Biographies and Photos
Robert Geddes
 Robert Geddes has simultaneously pursued three careers for more than fifty years.
Geddes #1 is an architect. He co-founded a collaborative practice,
Geddes Brecher Qualls Cunningham: Architects in Philadelphia and
Princeton, which won many national and international competitions and
awards. He almost won the Sydney Opera House design competition, and
his essay, "Second Thoughts" was recently published by Powerhouse
Museum. He designed many buildings for colleges and universities, and
is probably best known for the Dining Hall and Birch Garden at the
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He was awarded the highest
professional honor of the American Institute for Architects, for
"design, quality, respect for the environment, and social concern."
Geddes #2 is an educator. He studied architecture at the Harvard
Graduate School of Design in the post-war Gropius era. He is now the
Dean Emeritus of the Princeton University School of Architecture and
Henry Luce Professor of Architecture, Urbanism, and History at New York
University. In teaching architecture, he pioneered in making
connections with the humanities and social sciences, and with public
affairs and urban design. Probably his best teaching was an
undergraduate course called "Buildings, Landscapes, and Cities" at
Princeton and NYU. He won many awards, including an honorary Doctor of
Humane Letters degree from CUNY City College of New York.
Geddes #3 is an urbanist. He was the urban design consultant for the
Center City Plan of Philadelphia 1988, and the Third Regional Plan of
New York for the Regional Plan Association 1996. Recently, he has been
working with the CUNY Newman Institute on alternatives for the Hudson
Yards and the Midtown Manhattan District. For the New York Institute
for the Humanities and the United Nations Center for Human Settlements,
he directed the "Conference on Cities in North America" and produced
its report "Cities in Our Future" published by Island Press. He wrote
"Metropolis Unbound: The Sprawling American City and the Search for
Alternatives" which was published in American Prospect.
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