Guy Nordenson is a professor of structural engineering and architecture at Princeton University and a faculty associate of the University Center for Human Values. Nordenson was the structural engineer for the Museum of Modern Art expansion in New York, the Jubilee Church in Rome, the Simmons Residence Hall at MIT in Massachusetts, the Disneyland Parking Structure in California, the Santa Fe Opera House, and over 100 other projects. Nordenson is active in earthquake engineering, including code development, technology transfer, long-range planning for FEMA and the USGS, and research. He initiated and led the development of the New York City Seismic Code from 1984 to its enactment into law in 1995.

Nordenson was the first recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Architecture for contributions to architecture by a non-architect in 2003. With Terence Riley he was co-curator of the "Tall Buildings" exhibition held at MoMA QNS in 2004. He has served as Commissioner and Secretary of the New York City Public Design Commission since 2006. He was the editor of Seven Structural Engineers —The Felix Candela Lectures in Structural Engineering, published in 2008 by MoMA. His project "On the Water—the NY/NJ Upper Bay" won the 2007 AIA College of Fellows Latrobe Research Prize. The research was published in On the Water | Palisade Bay (Hatje Cantz, Berlin 2010) and served as the inspiration for the MoMA workshop and exhibition "Rising Currents" in 2010. Nordenson was a recipient of the AIA's 2009 Institute Honors for Collaborative Achievement Award, and is the seventh structural engineer to receive this award.