Architect Michael Graves calls latest award 'humbling'

Michael Graves

In this story: •   Gallery of Graves' work Good design doesn't have to be pricey In good company 'A more humanistic scale' RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Deb Krajnak
CNN.com Arts & Style editor

(CNN) -- Michael Graves, the versatile architect who also designs practical, whimsical kitchenware, will receive the 2001 Gold Medal for an individual from the American Institute of Architects.

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

	GALLERY
Click to see Graves' projects

"I must say that it's incredibly humbling when you get an award from your peers," Graves said from his office in Princeton, New Jersey. "That is extraordinary for me. It really means you've built well."

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.

Graves' firm, Michael Graves & Associates, has a diverse international portfolio that also covers planning, graphics, and interior, furniture and product design. Graves, 66, also is a professor at Princeton University.

He was nominated for the Gold Medal by Detroit, Michigan, architect and AIA board member Eugene Hopkins.

In recommending Graves, Hopkins noted his commitment to education and scholarship. Many of his former students are teachers and professionals, Hopkins said.

He also noted Graves' contributions in the field of product design.

"The products Michael has designed, now numbering over 600, reflect his interest in the domestic rituals of our lives. He has raised the public awareness of good design and made it available and affordable to every household," he said.

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

On the theory that good design doesn't have to be expensive, Graves began collaborating in 1999 with Target stores, which sell his trademark modern tea kettles, toasters, picture frames and other household items.

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

Creating the product designs is a process no easier than for buildings, Graves said. Each of his projects is equally important to him, he said, and what he learns crosses over into each discipline.

"It doesn't take less time to design a Ford than a Rolls Royce."

Graves is the 58th architect to receive the Gold Medal since its establishment in 1907. It is not given every year.

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), whose avant-garde design generated some controversy, and the Humana Tower in Louisville, Kentucky (1982-86). Its design received numerous awards.

Graves also designed the San Juan Capistrano Library in California; the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Ohio; the expansion of the Newark, New Jersey, Museum; Disney's corporate headquarters in Burbank, California, and "Castalia," the Netherlands' Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in The Hague.

He recently completed the headquarters of the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation in Washington, D.C., which anchors one end of Pennsylvania Avenue. The architect is currently designing the expansion and renovation of the U.S. Courthouse at the other end of the avenue.

He also designed the scaffolding -- lighted at night -- for the Washington Monument restoration, which he designed and oversaw. The landmark reopened last summer.

Hopkins, who has known Graves for 25 years, said the architect has "reinterpreted some of the humanistic aspects of early architecture" by giving buildings a more humanistic scale and encouraging pedestrian movement.

"It makes architecture more comfortable for everybody," Hopkins said.

Graves admitted that the challenge for him is to make each project unique by paying attention to where activity is taking place, how it's being done -- the end user. He enjoys taking on an entire building project, from the planning stage to interiors and deciding what kinds of artifacts will be within.

Always, he tries to take a broad view.

"There is no one-size-fits-all," the architect said.

Graves was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1934, and studied architecture at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio) and at Harvard University.

Afterward, he won the Rome Prize and studied at the American Academy in Rome, Italy, where he is a trustee. He joined the Princeton architecture faculty in 1962, and opened his practice in 1962. In 1970, he won the first of 14 Progressive Architecture Design Awards, and has won dozens of honors since.

Washington Monument restoration celebrated
July 3, 2000
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June 5, 2000
Washington Monument partially reopening
February 22, 1999
Bullseye! Michael Graves does Target
February 11, 1999

Michael Graves & Associates
"Meet Architect Michael Graves" (Indianapolis Art Center)
American Institute of Architects
Cesar Pelli & Associates
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Princeton University
Great Buildings Online: Frank Gehry
Great Buildings Online: Le Corbusier
Great Buildings Online: Louis I. Kahn
Great Buildings Online: Ricardo Legorreta

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