Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
Michael Graves, hailed by a New York Times critic as "truly the most original voice American architecture has produced in some time," discussed his illustrious career in architecture in a special guest lecture, "The Grand Tour," Dec. 3 at the Texas A&M College of Architecture.
Graves, who designed the university's new George P. Mitchell Physics Building on University Avenue, spoke at the Langford Architecture Center's Preston Geren Auditorium.
The acclaimed designer looked back to his student days at the American Academy in Rome, where he won the prestigious Rome Prize in 1960, and tracked the formative influence that experience had on his designs of cities, buildings and everyday objects.
"Perhaps more than any architect of our time, he has created a style of his own, a highly studied mix of Classicism and Cubism that, whatever else can be said of it, has a compelling visual power," said Goldberger in a 1987 Times article.
Among his most well-known projects are the Humana Building in Louisville, Ky., cited by Time magazine as one of the 10 best buildings of the 1980s, the San Juan Capistrano Public Library, the Emory University Museum in Atlanta, The Newark Museum, various projects for the Walt Disney Company, the Denver Central Library, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in The Hague, The U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., and the scaffolding for the 1999-2000 restoration of the Washington Monument.
The Princeton, N.J.-based designer has received several of architecture's most prestigious awards, including the 2001 Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, the 1999 National Medal of Arts and the Frank Annunzio Award from the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation.
Graves calls himself a "general practitioner," designing not only the interiors for the majority of his projects, including furniture, lighting fixtures, even jewelry and dinnerware for companies such as Alessi, Steben, Disney, Phillips Electronics and Black and Decker.
His work is available to a wide range of consumers through his partnership with Target, which features his designs in a variety of product categories.
In addition to his diversified and prolific design work, Graves is an influential theorist; he taught at Princeton University for almost 40 years, and is the university's Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture emeritus.
Graves founded Michael Graves and Associates in 1964. Today, the practice is comprised of two firms: Michael Graves and Associates, the architectural and interior design practices, and Michael Graves Design Group, the product and graphic design practices. Together, they employ over 100 people at offices in Princeton, N.J., and New York City.
Over the years, MGA has undertaken a wide variety of projects for public and private clients worldwide, including mixed-use developments, office buildings, courthouses, embassies, museums, theaters, libraries, healthcare facilities, university buildings, sports and entertainment facilities, restaurants and retail stores, hotels, apartment buildings and private residences.
- Posted: Nov. 17, 2009 -
