Steven Holl

• Name — Steven Holl • Born — 9 December 1947 • Birthplace — Bremerton, Washington • Education — *University of Washington (BA) • Architectural Association School of Architecture • Practice — Steven Holl Architects • Significant Buildings — Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Linked Hybrid, Beijing, Knut Hamsun Center, Hamarøy, Norway, [Kinder Building, Museum of Fine Arts Houston], Houston, Texas, [Rubenstein Commons, Institute for Advanced Study (IAS)], Princeton, New Jersey • Awards — Alvar Aalto Medal (1998) BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2008) AIA Gold Medal (2012) Praemium Imperiale (2014) The Daylight Award (2016) • Spouse — Dimitra Tsachrelia Holl • Children — Io Holl, Thevos Holl

• Illustration — Steven Holl's design for Simmons Hall of MIT won the Harleston Parker Medal in 2004. • Illustration — Bloch Addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007

Holl was born on December 9, 1947, and grew up in Bremerton and Manchester, Washington. He is the son of Myron Holl of Washington state and Helen Mae Holl of Alabama. He has described his father as "full blooded Norwegian". Holl received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Washington (department of architecture) in 1971, pursuing architectural studies in Rome in 1970 under Astra Zarina. 1960s and early '70s, he landed a job at Lawrence Halprin's office before heading to London's Architectural Association. "He was doing private projects, trying to be an architect, looking for work," recalls bookseller-publisher William Stout, who shared an apartment with Holl on Telegraph Hill. Holl also was the first (very part-time) employee at Stout's architectural bookshop in Jackson Square. In 1976, he did postgraduate work at the Architectural Association in London, where he came in contact with architects such as Rem Koolhaas, Leon Krier, Charles Jenks, Elia Zenghelis, Zaha Hadid, and Bernard Tschumi.

In 2010, Holl founded 'T' Space, a multidisciplinary arts organization in Rhinebeck, New York. The organization runs a summer exhibition series and an emerging architects summer residency. The 'T' Space Synthesis of the Arts Series presents 2 to 3 exhibitions annually. As of 2019, it has exhibited architects José Oubrerie, Tatiana Bilbao, and Neil Denari, as well as artists such as Ai Weiwei, Pat Steir, and Brice Marden. In 2017, 'T' Space began a summertime residency program for young architects and artists. Program participants work on site-specific architectural concepts and attend lectures, field visits, and critiques. In addition to its arts and educational programming, 'T' Space maintains a publication program and a 30-acre nature reserve with outdoor installations. In 2019, construction was completed on 'T' Space's architectural archive and research library, which houses Holl's watercolors, models and drawings from his practice.

• Drawing as Thought, 2025, curated by Kristin Feireiss, Museum for Architectural Drawing, Berlin. • Making Architecture, 2018–2025, on view at: The Dorsky Museum, New York, US (2025); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US (2025); Bellevue Arts Museum (2020); Nanjing Sifang Art Museum (2019); the Urban Network Office (UNO) and FU Space, Shanghai (2019); and ARCHI-DEPOT Museum, Tokyo (2019). • Idea and Phenomena. Steven Holl, 2002-2021, Architekturzentrum Wien, Vienna, Austria. (2002); Schwedisches Architekturmuseum Stockholm, Sweden (2003); Garanti Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey (2003); The Roca Beijing Gallery, Beijing (2021); • Parallax, 2000, Max Protetch Gallery, New York, US. • The Architect's Sketchbook: Current Practice, 1992, The Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, Canada. • Emilio Ambasz/Steven Holl: Architecture, 1989, MoMA, New York, US.

• Illustration — Kiasma, Helsinki, 1993-1998 During his early years in New York, Holl, along with architect and book collector William Stout, launched the experimental publication series Pamphlet Architecture. Pamphlet Architecture became a venue for experimental architectural work and featured authors such as Lebbeus Woods, Zaha Hadid, and Alberto Sartoris. Holl received one of three first prizes in the 1988 invited competition for an addition to Berlin's Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek (American Memorial Library). The scheme was not realized following German reunification. In 1989 the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented the exhibition Emilio Ambasz/Steven Holl: Architecture (February 9–April 4). MoMA also holds models and drawings by Steven Holl Architects in its collection. In the 1992 international competition for Helsinki's new museum of contemporary art, Holl's proposal Chiasma was selected as the winner and the museum, named Kiasma, opened to the public in 1998. The name Kiasma derives from the Greek chiasma, meaning "crossing". Holl designed the Chapel of St. Ignatius (built 1994–1997), a Jesuit chapel at Seattle University. The building is sited in the center of a former street and elongates the plan to create new campus quadrangles to the north, west and south, with a future quadrangle planned to the east. In 1997, the plan of the chapel won a design award in the American Institute of Architects of New York. According to Holl, the chapel’s concept reflects St. Ignatius’s vision of the ‘inner spiritual life, "seven bottles of light in a stone box", by creating seven volumes of different light. Each volume represents a different part of Jesuit Catholic worship, and has differently colored glass so that various parts of the building are marked out by colored light. Light sources are tinted both in this way and by indirect reflection from painted surfaces, and each is paired with its complementary color. In 2022, the Chapel of St. Ignatius received the AIA Twenty-five Year Award.

• Work — Location — Completed • Hybrid Building — Seaside, Florida — 1988 • Void Space/Hinge Space Housing, Nexus World — Fukuoka, Japan — 1991 • Stretto House — Dallas, Texas — 1991 • Storefront for Art and Architecture — New York, New York — 1993 • Cranbrook Institute of Science — Bloomfield Hills, Michigan — 1998 • Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University — Seattle, Washington — 1997 • Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art — Helsinki, Finland — 1998 • Sarphatistraat Offices — Amsterdam, Netherlands — 2000 • Bellevue Arts Museum — Bellevue, Washington — 2001 • Simmons Hall, Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Cambridge, Massachusetts — 2002 • Linked Hybrid — Beijing, China — 2009 • Knut Hamsun Centre (Hamsunsenteret) — Nordland, Norway — 2009 • Herning Museum of Contemporary Art — Herning, Denmark — 2009 • Cite de l'Ocean et du Surf, in collaboration with Solange Fabiao — Biarritz, France — 2011 • Daeyang Gallery and House — Seoul, South Korea — 2012 • Campbell Sports Center at Columbia University — New York, New York — 2013 • Maggie's Centres Barts — London, United Kingdom — 2017 • Student Performing Arts Center, University of Pennsylvania — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — Under Construction

• Steven Holl: Inspiration and Process in Architecture, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2020. • Compression, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2019. • Seven Houses: Luminist Architecture, Rizzoli International Publishers, 2018. • Color Light Time, Lars Müller Publishers, 2012. • Scale, Lars Müller Publishers, 2012. • Urbanisms: Working with Doubt, Princeton Architectural Press, 2009. • House - Black Swan Theory, Princeton Architectural Press, 2007. • Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture, William Stout Books, 2007. • Idea and Phenomena, Lars Müller Publishers, 2002. • Written in Water, 2002, Lars Müller Publishers • Parallax, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2000. • Pamphlet Architecture 1-10, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1998. • Intertwining, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1996. • Pamphlet Architecture 13: Edge of a City, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1996. • Steven Holl: Educating our Perception, in “Magic Materials II”, Daidalos, August 1995. • Anchoring, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1989. • Pamphlet Architecture 5: Alphabetical City, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1980. • Pamphlet Architecture 9: Rural and Urban House Types, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1983. • Along with Pallasmaa and Alberto Perez-Gomez, Holl wrote essays for a 1994 special issue of the Japanese architectural journal A+U under the title "Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture." The publication was reissued as a book in 2006.

• Steven Holl: Drawing as Thought by Kristin Feireiss,Tchoban Foundation, Museum für Architekturzeichnung, 2025. • Lake of the Mind: A Conversation with Steven Holl, LetteraVentidue, Diana Carta, 2018. • Steven Holl, Robert McCarter, Phaidon, New York, 2015.

Steven Holl worked in architecture. His work is associated with postmodern architecture. He was employed by Columbia University. He belonged to American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Accademia di San Luca.