Current Work | Billie Tsien and Jennifer Dempsey: Unfinished

Tuesday, November 12, 2024, 6:30 - 8:30pm

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Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners | Obama Presidential Center, Chicago, IL, in construction, estimated completion 2026. Rendering courtesy of the Obama Foundation

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners | Obama Presidential Center, Chicago, IL, in construction, estimated completion 2026. Rendering courtesy of the Obama Foundation

This event will be conducted in person only.

Billie Tsien and Jennifer Dempsey of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners present recent and in-progress work by the firm. Currently teaching together at The Cooper Union, the two architects will discuss their experiences as women entering the profession at different times, how they navigate, and the architecture that is the result.

Billie Tsien is an architect and a founding partner of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners (TWBTA), where she has been a lead designer on all of the firm’s work. TWBTA has been recognized with numerous national and international citations including the National Medal of the Arts and the 2013 Firm of the Year Award from the American Institute of Architects. Tsien has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Academy of Design, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2021 she was appointed to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, serving as the first Asian-American and woman to be chair. Tsien received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and a master’s of architecture from UCLA. 

Jennifer Dempsey is an architect at Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners. She is one of the project team leaders for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Before joining TWBTA, Dempsey was a project manager at GLUCK+, a New York City design-build firm. She received a Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute and a Master of Architecture II from Yale School of Architecture.

Recent projects include:

Obama Presidential Center, spanning 19 acres on the South Side of Chicago, the campus named for the 44th President of the United States will contain a museum, forum, and branch of the Chicago Public Library, surrounded by a public plaza that integrates into adjacent Jackson Park

David Geffen Hall, this reconfiguration of the public spaces of the Lincoln Center concert hall features a re-imagined grand promenade, lobby, lounges, restaurant, and a flexible performance space showcasing the Center’s programing

United States Embassy Complex, with Davis Brody Bond, located in the Nuevo Polanco district of Mexico City, this building will be among the largest US embassies ever constructed upon completion and is designed to earn a minimum of LEED Silver Certification

Support

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This lecture is co-sponsored with The Architectural League of New York.

Tickets are free for Cooper Union students and faculty with valid ID, and League members. For ticket inquiries, please refer to The Architectural League of New York website

Located in The Great Hall, in the Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.