Michael Graves
Michael Graves
Michael Graveswas an American architect. Identified as one of The New York Five, as well as Memphis Group, Graves was known first for his contemporary building designs and some prominent public commissions that became iconic examples of Postmodern architecture, such as the Portland Building and Denver Public Library. His recognition grew through designing domestic products sold by premium Italian housewares maker Alessi, and later low-cost new designs at stores such as Target and J. C. Penney in the United States...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth9 July 1934
CityIndianapolis, IN
CountryUnited States of America
Alberto Alessi had asked a dozen architects to design a sterling silver tea service - with a teapot, a coffee pot, sugar, creamer, a spoon, and a tray. Our brief was that it didn't matter if it didn't work and cost wasn't the issue. It was a promotional project, not a commercial enterprise, and was going to be showcased in museums. And the coffee and tea piazza, as mine was called, received a great response. It was wonderful to walk into the Whitney museum and see all these objects on the first floor.
When I started my own practice, I was criticized, not because I was doing product design but because, like Le Corbusier, I was insisting on paintings in all of my buildings. I would paint wall murals in the houses that I designed, just as he did in the '20s and '30s.
It would be nice if the cities knew who would be prosecuting before they passed the ordinance and started arresting people.
I used a kind of gray-green early on in my practice for painting steel, to make it look more like it had a kind of patina to it, like copper and bronze and so on. The color I used was a Benjamin Moore color called 2012. My then-young daughter started calling me 2012 - it was my nickname.
Rather than see the Art Center as an isolated object in the green, ... we were intrigued by the possibility of creating a positive, reciprocal relationship between the building and the landscape.
At the time we were planning the building, ... Joyce wanted to include a sensory park. But the budget wouldn't let us do both projects, so we agreed to work on the park when there was money to do so.
Views are overrated; it's light that counts. I have an apartment in Miami's South Beach, and I get tired of looking at the ocean. Even that view gets old after a while. Sunlight streaming into a room - it never gets old.
I don't clean now, because I'm paralyzed. But let me tell you, I would clean. I cleaned, and I ironed. It's my inner femininity.
I don't care what people call me,labels have the negative value of making smaller boundaries for people.
I believe well-designed places and objects can actually improve healing, while poor design can inhibit it.
I grew up in a time when Eames and Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects were putting their furniture and objects on the market. You could buy some of those objects on the open market. Eames was a huge influence on all of us in school.
People want to sign, but it's hard to get the guys to commit the time.
On the first day I got my wheelchair, I was also given all my clothes for the next day, a little pile on the chair. I was so proud of myself for getting it all on - the socks and everything. Dressing is a struggle, and it can take up to an hour and a half.
I have a requirement for myself in making designations of elements. I need to have full language and I do not want the language to be only space.