Elizabeth Diller, also known as Liz Diller, is an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and partner in

Diller Scofidio + Renfro Diller has several uses including: People with the surname *Barry Diller (born 1942), American businessman *Burgoyne Diller (1906–1965), American abstract painter * Dwight Diller (1946–2023), American musician * Karl Diller (born 1941), Germ ...

, which she co-founded in 1981. She is also an architecture professor at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Life

Elizabeth Diller was born in 1958 in Łódź, Poland, to Jewish parents. The family emigrated to the United States in 1960 when she was two years old. Diller earned her B.Arch in 1979 from the Cooper Union School of Architecture. She met Ricardo Scofidio during her studies; he was her teacher and then her tutor. After earning her degree and working as an assistant professor, they later married in the 1980s. Since the 2000s, she has become well-known for her work with conceptual architecture, museums and other cultural institutions.

Awards and honors

Diller is considered among the most influential designers of cultural spaces and in 1999 she and Scofidio received the first MacArthur Foundation fellowship in architecture. In 2002, they designed the Blur Building for the Swiss Expo with this money. In 2000, Diller Scofidio was awarded the

James Beard Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awar ...

for Outstanding Restaurant Design. Diller Scofidio + Renfro was awarded '' WSJ.'' magazine's 2017 Architecture Innovator of the Year Award. It also received the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

National Design Award. In 2018, she was named to the ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine most-influential list for the second time, and was the only architect on that list. In 2019, Diller became the winner of the Jane Drew Prize, and the eighth winner of the annual Women in Architecture award. She was also awarded the Second Royal Academy Architecture Prize. In 2022, she was awarded the Wolf Prize in Arts in the category "Architecture". Her husband, college professorial coworker, and architecture partner Ricardo Scofidio died in March 2025.

Works

* According to ''

Architectural Digest ''Architectural Digest'' (stylized in all caps) is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast ...

'', Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, since 2002, have created many projects including the Blur in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the

High Line The High Line is a elevated linear park, greenway, and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The High Line's design is a collaboration between James Corner Field Op ...

on the west side of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

; a series of renovations to New York City's

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

; The Shed in New York City's Hudson Yards; a series of renovations to

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

; a film museum in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

; buildings at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

and

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

; and the Broad Museum in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. * They have been continuously working on several projects: Vagelos Center at Columbia Medical School; a new business-school building for

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

; the London Centre for Music at the

Barbican A barbican (from ) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe Medieval Europeans typically b ...

; and a cinema museum in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

. *She has written books including
Lincoln Center Inside Out: An Architectural Account in 2012
and has been interviewed in other works such a
Bodybuilding: Architecture and Performance in 2019.

References

* Dimendberg, Edward, "Elizabeth Diller". ''Architectural Review'' Volume, no. 1459 (Mar 2019): p. 98-101. * Gilmartin, Benjamin et al., "Democratizing Space". ''A+U: Architecture and Urbanism'' Volume, no. 6 (June 2019): p. 7-17. * Kim, Narae, and Elizabeth Diller, "Dreamer, Doer, Creator". ''Space'' Volume, no. 596 (July 2017): p 28-33. {{DEFAULTSORT:Diller, Elizabeth 1958 births 21st-century American Jews American people of Polish-Jewish descent Living people Architects from New York City MacArthur Fellows Princeton University faculty American women architects Polish emigrants to the United States Polish Jews Cooper Union alumni Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Life

Awards and honors

Works

Further reading

References