ABOUT 

A founder of a highly decorated firm celebrated for its human-centered and inspiring design solutions, an educator of an entire generation of design professionals, and a generous creative spirit, James Stewart Polshek, FAIA, has crafted a legacy of idealism etched in every facet of his contributions to both society and the profession.

Born in Akron, Ohio, Polshek earned a Master of Architecture degree from Yale in 1955. The office that Polshek began in 1963 as, James Stewart Polshek Architect evolved through multiple iterations. Following his retirement in 2005, the firm transitioned in 2010 to Ennead Architects. Polshek has fostered an environment wherein design excellence, effective collaboration and rigorous research work in concert to create enduring architecture. His unparalleled vision and leadership has earned the firm countless accolades, including more than 200 design awards, the 1992 AIA Architecture Firm Award, and 15 National Honor Awards for Architecture.

“The true importance of architecture lies in its ability to solve human problems, not stylistic ones. A building is too permanent and too influential on public life and personal comfort to be created primarily as ‘public art’,” Polshek wrote of his design philosophy in Context & Responsibility, a midpoint-career retrospective published in 1988. “Modern abstractions or nostalgia cannot themselves generate ideas for structures of lasting value. Only buildings that serve broadly defined social, political, or cultural objectives can achieve this.”

Over the course of four decades his firms have tackled vital research, cultural, and governmental projects— as well as mundane ones — that have enriched the lives of those in and near them. As the architect for the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Ark., completed in 2004, Polshek implemented a translucent crystalline bridge to calm the tension between monumentality and accessibility. Clad in glass, the bold cantilevered form is a metaphor for the 42nd president’s progressive ideals.

PUBLICATIONS

Three monographs treat the work of James Polshek and the practice. While the first, Context and Responsibility (1988) and the last, Build Memory (2014) represent James Polshek’s professional evolution in a very personal way, Polshek Partnership Architects (2004) explores the work of the mature collective. The Making of an Architect celebrates the establishment and development of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, of which James Polshek was Dean from 1972-1987.

Polshek Partnership, Author, editor

This long-awaited monograph is published as the firm celebrates its fortieth anniversary. Guided by a respect for the environment, the innovative use of materials and technology, a progressive aesthetic vision, and its collaborative structure, the Polshek Partnership has produced a catalog of public works – from theaters and museums to libraries, hospitals, and schools – that collectively ennoble our civic life on a daily basis. Sixteen of the partnership’s most important works are examined in depth from initial conception through design, construction, and completion.

Context and Responsibility, Author, editor

The many projects presented in this first monograph are described first in prose form, arranged chronologically in four phases to connect them to the social attitudes and political realities of their times. The first of these phases is an abbreviated autobiography of James Polshek’s determination to become an architect; the second, third and, fourth phases deal with the evolution of the practice and in chronological order, explain the projects undertaken. Detailed graphic treatments of the project follow, presented in eight contextual categories intended to show that the ability to create architecture that can contribute to the solution of social and environmental issues is achievable.

The Making of An Architect, Author, editor 

1981 marked the one-hundredth anniversary of Columbia University’s School of Architecture (now the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation). James Polshek was appointed the seventh Dean of the School in 1972. To celebrate the School’s centennial year, he commissioned this book, oversaw its writing and production, wrote the introduction and designed the cover.