The Many Sides of Michael Graves

Most architects would be satisfied to be remembered as the standard-bearer of a new style. In the case of Michael Graves (1934-2015), that style was Postmodernism, which he introduced to the world in the form of a be-swagged, multicolored building in Portland, Oregon, in 1982. Postmodernism went on to become the dominant style of commercial and civic buildings in the United States and Europe through the mid-1990s.

But Graves—curious, restless, and a workaholic—didn’t stop there. He left his mark on industrial design, too, with timeless objects like his famous “bird-whistle” teakettle, designed for the Italian housewares company Alessi, and an entire product line for Target. In later life, he devoted much of his energy to making hospital rooms more comfortable for the patients confined to them, and to creating spaces and devices that could be used easily by people with disabilities—people like himself. Graves was paralyzed from the chest down by an infection in 2003, at the age of 69.