William Edmond Lescaze was a Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

-born 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...

, and is one of the pioneers of modernism in American architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

.

Lescaze was born Onex, Switzerland

Onex, Switzerland

Onex is a municipality in the canton of Geneva in Switzerland.-History:Onex is first mentioned in 1292 as Onay. It became an independent municipality in 1851 when the municipality of Onex-Confignon split into the two municipalities of Onex and Confignon.-Geography:Onex has an area, , of...

, and completed his formal education at the École polytechnique fédérale de Zurich in Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, receiving his degree in 1919, and emigrated to the USA in 1920. He worked for some time at the architectural firm of Hubbell & Benes in 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...

, before setting up his own practice 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...

 in 1923. Through the 1920s and 1930s he continued to travel across the Atlantic.

In 1929, Philadelphia architect George Howe

George Howe (architect)

George Howe was an American architect and educator, and an early convert to the International style. With William Lescaze, he designed Philadelphia's PSFS Building .-Biography:...

 invited Lescaze to form a partnership, which was named Howe & Lescaze. Within just a few weeks after joining forces, the duo began work on a large project for downtown Philadelphia. The resulting structure, completed in 1932, was the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society (PSFS) Building

Loews Philadelphia Hotel

The Loews Philadelphia Hotel, also known as the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society Building, or PSFS Building, is a skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. A National Historic Landmark, the Loews Philadelphia was the first International style skyscraper built in the...

, which is today generally considered the first International Modernist

International style (architecture)

The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...

 skyscraper

Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...

, and the first International Style building of wide significance in the United States. Lescaze is generally given credit for the design: letters from Howe to Lescaze quote the former insisting to the latter that "the design is definitely yours." The structure replaced the bank's former headquarters in Philadelphia, a classicist structure near Washington Square

Washington Square (Philadelphia)

Washington Square, originally designated in 1682 as Southeast Square, is an open-space park in Center City Philadelphia's Southeast quadrant and one of the five original planned squares laid out on the city grid by William Penn's surveyor, Thomas Holme. It is part of both the Washington Square West...

 built in 1897.

Lescaze submitted a design for the proposed Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

 in New York, in 1932. The wood and metal model was donated to the MOMA in 1994.

His 1937 Alfred Loomis

Alfred Lee Loomis

Alfred Lee Loomis was an American attorney, investment banker, philanthropist, scientist/physicist, pioneer in military radar usages, inventor of the LORAN or Long Range Navigation System, and lifelong patron of scientific research...

 house in Tuxedo Park, NY is regarded as an early experiment in double-skin facade

Double-skin facade

The Double Skin Façade is a system consisting of two skins placed in such a way that air flows in the intermediate cavity. The ventilation of the cavity can be natural, fan supported or mechanical...

 construction. In 1939 he designed a futuristic "House for 2089" which included a helipad on the roof.

Lescaze was also the design lead for the 1937 Williamsburg Houses

Williamsburg Houses

The Williamsburg Houses, originally called the Ten Eyck Houses, is a New York City Housing Authority development in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn neighborhood, New York City, New York....

 in Brooklyn, a pioneering 20-building modernist housing project modeled on European examples. He later taught industrial design at the 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,...

 (1943-1945). Among his built works were the CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 West Coast studios Columbia Square on Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...

. He died in New York, New York.

External links

• Lescaze, William (1896-1969) -- Philadelphia Architects and Buildings biography
• Critical Cities on Lescaze's New York apartment and studio on E48th street