Design Secrets with Ed Hollander: Topping Farm with Architect Peter Pennoyer

What inspires architects and designers? How do architecture and interior design relate to the surrounding landscape? And what are the design lessons from industry-leading creatives that can help guide the improvement of homes and gardens of all sizes?

In the second installment of the short film series "Design Secrets with Ed Hollander," produced by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, landscape architect Ed Hollander meets up with architect Peter Pennoyer to discuss their collaboration at Topping Farm, a breathtaking site that received the 2023 McKim, Mead & White award in Landscape Design. As they tour the property, Ed and Peter discuss the particulars of the design, including the masterplanning process, moving a historic building, and designing a new home that is sensitive to the site’s heritage and ecological importance, and perhaps most importantly they advocate for a collaboration between architecture and landscape that creates a “living architecture.”

Edmund Hollander is president of Hollander Design Landscape Architects, one of few landscape architecture firms elected to Architectural Digest’s AD100 Designers List.

Ed Hollander is an elected Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), one of the society’s highest honors. He serves on the Dean’s Council and the Advisory Board of the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a board member of the New York Restoration Project, the nonprofit founded by Bette Midler with a mission to create beautiful, high-quality public space for all New Yorkers. Ed has lectured at the City College of the City University of New York, the Graduate School of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, the New York Botanical Garden, and other design-focused institutions. He is Past President of the New York Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).

Ed graduated from Vassar College with a bachelor’s in history, followed by study at the New York Botanical Garden School of Horticulture. He received a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Soon after, Ed joined The Delta Group in Philadelphia and then the venerable New York firm of Clarke and Rapuano before founding Edmund Hollander Landscape Architects with his partner, Maryanne Connelly, in 1991.

Peter Pennoyer, FAIA, is an architect, writer, educator and the founding principal of Peter Pennoyer Architects. He has co-authored, with Anne Walker, five books on American architectural history and is an adjunct professor in the Urban Design and Architecture Studies program at New York University. He uses his scholarship and knowledge of New York City to participate in the civic dialog among neighborhood groups, professionals, and government agencies by advocating for positions and designs he feels reflect the values of his firm: architecture that is contextual and respectful to the fabric of the city.

Peter is president of the Whiting Foundation, a nonprofit that supports writers and scholars, is a trustee of the Morgan Library & Museum, and is a member of the National Register of Peer Professionals in the Design Excellence Program of the General Services Administration. He has served as chairman and board member of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art and in 2014 he was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. Peter’s lectures and presentations have reached audiences across the country and cover topics ranging from architectural history and preservation theory to current practice. He was recently honored by the Preservation League of New York State with the Pillar of New York Award for his research and books on historic architecture and by the College of Charleston with the Albert Simons Medal of Excellence for historic preservation and traditional architectural design.

Peter is a graduate of Columbia University (B.A.) and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (M. Arch.). In 2017, he received an Honorary Degree of Doctor and Fine Arts from the New York School of Interior Design. Peter and his wife, interior designer Katie Ridder, have three children and live in New York City and Millbrook, NY.

Sponsors

Thank you to the sponsor of Design Secrets with Ed Hollander: SilverLining

Brought to you by the Bunny Mellon Curricula at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The ICAA is very grateful to the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation for its generous support of this program, along with the Bunny Mellon Curricula Sponsors:

Lead Sponsor, Hollander Design Landscape Architects

Garden Symposium Sponsor, Kathryn M. and Ronald J. Herman Charitable Foundation

Garden Design Prize Sponsor, Harrison Design

Continuing Education and Public Programs Sponsor, Charlotte Moss

Film Series Sponsor, Janice Parker Landscape Architects

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