Classic Distortion

by Ahra Koh

Preston Scott Cohen was born in Asheville, NC, in 1961. He did his undergraduate studies at Rhode Island School of Design and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1982, and Bachelor of Architecture in 1983. Subsequently, he attended Harvard Graduate School of Design and received his Master of Architecture in 1985.

His early professional experience included internship opportunities in Peter Eisenman's office in NY in 1984, and Prentice and Chan Ohlhausen Architects in 1988-1989. Shortly after leaving his job at Ohlhausen Architects, he opened up his own practice in Boston, MA. -- Preston Scott Cohen, Inc.

Preston Scott Cohen is currently the Chair of the Department of Architecture at Harvard GSD (was appointed in 2008). Prior to that, he's had a long-standing professorial relationship with the School and has been a professor and design critic since 1989. He has also been a visiting professor and faculty to the following academic institutions: University of Toronto, Princeton, RISD, Ohio State University, and UCLA.

Preston Scott Cohen has been published in the Harvard Design Magazine and other architectural journals and magazines. His most noteworthy publication is Contested Symmetries And Other Predicaments In Architecture (2001).

His most celebrated building to date is the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which is a $55 milllion addition to Israel’s main modern art museum. The 195,000 SF triangular concrete structure houses a 87’ tall atrium with a glass ceiling, where the walls of the 10 new galleries subtly bend and groove, creating a spiraling effect over different levels. With this museum, Cohen created a synthesis that focused on deeply interiorized and socially choreographed space, as opposed to the tendency to display the museum as a sculptural icon in the city.

Preston Scott Cohen combines the use of most advanced digital modeling technologies with a fascination for 17th century descriptive geometry. He uses familiar forms distorted by oblique projections and similar devices to create complex designs that challenge our preconceptions about the nature of order in architecture.

Although Preston Scott Cohen is known for his modern forms and advanced digital approach to architecture, his organization of program layouts and organic lines follow a very classical approach. The following drawing series will investigate centralized plans and sections of the Tel Aviv Museum and the Torus House, and study the gradation of orthogonal lines on the exterior vs. organic lines on the interior.

Tel Aviv Museum


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Torus House