Not many architects can claim to have spearheaded a major design movement. Michael Graves played a prominent role in three.

Graves, who died Thursday at 80 of natural causes at his home in Princeton, N.J., was a pioneering figure in postmodernism in the 1980s and 90s. He added historical ornament and bright color to prominent and often controversial buildings like the Portland municipal building in Oregon, the Denver Central Library, the 26-story Humana tower in Louisville, Ky., and the Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif.

As a product designer, creating chess sets, stainless-steel colanders and dustpans for Target and tea kettles for Alessi, Graves brought high-design housewares to a broad public, paving the way for the later success of Design Within Reach and Ikea and arguably setting the stage for the ascendance of new stars like Apples in-house design guru Jonathan Ive.

Late in life, after complications from a sinus infection left him in a wheelchair, Graves became a leading voice calling for reform in health care design, arguing that hospitals and medical products were not just thoughtlessly made but often soul-sapping for patients.

If there was a thread connecting that disparate work, it was a deeply felt populism, a philosophy embodied in the slogan Target attached to his products: Good design should be affordable to all.

His architecture, similarly, represented an effort to bring back all the crowd-pleasing details columns, gables, gargoyles that dour modernist architects, with their emphasis on flat roofs and functionalist dogma, had banished. Though many of his buildings had a limited, scenographic quality more effective as eye-catching billboards for innovative design ideas than as built space and havent aged well, they were always full of vitality and humor.

Graves was born in Indianapolis on July 9, 1934. After earning a degree in architecture from the University of Cincinnati in 1958, he enrolled at Harvards Graduate School of Design, a place very much still in thrall to the ideals of strict modernism. After finishing at Harvard and spending two years at the American Academy in Rome, Graves settled in New Jersey, joining the Princeton University faculty, where he would spend his entire teaching career, and opening his own practice.

Early on, Graves architecture reflected the influence of his time at Harvard. He was a member (with Richard Meier, Peter Eisenman, Charles Gwathmey and John Hejduk) of the so-called New York Five, a collection of young architects who produced abstract designs reminiscent of the French modernist Le Corbusier.

But the group was always a loose-knit one philosophically; they first came together almost by chance, having been invited by Museum of Modern Art curator Arthur Drexler to meet in 1969 to discuss their work and contemporary design. The 1972 book Five Architects nearly cemented their reputation as a coherent group.

But only nearly. And it was Graves who broke from the pack and proved how flexible its bonds had always been by beginning to look to history and ornament as sources of explicit inspiration. In fact an important early project, the 1972 Snyderman House in Fort Wayne, Ind., was completed the same year Five Architects was published, while undermining some of its modernist principles.

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Michael Graves, pioneering figure in postmodern architecture, dies at 80

Pier Solar and the Great Architects #20 (HD) - Auf in den Wilden Westen - Lets Play German / DE
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Pier Solar and the Great Architects #20 (HD) - Auf in den Wilden Westen - Lets Play German / DE - Video

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Architect Michael Graves brought good design to the masses with his product line for Target, helped lead the postmodernist revolt against steel-and-glass boxes, and designed products for disabled people after a spinal cord infection left him in a wheelchair.

Mr. Graves, 80, a winner of the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal, the highest honor the organization bestows upon an individual, died of natural causes Thursday, March 12, in his hometown of Princeton, N.J., a spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

In the 1980s, reacting to the strictures of sober postwar modernism, Mr. Graves was one of the postmodern architects who reintroduced color, whimsy and decoration to building design. He did so in commissions ranging from a still-controversial municipal office building in Portland, Ore., to an earth-toned Disney hotel festooned with giant sculptures of swans in Florida.

What really put Mr. Graves on the pop culture map was his angular stainless steel teakettle for Alessi, which quickly became a best-seller after its 1985 debut. He scored big again with his 1999 product line for Minneapolis-based Target, which came to encompass more than 2,000 products, including the "Spinning Whistle Teakettle," a simpler and less expensive version of the legendary Alessi teapot.

Through such work, the architect achieved the dream of the German Bauhaus modernists of the early 20th century, spreading the gospel of good design to people of modest means.

"He was the one who popularized it," Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman said Thursday of postmodern design. "He was immensely talented."

Born in Indianapolis, Mr. Graves first achieved notoriety in the 1970s as a member of the "New York Five," a group of architects influenced by the white, modernist buildings of the Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier.

He remained a relatively obscure Princeton University professor until 1980, when he won a design competition for the Portland municipal office building. The squat, midrise structure opened in 1982 with a full complement of decoration, from ersatz ribbons to a large sculpture of the female figure Portlandia.

Critics of a modernist bent derided the design as mere packaging. But the barbs did not stop Mr. Graves from winning other high-profile commissions, such as the Humana corporate headquarters in Louisville, Ky., and a proposed addition to New York's Whitney Museum of Art that was never built.

Mr. Graves got a career-changing break in the late 1990s when Target commissioned him to design scaffolding for the restoration of the Washington Monument.

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Michael Graves, architect and designer, dies at 80

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CIMA Architects CEO John Alday on CIMA #39;s On-premises and Off-premises Infrastructure Solutions
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Speculative as well as realised works by renowned contemporary architects is the focus of the upcoming Communiqu 2015 lecture series at the University of Auckland. Hosted by the School of Architecture and Planning, the theme of this years popular annual series is Bridging the Utopian and the Pragmatic.

Architectural visions will be presented by the authors themselves as well as critical historians, tracing the processes of space-making, from ideas to research and invention, to realisation for some.

Communiqu 2015 begins with Gregor Hoheisel of GRAFT, the cutting-edge company known for collaborating with actor Brad Pitt to rebuild a neighbourhood in New Orleans, devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. More recently they invented the worlds first solar kiosks; compact, autonomous, modular business units with solar panels, designed to provide affordable energy, products, tools and services to the approximately 16 per cent of the worlds population living in regions without access to electricity.

Second in the series is Chris Bosse co-founder of the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA), a firm that explores the frontiers that merge technology with the patterns of organisation found in nature, in the belief that this will result in a smarter, friendlier, more socially and environmentally responsible future. LAVA designs include pop up installations, urban centres, homes made from bottles, furniture, hotels, and airports.

In the following lecture Senior Lecturer Ross Jenner, from the University of Auckland, will focus on the work of Portuguese architecture firm Aires Mateus, renowned for their sculptural minimalist buildings.

Next Senior Lecturer Alessandro Melis from the University of Auckland and also co-founder of Heliopolis21, will discuss the design process of the firms award-winning, multifunctional complex Trentino. Heliopolis 21 designs environmentally conscious buildings and smart cities which aim to meet todays needs without compromising the needs of future generations.

The fifth speaker in the series is Severin Soder from Architectus, who will reflect on designs from the firms archives which have never been fully realised, existing only as drawings and models.

Later in the lecture series Associate Dean Julia Gatley, from the University of Auckland and author of the book Athfield Architects, will discuss the extraordinary vision of one of New Zealands best known architects, Sir Ian Athfield, who died recently.

Communiqu ends with Jinhee Park and John Hong of Single speed Design (SsD), acclaimed for their inventive designs, particularly for small urban living spaces. They will discuss their projects and how they maximise architectures ability to change the way we live, work, and socialise.

All seven lectures target issues relevant to architecture and planning and are intended to foster critical discussion and debate.

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Visionary architecture in focus

MONTICELLO After evaluating six possible sites, school district architects believe land near the Apple Tree subdivision may be the best spot for a new Monticello High School.

At a special Monticello school board meeting, they also rated three sites near Monticello Middle School as "good" options, but the land they looked at near the current high school came in fifth. Land on Bridge Street along I-72 finished last due to concerns over lack of access and utilities.

"The Apple Tree site kind of stands above," said John Whitlock, an architect for BLDD Architects. "The three middle school sites are also very close."

He placed Apple Tree's score of 3.05 out of 4.0 as "very good," and also felt the three middle school-area sites, ranging from 2.83 to 2.89, would be suitable should the district pursue a new school.

"I think what we were able to show here is that you have four sites that are very appropriate for a new high school location," he added.

BLDD was asked to evaluate potential sites after a November referendum question to fund a new high school was defeated. Board members heard that one reason people voted against the $40 million ballot issue was they did not know where the school would be constructed.

The idea of placing a new school near the current one the preference last year of community engagement participants is not dead, however. The site evaluated by BLDD was located south of the existing baseball field and track. The board asked BLDD to calculate a new rating based on building a new school on the current fields, which are on 20 acres the district already owns. Additional land would then be needed for new athletic fields, but less than the 32-acre minimum recommended for a 135,000-square-foot, 600-student high school.

If the school board opted for Apple Tree, 30 of the 50 acres already belong to the city of Monticello, which plans on developing a recreation area on the plat

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Architects: Apple Tree site best for new Monticello high school