Celebrate National Architecture Week and join AIA Grand Rapids for an evening with Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners are a husband-and-wife architectural firm founded in 1986. Paul Schulhof joined the studio in 1999 and became the firm’s third partner in 2013. Headquartered in New York, the studio focuses on work for institutions including schools, museums, not-for-profit organizations, and people who value issues of aspiration and meaning, timelessness and beauty.

Their buildings are carefully made from the inside out to be functional in ways that speak to both efficiency and the spirit. A sense of rootedness, light, texture, detail, and most of all, experience, are at the heart of what they design.

Over the past three decades they have received more than two dozen awards from the American Institute of Architects, as well as numerous national and international citations. Outside the studio, Tod and Billie are devoted participants in the cultural community and have long-standing associations with many arts organizations. They maintain active academic careers and lecture worldwide. As both educators and practitioners, they are deeply committed to making a better world through architecture.

Well-known for their masterful design of the iconic Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and, most recently, chosen to design the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Locally Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners is currently leading the Design Team for the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park expansion. The firm was selected as part of a rigorous international search that began with more than sixty firms. Guided by Tod and Billie, the design team will ensure that the new Meijer Gardens campus is an expression of the mission of Meijer Gardens in both form and function. Local partners Progressive AE and Owen-Ames-Kimball Co. have been heavily involved with the design and construction process.

Celebrate National Architecture Week and make plans to join us for an opportunity to hear from these recognized, national experts in the architectural profession. #ArchWeek20

When: Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Where: Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, 2 Fulton West, Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Schedule:
Catered Social Hour: 6-7 PM
Presentation: 7 PM