Thomas Phifer (born 1953 in

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

) is an American architect based in New York City. Phifer is perhaps best known for his design of the

Glenstone Glenstone is a private Contemporary art, contemporary art museum in Potomac, Maryland, founded in 2006 by American billionaire Mitchell Rales and his wife, Emily Wei Rales. The museum's exhibitions are drawn from a collection of about 1,300 works ...

Museum expansion in Potomac, Maryland, the

North Carolina Museum of Art The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. It opened in 1956 as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding. Since the initial 1947 appropriation that ...

in Raleigh, North Carolina, the

Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning (city), New York, Corning, New York, United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Incorporated, Corning Glass Works and currently has a ...

Contemporary Art + Design expansion, and the Brochstein Pavilion at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

in Houston, Texas. Phifer designed the new Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, located on the northern side of Plac Defilad next to the

Palace of Culture and Science The Palace of Culture and Science (; abbreviated ''PKiN'') is a notable high-rise building in central Warsaw, Poland. With a total height of , it is the second tallest building in both Warsaw and Poland (after the Varso Tower), the sixth talle ...

. It was completed and opened in 2024. Around 2006, Phifer won the City Lights Design Competition, for his design of standard

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

streetlights which replaced New York City’s

high-pressure sodium A sodium-vapor lamp is a gas-discharge lamp that uses sodium in an excited state to produce light at a characteristic wavelength near 589 nm. Two varieties of such lamps exist: low pressure, and high pressure. Low-pressure sodium lamps ar ...

streetlights A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, streetlamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution b ...

starting in 2011.

Biography

Phifer was born in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-mo ...

. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1975 and a

Master of Architecture The Master of Architecture (M.Arch. or MArch) is a graduate professional degree in architecture qualifying the graduate to move through the various stages of professional accreditation (internship, exams) that result in receiving a license. Ove ...

degree in 1977, both from

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

. He also studied at the Daniel Center for Architecture and Urban Studies in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, Italy in 1976. Phifer held the Stevenson Chair at the University of Texas and taught at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania. He served as the

Louis I. Kahn Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whil ...

Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at the

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSoA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University. The School awards the degrees of Master of Architecture I (M.Arch I), Master of Architecture II (M.Arch II), Master of Environmental Desi ...

. He taught the Feltman Seminar at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

in the spring of 2022. Phifer launched his firm Thomas Phifer and Partners in 1997 after a decade of working for

Richard Meier Richard Meier (born October 12, 1934) is an American abstract artist and architect, whose geometric designs make prominent use of the color white. A winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1984, Meier has designed several iconic buildings ...

Reception and awards

In 2022, Phifer was elected as a lifetime member to the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

. That year, his Hudson Valley House II won a Architecture Honor Award from the New York Chapter of the AIA. In 2020, Phifer's expansion of

won a National Honor Award from the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

and the "Best in Competition" Award from the New York Chapter of the AIA. In 2020, Phifer's

expansion won a National Honor Award for Interior Architecture from the AIA. The project also won an Merit Award for Architecture from the New York Chapter of the AIA in 2016. In 2013, Phifer was awarded the Architecture Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Phifer was also elected as an Academician for the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

in 2012. In 2011, Phifer received a Fellowship from the American Institute of Architects. The

, received a National Honor Award from the AIA in 2011. In 2010, the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion received a National Honor Award from the AIA and an Honor Award from the American Academy of Landscape Architecture. In 2009, he received a Research and Development Award from

Architect magazine ''Architect Magazine'' is the successor to ''Architecture'', one of a series of periodicals published from before World War I by the American Institute of Architects. Overview This is the sixth iteration of a magazine about the field associate ...

for his international competition-winning design for New York City's City Lights light fixture. Phifer's Salt Point House won an American Architecture Award from the Chicago Atheneum in 2008. In 2004, Phifer was awarded the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). That year, he received National Honor Awards from the AIA for both Steelcase and Taghkanic House. Phifer received the

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Recipients must be American citizens. Prizes have been aw ...

in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome in 1995, and was honored with a

residency Residency may refer to: * Artist-in-residence, a program to sponsor the residence and work of visual artists, writers, musicians, etc. * Concert residency, a series of concerts performed at one venue * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or m ...

the following year at the Academy's campus. The

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

's architecture critic John King described Phifer as "a master of meticulous modernism who has won praise for gem-like private homes and such cultural facilities as he 2015addition to the

", but criticized 222 Second Street (completed by

Tishman Speyer Tishman Speyer is an American multinational corporation based at 45 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. The conglomerate invests in high-profile real estate properties, has developed multiple buildings around the world, and has owned famou ...

in 2016) as "designed and built by New Yorkers" without taking the building's San Francisco surroundings into account.

Works

in Raleigh, North Carolina, 2010 * Raymond and the Susan Brochstein Pavilion at

in Houston, Texas * Salt Point House, Hudson River Valley, New York * Millbrook House in the Hudson River Valley, New York * Taghkanic House in the Hudson River Valley, New York *

Castle Clinton National Monument Castle Clinton (also known as Fort Clinton and Castle Garden) is a restored circular sandstone fort within Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Built from 1808 to 1811, it was the first American immig ...

in Manhattan, New York * Boulder House in Boulder, Colorado * Clemson University Lee Hall Expansion in Clemson, South Carolina, 2012 * Fishers Island House in Long Island, New York * Sagaponac House, New York * Seoul Language School in Seoul, South Korea * Steelcase, Inc. Headquarters in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

* U.S. Courthouse for the District of Utah in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, Utah * Spencertown House in Spencertown, New York *

in Potomac, Maryland *

addition in Corning, New York, completed in 2015 * LED Light Fixture, New York City‘s City Lights Design Competition * 222 Second Street in San Francisco (Phifer's first commercial tower, housing offices of

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

), opened in 2016 * Red River Canopy Walk skyway in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (, MSN), also known as MSN Warsaw, is a modern and contemporary art museum in Warsaw, Poland. The museum was founded in 2005 and the director of the museum since June 6, 2007 has been Joanna Mytkowska. MSN was ...

, completed in 2024

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phifer, Thomas 1953 births Living people Architects from New York City 20th-century American architects 21st-century American architects Clemson University alumni