Design

Remembering Michael Graves for More Than the Portland Building

While the Portland Building may be his best known accomplishment, the architect should be remembered for his contributions to humanitarian design.
Michael Graves holds a bathtub handle he designed for disabled and elderly users.Mel Evans/AP

For the better part of his life, Michael Graves stood up for the Portland Building.

In 1980, on the eve of an important city vote that would set the fate of the so-called People's Temple, Graves sat for an interview with Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel. The architect defended his rebellion against the "hygienic aesthetic" of modernist steel and glass. Here's Graves: