Charles Willard Moore

Charles Willard Moore (October 31, 1925 in Benton Harbor, Michigan – December 16, 1993 in Austin, Texas) was an American architect, educator, writer, and winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1991.

Related Topics:
October 31 - 1925 - Benton Harbor - Michigan - December 16 - 1993 - Austin - Texas - American - Architect - AIA Gold Medal - 1991

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Moore graduated from the University of Michigan in 1947 and took his PhD from Princeton University in 1957. He was Dean of the Yale School of Architecture from 1965 through 1970, directly after the tenure of Paul Rudolph. Moore's somewhat Dionysian personality and his dedication to innovation, collaboration, debate and direct experience was sharp contrast to Rudolph's authoritarian approach. With Kent Bloomer, Moore founded the Yale Building Project in 1967 as a way to both demonstrate social responsibility and demystify the construction process for first-year students. The Project is still ongoing.

Related Topics:
University of Michigan - 1947 - PhD - Princeton University - 1957 - Yale - School of Architecture - 1965 - 1970 - Paul Rudolph - Dionysian - Kent Bloomer - Yale Building Project - 1967 - Social responsibility - Student

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Moore opened practice in New Haven, Connecticut and in the following years practiced under a confusing variety of configurations and partners and names (including Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull, Whitaker (MLTW), Centerbrook Architects, Moore Ruble Yudell, Urban Innovations Group, and Moore/Andersson) through his extensive worldwide travels and moves to Santa Monica, California for a professorship at University of California, Los Angeles, then to Austin, Texas.

Related Topics:
New Haven - Connecticut - Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull, Whitaker - Santa Monica - California - University of California, Los Angeles - Austin - Texas

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Works include:

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• the influential 1967 Sea Ranch Condominium Project in Marin County, California (with landscape architect Lawrence Halprin)
• the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley
• the Beverly Hills Civic Center in Beverly Hills, California
• the 1978 small public plaza Piazza d'Italia in New Orleans, Louisiana, and
• his last work, the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, Washington

With his preference for conspicuous design features, loud color combinations, supergraphics, stylistic collisions, the re-use of esoteric historical design solutions, and the use of non-traditional materals like plastic, mylar, platinum tiles, and neon signs, Moore's architecture always provides arousal, demands attention, and sometimes tips over into kitsch. His own mid-1960s New Haven residence, published in Playboy, features an open, freestanding shower in the middle of the room, its water nozzled through a giant sunflower. Such stylistic collisions have encouraged the postmodernists to retroactively adopt Moore as one of their own. The true philosophic link between the two is questionable.

Related Topics:
Supergraphics - Plastic - Mylar - Platinum - Neon sign - 1960s - Playboy - Postmodernists

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Charles Moore's true legacy is as teacher, collaborator, and writer. "Body, Memory, and Architecture," written with Kent Bloomer during the Yale years, is a plea for architects to design structures for three-dimensional user experience instead of two-dimensional visual appearance. "The City Observed: Los Angeles" remains an excellent guide to Los Angeles' significant architecture.

Related Topics:
Kent Bloomer - Three-dimensional

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