Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 23, 2001

Volume 29, Number 20

Architect Cesar Pelli to design
Yale's new engineering building

Yale named Cesar Pelli, former dean of the University's own School of Architecture, to design a new engineering building that will be built near the corner of Prospect and Trumbull streets.

Major funding for the building comes from John Malone, a graduate of the Yale College Class of 1963, whose recent
$24 million gift will enable design and construction of this new facility to begin. The 50,000- to 55,000-square-foot building will house portions of Yale's revitalized programs in engineering and applied science, focusing on high-technology laboratory space for biomedical, chemical and mechanical engineering.

The new engineering building and the Malone gift that supports it are part of an unprecedented investment in science and technology of more than $500 million that Yale announced early last year.

"We are delighted with the selection of Pelli and Associates, one of the world's greatest firms, as the architects, and with the generosity of John Malone, one of our most distinguished alumni," says Paul Fleury, dean of engineering. "They ensure that this new building will embody and symbolize the excellence for which Yale Engineering shall become even better known in the coming century.

"It is particularly fitting," he adds, "that this project is being initiated during Yale's Tercentenary and will be in full swing for the sesquicentenary of Yale Engineering in 2002. There could be no better expression of Yale's renewed commitment to engineering than this inspired selection of the Pelli team."

Pelli established Cesar Pelli & Associates, a full-service architectural practice with some 80 employees, in New Haven in 1977. The firm works with corporate, government and private clients to design major public spaces, museums, airports, laboratories, performing arts centers, academic buildings, hotels, office and residential towers, and mixed-use projects. Since the firm's establishment, Pelli has personally originated and directed the design of each project.

Other Pelli-designed buildings at Yale include the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine at 295 Congress Ave., which received a Design Award from the AIA/Connecticut; the Yale University Press renovation and Evans Wing, 302 Temple St.; and the William K. Lanman Jr. Center at Payne Whitney Gymnasium, 70 Tower Pkwy.

Among the firm's other projects are the Museum of Modern Art expansion and renovation and the World Financial Center in New York City; Canary Wharf Tower and Docklands Light Railway Station in London; Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College; Aronoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati; the Mathematics, Computing and Engineering Center at Trinity College, Hartford; the Mathematics Building and Lecture Hall at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey; NTT Headquarters Building in Tokyo; Petronas Towers and Dewan Filharmonik Hall in Kuala Lumpur; and, currently under construction, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Osaka.

Pelli was born in Argentina, where he earned a Diploma in Architecture from the University of Tucuman. He worked in the offices of Eero Saarinen as project designer before becoming director of design at DMJM and, later, partner for design at Gruen Associates in Los Angeles.

In 1977, Pelli was named dean of the Yale School of Architecture, a position he held until 1984. He continues to lecture on architecture at Yale and elsewhere.

Pelli's contributions to the practice of architecture are characterized by his belief that buildings should be responsible citizens. In search for the most appropriate response to each project, his designs have covered a wide range of solutions and materials.

He has written extensively on architectural issues, and his work has been widely published and exhibited, with eight books and several issues of professional journals dedicated to his designs and theories. He has received eight honorary degrees, over 100 awards for design excellence and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Academy of Design, the International Academy of Architecture and l'Academie d'Architecture de France.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) awarded Pelli the 1995 Gold Medal, which recognizes a lifetime of distinguished achievement and outstanding contributions.

John Malone has chaired Liberty Media Corporation since 1990. Recognized for his pioneering role in communications media, he became the leading operator of cable television in the United States and has championed the development of innovations such as digital television.

He was president and chief executive officer of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) from 1973 to 1996, when he became chair and chief executive officer. He served in those capacities until last year, when TCI merged with AT&T Corp., of which Malone is now a director. Under his management, TCI and Liberty Media extended their scope beyond technology to include stakes in program properties such as the Learning Channel, Discovery, American Movie Classics and Black Entertainment Television.

He is a member of the Yale Engineering Senior Advisory Committee, formed under former engineering dean D. Allan Bromley, the Sterling Professor of the Sciences.

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Architect Cesar Pelli to design Yale's new engineering building

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Yale College term bill is set at $34,030

Bentley Layton appointed to Goff chair in religious studies

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Grant to support field research by F&ES students

YUHS names new medical director

Pianist (and trained chemist) makes his faculty debut

Shakespeare-inspired music will be featured in concert by Yale Jazz Ensemble

Campus Notes