Graham Gund
Encyclopedia
Graham de Conde Gund is an American architect
and the president of the Gund Partnership, an American architecture firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and founded by Gund in 1971. He is also a collector of contemporary art, whose collection has been widely exhibited and published.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio
, Gund was educated at Westminster School (Connecticut), Kenyon College
and the Rhode Island School of Design
. Gund graduated from the Harvard University
Graduate School of Design, with a Master of Architecture degree in 1968 and a Master of Urban Design degree in 1969. Graham Gund is one of six children of George Gund II
, former chairman of the Cleveland Trust Company, philanthropist and namesake for the Graduate School of Design's George Gund Hall, completed in 1971. After graduation, Gund worked at The Architects' Collaborative
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
. Gund himself undertook property development for a number of his firm's projects. He is also a noted collector of art. Gund funded the Gund Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston.
at the Architects' Collaborative, Gund began his career with significant projects that drew from a modernist vocabulary. The Hyatt Regency Cambridge, with its stepped massing, recalled legendary projects by architects Adolf Loos and Henri Sauvage, while utilizing red brick characteristic of Cambridge's collegiate river-side architecture. For Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art, Gund created an unexpected, open, angular interior that played against the rigid geometry of a historic Richardsonian Romanesque building.
The firm became well known during the 1980s for extending this creative take on architecture through significant national projects, some of which were prominent adaptive uses while others were new buildings. Additional museums and education buildings represented the continued expansion of Gund's practice in these years. Among the adaptive uses was the Norwalk Maritime Center in Connecticut, a museum and aquarium project housed in a salvaged iron works complex, with a new IMAX theater. New institutional buildings included major structures for Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, MA, and for the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta.
At this time, Gund played a role as both architect and developer to reclaim threatened or damaged historic buildings, as in the Church Court Condominiums in Boston and Bulfinch Square in Cambridge. Such activity even led to his being described by Vincent Scully
as a "convinced preservationist," comparing Gund to Charles Bulfinch
.
Among Gund's early work was the Rockefeller residence in Cambridge (1973), the Hyatt Regency Cambridge (1976) and the former Institute for Contemporary Art, now the Boston Architectural College
(1976). Much of Gund's work in this period involved renovations or residential adaptive reuse projects in the Boston area. Other projects included the Johnston Guardhouse at Harvard Yard
(1983), adaptive reuse of an ironworks building for the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk
(1988), and the Art Deco
Revival 31-story 75 State Street
(also known as the Fleet Bank Center), Boston (1989), in association with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
. In the 1990s Gund's work expanded to include considerable work with Disney Company
in Florida and Paris. Gund was featured on This Old House
in 1992 as the architect for the television show's Igoe Residence project. By the 2000s Gund's work was primarily focused on school and university projects.
in Washington, D.C., occupying a prominent location on New Jersey Avenue, the conservatory for the Cleveland Botanical Garden
, the Lansburgh Theater for the Folger Shakespeare Library
in Washington, DC, The Fannie Cox Math and Science Center for Friends' Central School
in Wynnewood, PA, the synagogue building for Young Israel of Brookline, Massachusetts, the Kenyon Athletic Center
, and buildings on many American college campuses, including those of Harvard University and Kenyon College. Gund also designed the Boston Ballet Headquarters on Clarendon Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
's planned community of Celebration, Florida
, noted for a high concentration of work by major architectural firms invited by Disney.
Other work by Gund for Disney includes the International Retail and Manufacturers' Showcase at Euro Disney.
The firm is also known for historic redevelopment projects including Bulfinch Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts
. Major museum projects include the Plimoth Plantation
Visitor Center in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the Fernbank Museum of Natural History
in Atlanta, Georgia.
, and Graham Gund Architects, published in 1993, with an introduction by Vincent Scully.
He is married to Ann Gund née Landreth, with whom he has one son, Graydon. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects
.
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and the president of the Gund Partnership, an American architecture firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and founded by Gund in 1971. He is also a collector of contemporary art, whose collection has been widely exhibited and published.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Gund was educated at Westminster School (Connecticut), Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...
and the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
. Gund graduated from the Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Graduate School of Design, with a Master of Architecture degree in 1968 and a Master of Urban Design degree in 1969. Graham Gund is one of six children of George Gund II
George Gund (philanthropist)
George Gund II was an American banker, business executive, and real estate investor who lived in Cleveland, Ohio in the early and middle part of the 20th century...
, former chairman of the Cleveland Trust Company, philanthropist and namesake for the Graduate School of Design's George Gund Hall, completed in 1971. After graduation, Gund worked at The Architects' Collaborative
The Architects' Collaborative
The Architects' Collaborative was an American architectural firm formed by Walter Gropius and seven younger architects in 1945 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The other partners were Norman C. Fletcher , Jean B. Fletcher , John C. Harkness , Sarah P. Harkness , Robert S...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. Gund himself undertook property development for a number of his firm's projects. He is also a noted collector of art. Gund funded the Gund Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
in Boston.
Architecture
After working with modern architect Walter GropiusWalter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
at the Architects' Collaborative, Gund began his career with significant projects that drew from a modernist vocabulary. The Hyatt Regency Cambridge, with its stepped massing, recalled legendary projects by architects Adolf Loos and Henri Sauvage, while utilizing red brick characteristic of Cambridge's collegiate river-side architecture. For Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art, Gund created an unexpected, open, angular interior that played against the rigid geometry of a historic Richardsonian Romanesque building.
The firm became well known during the 1980s for extending this creative take on architecture through significant national projects, some of which were prominent adaptive uses while others were new buildings. Additional museums and education buildings represented the continued expansion of Gund's practice in these years. Among the adaptive uses was the Norwalk Maritime Center in Connecticut, a museum and aquarium project housed in a salvaged iron works complex, with a new IMAX theater. New institutional buildings included major structures for Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, MA, and for the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta.
At this time, Gund played a role as both architect and developer to reclaim threatened or damaged historic buildings, as in the Church Court Condominiums in Boston and Bulfinch Square in Cambridge. Such activity even led to his being described by Vincent Scully
Vincent Scully
Vincent Joseph Scully, Jr. is Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art in Architecture at Yale University, and the author of several books on the subject...
as a "convinced preservationist," comparing Gund to Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession....
.
Among Gund's early work was the Rockefeller residence in Cambridge (1973), the Hyatt Regency Cambridge (1976) and the former Institute for Contemporary Art, now the Boston Architectural College
Boston Architectural College
Boston Architectural College , formerly known as the Boston Architectural Center, is New England's largest independent college of spatial design. It offers first-professional bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and design studies...
(1976). Much of Gund's work in this period involved renovations or residential adaptive reuse projects in the Boston area. Other projects included the Johnston Guardhouse at Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...
(1983), adaptive reuse of an ironworks building for the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk
Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk
The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is an aquarium located in the South Norwalk section of Norwalk, Connecticut....
(1988), and the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
Revival 31-story 75 State Street
75 State Street
75 State Street is a is a high-rise building located in the Financial District, Boston, Massachusetts. The design architect was Gund Architects of Boston, in association with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The 31-story building rises to a height of , and has a floor area of .The building is...
(also known as the Fleet Bank Center), Boston (1989), in association with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP is an American architectural and engineering firm that was formed in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings; in 1939 they were joined by John O. Merrill. They opened their first branch in New York City, New York in 1937. SOM is one of the largest...
. In the 1990s Gund's work expanded to include considerable work with Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
in Florida and Paris. Gund was featured on This Old House
This Old House
This Old House is an American home improvement magazine and television series aired on the American television station Public Broadcasting Service which follows remodeling projects of houses over a number of weeks.-Overview:...
in 1992 as the architect for the television show's Igoe Residence project. By the 2000s Gund's work was primarily focused on school and university projects.
Recent work
Recent notable buildings designed by the firm include the headquarters for the National Association of RealtorsNational Association of Realtors
The National Association of Realtors , whose members are known as Realtors, is North America's largest trade association. representing over 1.2 million members , including NAR's institutes, societies, and councils, involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries...
in Washington, D.C., occupying a prominent location on New Jersey Avenue, the conservatory for the Cleveland Botanical Garden
Cleveland Botanical Garden
Cleveland Botanical Garden, located in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States, was founded in 1930 as the Garden Center of Greater Cleveland. It was the first such organization in an American city...
, the Lansburgh Theater for the Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materials from the early modern period...
in Washington, DC, The Fannie Cox Math and Science Center for Friends' Central School
Friends' Central School
Friends' Central School is a college-preparatory, Quaker, coeducational day school for nursery through grade 12 located in Wynnewood, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
in Wynnewood, PA, the synagogue building for Young Israel of Brookline, Massachusetts, the Kenyon Athletic Center
Kenyon Athletic Center
The Kenyon Athletic Center is an athletic center and student union serving the Kenyon College and Gambier village communities in Ohio. It was designed by architect Graham Gund and opened to the public on 25 January 2006...
, and buildings on many American college campuses, including those of Harvard University and Kenyon College. Gund also designed the Boston Ballet Headquarters on Clarendon Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
Additional projects
Gund has designed a number of projects in the Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
's planned community of Celebration, Florida
Celebration, Florida
Celebration is a census-designated place and a master-planned community in Osceola County, Florida, United States, located near Walt Disney World Resort and originally developed by The Walt Disney Company...
, noted for a high concentration of work by major architectural firms invited by Disney.
- Coronado Springs ResortDisney's Coronado Springs ResortDisney's Coronado Springs Resort is a resort hotel at the Walt Disney World Resort that opened on August 1, 1997. Inspired by the explorers who searched for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold, the resort features a Southwestern U.S./Mexican theme in elements, such as a tiled stucco lobby and a pyramid...
, Walt Disney World, Florida (design architect) - Celebration Hotel and Celebration High School
Other work by Gund for Disney includes the International Retail and Manufacturers' Showcase at Euro Disney.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. Major museum projects include the Plimoth Plantation
Plimoth Plantation
Plimoth Plantation is a living museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts that shows the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by English colonists, some of whom later became known as Pilgrims. They were among the first people who emigrated to America to avoid religious...
Visitor Center in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the Fernbank Museum of Natural History
Fernbank Museum of Natural History
Fernbank Museum of Natural History, in Atlanta, is a museum in that presents exhibitions and programming about natural history that are meant to entertain as well as educate the public. Its mission is to encourage a greater appreciation of the planet and its people...
in Atlanta, Georgia.
Publications
Gund's work has been widely published throughout his career, with articles by major critics in national publications. The firm's architecture has been the subject of two books: Gund Partnership 1994-2007, with an extensive foreword by New York Times architecture critic Paul GoldbergerPaul Goldberger
Paul Goldberger is the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where since 1997 he has written the magazine's celebrated "Sky Line" column. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City...
, and Graham Gund Architects, published in 1993, with an introduction by Vincent Scully.
He is married to Ann Gund née Landreth, with whom he has one son, Graydon. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
.
Additional Gund projects
- Church Court Condominiums, Boston (1983) - re-modelled Mt. Vernon ChurchMount Vernon Church, BostonMount Vernon Church in Boston, Massachusetts, was a Congregational church located on Beacon Hill and later in Back Bay .-Beacon Hill, 1844-1891:...
, corner Beacon St. + Massachusetts Ave., developed by Gund - Bostix Kiosk, Copley SquareCopley SquareCopley Square is a public square located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, named for the donor of the land on which it was developed. The square is named for John Singleton Copley, a famous portrait painter of the late 18th century and native of Boston. A bronze statue of...
, Boston (1992) - Kenyon Athletic CenterKenyon Athletic CenterThe Kenyon Athletic Center is an athletic center and student union serving the Kenyon College and Gambier village communities in Ohio. It was designed by architect Graham Gund and opened to the public on 25 January 2006...
, Ohio (built 2006) - Newton North High SchoolNewton North High SchoolNewton North High School, formerly Newton High School, is the larger and longer-established of two public high schools in Newton, Massachusetts, with about 2,000 students, the other being Newton South High School. It is located in the village of Newtonville...
, Massachusetts (built 2010)