Peter Cornell, AIA, LEED AP

Peter’s life has been a modern odyssey. A dual citizen of the United States and Denmark, he grew up in Toronto. At Columbia University, where he earned a master's degree in architecture, he was awarded the William Kinne Fellows Traveling Prize that enabled him to visit Barcelona, and elsewhere. Previously, at the University of Virginia, he received his Bachelors of Architecture and lived on a campus designed by Thomas Jefferson.

After practicing architecture in San Francisco and New York City – where several buildings he worked on were published in Architectural Record – Peter joined Centerbrook in 2006. He has contributed to diverse projects here, from a college preparatory school in China and the Yale Peabody Museum master plan, to the award-winning Lancaster History museum and library and Bedford Square, a mixed use development in Westport, Connecticut. He also was on the design team for the Biomass Heating Facility at Hotchkiss School, which won an AIA New England Honor Award, among many other accolades.

During his travels, the architecture of Denmark made a strong impression on Peter: “I remember going to the studio of a family friend in Denmark who was an architect. It was in an old barn with big skylights, and people were drawing plans for buildings and making models. I thought this looks like a great place to work. Danish architecture is fairly distinct, characterized by humanist modernism: simple, concise design – but not purposely minimalist or ideologically rigid. It’s modern but social. People have to be comfortable in the spaces.”

• Named Centerbrook Associate in 2013
• Speaks French and Danish