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MANILA, Philippines - Who is the renowned American architect and dean of the Yale University School of Architecture who is identified with the Post-Modern style and has been involved with his many projects for Walt Disney World?
He was born on May 23, 1939, and received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1960, and a master’s degree in architecture from Yale University in 1965. From Yale, he worked in various design firms and taught architecture in Columbia before founding his own firm in 1977.
His work is generally classified as postmodern, though a more useful classification would be a particular emphasis on context and the continuity of traditions. He may have been the first architect to use the term “post-modernism,” but more recently he used the phrase “modern traditionalist” to describe his work.
He and his firm have notably been involved in projects for the Walt Disney Company, including the plan for the town of Celebration, Florida, and the design of Disney’s feature animation building in Burbank, Florida.
He has also been involved in planning the renovation of Times Square in New York City beginning in 1992, and is the master campus planner for Georgetown University, Harvard Law School, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, and Acadia University in Wolfville Nova Scotia.
In September 2008, his firm was selected to design the two new residential colleges at Yale University, the largest single building commission in New Haven’s history.
As an academician, his work also includes public projects like the Lakewood Public Library in Ohio, Nashville Public Library in Tennessee, Jacksonville Public Library in Florida, the main library in Columbus, Georgia; as well as the Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, the Mason School of Business at the College of William and Mary, and the future George W. Bush Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University.
He is the author of several books including New Directions in American Architecture, George How: Toward a Modern American Architecture, and Modern Classicism. In 1986, he hosted Pride of Place: Building the American Dream, an eight-part, eight-hour documentary television series aired on the Public Broadcasting System.
He has spoken frequently in defense of preservationist’s efforts to the save the postmodern 2 Columbus Circle in New York City, which is now being radically altered and occupied by the Museum of Art and Design. His profound interest in the development of New York City’s architecture and urbanism can be seen in several books he co-authored about the city.
His work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and universities and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Deutsches Architekurmuseum, the Denver Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1976, 1980, and 1996, he was among the architects selected to represent the US at the Venice Biennale.
He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and received the AIA New York Chapter’s Medal of Honor in 1984 and the Chapter’s President Award in 2001. He received the Athena Award from Congress for the New Urbanism and the Board of Directors’ Honor for the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America in 2007.
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Last week’s question: Who is the emancipated convict who designed the Hyde Park Barracks, the Government House, and what is considered to be his masterpiece — the St. James Church, Sydney?
Answer: Francis Greenway
Winner: Francisca M. Santos of Hagonoy, Bulacan
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Text your answer to 0905-3142614 with your name and address. One winner will be chosen through a raffle of texts with the correct answer. The winner will receive P2,000 worth of SM gift certificates for use at Our Home, SM Department Store, or SM Supermarket. They can claim their prize at Our Home in SM Megamall. Call the store manager at 634-1950, 634-1943. Bring photocopies of two valid IDs and a clipping of the Design Quiz issue in which you appear as winner.
