Remembering Michael Graves

A word from ICAA Chairman, Mark Ferguson

My fellow members and I at the ICAA are deeply saddened by the death of our teacher, mentor and longtime advisor Michael Graves. His passion for teaching and his erudition and artistry were legendary. These qualities drew me and my future colleagues, the founders of the Institute, to the Graduate College at Princeton in the early 1980s. His prolific output of drawings and, later, of buildings, furniture and household objects, was deeply influential on an entire generation of architects. It was an extraordinary time to be his student. He made ancient design principles relevant by making evident, in his critiques and in his work, the endless possibilities for invention embodied in simple ideas. His use of metaphor to connect buildings to the humanist tradition laid the foundation for our careers. We are thankful for his counsel and will always draw inspiration from his work.

Michael Graves at the ICAA's Reconsidering Postmodernism Conference, 2011. Photo © Sterne Slaven.