Peter Pennoyer

Peter Pennoyer, AIA, (born in New York, NY, February 19, 1957) is an American architect and principal of Peter Pennoyer Architects in New York City. The firm's work is recognized for combining an inventive spirit with an erudite grasp of architectural history and has been widely published and exhibited.

Education & Career

Pennoyer received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Columbia College in 1981 and a Master’s degree from Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in 1984.

During graduate school, Pennoyer worked as a designer in the Manhattan office of his Columbia professor, Robert A. M. Stern, from 1981-1983. He established his own practice in 1984, where he was principal in the firm Pennoyer Turino Architects P. C. until 1990, when he formed Peter Pennoyer Architects in New York City. In 2005, Pennoyer created a satellite office in San Francisco, California.

He is co-author of The Architecture of Delano & Aldrich (W.W. Norton, 2003), The Architecture of Warren & Wetmore (W. W. Norton, 2006), and The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury (W.W. Norton, to be published June 2009) with Anne Walker. He and Anne have also written the introduction for a reprint of Frank M. Snyder’s Building Details (W.W. Norton, 2007).

Pennoyer serves on the board of directors of a number of organizations concerned with architecture and the related arts including the Institute of The Classical Architecture & Classical America, The Morgan Library & Museum, Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and the 2 East 62nd Street Foundation.

Pennoyer was the recipient of the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts Fourth Annual “Ambassador” to the Upper East Side Award (2007), the Victorian Society in America’s New York Chapters Annual Publication Award (2007), the American Society of Interior Designers Educational Foundation/Joel Polsky Prize, Honorable Mention (2003), and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission Award.

Design Themes

The strength of Peter Pennoyer Architects—what might perhaps more accurately be described as the firm’s energy of spirit—has been in the practice of classical design. A historicist by both instinct and by training, Peter Pennoyer has aspired to be as fluent in classicism as if it were a still-living language. To that end, he immersed himself in the work of past masters—most discernibly that agreeable breed of gentleman-architects who graced the profession in the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, setting a standard of nonpareil elegance in the manipulation of traditional forms. Among Pennoyer’s unabashed admirations are Sir John Soane (for his inspired use of domes, arches, lanterns, and wells with skylights); Benjamin Henry Latrobe (for the urbane concinnity of his buildings modeled on Greek architecture); Edwin Lutyens (for his coercive “freestyle” classicism); Mott Schmidt(for houses that, subtly distilled, keep the quiddity and quality of great Georgian architecture); Charles A. Platt; Harrie T. Lindeberg; F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr. and William Adams Delano.

Projects (partial list)

*Colony Club, New York City

*The Metropolitan Opera Club, New York City

*The New York Stock Exchange Luncheon Club, New York City

*Historic Hudson Valley, Pocantico Hills, New York

*The Mark Hotel, New York City

*Hodsoll Mckensie, London

*Pop Shop, Keith Haring, New York City

*Warhol Factory, Andy Warhol

*The Hotchkiss School, The Monahan Gymnasium, Connecticut

*Oakley Farm, Virginia

*Diamond A Ranch, New Mexico

Links

Peter Pennoyer Architects website, [http://www.ppapc.com]

W. W. Norton & Company website, [http://www.wwnorton.com]

ICA & CA website, [http://www.classicist.org]