MICHAEL GRAVES
2000 HONOREE
Designer
Michael Graves, FAIA, is one of the most significant contemporary architects and designers. Like Russel Wright, he is working to bring great domestic design to as many people as possible, particularly in his extensive line of home accessories for Target-his signature tea kettle, a toaster, cooking utensils, telephones, picture frames, and more. Also like Russel Wright, he has a great interest in the integration of architecture with setting.
Graves is known for skillful design at every scale of creativity, from the largest building complex to the smallest detail of a residential interior and its furnishings. Hundreds of awards have been bestowed on his prokjects worldwide for such clients as Disney, Miele and Target. For Disney, he designed the Team Disney headquarters in Burbank, CA, and the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels. One of his most visible recent achievements has been the aesthetic design of the scaffolding for the restoration of the Washington Monument. In addition to numerous public buildings, Graves has designed dozens of private residences ranging from a small, cliff-side artists' cottage in the Hudson River Valley to a villa for a prominent European businessman in Switzerland.
Graves was awarded a 1999 National Medal of Arts by President Clinton, who cited Graves' exceptional achievements in architecture, design and education, saying that Graves "has taught us the importance of beauty, simplicity, and intelligence in creating our everyday environment."
Graves has dubbed himself "a general practitioner," designing a wide range of furnishings and artifacts, from furniture and lighting fixtures to jewelry and dinnerware, for companies such as Alessi, Steuben, Disney, Phillips Electronics and Black & Decker.
Michael Graves holds ten honorary doctorates and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was educated at the University of Cincinnati and Harvard University. He joined the architecture faculty of Princeton University in 1962, where he currently holds the Robert Schirmer Professorship.