School Notes: School of Architecture
May/June 2015

Topaz Medallion awarded to professor

Peter Eisenman, the Charles Gwathmey Professor in Practice at the Yale School of Architecture, has been awarded the 2015 Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, the most prestigious award for architectural education in the United States. Jointly presented by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), the award recognizes an individual who has been involved in architecture education for at least a decade and whose teachings have influenced a broad range of students. Eisenman, who has taught for over 50 years, will be honored at the annual ACSA convention in April and at the AIA national convention in June.

Prior to joining the Yale faculty full time in 2005, Eisenman was a visiting professor at the school and also taught at Princeton, Harvard, and Cooper Union. As the principal of Eisenman Architects in New York City, he is known for combining cutting-edge practice with analytical writing.

Past Yale winners of the Topaz Medallion include Serge Chermayeff, faculty 1963–1969; Vincent Scully Jr. ’40, ’49PhD, Sterling Professor Emeritus in the History of Art; Charles Moore, chairman of the Department of Architecture, 1965–1969, and dean of the Yale School of Architecture, 1969–1970; Spiro Kostof ’61PhD, faculty 1961–1965; and alumnus Stanley Tigerman ’60BArch, ’61MArch.

School launches Stern professorship

During spring term 2015, the Robert A. M. Stern (’65MArch) Visiting Professorship in Classical and Traditional Architecture was launched, with Léon Krier holding the inaugural position. Established with a lead gift from Robert Rosenkranz ’62, the new chair honoring Dean Stern is dedicated to maintaining the continuity of the SoA’s historic commitment to the sources of the Western tradition.

Krier, a modern practitioner-theorist dedicated to classical and vernacular traditions, has won numerous honors, including the Berlin Prize for Architecture, 1977; the Jefferson Memorial Gold Medal, 1985; the Chicago American Institute of Architects Award, 1987; and the Driehaus Prize for Classical and Traditional Architecture, 2003. Prior to his current appointment, he has held eight visiting professorships at Yale, most recently in 2013 as the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professor.