Michael Graves, founder of Michael Graves Architecture and Design, died Thursday of natural causes in his Princeton, New Jersey home at age 80.
Graves was an important and highly respected figure in three major design movements. He was famously labeled a member of the “New York Five,” a group of architects inspired by French modernist Le Corbusier, before pioneering postmodernism in the 1980s and ’90s.
The 1980s saw Graves transition into the Memphis group, which sought to incorporate postmodernism in product and furniture design. He later designed housewares and products available to the general public. He is known for his work on buildings including Team Disney in Burbank, California; the Denver Public Library; and the Portland Building in Oregon.
Born in Indianapolis in 1934, Graves earned a degree in architecture from the University of Cincinnati in 1958 and his master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1962 he joined the Princeton University faculty where he taught for 39 years.
In 2003, Graves suffered complications from a sinus infection, which paralyzed him from the chest down. His health condition influenced his firm’s work to innovate healthcare design in wheelchairs and hospital edifices and furniture.
