The architecture and publishing worlds have lost an icon after news broke yesterday about the passing of legendary Princeton Architectural Press founder Kevin Lippert on March 29th following a long battle with cancer.

Lippert founded the Press while still a student at the Princeton University School of Architecture in 1981. He was instrumental in publishing Steven Holl’s seminal 1989 manifesto Anchoring, which launched the architect’s name into the mainstream and continues to be considered one of the most fundamental design texts of the past half-century.

Very sorry to hear about the death of Kevin Lippert, founder of Princeton Architectural Press. Though I did not work with Kevin directly on the two books I did with PAP, his impact on those projects was clearly felt. pic.twitter.com/HTJauCCKvl
— Blair Kamin (@BlairKamin) March 30, 2022

His direction led the development of the once small company into a relative giant in the world of commercial book publishing, expanding several times before its eventual acquisition by the McEvoy Group in 2011. Under his 40 years of leadership, the Press produced a steady stream of bestselling titles, including Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type and Lebbeus Woods' influential War and Architecture, among many others.

a thread about kevin lippert, the founder of @PAPress, who died yesterday. bare with me here....
— mark lamster (@marklamster) March 31, 2022

Princeton Architectural Press is also credited as being the first to publish the works of then-unknown designers like Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Zaha Hadid, and Tom Kundig. Lippert was known as a consummate publisher and will be forever remembered for constantly insisting on a high standard of editorial production and design that consistently engendered titles that were “interesting, handsome, well-edited, and well-made.” 

Archinect would like to send its deepest condolences to his colleagues and family. Kevin Lippert was 63 years old.