Michael Manfredi, who got his M. Arch. from Cornell in 1980, studied with Peterson, where, he recalls, “Steven’s criticism was simultaneously focused and expansive; he saw the city and its multiple histories as source material for action. His prescient teaching and work recognized that the social metabolism of urban life could thrive with carefully integrated, formal interventions rather than broad, formless, planning agendas.” Later, in 1983 to 1984, Peterson courageously assumed the position as executive director of the Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies in New York. The move resulted in his overseeing the final years of the economically challenged but highly regarded think tank, which had been spearheaded by Peter Eisenman (another Cornell alum). During this period, Peterson investigated ideas on modern and traditional space, which ultimately resulted in the book Space & Anti-Space: The Fabric of Place, City and Architecture written with Littenberg. As he argued, “space” is “differentiated, formed, finite, particular, multiple, and discontinuous.” As such it remains apart from the “anti-space” of modern architecture and planning, which is “open, fluid, and free,” and which, Peterson allowed, could be seen as more of “an attitude rather than a description of the actual continuum [of] space.” The book, according to Dennis, is “a comprehensive, inspired presentation of [Peterson and Littenberg’s] work and ideas, one that will live on, and should be required reading for students and architects." Looking for quick answers on architecture and design topics? Try Ask RECORD, our new smart AI search tool. Ask RECORD → Peterson and Littenberg surrounded themselves with an environment that demonstrated what they preached: Their apartment in New York was spatially volumetric, within an Italianate classical building designed by Charles Platt 1907. The couple also renovated an 1856 farmhouse in Cambridge, New York. Grahame Shane, New York architect and urban theorist, comments that “Steven got enormous pleasure from creating a double-height dining room/atrium in the Greek revival farmhouse and extending an axis out across terraces to an alley in the forest on the mountainside across the steep valley. He loved discussing details with the best local carpenter, arborists, and the farmer who managed the fields in the valley.” In looking back at Peterson’s accomplishments, Manfredi adds, “His optimistic and increasingly relevant contributions to architecture, urban design, and critical thought continue to be a source of inspiration for me and for those invested in shaping a vibrant urban life.” Dennis concludes, "Steven Peterson was America’s most brilliant modern urbanist.” Peterson is survived by Barbara Littenberg, as well as their daughter Miriam Peterson, an architect who, with her husband Nathan Rich, has the well-known, Brooklyn-based firm Peterson Rich Office (Record Design Vanguard, 2018). Other survivors are a daughter and son from Peterson’s first marriage, Lee and Kent Peterson. Looking for a reprint of this article? From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!