Michael Graves, FAIA

Year Awarded: 2001
Born: July 09, 1934; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA


Projects
• 2002: National Museum of History, Taitung, Taiwan
• 2002: Martel College, Rice University, Houston
• 1996: Central Library, Denver
• 1996: Indianapolis Art Center, Indianapolis
• 1995: Bryan Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
• 1995: Engineering Research Center, University of Cincinnati
• 1993: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta
• 1993: 1500 Ocean Drive, South Beach, Fla.
• 1991: Team Disney Building, Burbank, Calif.
• 1990: Ten Peachtree Place, Atlanta
• 1990: Swan and Dolphin Resort, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Fla.
• 1983: Public Library, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
• 1982: Humana Building, Louisville, Ky.
• 1980: Portland Building, Portland, Ore.
• 1976: Crooks House, Fort Wayne, In.
• 1973: Alexander House, Princeton, N.J.
• 1967: Hanselmann House, Fort Wayne, In.


Biography
Michael Graves, an American post-modern architect, earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1958 and an MArch in 1959 from Harvard University. While at Cincinnati, he took part in a program that allowed him to work at Carl A. Strauss and Associates while finishing his formal education.

He won the two-year Prix de Rome fellowship at the American Academy in Rome in 1960. In 1962 he returned to the United States to work as a lecturer in architecture at Princeton University; he became a full professor at Princeton in 1972. Graves is also the Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture, Emeritus, at Princeton.

In 1964 he started his own practice, Michael Graves & Associates, in Princeton, N.J. He was also a member of the New York Five. He has designed more than 300 buildings, hotels, and houses.

As a post-modern designer, Graves creates buildings that are often described as fun, colorful, and humorous; they are sophisticated and use interesting geometric shapes. Borrowing heavily from classical and Mediterranean styles, he uses many historial elements in his designs, such as colonnades, vaulted ceilings, arches, and columns, and he employs materials such as marble, granite, copper, and inlaid wood on his buildings facades.

In 1999 Graves was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 2003, a spinal cord infection left Graves paralyzed from the waist down; he remains active in his practice.