Henry N. Cobb ― Scenes from a Life in Architecture

The first book dedicated to the career of the preeminent American architect, Henry N. Cobb.

As a builder, teacher, and mentor, Henry N. Cobb has been one of the most eloquent voices in architecture for well over half a century. A founding partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, where he has worked actively and continuously since its inception in 1955, his practice encompasses a wide variety of building types, with works and projects across the world that resound in the public imagination and have garnered awards for design excellence. Cobb's sensitivity to place and use generate surprising and unparalleled forms in educational and civic buildings--such as the Portland Museum of Art in Maine, the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, and Palazzo Lombardia in Milan--or in corporate and commercial projects, such as the John Hancock Tower in Boston, Fountain Place Tower in Dallas, Tour EDF at La Défense in Paris, and Four Seasons Hotel and Residences at One Dalton, now under construction in Boston.

Henry N. Cobb: Words & Works: 1948-2018 is his first book, uniquely combining poetic analyses of his distinguished works with essays, interviews, and transcripts of lectures and convenings that cover the gamut of topics about architecture's past, present, and future. A longtime educator--and chair of the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 1980 to 1985--Cobb takes up his extensive subject matter in a characteristically thoughtful and engaging manner. The book is packaged as a gem; a modest, portable trim size that harks back to the classic Library of America series. To anyone interested in the development of American architecture in its transition from modernism to postmodernism and into the era of high-tech starchitecture, there are a number of treasures here to discover. Henry N. Cobb is a landmark survey--in works and words--of one of the great architects of our time.

Henry N. Cobb is a founding partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, directing numerous projects since its formation in 1955. His practice has embraced a wide variety of building types around the world, most notably including the John Hancock Tower (now 200 Clarendon St.), the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, Fountain Place in Dallas, Place Ville Marie in Montreal, the Harvard Center for Government and International Studies, the US Bank tower (formerly Library Tower) in Los Angeles, and the Portland Museum of Art, Maine. His current projects include the Four Seasons Private Residences Boston and the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C. Born and raised in Boston, Cobb and his wife, Joan Spaulding Cobb, live in New York.