Michael Graves (closest to his mother) in 1936
Michael Graves (closest to his mother) in 1940
Michael Graves in 1940
Graves receives the Rome Prize and begins a residency at the American Academy in Rome. The classical architecture he encounters in Italy will have a major influence on his later work.
Michael Graves in Rome
Michael Graves drawing room in Rome
The influence of the built environment in Rome can be seen in Graves early drawings and in his later work.
The influence of the built environment in Rome can be seen in Graves early drawings and in his later work.
The influence of the built environment in Rome can be seen in Graves early drawings and in his later work.
The influence of the built environment in Rome can be seen in Graves early drawings and in his later work.
The influence of the built environment in Rome can be seen in Graves early drawings and in his later work.
The influence of the built environment in Rome can be seen in Graves early drawings and in his later work.
The influence of the built environment in Rome can be seen in Graves early drawings and in his later work.
Graves founds his architecture practice in Princeton, New Jersey and begins a 39-year teaching career at Princeton University.
Michael Graves in the 1960s.
Michael Graves in the 1960s.
Michael Graves in the 1960s.
Princeton University
Graves participates in the Conference of Architects for the Study of the Environment (CASE) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, along with architects Peter Eisenman, Richard Meier, Charles Gwathmey, and John Hejduk. Soon, they are known as the New York Five.
Four of the New York Five.
Michael Graves.
Michael Graves.
Michael Graves.
Michael Graves.
Growing out of the 1969 CASE conference, Five Architects sets forth the group's allegiance to modernist theories. It establishes Graves, Eisenman, Meier, Gwathmey, and Hejduk as the standard-bearers of a New York school of architects who are serious about modernist architectural form. It also provokes debate within the architectural world, as others question modernist perspectives.
Five Architects
In this groundbreaking high-rise civic building, Graves rejects the stark modernist principles of his earlier works. The building reintroduces references to classical forms, expressing a postmodern design vocabulary that makes waves in the world of art and architecture.
×Graves responds to Italian housewares manufacturer Alessis request to make an American kettle that will boil water faster than any other teakettle. His witty design achieves at least part of that challenge. More than two million whistling bird tea kettles will be sold.
×Asked to make company executives smile on their way to work, Graves employs the Seven Dwarves (Disneys first feature film) as caryatids to support the entrance façade, overtly combining playful and classical elements.
×Graves designs an addition to the existing Denver library to create a 540,000-square-foot building that is exemplary of postmodern principles of shape, form, color, and historic allusion.
×Graves begins designing products for Target stores, bringing high design to everyday household items.
×After a flu-like illness, Graves becomes paralyzed from the chest down.
Informed by Graves personal perspectives on universal design, the Wounded Warriors Project prototypes innovative housing for disabled active-duty soldiers.