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{{short description|American architect}}
{{Infobox architect
{{Infobox architect
| name = Robert Venturi
| image = Robert Venturi 2008 Rome (cropped).jpg
| image = Robert_Venturi_2008_Rome_(cropped).jpg
| image_size = 230
| image_size = 230
| caption = Robert Venturi in Rome, 2008
| caption = Venturi in 2008
|birth_name=Robert Charles Venturi Jr.
| birth_name = Robert Charles Venturi Jr.
| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|6|25}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|6|25}}
| birth_place = [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]], U.S.
| birth_place = [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|09|18|1925|6|25}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|09|18|1925|6|25}}
| death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| nationality = American
| nationality = <!-- American -->
| alma_mater = [[Princeton University]]
| alma_mater = [[Princeton University]]
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Denise Scott Brown]]|1967}}
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Denise Scott Brown]]|1967}}
| children = James Venturi
| children = 1<!-- James Venturi -->
| parents = Robert Venturi Sr. <br> Vanna Luizi
| parents = <!-- Robert Venturi Sr. <br /> Vanna Luizi -->
| awards = [[Pritzker Prize]] (1991)<br/> [[Vincent Scully Prize]] (2002)
| awards = {{ubl| [[Pritzker Prize]] (1991)| [[Vincent Scully Prize]] (2002)| [[AIA Gold Medal]] (2016)}}
| practice = Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates<br>Venturi and Rauch<br> Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown
| practice = {{ubli| [[Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates]]| Venturi and Rauch| [[Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown]]}}
| significant_buildings =
| significant_buildings =
| significant_projects =
| significant_projects =
| significant_design =
| significant_design =
}}
}}
[[File:V Venturi H 720am.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Vanna Venturi House]]]]
[[File:V Venturi H 720am.JPG|thumb|[[Vanna Venturi House]]]]
'''Robert Charles Venturi Jr.''' (June 25, 1925 – September 18, 2018) was an American [[architect]], founding principal of the firm [[Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates]], and one of the major architectural figures of the twentieth century.
'''Robert Charles Venturi Jr.''' (June 25, 1925 – September 18, 2018) was an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates.


Together with his wife and partner, [[Denise Scott Brown]], he helped shape the way that architects, planners and students experience and think about architecture and the American-built environment. Their buildings, planning, theoretical writings, and teaching have also contributed to the expansion of discourse about architecture.
Together with his wife and partner, [[Denise Scott Brown]], he helped shape the way that architects, planners and students experience and think about architecture and the built environment. Their buildings, planning, theoretical writings, and teaching have also contributed to the expansion of discourse about architecture.


Venturi was awarded the [[Pritzker Prize]] in Architecture in 1991; the prize was awarded to him alone, despite a request to include his equal partner, Brown. Subsequently, a group of women architects attempted to get her name added retroactively to the prize, but the Pritzker Prize jury declined to do so.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/no-pritzker-prize-for-denise-scott-brown/?_r=0 |title=No Pritzker Prize for Denise Scott Brown |first=Robin |last=Pogrebin |date=June 14, 2013 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/01/business/denise-scott-brown-pritzker-prize |title=Denise Scott Brown: Architecture favors 'lone male genius' over women |newspaper=CNN |author= Catriona Davies |date=May 29, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=ARCHITECTURE VIEW; Robert Venturi, Gentle Subverter of Modernism |author=Goldberger, Paul|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEEDD1338F937A25757C0A967958260|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 14, 1991}}</ref> Venturi is also known for having coined the maxim "Less is a bore", a [[postmodern architecture|postmodern]] antidote to [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe|Mies van der Rohe's]] famous [[Modernism|modernist]] dictum "Less is more". Venturi lived in [[Philadelphia]] with Denise Scott Brown. He is the father of James Venturi, founder and principal of ReThink Studio.
Venturi was awarded the [[Pritzker Prize]] in Architecture in 1991; the prize was awarded to him alone, despite a request to include his equal partner, Scott Brown. Subsequently, a group of women architects attempted to get her name added retroactively to the prize, but the Pritzker Prize jury declined to do so.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/no-pritzker-prize-for-denise-scott-brown/?_r=0 |title=No Pritzker Prize for Denise Scott Brown |first=Robin |last=Pogrebin |date=June 14, 2013 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/01/business/denise-scott-brown-pritzker-prize |title=Denise Scott Brown: Architecture favors 'lone male genius' over women |newspaper=CNN |author= Catriona Davies |date=May 29, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=ARCHITECTURE VIEW; Robert Venturi, Gentle Subverter of Modernism |author=Goldberger, Paul|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEEDD1338F937A25757C0A967958260|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 14, 1991}}</ref> Venturi coined the maxim "Less is a bore", a [[postmodern architecture|postmodern]] antidote to [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe|Mies van der Rohe's]] famous [[Modernism|modernist]] dictum "Less is more". Venturi lived in [[Philadelphia]] with Denise Scott Brown. He is the father of James Venturi, founder and principal of ReThink Studio.


==Early life and education==
==Early life and education==
Venturi was born in Philadelphia to Robert Venturi Sr. and Vanna (née Luizi) Venturi and was raised as a [[Quaker]].<ref name=yearbook>The Nassau Herald 1947, Princeton University yearbook</ref> Venturi attended school at the [[Episcopal Academy]] in [[Merion]], [[Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite book
Venturi was born in [[Philadelphia]] to Robert Venturi Sr. and Vanna (née Luizi) Venturi, and was raised as a [[Quaker]].<ref name=yearbook>The Nassau Herald 1947, Princeton University yearbook</ref> Venturi attended school at the [[Episcopal Academy]] in [[Merion]], [[Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite book
| last =Thomas | first =George E. | title =William L. Price, Arts and Crafts to Modern Design
| last =Thomas | first =George E. | title =William L. Price, Arts and Crafts to Modern Design
| publisher =Princeton Architectural Press| year =2000 | location = | pages =362
| publisher =Princeton Architectural Press| year =2000 | pages =362
| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=m19alHeSKVwC
| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=m19alHeSKVwC
| isbn=1-56898-220-8 }} in Introduction by Robert Venturi</ref> He graduated ''[[summa cum laude]]'' from [[Princeton University]] in 1947 where he was a member-elect of [[Phi Beta Kappa]] and won the D'Amato Prize in Architecture.<ref name=yearbook/> He received his [[Master of Fine Arts|M.F.A.]] from Princeton in 1950. The educational program at Princeton under Professor Jean Labatut, who offered provocative design studios within a Beaux-Arts pedagogical framework,<ref>{{cite book | last =Otero-Pailos | first =Jorge | title =Architecture’s Historical Turn: Phenomenology and the Rise of the Postmodern | publisher =University of Minnesota Press| year =2010 | location = | pages =25–99 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=3WDOQgAACAAJ&dq=architecture's%20historical%20turn&source=gbs_book_other_versions | isbn=9780816666041}}</ref> was a key factor in Venturi's development of an approach to [[architectural theory]] and design that drew from architectural history and commercial architecture in analytical, as opposed to stylistic, terms.<ref name="PritzkerPrize">[http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/1991/bio.html Robert Venturi 1991 Laureate] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221235103/http://pritzkerprize.com/laureates/1991/bio.html |date=December 21, 2010 }} Pritzker Architecture Prize</ref> In 1951 he briefly worked under [[Eero Saarinen]] in [[Bloomfield Hills, Michigan]], and later for [[Louis Kahn]] in Philadelphia. He was awarded the [[Rome Prize Fellowship]] at the [[American Academy in Rome]] in 1954, where he studied and toured Europe for two years.
| isbn=1-56898-220-8 }} in Introduction by Robert Venturi</ref> He graduated ''[[summa cum laude]]'' from [[Princeton University]] in 1947 where he was a member-elect of [[Phi Beta Kappa]] and won the D'Amato Prize in Architecture.<ref name=yearbook/> He received his [[Master of Fine Arts|M.F.A.]] from Princeton in 1950. The educational program at Princeton under Professor Jean Labatut, who offered provocative design studios within a Beaux-Arts pedagogical framework,<ref>{{cite book | last =Otero-Pailos | first =Jorge | title =Architecture's Historical Turn: Phenomenology and the Rise of the Postmodern | publisher =University of Minnesota Press| year =2010 | pages =25–99 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=3WDOQgAACAAJ&q=architecture's%20historical%20turn | isbn=9780816666041}}</ref> was a key factor in Venturi's development of an approach to [[architectural theory]] and design that drew from architectural history and commercial architecture in analytical, as opposed to stylistic, terms.<ref name="PritzkerPrize">[http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/1991/bio.html Robert Venturi 1991 Laureate] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221235103/http://pritzkerprize.com/laureates/1991/bio.html |date=December 21, 2010 }} Pritzker Architecture Prize</ref> In 1951 he briefly worked under [[Eero Saarinen]] in [[Bloomfield Hills, Michigan]], and later for [[Louis Kahn]] in Philadelphia. He was awarded the [[Rome Prize Fellowship]] at the [[American Academy in Rome]] in 1954, where he studied and toured Europe for two years.


From 1959 to 1967, Venturi held teaching positions at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], where he served as Kahn's teaching assistant, an instructor, and later, as associate professor. It was there, in 1960, that he met fellow faculty member, architect and planner [[Denise Scott Brown]]. Venturi taught later at the [[Yale School of Architecture]] and was a visiting lecturer with Scott Brown in 2003 at [[Harvard University]]'s [[Graduate School of Design]].
From 1959 to 1967, Venturi held teaching positions at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], where he served as Kahn's teaching assistant, an instructor, and later, as associate professor. It was there, in 1960, that he met fellow faculty member, architect and planner [[Denise Scott Brown]]. Venturi taught later at the [[Yale School of Architecture]] and was a visiting lecturer with Scott Brown in 2003 at [[Harvard University]]'s [[Graduate School of Design]].
==Career==
[[File:Denise Scott Brown 1978 © Lynn Gilbert.jpg|thumb|Venturi's wife and business partner Denise Scott Brown]]
A controversial critic of what he saw as the blithely [[Functionalism (architecture)|functionalist]] and symbolically vacuous architecture of corporate modernism during the 1950s, Venturi was one of the first architects to question some of the premises of the Modern Movement. He published his "gentle manifesto", ''Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture'' in 1966; in its introduction, [[Vincent Scully]] called it "probably the most important writing on the making of architecture since [[Le Corbusier]]'s [[Towards a New Architecture|''Vers Une Architecture'']] of 1923." The work was derived from course lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and Venturi received a grant from the [[Graham Foundation]] in 1965 to aid in its completion. The book demonstrated, through countless examples, an approach to understanding architectural composition and complexity, and the resulting richness and interest. Citing [[vernacular]] as well as high-style sources, Venturi drew new lessons from the buildings of architects familiar ([[Michelangelo]], [[Alvar Aalto]]) and, at the time, forgotten ([[Frank Furness]], [[Edwin Lutyens]]). He made a case for "the difficult whole" rather than the diagrammatic forms popular at the time, and included examples — both built and unrealized — of his own work to demonstrate the possible application of such techniques. The book has been published in 18 languages to date.


Immediately hailed as a theorist and designer with radical ideas, Venturi went to teach a series of studios at the [[Yale School of Architecture]] in the mid-1960s. The most famous of these was a studio in 1968 in which Venturi and Scott Brown, together with [[Steven Izenour]], led a team of students to document and analyze the [[Las Vegas Strip]], perhaps the least likely subject for a serious research project imaginable.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/lessons-from-las-vegas/|title=Lessons from Las Vegas - 99% Invisible|work=99% Invisible|access-date=April 26, 2018|language=en-US}}</ref> In 1972, Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenour published the folio, ''A Significance for A&P Parking Lots, or [[Learning from Las Vegas]].'' It was revised using the student work as a foil for new theory, and reissued in 1977 as ''Learning from Las Vegas: the Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form''. This second manifesto was an even more stinging rebuke to orthodox modernism and elite architectural tastes. The book coined the terms "Duck" and "Decorated Shed", descriptions of the two predominant ways of embodying iconography in buildings. The work of Venturi, Scott Brown, and [[John Rauch (architect)|John Rauch]]<ref>{{Cite web |author=Sandra L. Tatman |title=Rauch, John K., Jr. (b. 1930)|publisher=Philadelphia Architects and Buildings |access-date=November 17, 2020 |url=https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/23464}}</ref>
==Architectural theories==
adopted the latter strategy, producing formally simple "decorated sheds" with rich, complex, and often shocking ornamental flourishes. Venturi and his wife co-wrote several more books at the end of the century, but these two have so far proved to be the most influential.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Mark Alan Hewitt |title=Venturi, Robert |work=Grove Art Online |publisher=Oxford Art Online |date=November 28, 2011 |url=http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2086166}}</ref>
A controversial critic of the blithely [[Functionalism (architecture)|functionalist]] and symbolically vacuous architecture of corporate modernism during the 1950s, Venturi was one of the first architects to question some of the premises of the Modern Movement. He published his "gentle manifesto", ''Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture'' in 1966; in its introduction, [[Vincent Scully]] called it "probably the most important writing on the making of architecture since [[Le Corbusier]]'s [[Towards a New Architecture|''Vers Une Architecture'']] of 1923." The work was derived from course lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and Venturi received a grant from the [[Graham Foundation]] in 1965 to aid in its completion. The book demonstrated, through countless examples, an approach to understanding architectural composition and complexity, and the resulting richness and interest. Citing [[vernacular]] as well as high-style sources, Venturi drew new lessons from the buildings of architects familiar ([[Michelangelo]], [[Alvar Aalto]]) and then-forgotten ([[Frank Furness]], [[Edwin Lutyens]]). He made a case for "the difficult whole" rather than the diagrammatic forms popular at the time, and included examples — both built and unrealized — of his own work to demonstrate the possible application of such techniques. The book has been published in 18 languages to date.
[[File:Denise Scott Brown 1978 © Lynn Gilbert.jpg|thumb|left|Venturi's wife and business partner Denise Scott Brown]]
Immediately hailed as a theorist and designer with radical ideas, Venturi went to teach a series of studios at the [[Yale School of Architecture]] in the mid-1960s. The most famous of these was a studio in 1968 in which Venturi and Scott Brown, together with [[Steven Izenour]], led a team of students to document and analyze the [[Las Vegas Strip]], perhaps the least likely subject for a serious research project imaginable.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/lessons-from-las-vegas/|title=Lessons from Las Vegas - 99% Invisible|work=99% Invisible|access-date=April 26, 2018|language=en-US}}</ref> In 1972, Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenour published the folio, ''A Significance for A&P Parking Lots, or [[Learning from Las Vegas]].'' It was revised using the student work as a foil for new theory, and reissued in 1977 as ''Learning from Las Vegas: the Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form''. This second manifesto was an even more stinging rebuke to orthodox modernism and elite architectural tastes. The book coined the terms "Duck" and "Decorated Shed," descriptions of the two predominant ways of embodying iconography in buildings. The work of Venturi, Scott Brown, and [[John Rauch (architect)|John Rauch]] adopted the latter strategy, producing formally simple "decorated sheds" with rich, complex, and often shocking ornamental flourishes. Venturi and his wife co-wrote several more books at the end of the century, but these two have so far proved to be the most influential.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Mark Alan Hewitt |title=Venturi, Robert |work=Grove Art Online |publisher=Oxford Art Online |date=November 28, 2011 |url=http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2086166}}</ref>


==Architecture==
==Architecture==
[[File:Guildhouse Philly.JPG|thumb|The [[Guild House (Philadelphia)|Guild House]], completed 1964, on Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia]]
[[File:Guildhouse Philly.JPG|thumb|The [[Guild House (Philadelphia)|Guild House]], completed 1964, on Spring Garden Street in [[Philadelphia]]]]
[[File:Espicopal Acad int.JPG|thumb|Chapel at the Episcopal Academy in [[Newtown Square, Pennsylvania]] (2010)]]
The architecture of Robert Venturi, although perhaps not as familiar today as his books, helped redirect American architecture away from a widely practiced, often banal, modernism in the 1960s to a more exploratory design approach that openly drew lessons from architectural history and responded to the everyday context of the American city.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.archdaily.com/130389/interview-robert-venturi-denise-scott-brown-by-andrea-tamas |title=Interview: Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown |date=April 25, 2011 |publisher=Archdaily.com}}</ref> Venturi's buildings typically juxtapose architectural systems, elements and aims, to acknowledge the conflicts often inherent in a project or site. This "inclusive" approach contrasted with the typical modernist effort to resolve and unify all factors in a complete and rigidly structured—and possibly less functional and more simplistic—work of art. The diverse range of buildings of Venturi's early career offered surprising alternatives to then current architectural practice, with "impure" forms (such as the North Penn Visiting Nurses Headquarters), apparently casual asymmetries (as at the Vanna Venturi House), and pop-style supergraphics and geometries (for instance, the Lieb House).
The architecture of Robert Venturi, although perhaps not as familiar today as his books, helped redirect American architecture away from a widely practiced modernism in the 1960s to a more exploratory design approach that openly drew lessons from architectural history and responded to the everyday context of the American city.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.archdaily.com/130389/interview-robert-venturi-denise-scott-brown-by-andrea-tamas |title=Interview: Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown |date=April 25, 2011 |publisher=Archdaily.com}}</ref> Venturi's buildings typically juxtapose architectural systems, elements and aims, to acknowledge the conflicts often inherent in a project or site. This "inclusive" approach contrasted with the typical modernist effort to resolve and unify all factors in a complete and rigidly structured—and possibly less functional and more simplistic—work of art. The diverse range of buildings of Venturi's early career offered surprising alternatives to then current architectural practice, with "impure" forms (such as the North Penn Visiting Nurses Headquarters), apparently casual asymmetries (as at the Vanna Venturi House), and pop-style supergraphics and geometries (for instance, the Lieb House).


Venturi created the firm Venturi and Short with William Short in 1960. In his architectural design Venturi was influenced by early masters such as [[Michelangelo]] and [[Andrea Palladio|Palladio]], and modern masters including [[Le Corbusier]], [[Alvar Aalto]], [[Louis Kahn]] and [[Eero Saarinen]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-0415862875|pages=749}}</ref> After John Rauch replaced Short as partner in 1964, the firm's name changed to Venturi and Rauch. Venturi married [[Denise Scott Brown]] on July 23, 1967, in [[Santa Monica, California]], and in 1969, Scott Brown joined the firm as partner in charge of planning. In 1980, The firm's name became Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown, and after Rauch's resignation in 1989, Venturi, Scott Brown, and Associates. The firm, based in [[Manayunk, Philadelphia]], was awarded the Architecture Firm Award by the [[American Institute of Architects]] in 1985. The practice's recent work includes many commissions from academic institutions, including campus planning and university buildings, and civic buildings in London, [[Toulouse]], and Japan.
[[File:Espicopal Acad int.JPG|thumb|Chapel at the Episcopal Academy, Newtown Square, PA. (2010)]]
Venturi created the firm Venturi and Short with William Short in 1960. In his architectural design Venturi was influenced by early masters such as [[Michelangelo]] and [[Andrea Palladio|Palladio]], and modern masters including [[Le Corbusier]], [[Alvar Aalto]], [[Louis Kahn]] and [[Eero Saarinen]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-0415862875|location=|pages=749}}</ref> After John Rauch replaced Short as partner in 1964, the firm's name changed to Venturi and Rauch. Venturi married [[Denise Scott Brown]] on July 23, 1967, in [[Santa Monica, California]], and in 1969, Scott Brown joined the firm as partner in charge of planning. In 1980, The firm's name became Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown, and after Rauch's resignation in 1989, Venturi, Scott Brown, and Associates. The firm, based in [[Manayunk, Philadelphia]], was awarded the Architecture Firm Award by the [[American Institute of Architects]] in 1985. The practice's recent work includes many commissions from academic institutions, including campus planning and university buildings, and civic buildings in London, [[Toulouse]], and Japan.


Venturi's architecture has had worldwide influence, beginning in the late 1960s with the dissemination of the broken-gable roof of the Vanna Venturi House and the segmentally arched window and interrupted string courses of Guild House. The playful variations on vernacular house types seen in the Trubeck and Wislocki Houses offered a new way to embrace, but transform, familiar forms. The facade patterning of the Oberlin Art Museum and the laboratory buildings demonstrated a treatment of the vertical surfaces of buildings that is both decorative and abstract, drawing from vernacular and historic architecture while still being modern. Venturi's work arguably provided a key influence at important times in the careers of architects [[Robert A. M. Stern]], [[Rem Koolhaas]], [[Philip Johnson]], [[Michael Graves]], [[Graham Gund]] and [[James Stirling (architect)|James Stirling]], among others.{{Citation needed|date=April 2018}}
Venturi's architecture has had worldwide influence, beginning in the late 1960s with the dissemination of the broken-gable roof of the Vanna Venturi House and the segmentally arched window and interrupted string courses of Guild House. The playful variations on vernacular house types seen in the Trubeck and Wislocki Houses offered a new way to embrace, but transform, familiar forms. The facade patterning of the Oberlin Art Museum and the laboratory buildings demonstrated a treatment of the vertical surfaces of buildings that is both decorative and abstract, drawing from vernacular and historic architecture while still being modern. Venturi's work arguably provided a key influence at important times in the careers of architects [[Robert A. M. Stern]], [[Rem Koolhaas]], [[Philip Johnson]], [[Michael Graves]], [[Graham Gund]] and [[James Stirling (architect)|James Stirling]], among others.{{Citation needed|date=April 2018}}
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==Death==
==Death==
Venturi died on September 18, 2018, in Philadelphia from complications of [[Alzheimer's disease]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archpaper.com/2018/09/robert-venturi-passes-away/|title=Robert Venturi passes away - Archpaper.com|website=archpaper.com|language=en-US|access-date=September 19, 2018}}</ref><ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/obituaries/robert-venturi-dead.html</ref> He was 93.
Venturi died on September 18, 2018, in [[Philadelphia]] from complications of [[Alzheimer's disease]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archpaper.com/2018/09/robert-venturi-passes-away/|title=Robert Venturi passes away - Archpaper.com|website=archpaper.com|language=en-US|access-date=September 19, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/obituaries/robert-venturi-dead.html|title = Robert Venturi, Architect Who Rejected Modernism, Dies at 93|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 19 September 2018|last1 = Bernstein|first1 = Fred A.}}</ref> He was 93.


In the wake of Venturi's death, [[Michael Kimmelman]], the current architecture critic for the ''[[New York Times]]'', tweeted..."RIP the great, inspiring Robert Venturi who opened millions of eyes and whole new ways of thinking about the richness of our architectural environment, and whose diverse work with Denise Scott Brown contains a mix of wit and humanity that continues to transcend labels and time".<ref>https://twitter.com/kimmelman/status/1042496869564395521</ref>{{better source needed|date=October 2020}}
In the wake of Venturi's death, [[Michael Kimmelman]], the current architecture critic for ''[[The New York Times]]'', tweeted..."RIP the great, inspiring Robert Venturi who opened millions of eyes and whole new ways of thinking about the richness of our architectural environment, and whose diverse work with Denise Scott Brown contains a mix of wit and humanity that continues to transcend labels and time".<ref>{{cite tweet|number=1042496869564395521|user=kimmelman|title=RIP the great, inspiring Robert...|date=19 September 2018}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=October 2020}}


==Notable students==
==Notable students==
Venturi's notable students include [[Amy Weinstein]]<ref name="Mencimer">{{cite news|last1=Mencimer|first1=Stephanie|title=Building Blocks Architect Amy Weinstein Is Redesigning Capitol Hill One Block at a Time|url=http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13011708/building-blocks|accessdate=September 13, 2017|newspaper=Washington City Paper|date=October 25, 1996}}</ref> and [[Peter Corrigan]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.australiandesignreview.com/architecture/vale-peter-corrigan/|title=Vale Peter Corrigan|work=Australian Design Review|access-date=May 11, 2018|language=en}}</ref>
Venturi's notable students include [[Amy Weinstein]]<ref name="Mencimer">{{cite news|last1=Mencimer|first1=Stephanie|title=Building Blocks Architect Amy Weinstein Is Redesigning Capitol Hill One Block at a Time|url=http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13011708/building-blocks|access-date=September 13, 2017|newspaper=Washington City Paper|date=October 25, 1996}}</ref> and [[Peter Corrigan]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.australiandesignreview.com/architecture/vale-peter-corrigan/|title=Vale Peter Corrigan|work=Australian Design Review|access-date=May 11, 2018|language=en}}</ref>


==Selected works==
==Selected works==
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[[Image:National Gallery London Sainsbury Wing 2006-04-17.jpg|thumb|Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, London]]
[[Image:National Gallery London Sainsbury Wing 2006-04-17.jpg|thumb|Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, London]]
[[Image:SAM Art Ladder 02.jpg|thumb|Inside the Seattle Art Museum]]
[[Image:SAM Art Ladder 02.jpg|thumb|Inside the Seattle Art Museum]]
[[File:Wu Hall Entrance Princeton.jpg|thumb|Entrance to Wu Hall at Princeton University]]
[[File:Wu Hall Entrance Princeton.jpg|thumb|Entrance to Wu Hall at [[Princeton University]]]]
[[File:Udel - Trabant center1.jpg|right|thumbnail|Trabant Student Center, [[University of Delaware]]]]
[[File:Udel - Trabant center1.jpg|right|thumb|Trabant Student Center at the [[University of Delaware]]]]
* [[Vanna Venturi House]]; [[Philadelphia]] (1964) won the AIA [[Twenty-five Year Award]] and was recognized as a "Masterwork of Modern American Architecture" by the [[United States Postal Service]] in May 2005.

* [[Vanna Venturi House]]; Philadelphia (1964) won the AIA [[Twenty-five Year Award]] and was recognized as a "Masterwork of Modern American Architecture" by the [[United States Postal Service]] in May 2005.
* [[Guild House (Philadelphia)|Guild House]]; Philadelphia (1964)
* [[Guild House (Philadelphia)|Guild House]]; Philadelphia (1964)
* The Lieb House located in [[Barnegat Light, New Jersey]] was designed by Venturi and his wife Denise Scott Brown and built in 1967. It is best known for the huge number 9 on its front, and the sailboat-shaped window on one side. A [[Long Island, New York]] couple purchased this home in early March 2009 for just $1 to save it from demolition, paying at least $100,000 to move it on a barge to [[Glen Cove, Long Island]].<ref name="Lieb House">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/nyregion/14lieb.html?_r=1|title=To Save a Venturi House, It Is Moved|last=La Gorge|first=Tammy|date=March 13, 2009|work=New York Times|accessdate=March 15, 2009}}</ref>
* The Lieb House located in [[Barnegat Light, New Jersey]] was designed by Venturi and his wife Denise Scott Brown and built in 1967. It is best known for the huge number 9 on its front, and the sailboat-shaped window on one side. A [[Long Island, New York]] couple purchased this home in early March 2009 for just $1 to save it from demolition, paying at least $100,000 to move it on a barge to [[Glen Cove, Long Island]].<ref name="Lieb House">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/nyregion/14lieb.html?_r=1|title=To Save a Venturi House, It Is Moved|last=La Gorge|first=Tammy|date=March 13, 2009|work=The New York Times|access-date=March 15, 2009}}</ref>
* [[Fire Station No. 4 (Columbus, Indiana)|Fire Station #4]]; [[Columbus, Indiana]] (1968)
* [[Fire Station No. 4 (Columbus, Indiana)|Fire Station #4]]; [[Columbus, Indiana]] (1968)
*[[Hartford Stage]]; [[Hartford, Connecticut]] (1968)
* Trubek and Wislocki Houses; [[Nantucket, Massachusetts]] (1971)
* Trubek and Wislocki Houses; [[Nantucket, Massachusetts]] (1971)
* Brant House; [[Greenwich, Connecticut]] (1972)
* Brant House; [[Greenwich, Connecticut]] (1972)
* Dixwell Fire Station, New Haven, CT (1974)
* Dixwell Fire Station, [[New Haven, Connecticut]] (1974)
* [[Allen Memorial Art Museum]] modern addition, [[Oberlin College]]; Oberlin, Ohio (1976)
* [[Allen Memorial Art Museum]] modern addition, [[Oberlin College]], [[Oberlin, Ohio]] (1976)
* BASCO Showroom; Philadelphia (1976)
* BASCO Showroom; Philadelphia (1976)
* [[Franklin Court]]; Philadelphia (1976)
* [[Franklin Court]]; Philadelphia (1976)
* Best Products Catalog Showroom; Langhorne, Pennsylvania (1978)
* Best Products Catalog Showroom; [[Langhorne, Pennsylvania]] (1978)
* Western Plaza, later renamed to [[Freedom Plaza]], [[Washington, D.C.]] (1980)
* Western Plaza, later renamed to [[Freedom Plaza]], [[Washington, D.C.]] (1980)
* The Park Regency Terrace Residences, later renamed to Park Regency Condominium [[Houston Texas]] (1981)
* The Park Regency Terrace Residences, later renamed to Park Regency Condominium [[Houston]] (1981)
* Coxe-Hayden House and Studio; Block Island, [[Rhode Island]] (1981)
* Coxe-Hayden House and Studio; Block Island, [[Rhode Island]] (1981)
*[[Abrams House (Pittsburgh)|Abrams House]]; [[Pittsburgh]], Pennsylvania (1982)
* Gordon Wu Hall; [[Princeton University]], New Jersey (1983)
* Gordon Wu Hall; [[Princeton University]], [[Princeton, New Jersey]] (1983)
* House in [[New Castle, Delaware]] (1983)
* House in [[New Castle, Delaware]] (1983)
* Lewis Thomas Laboratory, [[Princeton University]], New Jersey (1986)
* Lewis Thomas Laboratory, [[Princeton University]], New Jersey (1986)
* House in East Hampton, [[Long Island, New York]] (1990)
* House in East Hampton, [[Long Island, New York]] (1990)
* Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Medical Research Laboratories, [[UCLA]]; Los Angeles, California (1991)
* Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Medical Research Laboratories, [[UCLA]]; [[Los Angeles]] (1991)
* Sainsbury Wing, [[National Gallery, London]]; United Kingdom (1991)
* Sainsbury Wing, [[National Gallery, London]]; United Kingdom (1991)
* [[Seattle Art Museum]]; Seattle, Washington (1991)
* [[Seattle Art Museum]]; Seattle, Washington (1991)
* Restoration of the [[Fisher Fine Arts Library]], University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia (1991)
* Restoration of the [[Fisher Fine Arts Library]], [[University of Pennsylvania]]; Philadelphia (1991)
* Children's Museum; [[Houston, Texas]] (1992)
* [[Children's Museum of Houston|Children's Museum]]; Houston (1992)
* Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library, [[Bard College]]; Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (1994)
* Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library, [[Bard College]]; [[Annandale-on-Hudson, New York]] (1994)
* [[University of Delaware]], Trabant Student Center (1996)
* [[University of Delaware]], Trabant Student Center (1996)
* Museum of Contemporary Art, [[La Jolla]]; California (1996)
* [[Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego]], [[La Jolla, California]] (1996)
* [[Mielparque]] Nikko Kirifuri Resort; [[Nikko National Park]], Japan (1997)
* [[Mielparque]] Nikko Kirifuri Resort; [[Nikko National Park]], Japan (1997)
* Gonda (Goldschmied) Neurosciences and Genetics Research Center, [[UCLA]]; Los Angeles, California (1998)
* Gonda (Goldschmied) Neurosciences and Genetics Research Center, [[UCLA]]; Los Angeles, California (1998)
* Provincial Capitol Building; Toulouse, France (1999)
* Seat of the departmental council; [[Toulouse]], France (1999)
* [[Frist Campus Center]], Princeton University; New Jersey (2000)
* [[Frist Campus Center]], Princeton University; New Jersey (2000)
* Rauner Special Collections Library, [[Dartmouth College]]; Hanover, New Hampshire (2000)
* Rauner Special Collections Library, [[Dartmouth College]]; Hanover, New Hampshire (2000)
* Perelman Quadrangle, University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia (2000)
* Perelman Quadrangle, University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia (2000)
* [[Baker Memorial Library]], Dartmouth College; Hanover, New Hampshire (2002)
* [[Baker Memorial Library]], Dartmouth College; [[Hanover, New Hampshire]] (2002)
* [[Dumbarton Oaks]] Library, [[Harvard University]]; Washington, D.C. (2005)
* [[Dumbarton Oaks]] Library, [[Harvard University]]; [[Washington, D.C.]] (2005)
* Undergraduate Science Building, Life Sciences Institute and Palmer Commons complex, [[University of Michigan]]; Ann Arbor, Michigan (2005)
* Undergraduate Science Building, Life Sciences Institute and Palmer Commons complex, [[University of Michigan]]; [[Ann Arbor, Michigan]] (2005)
* Biomedical Biological Science Research Building (BBSRB), University of Kentucky; Lexington, Kentucky (2005)
* Biomedical Biological Science Research Building (BBSRB), [[University of Kentucky]]; [[Lexington, Kentucky]] (2005)
* Congregation Beth El Synagogue - Sunbury, PA. (2007)<ref>{{cite web|title=Congregation Beth El Website|url=http://www.beth-el-sunbury.org/synagogue/|accessdate=April 30, 2012}}</ref>
* Congregation Beth El Synagogue - [[Sunbury, Pennsylvania]] (2007)<ref>{{cite web|title=Congregation Beth El Website|url=http://www.beth-el-sunbury.org/synagogue/|access-date=April 30, 2012}}</ref>
* [[Episcopal Academy]] Chapel; Newtown Square, Pennsylvania (2008)
* [[Episcopal Academy]] Chapel; [[Newtown Square, Pennsylvania]] (2008)


==Awards==
==Awards==
{{external media | width = 210px | align = right
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right
| headerimage= [[File:Benjamin Franklin House Outline.jpg|210px]]
| headerimage= [[File:Benjamin Franklin House Outline.jpg|210px]]
| video1 = {{YouTube|aWHMTbaR4uw|2016 AIA Gold Medal: Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA and Robert Venturi, FAIA}}, 3:50
| video1 = {{YouTube|aWHMTbaR4uw|2016 AIA Gold Medal: Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA and Robert Venturi, FAIA}}, 3:50
| video2 = {{YouTube|BPuM7_5QPAg|Robert Venturi: Architecture's Improper Hero Part 1}}, 14:45,
| video2 = {{YouTube|BPuM7_5QPAg|Robert Venturi: Architecture's Improper Hero Part 1}}, 14:45,
| video3 = {{YouTube|_KjM1v0qIoA|Part 2}}, 7:19, John Thornton<ref name="RV JT">{{cite web | title =Robert Venturi: Architecture's Improper Hero Parts 1&2 | work = | publisher =[[YouTube]] | date =July 12, 2011 | url =https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPuM7_5QPAg | accessdate =May 15, 2013 }}</ref>
| video3 = {{YouTube|_KjM1v0qIoA|Part 2}}, 7:19, John Thornton<ref name="RV JT">{{cite web | title =Robert Venturi: Architecture's Improper Hero Parts 1&2 | publisher =[[YouTube]] | date =July 12, 2011 | url =https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPuM7_5QPAg | access-date =May 15, 2013 }}</ref>
| video4 = [http://www.webofstories.com/play/robert.venturi.and.denise.scott.brown/1 Architecture as flexibility; form follows functions], Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, 7:34, 1st of 10 parts on the architects discussing their careers, [[Web of Stories]].<ref name="WebofS">{{cite web | title =Architecture as flexibility; form follows functions | work = | publisher =[[Web of Stories]] | date =May 27, 2010 | url =http://www.webofstories.com/play/robert.venturi.and.denise.scott.brown/1 | accessdate =May 15, 2013 }}</ref>
| video4 = [http://www.webofstories.com/play/robert.venturi.and.denise.scott.brown/1 Architecture as flexibility; form follows functions], Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, 7:34, 1st of 10 parts on the architects discussing their careers, [[Web of Stories]].<ref name="WebofS">{{cite web | title =Architecture as flexibility; form follows functions | publisher =[[Web of Stories]] | date =May 27, 2010 | url =http://www.webofstories.com/play/robert.venturi.and.denise.scott.brown/1 | access-date =May 15, 2013 }}</ref>
}}
}}
*Fellow, American Academy in Rome; 1954-1956<ref>[http://www.sof-aarome.org/sof_dir_1951_1960.html Directory 1951 to 1960] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718234353/http://www.sof-aarome.org/sof_dir_1951_1960.html |date=July 18, 2011 }} Society of Fellows of the American Academy in Rome</ref>
*Fellow, American Academy in Rome; 1954-1956<ref>[http://www.sof-aarome.org/sof_dir_1951_1960.html Directory 1951 to 1960] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718234353/http://www.sof-aarome.org/sof_dir_1951_1960.html |date=July 18, 2011 }} Society of Fellows of the American Academy in Rome</ref>
Line 122: Line 124:
* Elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]]; 1990
* Elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]]; 1990
* The [[Pritzker Architecture Prize]]; 1991<ref name="PritzkerPrize"/>
* The [[Pritzker Architecture Prize]]; 1991<ref name="PritzkerPrize"/>
* [[National Medal of Arts]], United States Presidential Award; 1992 (with Denise Scott Brown)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://arts.endow.gov/honors/medals/medalists_year.html |title=List of Medalists |publisher=National Medal of Arts |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080925174117/http://arts.endow.gov///honors/Medals/medalists_year.html |archivedate=September 25, 2008 }}</ref>
* [[National Medal of Arts]], United States Presidential Award; 1992 (with Denise Scott Brown)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://arts.endow.gov/honors/medals/medalists_year.html |title=List of Medalists |publisher=National Medal of Arts |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080925174117/http://arts.endow.gov///honors/Medals/medalists_year.html |archive-date=September 25, 2008 }}</ref>
* Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres, Republique Française, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication; 2000
* Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres, Republique Française, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication; 2000
* [[Vincent Scully Prize]], [[National Building Museum]]; 2002 (with Denise Scott Brown)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nbm.org/support-us/awards__honors/scully-prize/ |title=Vincent Scully Prize |publisher=National Building Museum |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214155117/http://www.nbm.org/support-us/awards__honors/scully-prize/ |archivedate=February 14, 2009 }}</ref>
* [[Vincent Scully Prize]], [[National Building Museum]]; 2002 (with Denise Scott Brown)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nbm.org/support-us/awards__honors/scully-prize/ |title=Vincent Scully Prize |publisher=National Building Museum |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214155117/http://www.nbm.org/support-us/awards__honors/scully-prize/ |archive-date=February 14, 2009 }}</ref>
*Elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]]; 2006<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Robert+Venturi&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-25|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
* Design Mind Award, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards; 2007 (with Denise Scott Brown)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cooperhewitt.org/NDA/2007/award.asp?catID=dm&nameID=dsbrv |title=Design Mind Award |publisher=Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards |year=2007 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919150203/http://cooperhewitt.org/NDA/2007/award.asp?catID=dm&nameID=dsbrv |archivedate=September 19, 2008 }}</ref>
* Design Mind Award, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards; 2007 (with Denise Scott Brown)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cooperhewitt.org/NDA/2007/award.asp?catID=dm&nameID=dsbrv |title=Design Mind Award |publisher=Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards |year=2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919150203/http://cooperhewitt.org/NDA/2007/award.asp?catID=dm&nameID=dsbrv |archive-date=September 19, 2008 }}</ref>
* AIA Gold Medal (with Denise Scott Brown) 2016
* AIA Gold Medal (with Denise Scott Brown) 2016


==Writings==
==Writings==
* {{Cite book |title=Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture |author=Robert Venturi |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art Press |location=New York |year=1966 |isbn=0-87070-281-5}}
* {{Cite book |title=Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture |author=Robert Venturi |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art Press |location=New York |year=1966 |isbn=0-87070-281-5}}
* {{Cite book |title=[[Learning from Las Vegas]] |authors=Robert Venturi, [[Denise Scott Brown]] and [[Steven Izenour]] |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge MA |year=1972 |others=Revised 1977 |isbn=0-262-72006-X}}
* {{Cite book |title=[[Learning from Las Vegas]] |author1=Robert Venturi |author2=[[Denise Scott Brown]] |author3=[[Steven Izenour]] |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge MA |year=1972 |others=Revised 1977 |isbn=0-262-72006-X}}
* {{Cite book |title=Iconography and Electronics upon a Generic Architecture: A View from the Drafting Room |author=Robert Venturi |publisher=MIT Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-262-72029-9}}
* {{Cite book |title=Iconography and Electronics upon a Generic Architecture: A View from the Drafting Room |author=Robert Venturi |publisher=MIT Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-262-72029-9}}
* {{Cite book |title=Architecture as Signs and Systems: for a Mannerist Time |authors=Robert Venturi and [[Denise Scott Brown]] |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-674-01571-1}}
* {{Cite book |title=Architecture as Signs and Systems: for a Mannerist Time |author1=Robert Venturi |author2=[[Denise Scott Brown]] |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-674-01571-1}}


==References==
==References==
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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071027065200/http://www.architecture-page.com/go/people/profiles/venturi-scott-brown-associates Online profile of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071027065200/http://www.architecture-page.com/go/people/profiles/venturi-scott-brown-associates Online profile of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.]
* [http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com/2005/11/vanna-venturi-house-in-philadelphia-by.html Stories of Houses: The Vanna Venturi House in Philadelphia, by Robert Venturi]
* [http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com/2005/11/vanna-venturi-house-in-philadelphia-by.html Stories of Houses: The Vanna Venturi House in Philadelphia, by Robert Venturi]
* [http://www.archinomy.com/blog/robert-venturi-and-denise-scott-brown.html Design Strategies of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown]
* [http://www.archinomy.com/blog/robert-venturi-and-denise-scott-brown.html Design Strategies of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090617050807/http://www.archinomy.com/blog/robert-venturi-and-denise-scott-brown.html |date=2009-06-17 }}
*{{Charlie Rose view|2434}}
*{{Charlie Rose view|2434}}
*{{IMDb name|3634001}}
*{{IMDb name|3634001}}
*{{Worldcat id|lccn-n79-64990}}
* [http://www.archdaily.com/130389/interview-robert-venturi-denise-scott-brown-by-andrea-tamas/ Robert Venturi interview]
* [http://www.archdaily.com/130389/interview-robert-venturi-denise-scott-brown-by-andrea-tamas/ Robert Venturi interview]


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Venturi, Robert}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Venturi, Robert}}
[[Category:Robert Venturi buildings| ]]
[[Category:1925 births]]
[[Category:1925 births]]
[[Category:2018 deaths]]
[[Category:Architects from Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Architects from Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Architecture educators]]
[[Category:Architecture educators]]
[[Category:Architectural theoreticians]]
[[Category:Architectural theoreticians]]
[[Category:American architecture writers]]
[[Category:American architecture critics]]
[[Category:American architecture critics]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:American people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:Architecture firms based in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Architecture firms based in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Episcopal Academy alumni]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Institute of Architects]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Institute of Architects]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Postmodern architects]]
[[Category:Postmodern architects]]
[[Category:Preservationist architects]]
[[Category:Princeton University School of Architecture alumni]]
[[Category:Princeton University School of Architecture alumni]]
[[Category:Pritzker Architecture Prize winners]]
[[Category:Pritzker Architecture Prize winners]]
[[Category:Robert Venturi buildings| ]]
[[Category:Recipients of the AIA Gold Medal]]
[[Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients]]
[[Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients]]
[[Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty]]
[[Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty]]
[[Category:Urban theorists]]
[[Category:Urban theorists]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Preservationist architects]]
[[Category:Episcopal Academy alumni]]
[[Category:Vincent Scully Prize winners]]
[[Category:2018 deaths]]

Latest revision as of 10:46, 6 March 2024

Robert Venturi
Venturi in 2008
Born
Robert Charles Venturi Jr.

(1925-06-25)June 25, 1925
DiedSeptember 18, 2018(2018-09-18) (aged 93)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma materPrinceton University
OccupationArchitect
Spouse
(m. 1967)
Children1
Awards
Practice
Vanna Venturi House

Robert Charles Venturi Jr. (June 25, 1925 – September 18, 2018) was an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates.

Together with his wife and partner, Denise Scott Brown, he helped shape the way that architects, planners and students experience and think about architecture and the built environment. Their buildings, planning, theoretical writings, and teaching have also contributed to the expansion of discourse about architecture.

Venturi was awarded the Pritzker Prize in Architecture in 1991; the prize was awarded to him alone, despite a request to include his equal partner, Scott Brown. Subsequently, a group of women architects attempted to get her name added retroactively to the prize, but the Pritzker Prize jury declined to do so.[1][2][3] Venturi coined the maxim "Less is a bore", a postmodern antidote to Mies van der Rohe's famous modernist dictum "Less is more". Venturi lived in Philadelphia with Denise Scott Brown. He is the father of James Venturi, founder and principal of ReThink Studio.

Early life and education

[edit]

Venturi was born in Philadelphia to Robert Venturi Sr. and Vanna (née Luizi) Venturi, and was raised as a Quaker.[4] Venturi attended school at the Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pennsylvania.[5] He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1947 where he was a member-elect of Phi Beta Kappa and won the D'Amato Prize in Architecture.[4] He received his M.F.A. from Princeton in 1950. The educational program at Princeton under Professor Jean Labatut, who offered provocative design studios within a Beaux-Arts pedagogical framework,[6] was a key factor in Venturi's development of an approach to architectural theory and design that drew from architectural history and commercial architecture in analytical, as opposed to stylistic, terms.[7] In 1951 he briefly worked under Eero Saarinen in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and later for Louis Kahn in Philadelphia. He was awarded the Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome in 1954, where he studied and toured Europe for two years.

From 1959 to 1967, Venturi held teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as Kahn's teaching assistant, an instructor, and later, as associate professor. It was there, in 1960, that he met fellow faculty member, architect and planner Denise Scott Brown. Venturi taught later at the Yale School of Architecture and was a visiting lecturer with Scott Brown in 2003 at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.

Career

[edit]
Venturi's wife and business partner Denise Scott Brown

A controversial critic of what he saw as the blithely functionalist and symbolically vacuous architecture of corporate modernism during the 1950s, Venturi was one of the first architects to question some of the premises of the Modern Movement. He published his "gentle manifesto", Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966; in its introduction, Vincent Scully called it "probably the most important writing on the making of architecture since Le Corbusier's Vers Une Architecture of 1923." The work was derived from course lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and Venturi received a grant from the Graham Foundation in 1965 to aid in its completion. The book demonstrated, through countless examples, an approach to understanding architectural composition and complexity, and the resulting richness and interest. Citing vernacular as well as high-style sources, Venturi drew new lessons from the buildings of architects familiar (Michelangelo, Alvar Aalto) and, at the time, forgotten (Frank Furness, Edwin Lutyens). He made a case for "the difficult whole" rather than the diagrammatic forms popular at the time, and included examples — both built and unrealized — of his own work to demonstrate the possible application of such techniques. The book has been published in 18 languages to date.

Immediately hailed as a theorist and designer with radical ideas, Venturi went to teach a series of studios at the Yale School of Architecture in the mid-1960s. The most famous of these was a studio in 1968 in which Venturi and Scott Brown, together with Steven Izenour, led a team of students to document and analyze the Las Vegas Strip, perhaps the least likely subject for a serious research project imaginable.[8] In 1972, Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenour published the folio, A Significance for A&P Parking Lots, or Learning from Las Vegas. It was revised using the student work as a foil for new theory, and reissued in 1977 as Learning from Las Vegas: the Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form. This second manifesto was an even more stinging rebuke to orthodox modernism and elite architectural tastes. The book coined the terms "Duck" and "Decorated Shed", descriptions of the two predominant ways of embodying iconography in buildings. The work of Venturi, Scott Brown, and John Rauch[9] adopted the latter strategy, producing formally simple "decorated sheds" with rich, complex, and often shocking ornamental flourishes. Venturi and his wife co-wrote several more books at the end of the century, but these two have so far proved to be the most influential.[10]

Architecture

[edit]
The Guild House, completed 1964, on Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia
Chapel at the Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania (2010)

The architecture of Robert Venturi, although perhaps not as familiar today as his books, helped redirect American architecture away from a widely practiced modernism in the 1960s to a more exploratory design approach that openly drew lessons from architectural history and responded to the everyday context of the American city.[11] Venturi's buildings typically juxtapose architectural systems, elements and aims, to acknowledge the conflicts often inherent in a project or site. This "inclusive" approach contrasted with the typical modernist effort to resolve and unify all factors in a complete and rigidly structured—and possibly less functional and more simplistic—work of art. The diverse range of buildings of Venturi's early career offered surprising alternatives to then current architectural practice, with "impure" forms (such as the North Penn Visiting Nurses Headquarters), apparently casual asymmetries (as at the Vanna Venturi House), and pop-style supergraphics and geometries (for instance, the Lieb House).

Venturi created the firm Venturi and Short with William Short in 1960. In his architectural design Venturi was influenced by early masters such as Michelangelo and Palladio, and modern masters including Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Louis Kahn and Eero Saarinen.[12] After John Rauch replaced Short as partner in 1964, the firm's name changed to Venturi and Rauch. Venturi married Denise Scott Brown on July 23, 1967, in Santa Monica, California, and in 1969, Scott Brown joined the firm as partner in charge of planning. In 1980, The firm's name became Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown, and after Rauch's resignation in 1989, Venturi, Scott Brown, and Associates. The firm, based in Manayunk, Philadelphia, was awarded the Architecture Firm Award by the American Institute of Architects in 1985. The practice's recent work includes many commissions from academic institutions, including campus planning and university buildings, and civic buildings in London, Toulouse, and Japan.

Venturi's architecture has had worldwide influence, beginning in the late 1960s with the dissemination of the broken-gable roof of the Vanna Venturi House and the segmentally arched window and interrupted string courses of Guild House. The playful variations on vernacular house types seen in the Trubeck and Wislocki Houses offered a new way to embrace, but transform, familiar forms. The facade patterning of the Oberlin Art Museum and the laboratory buildings demonstrated a treatment of the vertical surfaces of buildings that is both decorative and abstract, drawing from vernacular and historic architecture while still being modern. Venturi's work arguably provided a key influence at important times in the careers of architects Robert A. M. Stern, Rem Koolhaas, Philip Johnson, Michael Graves, Graham Gund and James Stirling, among others.[citation needed]

Venturi was a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, the American Institute of Architects, The American Academy of Arts and Letters and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Death

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Venturi died on September 18, 2018, in Philadelphia from complications of Alzheimer's disease.[13][14] He was 93.

In the wake of Venturi's death, Michael Kimmelman, the current architecture critic for The New York Times, tweeted..."RIP the great, inspiring Robert Venturi who opened millions of eyes and whole new ways of thinking about the richness of our architectural environment, and whose diverse work with Denise Scott Brown contains a mix of wit and humanity that continues to transcend labels and time".[15][better source needed]

Notable students

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Venturi's notable students include Amy Weinstein[16] and Peter Corrigan.[17]

Selected works

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Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with inlay depicting parts of Peter Charles L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the city
Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, London
Inside the Seattle Art Museum
Entrance to Wu Hall at Princeton University
Trabant Student Center at the University of Delaware

Awards

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External videos
video icon 2016 AIA Gold Medal: Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA and Robert Venturi, FAIA on YouTube, 3:50
video icon Robert Venturi: Architecture's Improper Hero Part 1 on YouTube, 14:45,
video icon Part 2 on YouTube, 7:19, John Thornton[20]
video icon Architecture as flexibility; form follows functions, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, 7:34, 1st of 10 parts on the architects discussing their careers, Web of Stories.[21]

Writings

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  • Robert Venturi (1966). Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York: The Museum of Modern Art Press. ISBN 0-87070-281-5.
  • Robert Venturi; Denise Scott Brown; Steven Izenour (1972). Learning from Las Vegas. Revised 1977. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-72006-X.
  • Robert Venturi (1998). Iconography and Electronics upon a Generic Architecture: A View from the Drafting Room. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-72029-9.
  • Robert Venturi; Denise Scott Brown (2004). Architecture as Signs and Systems: for a Mannerist Time. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-01571-1.

References

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  1. ^ Pogrebin, Robin (June 14, 2013). "No Pritzker Prize for Denise Scott Brown". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Catriona Davies (May 29, 2013). "Denise Scott Brown: Architecture favors 'lone male genius' over women". CNN.
  3. ^ Goldberger, Paul (April 14, 1991). "ARCHITECTURE VIEW; Robert Venturi, Gentle Subverter of Modernism". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b The Nassau Herald 1947, Princeton University yearbook
  5. ^ Thomas, George E. (2000). William L. Price, Arts and Crafts to Modern Design. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 362. ISBN 1-56898-220-8. in Introduction by Robert Venturi
  6. ^ Otero-Pailos, Jorge (2010). Architecture's Historical Turn: Phenomenology and the Rise of the Postmodern. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 25–99. ISBN 9780816666041.
  7. ^ a b Robert Venturi 1991 Laureate Archived December 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Pritzker Architecture Prize
  8. ^ "Lessons from Las Vegas - 99% Invisible". 99% Invisible. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  9. ^ Sandra L. Tatman. "Rauch, John K., Jr. (b. 1930)". Philadelphia Architects and Buildings. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  10. ^ Mark Alan Hewitt (November 28, 2011). "Venturi, Robert". Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online.
  11. ^ "Interview: Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown". Archdaily.com. April 25, 2011.
  12. ^ Caves, R. W. (2004). Encyclopedia of the City. Routledge. p. 749. ISBN 978-0415862875.
  13. ^ "Robert Venturi passes away - Archpaper.com". archpaper.com. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
  14. ^ Bernstein, Fred A. (19 September 2018). "Robert Venturi, Architect Who Rejected Modernism, Dies at 93". The New York Times.
  15. ^ @kimmelman (19 September 2018). "RIP the great, inspiring Robert..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  16. ^ Mencimer, Stephanie (October 25, 1996). "Building Blocks Architect Amy Weinstein Is Redesigning Capitol Hill One Block at a Time". Washington City Paper. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  17. ^ "Vale Peter Corrigan". Australian Design Review. Retrieved May 11, 2018.
  18. ^ La Gorge, Tammy (March 13, 2009). "To Save a Venturi House, It Is Moved". The New York Times. Retrieved March 15, 2009.
  19. ^ "Congregation Beth El Website". Retrieved April 30, 2012.
  20. ^ "Robert Venturi: Architecture's Improper Hero Parts 1&2". YouTube. July 12, 2011. Retrieved May 15, 2013.
  21. ^ "Architecture as flexibility; form follows functions". Web of Stories. May 27, 2010. Retrieved May 15, 2013.
  22. ^ Directory 1951 to 1960 Archived July 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Society of Fellows of the American Academy in Rome
  23. ^ "Twenty-five Year Award Recipients". The American Institute of Architects.
  24. ^ "List of Medalists". National Medal of Arts. Archived from the original on September 25, 2008.
  25. ^ "Vincent Scully Prize". National Building Museum. Archived from the original on February 14, 2009.
  26. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
  27. ^ "Design Mind Award". Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards. 2007. Archived from the original on September 19, 2008.
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