Peterson Rich Office (PRO) / Buildings Tell Stories
April 8, 2027 | 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Date & Time
Thursday, April 8, 2027 (4:00-5:00 p.m.)
We like to say that buildings tell stories. The goal is always to find a thread between what a building or a site has been and what it can become—adding something new and distinctly contemporary without erasing what came before. In practice, this means new architecture layered within old, and materials reused rather than discarded—finding value in what is already there. The lecture will highlight projects that try giving people a more complex relationship with history: not as something finished and separate, but as something alive that we actively engage with, reinterpret, and continue.
Guests
Peterson Rich Office (PRO) is an architecture and design practice recognized for cultural and publicly engaged projects at multiple scales. Since establishing the firm in 2014, principals Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich have led a diverse team in realizing projects for leading clients in the cultural, residential, retail, and public sectors.
The firm has developed a significant body of work around adaptive reuse, especially with projects that introduce new elements into structures of historic significance.
May 2026 saw the completion of new 12,000 sf special exhibition spaces for The Metropolitan Museum of Art adjacent to the Great Hall, with the Costume Institute’s annual spring exhibition, Costume Art, which PRO also designed. The project also includes a new entry to the museum, a new ground level public concourse, and a new stair in the Great Hall, representing the first major investment the Metropolitan Museum has made in public spaces in more than 30 years. Other recent projects of note include the MoMA Design Store in Soho, The Shepherd Gallery & Arts Center in Detroit, the Pruzan Art Gallery at Wesleyan University, and artist studios for Nina Chanel Abney and Mickalene Thomas. Through a multi-year partnership with NYCHA, PRO leads inclusive community design initiatives that inform improvements to the nation’s largest public housing system and advance design excellence across renovations in all five boroughs.