Over 300 guests gathered at New York's Metropolitan Club for the Architectural League of New York's 2015 President's Medal dinner to honor medal recipient Henry N. Cobb, a founding partner at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

Bestowed by the League's President and Board of Directors as the organization's highest honor, the President's Medal recognizes a distinguished body of work in architecture, urbanism, art, or design. Architectural League President Billie Tsien, who also previously received the Medal, presented the award to Cobb.

Here's more about the event from the Architectural League.

2015 President's Medal Dinner. Photo: Fran Parente.

In presenting the award, Tsien remarked:

"'There’s a lovely moment that happens from time to time when you look at a person’s face and you can see exactly what they looked like as a child. It is fleeting, and it is very beautiful. Now, often that look happens when curiosity is sparked and with it a sense of wonder. I have been lucky enough to spend some time with Harry, and I have seen that look. He is a person with a great curiosity and a tenacious sense of wonder, and the generosity of a child’s smile.'"

She then read the following citation: 'The Architectural League awards its President’s Medal to Henry N. Cobb, with admiration for the truly consequential work he has created as designer, educator, thinker, writer, and leader. We are inspired by his decades-long passion for the art of architecture; by his analytic rigor, manifest in subtle and articulate buildings and penetrating readings of history and place; by the broad and profoundly informed humanist culture that suffuses his writings and approach to education; and by the unbounded curiosity and delight he takes in new ideas, new work, and new talent. Henry N. Cobb embodies that combination of capability and conviction — artistic, intellectual, practical, and civic — that defines the ideal architect.'"

Harvard University President Emeritus Neil Rudenstine, architects Merrill Elam and Mack Scogin, and engineer Guy Nordenson also gave remarks on Cobb's influence through his work and in architectural education.

Previous recipients of the President's Medal include Richard Serra, Renzo Piano, Massimo and Lella Vignelli, Kenneth Frampton, Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, Robert A.M. Stern, and Ada Louise Huxtable.