Michael Graves

In a monograph on Graves's work, Michael Graves, Buildings and Projects, 1966-1981, an essay by Graves, titled "A Case for Figurative Architecture," discusses the relationship of the human figure to architectural form as figurative architecture, a phrase Graves coined to describe his theories. Figurative architecture reinstates the traditional language of architecture that, unlike the abstractions of much of the Modern Movement, is based on man's social, psychic, and physical occupation of the environment.

For example, Michael Graves would oppose making a full wall of glass, a so-called window wall, as the facade of a building. To Michael Graves, a window wall in architecture is akin to slang in spoken language. Michael Graves would rather see the windows as distinct elements within the wall, framing the occupant's view to the outside, increasing the hierarchical differences between inside and outside, and expressing the general size of the human figure on the outside of the structure. Graves's interest in reinstating the familiar and traditional elements of architecture as distinct elements (walls, floors, ceilings, doors, windows, and columns, for example) does not imply simply returning to the past. Michael Graves is also interested in the positive lessons of the modern movement in architecture and includes both traditional and modern concepts in his palette. A sequel to Michael Graves's 1966-1981 monograph, documenting work completed since that time, is being published by Princeton Architectural Press in 1988.

The Michael Graves office has completed a wide variety of projects that include urban and master planning; corporate, municipal, and speculative office buildings; shopping centers and retail stores; single-family and multiple-family housing; cultural and educational facilities such as libraries, schools, museums, and performing arts centers; showrooms and other special interiors; and furniture and artifacts. With each of Michael Graves's projects, the building's context is of foremost concern. For instance, the San Juan Capistrano Library, completed in 1983, is located in southern California, where Spanish colonial architecture is prevalent; conformance to this style was required of any new development. This requirement prompted Michael Graves to examine the properties of this style as a generic type transformed from its Renaissance beginnings, producing a building that is neither historicist nor superficially derived from local precedents. Another example, The Humana Building, a corporate office tower in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, completed in 1985, is unique to its city and its site. Ints massing mediates the scale between the historic cast-iron buildings on one side and the modern steel and glass skyscraper on the other. The large waterfall fountain located in the ground-floor loggia makes reference to the nearby Falls of the Ohio River where Louisville was founded in the late nineteenth century. The building program required that a public fountain and plaza be included in the project. In order to reinforce the edge of the street, which Michael Graves regards as an essential urban form, these public facilities are located within a loggia under the basic form of the structure, rather than being located in front, as in many modern developments.

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

Other notable collaborations with artists have occurred in Michael Graves's design of Riverbend, a summer music pavilion for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where giant billboardlike statues representing musical muses, illustrated by the New York artist Edward Schmidt, line the cornice of the front facade, and in the competition entry for the Clos Pegase winery in the Napa Valley, where murals, friezes, and a statue of Pegasus were proposed by Michael Graves, again in collaboration with Edward Schmidt. In collaborating with artists, Michael Graves locates the artwork within his buildings to reinforce the reading of the architecture and uses their narrative qualities to reinforce themes related to the buildings' uses and location.

Over the past 25 years, the Michael Graves office has been involved in a number of renovations and additions. In recent examples of such work, Michael Graves incorporates the associative interests of the existing context into the character of the new composition. At Emory University in Atlanta, Michael Graves renovated a historic structure designed in 1916 by the Pittsburgh architect, Henry Hornbostel, now called Michael C. Carlos Hall, to house the Museum of Art and Archaeology as well as faculty offices and classrooms. This award-winning museum, completed in 1985, includes galleries for the University's permanent collection of archaeological artifacts and for temporary art exhibitions. Renovations of The Newark Museum, starting with a 1968 master plan and continuing to major construction being completed in 1987-1989, includes new galleries for the permanent collection, an auditorium, classrooms, a minizoo for the education Department, administrative offices, and support space for storing and curating the collections.