Charles Gwathmey

Charles Gwathmey was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, he was the son of the American painter Robert Gwathmey and photographer Rosalie Gwathmey. He attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City, graduating in 1956. Gwathmey attended the University of Pennsylvania and received his Master of Architecture degree in 1962 from Yale School of Architecture, where he won both the William Wirt Winchester Fellowship as the outstanding graduate and a Fulbright Grant. While at Yale, he studied under Paul Rudolph. Gwathmey was president of the board of trustees for The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies and was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1981.

• Name — Charles Gwathmey • Born — 19 June 1938 • Birthplace — Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. • Died — 3 August 2009 • Place of death — New York City, U.S. • Parents — Robert Gwathmey Rosalie Gwathmey

• Illustration — Gwathmey designed this condominium tower at 445 Lafayette Street where Lafayette, Cooper Square and Astor Place come together. In 1965, at age 28 and only three years out of the Yale School of Architecture, and not yet a licensed architect, he designed a house and studio for his parents in Amagansett, New York, that became famous and revolutionized beach house design. When he did take the professional licensing exam, he was surprised to see a multiple-choice question on the test that asked "Which of these is the organic house?" The choices included the house he designed for his parents. He wanted to answer that the organic house was his, but in order to pass the exam he chose Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House. He knew that was the answer they wanted. He passed. By 1977, Gwathmey had designed 21 houses and renovations while still under 40 years old and ten years of practice. From 1965 through 1991, Gwathmey taught at Pratt Institute, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas, and the University of California at Los Angeles. He was Davenport Professor (1983 and 1999) and Bishop Professor (1991) at Yale, and the Eliot Noyes Visiting Professor at Harvard University (1985). Gwathmey was the Spring 2005 William A. Bernoudy Resident in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome. Gwathmey's firm designed the Museum Of Contemporary Art of North Miami, Florida in 1995, and the Astor Place Tower, a 21-story condominium project in Manhattan's East Village, in 2005. In 2011 the Ron Brown Building would be the new home of the United States Mission to the United Nations for which he was the lead architect. The building was dedicated to him. In her remarks, Ambassador Susan Rice thanked Gwathmey posthumously.

His first marriage to Emily Margolin, a writer, ended in divorce. He had one child from that marriage, Annie Gwathmey. In 1974 Gwathmey married Bette-Ann Damson. Gwathmey died of esophageal cancer on August 3, 2009, one day before the opening of Bay Lake Tower, one of his projects. He was 71. His wife donated his archives to Yale University in 2010.

• Building/project — Location — Country — Date • Robert Gwathmey Residence — Amagansett, New York — United States — 1965 • Straus Residence — Purchase, New York — United States — 1966 • Joseph Sedacca Residence — Northwest Harbor, New York — United States — 1968 • The Jack D. and Barbara Weiss Goldberg Residence — Manchester, CT — United States — 1969 • Cooper Residence — Orleans, MA — United States — 1969 • Dunaway Residence — New York, New York — United States — 1970 • The Loring Mandel House — Huntington Bay, New York — United States — 1970 • The Paul and Kay Breslow Apartment — New York, New York — United States — 1973 • The Maurice and Marilyn Cohn Residence — Amagansett, New York — United States — 1973 • East Campus Housing and Academic Center, Columbia University — New York, New York — United States — 1973 • The Charof Residence — Montauk, New York — United States — 1976 • The Buettner Residence — Sloatsburg, New York — United States — 1977 • The Richard and Thea Benenson House — Rye, New York — United States — 1977 • The David Geffen Apartment — New York, New York — United States — 1979 • The Lloyd Taft House — Cincinnati, Ohio — United States — 1979 • de Menil Residence — Amagansett, New York — United States — 1982 • Sycamore Place Senior Housing — Columbus, Indiana — United States — 1982 • Pence Place Family Housing — Columbus, Indiana — United States — 1984 • The Steven Spielberg Apartment — New York, New York — United States — 1985 • American Museum of the Moving Image — Queens, New York — United States — 1988 • The Morgan Stanley Building — New York City, New York — United States — 1990 • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum addition — New York City, New York — United States — 1992 • Yale Arts Complex addition — New Haven, Connecticut — United States — 2006 • 445 Lafayette Street — New York City, New York — United States — 2006 • Glenstone (residence and guest house) — Potomac, Maryland — United States — 2006 • Renovation and expansion of the Yale School of Architecture — New Haven, Connecticut — United States — 2008 • Bay Lake Tower — Walt Disney World Resort — United States — 2009 • Cleveland State University Student Center — Cleveland, Ohio — United States — 2010 • United States Mission to the United Nations — New York City, New York — United States — 2011 (lead architect-completed posthumously)

Charles Gwathmey is recorded as United States.