Peter H. Christensen

Peter H. Christensen
Christensen in November 2022
BornAugust 20, 1981
New York City, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Peter H. Christensen is the Arthur Satz Professor of the Humanities at and Associate Dean of the University of Rochester College of Arts Sciences and Engineering.[1] He has held a Guggenheim Fellowship,[2] the Berlin Prize and is a former member of the Institute for Advanced Study.[3][4] He is the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center at the University of Rochester. He has been visiting faculty at Cornell University and serves on the board of the Society of Architectural Historians. He is the editor for the "Humanities in the World" series at the University of Rochester Press.

Education

Christensen graduated with a professional degree in architecture from Cornell University in 2005 and studied at Harvard University and Humboldt University of Berlin on a Fulbright Program fellowship before completing his Ph.D. at Harvard in 2014.[5] His doctoral advisors were Eve Blau, Gülru Necipoğlu, and Antoine Picon.

Curatorial and academic career

From 2005 to 2008 Christensen served as Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art where he co-curated the 2008 exhibition "Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling" with Barry Bergdoll which included the construction of five full-scale houses in midtown Manhattan, including works by Larry Sass, KieranTimberlake, and Richard Horden.[6][7][8] The catalogue for this exhibition won the 2010 Philip Johnson Exhibition Catalogue Award from the Society of Architectural Historians.[9]

Christensen's academic research focuses on the intersection of architectural history, environmental history, and infrastructure studies, with a focus on 19th and 20th century international architectural history, particularly of Central and Southeastern Europe and Ottoman and post-Ottoman lands. His book, Germany and the Ottoman Railways: Art, Empire, and Infrastructure (Yale University Press, 2017) was awarded the 2020 Alice Davis Hitchcock Award from the Society of Architectural Historians for "the most distinguished work of scholarship in the history of architecture published by a North American scholar."[10][11][12]

Christensen uses computational techniques to analyze imperceptible differences in serially produced objects including buildings, chairs, and the projectile point, a digital humanities project called "Architectural Biometrics."[13]

In 2022, Christensen, noted as "an internationally recognized scholar of architectural history and design," was named the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center at the University of Rochester.[14][15]

Selected works

  • Prior Art: Patents and The Nature of Invention in Architecture, MIT Press (2024)
  • Precious Metal: German Steel, Modernity, and Ecology, Penn State University Press (2022)
  • (as editor) Buffalo at the Crossroads: The Past, Present, and Future of American Urbanism (2020)[16]
  • (as editor) Expertise and Architecture in the Modern Islamic World: A Critical Anthology (2018)[17]
  • Germany and the Ottoman Railway Network: Art, Empire and Infrastructure (2017)
  • (as editor) Architecturalized Asia: Mapping a Continent Through History (2014)[18][19]
  • (with Mohsen Mostafavi) Instigations: Engaging Architecture, Landscape and the City (2012)[20]
  • (with Barry Bergdoll) Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling (2008)[21][22]

References

  1. ^ "Art & Art History". University of Rochester. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  2. ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Peter Christensen".
  3. ^ "Peter Hewitt Christensen - Scholars". Institute for Advanced Study. January 29, 2021.
  4. ^ "How patents transformed the world of architecture". April 8, 2021.
  5. ^ Christensen, Peter Hewitt (June 6, 2014). "Architecture, Expertise and the German Construction of the Ottoman Railway Network, 1868-1919" – via Harvard.edu. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ Ouroussoff, Nicolai (July 18, 2008). "Instant Houses, Then and Now". New York Times.
  7. ^ Davidson, Justin (17 July 2008). "Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling". New York Magazine.
  8. ^ Filler, Martin (9 October 2008). "Fabrication & Bucky Fuller". The New York Review of Books. 55 (15).
  9. ^ "SAH Exhibition Catalogue Award Recipients". Society of Architectural Historians. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  10. ^ "Hitchcock Book Award Recipients". Society of Architectural Historians. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  11. ^ Kathleen McGarvey (January–February 2018). "Railways and Empire". Rochester Review. 80 (13). University of Rochester.
  12. ^ Kezer, Zeynep (1 June 2019). "Review: Germany and the Ottoman Railways: Art, Empire, and Infrastructure, by Peter H. Christensen". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 78 (2): 236–238. doi:10.1525/jsah.2019.78.2.236. ISSN 0037-9808. S2CID 197695031. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  13. ^ Christensen, Peter (25 July 2018). "I run 'facial recognition' on buildings to unlock architectural secrets". CNN.
  14. ^ "Peter Christensen named Humanities Center director". University of Rochester.
  15. ^ "Peter Christensen Named Director of the University of Rochester's Humanities Center". Institute for Advanced Study. July 1, 2022.
  16. ^ Christensen, Peter H, ed. (2020). "Buffalo at the crossroads : the past, present, and future of American urbanism". Cornell University Press. doi:10.7591/cornell/9781501749766.001.0001. ISBN 9781501749766.
  17. ^ Moffat, Chris. "Expertise and Architecture in the Modern Islamic World". Reviews in History.
  18. ^ Clark, Peter (4 May 2015). "Vimalin Rujivacharakul, H. Hazel Hahn, Ken Tadashi Oshima and Peter Christensen (eds). Architecturalized Asia: Mapping a Continent through History". Asian Affairs. 46 (2): 314–315. doi:10.1080/03068374.2015.1035879. ISSN 0306-8374. S2CID 161921713.
  19. ^ Tsang, Matthew (4 August 2017). "ARCHITECTURALIZED ASIA: Mapping a Continent through History | Edited by Vimalin Rujivacharakul, H. Hazel Hahn, Ken Tadashi Oshima, Peter Christensen". Pacific Affairs (UBC Journal).
  20. ^ Hernández, Diego (15 January 2013). "Instigations Engaging Architecture, Landscape, and the City / Mohsen Mostafavi and Peter Christensen". ArchDaily.
  21. ^ Gans, Deborah (1 February 2009). "Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling - Barry Bergdoll and Peter Christensen". Journal of Architectural Education. 62 (3): 85–86. doi:10.1111/j.1531-314X.2008.00272.x. ISSN 1046-4883. S2CID 109945801.
  22. ^ Kim, Jeannie (1 January 2008). "Home Delivery". Frieze (120).