FLORENCE, ITALY, March 03, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Peter Forbes has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Peter Forbes is an architect, designer and design educator living in Florence, Italy, with a professional practice based there and in Seal Harbor, Maine, USA. He holds dual citizenship from the United States and Italy.
Forbes worked on ranches throughout the western United States before graduating with a Bachelors degree in architecture from the University of Michigan. He then apprenticed in several architectural firms in Chicago, Illinois, USA, most notably a brief internship with the office of Mies van der Rohe and subsequently with the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Following this early experience he earned a Master's degree in architecture and urbanism from Yale University.
Upon graduating from Yale, Forbes moved to Boston where he completed his apprenticeship as an architect with the firm of Planning/Architecture/Research/Design Team (PARD) before starting his own practice first with partners as Forbes Hailey Jeas Erneman Architects and then on his own as Peter Forbes and Associates.
Prior to starting Peter Forbes and Associates, Forbes served as the architect member of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Special Commission Concerning State and County Buildings, known as the Ward Commission after its chairman John William Ward, then president of Amherst College. The Commission was charged with investigating allegations of corruption and maladministration in public building procurement. The Commission sat from 1978 to 1981 finding a vast scope of bribery and shoddy building in the Commonwealth. Based upon their findings the Commission drafted legislation establishing the first state-level office of inspector general in the United States and sweeping reforms to the procurement process. Forbes, as an architect, was the principal drafter of the procurement legislation. The bills were passed into law by the Massachusetts legislature.
As a result of his experience on the Ward Commission, Forbes became the head of the ethics committee of the Boston Society of Architects and then a member of the Ethics Task Force of the National American Institute of Architects which drafted a uniform code of ethics adopted by the AIA. He subsequently was appointed to the National Judicial Council of the AIA charged with adjudicating the code of ethics.
Largely as a result of his public service and service to the architectural profession, Forbes was elected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows, the Institute's highest membership honor. At the time of his investiture, Forbes was the youngest member so honored in the history of the Institute.
Forbes's involvement with the leadership of the profession continued with service to the Boston Society of Architects as Commissioner for Public Affairs, Vice President and President of the society. He was also elected president of the Massachusetts State Association of Architects.
Peter Forbes and Associates quickly became known as a highly skilled "boutique" design firm specializing in meticulously designed and detailed projects for demanding private clients. The work ranged in type and scale from single-family residential buildings to institutions such as the International Tennis Hall of Fame and specialized commercial clients like Origins Cosmetics company, a division of Estee Lauder Companies.
The firm's projects became widely published in the architectural press throughout the world and received multiple design awards (see list of publications and awards). Featured in many books on design, the work was the subject of a monograph on the firm's residential work in 1997, Ten Houses; Peter Forbes and Associates. In 2000 the firm name was changed to Peter Forbes, FAIA, Architects.
In addition to his work in architecture Forbes has always designed furniture, furnishings and objects. All of the furniture for the Origins Cosmetics stores was designed by Forbes as were many pieces of furniture for residential clients. This work continued in the Florence office with designs for objects from companies such as Alessi and San Lorenzo Silver, custom carpets for Boralevi Carpets, and furniture for Sedia Company, Franco Mobili, custom one-off pieces and experimental prototypes for companies such as Poltrona Frau.
Parallel to his professional career Peter Forbes has taught architecture and design continuously since the earliest days of his office. Beginning in 1972 as an instructor at the Boston Architectural Center Forbes has been a visiting critic or professor in residence at many schools of architecture and design. He has been a visiting critic and subsequently Thomas S. Monahan Distinguished Visiting Professor and Guido A. Binda Visiting Lecturer at the University of Michigan. He served as a visiting critic and was awarded the G. Truman Ward Visiting Lectureship at Virginia Polytechnic and State University (Virginia Tech).
Forbes has been a visiting professor at Technical University of Nova Scotia and for several years at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has been a visiting critic at numerous schools of design including Columbia University, Catholic University of America - Washington DC and Rome, Italy -Lawrence Technical University, Syracuse University Florence, Italy program, Kent State University Florence, Italy program and Wentworth Institute of Technology. In 1991 Wentworth Insitute of Technology honored Forbes with the honorary degree Doctor of Engineering Technology, the Institute's highest accolade. Since 2009 Forbes has been senior instructor in design at the Florence Institute of Design International, Florence, Italy.
Peter Forbes has three children: Alexander John Forbes and Anne deMarcken Forbes from his first marriage both of whom live and work in Olympia, Washington, USA, and Allegra Longfellow Forbes from his second marriage, resident of Florence, Italy, presently studying at Barnard College of Columbia University, New York City, USA.
Forbes is a proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum, a life member of the Society of Architectural Historians and the Nature Conservancy. An avid sailor, he is a member of the Seal Harbor Yacht Club, Seal Harbor, Maine, USA and the Compagnia della Vela, Venice, Italy.
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Peter Forbes Design Awards and Publications