Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects is an architectural firm founded in 1986, based in New York. Williams and Tsien began working together in 1977. Their studio focuses on work for institutions including museums, schools, and nonprofit organizations.
Founders Tod Williams (born 1943, Detroit, Michigan) received his undergraduate, MFA, and Master of Architecture degrees from Princeton University, after graduating from the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills. He is the father of model Rachel Williams and filmmaker Tod "Kip" Williams, both by his first wife, dancer Patricia Agnes Jones, whom he met while studying at Princeton. Williams is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and serves as a trustee of the Cranbrook Educational Community. He has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Academy, American Philosophical Society (2017), and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Billie Tsien (born 1949, Ithaca, New York) received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Yale University and her M. Arch. from UCLA. She has worked with Williams since 1977 and they have been in partnership since 1986. Businessweek. Accessed on January 09, 2014. Tsien is currently President of the Architectural League of New York and Director of the Public Art Fund. She has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Academy, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tsien was one of the recipients of the Visionary Woman Awards presented by Moore College of Art and Design in 2009. President Biden appointed her to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in 2021.https://www.npr.org/2021/05/25/1000103301/biden-just-purged-the-arts-commission-that-advises-congress-on-public-architectu
Teaching Williams and Tsien have taught at the Cooper Union, Harvard University, Cornell University, University of Texas, City College of New York, Yale University, and University of Chicago.
Recognition Williams and Tsien are the recipients of more than two dozen awards from the American Institute of Architects. They received a 2014 International Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the 2013 Firm of the Year Award from the American Institute of Architects. In 2013, each was awarded a National Medal of Arts from President Obama. They have received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Brunner Award, the New York City AIA Medal of Honor, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture, the Municipal Art Society’s Brendan Gill Prize, and the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design. received Praemium Imperiale(2019)
Selected works +PhotoNameLocationInaugurated yearSourceDavid Geffen HallNew York, NY2024Obama Presidential CenterChicago, ILAndlinger Center for Energy and the EnvironmentPrinceton University, Princeton, NJ2015Tata Consultancy ServicesBanyan Park, Mumbai, India2014LeFrak Center at LakesideProspect Park, NY2013Savidge Library AdditionThe MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH2013Asia Society Hong Kong CentreAdmiralty, Hong Kong2012Barnes FoundationPhiladelphia, PA2012Reva and David Logan Center for the ArtsUniversity of Chicago2012Kim & Tritton Residence HallsHaverford College, Haverford, PA2012Center for the Advancement of Public ActionBennington College, Bennington, VT2011David Rubinstein Atrium at Lincoln CenterNew York, NY2009C.V. Starr East Asian LibraryUniversity of California, Berkeley, CA2008Skirkanich Hall for bioengineeringUniversity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia2006Phoenix Art MuseumPhoenix, AZ2006, 1996The Robin Hood Foundation Library Initiativevarious locations, New York, NY2004-5First Congregational United Church of ChristWashington, DC2001American Folk Art Museum45 and 47 West 53rd Street, New York, NY2001, demolished in 2014Mattin Center (student arts and activities center)Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD2001Cranbrook NatatoriumCranbrook Schools, Bloomfield Hills, MI1999Helen S. Cheels Aquatic CenterEmma Willard School, Troy, NY1998Long Island ResidenceWainscott, NY1998Hunter Science CenterEmma Willard School, Troy, NY1996The Neurosciences InstituteThe Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, CA1995Hereford CollegeUniversity of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA1992Whitney Museum of American Art Downtown BranchNew York, NY1988Feinberg HallPrinceton University, Princeton, NJ1986 Selected publications
Art and Use. School of Architecture and Planning, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, 2007 Work/Life. Monacelli Press, 2000. “The Physical Space of Science: The Neurosciences Institute and Skirkanich Hall.” Cell Cycle (Georgetown, Tex.), vol. 9, no. 1, Taylor & Francis, 2010, pp. 28–31. “Domestic Arrangements: A Lab Report. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.” Design Quarterly (Minneapolis, Minn.), no. 152, The MIT Press, 1991, pp. 21–28. “Peas and Carrots.” Oz, vol. 18, no. 1, 1996. “Talking Houses.” Oz, vol. 25, no. 1, 2003. “Roxy Paine.” Bomb (New York, N.Y.), no. 107, New Art Publications, 2009, pp. 38–45. “Liberty.” Heresies, no. 11, Heresies Collective, Inc, 1981, p. 38.
References
Sources Tod Williams, "Ascension", in Archipelago: Essays on Architecture, edited by P. MacKeith, Helsinki, Rakennustieto, 2006 Billie Tsien, "The cuts through the heart", in Archipelago: Essays on Architecture. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, The 1998 Charles and Ray Eames Lecture, Michigan Architecture Papers, University of Michigan Press, 1999. Douglas Heller, Tod Williams Billie Tsien and Associates: An Annotated Bibliography, Council of Planning Librarians, 1993. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, Work/Life, New York, Monacelli Press, 2000. Kester Rattenbury, Robert Bevan, and Kieran Long, Architects Today, New York, Laurence King Publishing, 2006.
External links Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects Homepage “Meadow Lane Residence, Southampton, New York, USA : Tod Williams Billie Tsien.” 2019. GA Houses, no. 165 (July): 44–59. Stephens, Suzanne. 2020. “Back in the Hood: Record Returns to Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects’ Redo of a Charles Moore Museum.” Architectural Record 208 (2): 62–65 Williams, Tod, Billie Tsien, and Josephine Minutillo. “Tod Williams and Billie Tsien: The Husband-and-Wife Team behind the New Barnes Foundation Building Discusses the Creative Process and Why Smart Architects Work in Pairs.” Architectural Digest 69, no. 6 (June 1, 2012): 62.