Deborah Berke: Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen

Person Place Thing is an interview show hosted by Randy Cohen based on the idea that people are particularly engaging when they speak, not directly about themselves, but about something they care about. 

Cohen’s guests talk about one person, one place, and one thing that is important to them. The result: surprising stories from great speakers. This installment of Person Place Thing will be a conversation with Deborah Berke, Founder of Deborah Berke Partners and Dean of the Yale School of Architecture.

For more information and to hear past episodes, visit PersonPlaceThing.org.

Speakers:
Deborah Berke, FAIA, Founder, Deborah Berke Partners; Dean, Yale School of Architecture 
Randy Cohen, Host, Person Place Thing

About the Speakers:
Deborah Berke is an architect, educator, and the founder of New York-based architecture firm Deborah Berke Partners. Berke leads the firm alongside her ten partners. Among the firm’s most significant works are the Residential Colleges at Princeton University, the Cummins Indy Distribution Headquarters, the Rockefeller Arts Center at SUNY Fredonia, the Yale School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut, and the 21c Museum Hotels across the South and Midwest. In 2017, Deborah Berke Partners was honored with a National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Berke is the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, the first woman to hold the position. She has been a Professor at Yale since 1987. She is the recipient of the Topaz Medallion, the highest honor for architectural education. In 2012, she was the inaugural designate of the Berkeley-Rupp Prize at the University of California at Berkeley, which is given to an architect who has advanced the position of women in the profession and whose work emphasizes a commitment to sustainability and the community. She is a board member of the James Howell Foundation, and a member of the board of directors of Yaddo, and an advisor to the Norman Foster Foundation. She serves on the jury for the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest honor in the field. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Berke is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and the City University of New York. In 2005, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Randy Cohen is an American writer and humorist who began his professional career writing for newspapers and magazines such as, The New Yorker, Harpers, The Atlantic, Young Love Comics. While Cohen is a writer of humor pieces, essays, and stories he is best known for “The Ethicist,” a weekly column for The New York Times Magazine between 1999 and 2011. His most recent book is entitled Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything.

This event is offered in person; proof of complete COVID-19 vaccination (for attendees ages 5 and up) with photo ID for adults is required to attend in person. Food and beverages will be served. Face masks are required for visitors ages 2-5, and optional for those vaccinated. Read our full Health and Safety Protocol here.