Graves, Michael

Influential architect and designer Michael Graves studied at Harvard and taught at Princeton while designing private houses in the abstract, austere style of orthodox Modernism. However, in the late 1970's he rejected this expression and began seeking a larger, Post-modernist vocabulary. The hulking masses of the Portland Building and the Humana Building both display Graves' highly personal, new Cubist rendering of such Classical elements as colonnades and loggias.

Though sometimes considered awkward, these and Graves' later buildings, such as the Indianapolis Art Center, are acclaimed for their ironic interpretation of traditional forms as can be seen in his many designs for Alessi that clearly depict a “new Americana.” It is this sensibility that has made Graves a star among designers.