AIA chooses architect Michael Graves for top honor

Michael Graves

(CNN) -- Michael Graves, the architect who also designs practical, whimsical kitchenware, has been chosen the top architect for 2001 by the American Institute of Architects.

Its board of directors confirmed the institute's Gold Medal choice on Friday. The honor will be presented at the 2001 Accent on Architecture ceremony on February 16 in Washington, D.C.

The Gold Medal recognizes an architect whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of the profession.

Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck Architecture of Des Moines, Iowa, was chosen for the 2001 AIA Architecture Firm Award for producing consistently distinguished architecture for at least 10 years.

A Princeton University professor, Graves is the 58th person to receive the award since its establishment in 1907. It is not given every year.

Michael Graves designed the scaffolding and restoration of the Washington Monument, which reopened last summer

Past winners have included Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Kahn, I.M. Pei, Le Corbusier, Frank Gehry and the 2000 winner, Mexico's Ricardo Legorreta. President Thomas Jefferson was honored posthumously.

In the 1970s, after reworking themes of Le Corbusier in designing private homes, Graves changed course to become a Post-Modernist, developing an eclectic style with abstract historical forms and lots of color.

Among Graves' celebrated early commissions were the Portland Public Services Building in Oregon (1980-83) and the Humana Tower in Louisville, Kentucky (1982-86). He also designed the San Juan Capistrano Library in California, the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the expansion of the Newark, New Jersey, Museum.

The architect designed the restoration of the Washington Monument, which reopened last summer, and even designed the much-admired blue and white scaffolding around the nation's landmark.

In 1985, Graves became a home-design star after creating the whimsical bird-spout Alessi teapot.

Graves was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1934, and studied at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio) and at Harvard University. He worked as a fellow at the American Academy in Rome, Italy, for two years before opening his practice in Princeton, New Jersey. He became a professor at Princeton in 1972.

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Michael Graves & Associates
"Meet Architect Michael Graves" (Indianapolis Art Center)
American Institute of Architects

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