MANILA, Philippines - Who is the American architect who has worked on some of New York’s landmarks like the Grand Central Terminal and Waldorf Astoria Hotel?
He was born in Chicago, Illinois on Dec. 5, 1877, and was educated in the City College of New York. He worked for 20 years in the firm Warren and Wetmore, during which time he worked on New York City’s Grand Central Terminal.
He later formed a partnership with S. Fullerton Weaver in 1921, creating a multidisciplinary firm focusing on real estate, architecture, and engineering.
A major early commission, John McEntee Bowman’s Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, led to work for many other Biltmore properties across the country. Designed in Spanish Colonial Renaissance style, the hotel was meant as a grand icon, a landmark of luxury, signifying Los Angeles’ arrival as a major American city.
The firm also designed the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, as well as other landmark hotels in New York like the Park Lane Hotel, the Lexington Hotel, the Pierre Hotel, and the Waldorf-Astoria which, upon its completion in 1931, was the world’s largest with 2,200 rooms.
His firm was also responsible for the design of large apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, and clubs, as well as office buildings like the New York headquarters of the JC Penney Company in 1925. The firm also designed large-scale residential developments including Parkfairfax in Virginia with Clarke and Rapuano, Park La Brea in Los Angeles, and most notably Parkmerced in Virginia with Thomas Church, which the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company developed in response to US housing shortages after World War II.
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Last week’s question: Who is the chef and food writer considered the father of gourmet-style American cooking, and whose legacy lives on in his numerous books and writings, his foundation, and the annual awards named after him, which are considered the Oscars of the American culinary industry?
Answer: James Beard
Winner: Genevieve Santos of Caloocan City
Text your answer to 0926-3508061 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. Bring photocopies of two valid IDs and a clipping of the Design Quiz issue in which you appear as winner.