Peter Forbes, FAIA, is an architect, designer and design educator living in Florence, Italy, with a professional practice based there and in Seal Harbor, Maine, USA.

Forbes worked on ranches throughout the western United States before graduating with a Bachelors degree in architecture from the University of Michigan. He apprenticed in Chicago, Illinois, USA, with the office of Mies van der Rohe and with 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 started his own practice as Peter Forbes and Associates which became known as a highly skilled “boutique” design firm specializing in meticulously designed and detailed projects for demanding private clients. The work ranges 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 Estée Lauder Companies.

The firm’s projects are widely published in the architectural press throughout the world and have received multiple design 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 architecture Peter Forbes, FAIA, Architects design furniture, furnishings and objects. All of the furniture for the Origins Cosmetics stores, many pieces of furniture for residential clients and for Sedia Company Boston, Matrix International, Franco Mobili snc and Poltrona Frau. Peter Forbes, FAIA, Architects also design objects for companies including Alessi, Vertigo Firenze and San Lorenzo Silver Milano and custom carpets for Boralevi Carpets, Firenze.

An avid sailor, Forbes is a member of the Seal Harbor Yacht Club, Seal Harbor, Maine, USA and the Compagnia della Vela, Venice, Italy.

He holds dual citizenship from the United States and Italy.

Current Membership & Affiliations

American Institute of Architects
Architectural League of New York
Society of Architectural Historians (Life Member)
Boston Athenaeum (proprietor)
Nature Conservancy (Life Member)
Seal Harbor Yacht Club
Compagnia della Vela di Venezia

Academic Experience

2022  International Studies Institute, Florence
2008 – 2021 Florence Institute of Design International; instructor in design
2020  Universidade do Porto, Portugal, Faculdade de Arquitectura
2019  Politecnico di Milano, Facultà Architettura
2012  Syracuse University in Florence
2010  Kent State University Foreign Studies Program; Florence
2004  Wentworth Institute of Technology, Director, Study in Italy program; Florence
1997  Guido Binda Visiting Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan
1989 - 1997 Harvard University, Graduate School of Design
1996  G. Truman Ward Visiting Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
1987  Thomas S. Monaghan Distinguished Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan
1982  Catholic University of America in Rome; Critic in Residence

Selected Research & Publications

1990 “Assessing a Decade”, American Architecture of the 1980s,
          American Institute of Architects Press, 1990
1986  Co-author, “Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct”, The American Institute of Architects
1980  Co-author, General Laws; Commonwealth of Massachusetts Acts and Resolves of 1980,
          Chapter 579 “To improve the system of public construction in the Commonwealth”
          Chapter 531 “To establish and enforce penalties for commercial bribery”
          Chapter 12A “To establish the Office of Inspector General”.
1968  Co-author, “Toward an Urban Model; Advanced Studies in the Urban Environment”,
          Yale University Press
1976 – Work published in Abitare, Architectural Record, Architecture, Ambiante, Area/Rivista di Architettura, A+U, Baumeister, Bau und Vohnen, House Beautiful, House and Garden, New Englsnd Home, Nikkei Architecture, VilleGiardini and numerous books
1997  Ten Houses; Peter Forbes and Associates, Rockport Press

Client Credits

It is impossible to make good architecture without good clients. Peter Forbes FAIA have been particularly fortunate in the enlightened, engaged and understanding clients for all of our projects.

AAFES – Army Airforce Exchange Services
Ali Asghar Bakhtiar (agent for H.I.H. Farah Pahlavi)
Boralevi Gallery/Firenze
Estée Lauder Companies/Origins
Prof. Oleg Grabar
Rudolf Kicken
David and Nancy Mahoney
Prof. Thomas Maniatis
Natalie Miller
David and Mardee Nordberg
Richard and Anne Silven
Robert and Irene Sinclair
Rodman and Susan Ward
Ned and Patty Wharton
Gary and Joyce Wenglowski

Associates

William Biolosky
Roger Comee
John Scott Crowe
Barry Dallas
James Guise
Gerrard Gutierrez
Daniel Hewett
Maya Ying Lin
Patricia A. Morton
Elizabeth Nemura
Corey Papadopoli
William Ruhl
David Tobias
Bradford C. Walker
Timothy Weiler

Design Credits

Photographers:
Paul Ferrino
Timothy Hursley
Wayne Fuji’i
Scott Frances
Bret Morgan
Paul Warchol
Nick Wheeler

Graphic design:
Logotype: Massimo Vignelli
Website: Mariia Gulisova

ARCHITECTS
FIRENZE, ITALIA
SEAL HARBOR, MAINE

p.forbes@archforbes.com