Michael Graves

Born on July 9, 1934 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Michael Graves had a childhood interest in drawing and painting that has stayed with him throughout his career in architecture. Michael Graves received his architectural training at the University of Cincinnati in a cooperative program that allowed him to work in the architectural office of Carl A. Strauss and Associates while completing his formal classroom education. It was at Strauss's office that Michael Graves met an early mentor, Ray Roush.

Upon receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science in Architecture in 1958, Michael Graves entered Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and received a Master of Architecture degree the following year. After graduation, Michael Graves went to work for the designer and architect, George Nelson, where his long-standing interest in furniture design was encouraged. Michael Graves's stay at Nelson's office was short-lived however, because in 1960 he was the recipient of the Prix de Rome fellowship of the American Academy in Rome.

Under the auspices of the American Academy, Michael Graves spent the next two years in Rome and its environs, studying painting, and drawing the buildings and the landscape. At the Academy, Graves was exposed not only to the buildings of the great classical architects but also to the writings of the great classical critics and theorists. It was in Rome that Graves finally learned about the language of architecture. Also, in all of his previous education, Graves had never been exposed to the literature of criticism of architecture. This experience at the Academy had enormous influence on Michael Graves's subsequent academic career as well as on his architectural design practice.

In 1962, Michael Graves accepted a teaching position at Princeton University. Michael Graves is currently the Schirmer Professor of Architecture at Princeton. The courses that Graves teaches in architectural theory and composition address various thematic topics including the relationship of buildings to landscape, the traditional elements of architecture, the idea of metaphor in architecture, the contrast between open space and the making of rooms, and the origins of furniture. In addition to teaching at Princeton, Michael Graves has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Maryland, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and the New School for Social Research in New York, among others. Graves regularly participates in design critiques and juries for many universities, professional organizations, and publications here and abroad, and he lectures to audiences around the world.

books about architecture
general books
bestsellers books
architects books
architectural standards books
building types & styles books
criticism books
drawing & modelling books
historic preservation books
history books
interior design books
international books
landscape books
materials books
project planning & management books
reference books
study & teaching books
urban & land use planning books

Drawing is central to Michael Graves's way of working on and thinking about architecture, and he is well known for his evocative sketches and drawings. In 1979, Michael Graves was one of the first architects currently practicing to be presented in a one-man show in a commercial art gallery. The exhibition, held at the Max Protetch Gallery in New York, greatly advanced public interest in architectural drawings as works of art. Michael Graves's prints and drawings are among the most collectible today. Graves has exhibited his drawings and models in over 150 exhibitions through-out the world and his work is in the collections of such notable institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, The Newark Museum, the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, the Berlin Museum, and the Canadien Centre of Architecture.

In the 1970s, Michael Graves was known as one of the "New York Five" as a result of the publication of Five Architects, the outcome of a meeting of CASE (Conference of Architects for the Study of the Environment) held at the Museum of Modem Art in New York in 1969. Michael Graves's work was represented along with that of Peter Eisenman, Charles Gwathmey, John Hejduk, and Richard Meier. The work of each of these architects is rooted in modernism and cnaractenzed as "white."

Since that time, Michael Graves's own work has evolved dramatically, relative both to his use of color and to his interest in a figurative architecture that incorporates traditional elements along with the lessons of modernism. Michael Graves was referred to as "the man who is rewriting the language of color" by House and Gardens's editor Martin Filler As a colorist, Michael Graves uses what he terms representational colors, colors that are derived primarily from nature and materials. For example, terra cotta, representing the earth, is usually seen near the base of his structures. Blue used as a metaphor for the sky, is often chosen for the ceiling. According to Douglas Davis of Newsweek, "Michael Graves is a man obsessed with communicating the meaning of every element of his work. His soft, muted colors reinforce this concern for symbolism".