Perkins+Will’s New York office recently announced the elevation of Robert Goodwin into the prestigious College of Fellows, the AIA’s highest honor for excellence. Goodwin has designed a number of Perkins+Will’s major, award-winning projects, including the 60-story Sailtower now under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; the University at Albany Business School; the Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, and the new Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University Medical Center, among others.

Responding to news of the Fellow designation, Goodwin, said, “Architecture is a collaborative process responding to a range of social, environmental and cultural influences. At Perkins+Will, we have the opportunity to work with excellent people to develop meaningful design solutions that create a strong sense of place.”

Goodwin, the architectural design director for Perkins+Will’s New York office, has practiced architecture for more than 20 years and brings a unique design sensibility to projects ranging in scale from complex mixed-use towers to signature light fixtures. His approach begins with an investigation of a project’s culture, context and climate followed by an integrated analysis that allows him to create a unified and meaningful architectural response that is always authentic and true to its place.

As noted by Edward A. Feiner, FAIA, director of Perkins+Will’s Design Leadership Council and Goodwin’s sponsor for the FAIA nomination, “he has demonstrated an exceptional level of creativity and innovation in his work, and his commitment to fostering design culture has been invaluable. He has emerged a member of the new generation of design leaders moving the firm in original and innovative directions.” The emphasis on integration of space, light and nature is important to his approach which seeks to avoid superficial notions of cultural reference and formulaic environmental responses in favor of innovative, inspiring solutions to project demands.

Recently, he won the MIPIM Future Projects award for innovative tall buildings for the third year in a row. Goodwin’s work has been included in the Height exhibit at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona and the Buildings = Energy exhibit at New York’s Center for Architecture.

The School of Business Building for University at Albany, SUNY, set against the backdrop of a campus designed by the legendary architect Edward Durell Stone, was featured in The Architectural Review recently, the author commending its “rich and varied internal volumes” and Goodwin’s ability to “differentiate the business school from its competitors functionally and symbolically.”

Other designs by Goodwin have been published in Architecture, Architectural Record, the Architectural Review, The New York Times and the Baltimore Sun. Goodwin is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Architecture Art and Planning, he has co-taught studios at Cornell and RISD and recently lectured at Stanford and MIT about his work.

Perkins+Will clients who have engaged leadership by Goodwin include major universities such as Cornell, Stanford, Michigan, Wisconsin, SUNY and CUNY, and academic medical centers such as Einstein Health Network, University of Maryland Medical System and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.

Goodwin’s designation as Fellow of the AIA reflects the significant and meaningful impact his body of work has had on the culture of design. It is also one of a number of high honors earned recently by Perkins+Will’s New York office, including being named to Fast Company magazine’s annual “Top 5 Most Innovative Companies in Architecture” list. In 2014, Perkins+Will won numerous design awards for architectural design, including AIA Honor Awards, the Design & Health International Academy Awards, and the U.S. Green Building Council’s “Best in Building” awards.