VENTURI, ROBERT 1925-

POSTMODERN ARCHITECT

Eclectic

The theories of Robert Venturi helped launch the postmodern movement in American architecture. Venturi, through his books Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966) and Learning from Las Vegas (1971), did more than any other author text to advance a shift away from the simple austerity of modern architecture. More than his buildings, Venturi's writings epitomized the rejection of modernism for a more eclectic, historical, and vernacular style of architecture. His attention to everyday life, ordinary buildings, and popular designs unsettled the architectural establishment in the 1970s while inspiring a new generation of designers.

Early Life

Robert Venturi, the son of a wholesale fruit grocer, was born in 1925 in Philadelphia. From the age of four Venturi knew he wanted to be an architect. He nourished his love of architectural history at Princeton University. Venturi's studies in the history of architecture led him to appreciate the work of earlier architects rejected by the modernist movement. As the recipient of the prestigious Prix de Rome prize in 1954, Venturi spent time in Italy, where he further developed his fascination with historical styles, drawing particularly from Michelangelo and the Italian mannerists. On returning from Rome, Venturi took a position at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1964 Venturi joined with John Rauch and Denise Scott Brown to form the firm Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown; they soon became one of the leading design firms in the United States.

Washington Plaza

In 1978 the firm unveiled its design for the Western Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Heralded as the most "creative urban square proposed for any city in the United States," by The New York Times architecture critic, the design was called witty and stately all at once. Funded by the $5.5 million Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation, the plaza was to sit between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets and have a view of the Capitol on one end and the White House on the other. In classic Venturi style, the design for the plaza was unusual. The plaza was to become a miniature walk-on map in marble and granite of the city's original design by Pierre Charles L'Enfant. The development corporation ultimately decided that Venturi's plan was too radical for Washington and so built a simpler version of his original design.

Eclectic Designs

In 1985 Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown won the Architectural Firm Award of the American Institute of Architects. Their work has been the basis for the current eclectic attitudes of the postmodern movement and continues to challenge architectural theory and practice around the world.