Michael Graves, (born July 9, 1934, Indianapolis, Ind., U.S.—died March 12, 2015, Princeton, N.J.), U.S. architect and designer. He studied at Harvard University and in 1962 began a long teaching career at Princeton University while designing private houses in the abstract and austere style of orthodox Modernism. In the late 1970s he rejected Modernist expression and began seeking a larger, postmodernist vocabulary. The hulking masses of the Portland Building in Portland, Ore. (1980), and the Humana Building in Louisville, Ky. (1982), display his highly personal, Cubist rendering of such Classical elements as colonnades and loggias. Though considered somewhat awkward, these and his later buildings (e.g., Indianapolis Art Center, 1996) have been acclaimed for their ironic interpretation of traditional forms. Among his later projects were the restoration of the Washington Monument (2000) and the creation of a line of household items, including kitchenware and furniture, for the discount retailer Target.
Related Summaries
