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

The discussion will be moderated by Diana Agrest. Agrest is the Irwin S. Chanin Distinguished Professor at The Cooper Union, where she has taught since 1977, and a founder and principal of Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects in New York.

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.

The event is organized and co-presented by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union.