Malcolm Holzman
Encyclopedia
FAIA
Fellow of the American Institute of Architects is a postnomial, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects...
, is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
architect
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...
, who practices in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and is a founding partner of Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture (HMBA) and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates (HHPA).
Life and career
Holzman was born in Newark, New JerseyNewark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, in 1940. He received a B. Arch.
Bachelor of Architecture
The Bachelor of Architecture is an undergraduate academic degree designed to satisfy the academic component of professional accreditation bodies, to be followed by a period of practical training prior to professional examination and registration. It is awarded for a course of study that lasts up...
from Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
in 1963, and in 1964 began working with Hugh Hardy
Hugh Hardy
Hugh Hardy is a leading American architect born in Majorca, Spain in 1932. He is best known for his work designing theaters, performing arts venues, public spaces, and cultural facilities across the United States....
. Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates (HHPA) was established in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1967. In 1981 HHPA received the AIA’s Architecture Firm Award
Architecture Firm Award
The Architecture Firm Award is the highest honor that The American Institute of Architects can bestow on an architecture firm for consistently producing distinguished architecture.Prior recipients of the AIA Architecture Firm Award include:...
. In 2004 HHPA separated and Holzman established HMBA with members of his HHPA project team. Paul Goldberger
Paul 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...
describes how Holzman “tends to hide behind a sort of ‘Aw, Shucks’ manner, which belies the seriousness with which he takes his profession.”
He has held both the Saarinen
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
and Davenport Visiting Professorships at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and endowed chairs at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Ball State University
Ball State University
Ball State University is a state-run research university located in Muncie, Indiana. It is also known as Ball State or simply BSU.Located on the northwest side of the city, Ball State's campus spans and includes 106 buildings...
, the University of Texas, Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
, as well as teaching at Lawrence Technological University
Lawrence Technological University
Lawrence Technological University, also known as Lawrence Tech or simply LTU, is a private university located in Southfield, Michigan. The school offers undergraduate, masters, and doctoral programs in engineering, science, mathematics, architecture, graphic design, and business...
and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
. Holzman is a member of the Interior Design Hall of Fame, the Municipal Art Society
Municipal Art Society
The Municipal Art Society of New York, founded in 1893, is a non-profit membership organization that fights for intelligent urban planning, design and preservation through education, dialogue and advocacy in New York City....
, the Architectural League of New York
Architectural League of New York
The Architectural League of New York is a non-profit organization "for creative and intellectual work in architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines"....
, and has served as a trustee of the Amon Carter Museum
Amon Carter Museum
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is located in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established by Amon G. Carter to house his collection of paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. Carter’s will provided a museum in Fort Worth devoted to American art.When the museum opened...
and Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
.
Style
Holzman has designed many important civic and academic structures throughout the United States, especially libraries, museums and performing arts venues. His collagist plans with rotated grids, diagonals and eclectic sensibilities, quickly established him as a pioneer. His use of industrial and rural vernacular, as well as salvaged and local materials ran counter to reductionistReductionism
Reductionism can mean either an approach to understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things or a philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can...
modernist tendencies, resulting in a more humanist approach. In addition Holzman advocated the reuse of older buildings at a time when the profession embraced pristine modernism, exemplified by urban renewal. Holzman was an early advocate of sustainable building practices. Holzman has expressed his belief that the most effective and often overlooked method of greening modern building practices is to repurpose existing buildings and to design buildings with longer lifespans.
Holzman's signature is a courageous and creative materials palate, and he has recently published two books on the subject. "No other contemporary architect uses traditional and unconventional materials with such invention, exuberance and wit.” Holzman's interiors are "legendary" for his bold and eclectic use of color, pattern and texture, exemplified by his custom-designed fabrics, upholstery and carpeting. Holzman frequently uses stone, usually as large blocks with rich texture in a load-bearing capacity, as opposed to the contemporary stone veneers of curtain wall construction. He often collaborates with artists and incorporates their works into his buildings, most notably Albert Paley
Albert Paley
Albert Paley is a modernist American metal sculptor, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1944. He earned both a BFA and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Paley initially worked as a goldsmith and moved to Rochester, New York in 1969 to teach at the Rochester Institute...
and Tom Otterness
Tom Otterness
Tom Otterness is an American sculptor whose works adorn parks, plazas, subway stations, libraries, courthouses and museums in New York---most notably in Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City and in the 14th Street/8th Avenue subway station---and other cities around the world...
.
Early on, Holzman avoided characterizations or a design manifesto. Practicing in an era when architecture became increasingly dominated by factions, Holzman was an architect who “would rather build than talk,” believing that successful buildings are not born from theory but from careful attention to location and clients. This garnered Peter Eisenman
Peter Eisenman
Peter Eisenman is an American architect. Eisenman's professional work is often referred to as formalist, deconstructive, late avant-garde, late or high modernist, etc...
’s pejorative assessment of “functionalism
Functionalism (architecture)
Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern...
in drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
.” His 46 year career has spanned the majority of the Late Modernist movement
Late Modernism
Late modernism encompasses the overall production of most recent art made between the aftermath of World War II and the early years of the 21st century. The terminology often points to similarities between late modernism and post-modernism although there are differences. The predominant term for...
.
HHPA
- Brooklyn Children's MuseumBrooklyn Children's MuseumThe Brooklyn Children's Museum is a general purpose museum in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, USA. Founded in 1899, it was the first museum in the United States and some believe, the world, to cater specifically to children and is unique in its location, predominantly a residential area...
- The Salisbury School
- Artpark
- Best ProductsBest ProductsBest Products is a defunct chain of American catalog showroom retail stores founded by Sydney and Frances Lewis, formerly headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.- History :...
Headquarters - Dillingham Hall at Punahou
- Virginia Museum of Fine ArtsVirginia Museum of Fine ArtsThe Virginia Museum of Fine arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, in the United States, which opened in 1936.The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia, while private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the support of specific programs and all...
- David Saul Smith Union at Bowdoin CollegeBowdoin CollegeBowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
- the WCCO-TV office (pictured)
- Murchison Performing Arts Center at the University of North Texas
- Mahaney Center for the Arts and McCullough Student Center at Middlebury CollegeMiddlebury CollegeMiddlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
- San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts
- Columbia Public LibraryColumbia Public LibraryThe Columbia Public Library is the public library for the city of Columbia, Missouri. It is the headquarters of the Daniel Boone Regional Library system, which also includes Callaway County Public Library, Southern Boone County Library, and two Bookmobiles. Columbia Public Library is the largest...
(pictured) - Cleveland Public Library, Louis Stokes Wing, garden
HMBA
- Jefferson Hall at West Point
- Globe-News Center for the Performing ArtsGlobe-News Center for the Performing ArtsGlobe-News Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts facility in downtown Amarillo, Texas, U.S.A.. The $30 million USD facility, opened in January 2006, houses the Amarillo Opera, Amarillo Symphony, Lone Star Ballet, and various events...
(pictured) - Texas A&M University Corpus Christi Performing Arts Center
- ImaginOnImaginOnImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center is a collaborative venture of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and the Children's Theater of Charlotte located in Charlotte, North Carolina. This landmark learning center opened on October 8, 2005...
in Charlotte, North CarolinaCharlotte, North CarolinaCharlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
(pictured) - Cedar Hill Government Center, Cedar Hill, TexasCedar Hill, TexasCedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located approximately sixteen miles southwest of downtown Dallas and is situated along the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park. The population was 32,093 at the 2000 census...
- City of Wylie Municipal Complex, Wylie, TexasWylie, TexasNot to be confused with the unincorporated area of Wylie, Texas just outside Abilene, Texas.Wylie is a city in Collin, Dallas, and Rockwall Counties in the U.S. state of Texas, and a suburb of Dallas. At the 2000 Census, the population was 15,132; 2004 estimates pegged it at 25,850...
- Performing Arts Center at [Francis Marion University]
- Hylton Performing Arts CenterHylton Performing Arts CenterThe Hylton Performing Arts Center is a $46 million performance facility located on the Prince William County, Virginia campus of George Mason University. The center is a joint venture that was funded 60 percent by Prince William County, 30 pecent by the university and 10 percent by the City of...
, George Mason UniversityGeorge Mason UniversityGeorge Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...
, Manassas, VirginiaManassas, VirginiaThe City of Manassas is an independent city surrounded by Prince William County and the independent city of Manassas Park in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Its population was 37,821 as of 2010. Manassas also surrounds the county seat for Prince William County but that county...
Books
- Reusing Railroad Stations (1974)
- Stonework (2001)
- A Material Life (2008)