The Corning Fire Station facade and floor plan. The building has a strict form where small vehicles are placed in the narrow portion at the tip. All function spaces have been baked into the base of the triangle, such as changing rooms, storage room, dining room, dormitory and office, where all rooms are accessed via a wide corridor.[2]
Biography
Birkerts was born and raised in Latvia, but escaped ahead of the advancing Soviet army toward the end of the Second World War. He graduated from the Technische Hochschule, Stuttgart, Germany, in 1949. He acknowledged being influenced by Scandinavian tradition and the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.[3]
Birkerts immigrated to the United States that year and initially worked for Perkins and Will, a global design practice based in Chicago. He moved to the Detroit area in the early 1950s, where he worked for Eero Saarinen, and was a chief designer for Minoru Yamasaki before opening his own office in the city's suburbs.[3]
Birkerts also maintained an architectural office in Wellesley, Massachusetts
He initially practiced in the partnership Birkerts and Straub. In 1963, he set up Gunnar Birkerts and Associates in Birmingham, Michigan.[3]
The firm received Honor Awards for its projects from the (national) American Institute of Architects in 1962, 1970, 1973, as well as numerous awards from the Michigan Society of Architects and the local chapter.
Birkerts joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1959 and taught until 1990. The ACSA (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) honored Birkerts with the ACSA Distinguished Professor Award in 1989–90.
In 1989, Birkerts was commissioned to design the new building for the National Library of Latvia in Riga, Latvia, which had great personal meaning for him.[3] Also known as the Castle of Light, he drew from Latvian folklore about the Glass Mountain for its architectural form.[3] The building was constructed over the period 2008 to 2014.[1]
Birkerts married Sylvia, who survived him. They have three grown children, Sven Birkerts, a literary critic and professor; Andra Birkerts, an interior designer specializing in residential work; and Erik Birkerts.[3]
Martin, William, Gunnar Birkerts and Associates (Yukio Futagawa, editor and photographer), A.D.A. Edita (GA Architect), Tokyo 1982
Gunnar Birkerts & Associates, IBM Information Systems Center, Sterling Forest, N.Y., 1972; Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1973 (Yukio Futagawa, editor and photographer), A.D.A. EDITA (GA Architecture), Tokyo 1974
References
^ a b"Thousands attend National Library's open house celebrations". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 16 June 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
^"CHALMERS BIBLIOTEK /All Locations". chans.lib.chalmers.se. Archived from the original on 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2014-01-24.
^ a b c d e f gKamin, Blair (15 August 2017). "Gunnar Birkerts, acclaimed Midwestern architect, dies at 92". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
^Fallows, Deborah (19 November 2014). "A Field Trip to America's Public Libraries". The Atlantic. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
^"National Library architect Gunārs Birkerts dies at 92". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 15 August 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
^"History". 1300 Lafayette East Cooperative. 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gunnar Birkerts.