Michael Graves, architect and designer, dies at 80

Architect Michael Graves brought good design to the masses with his product line for Target, helped lead the postmodernist revolt against steel-and-glass boxes, and designed products for disabled people after a spinal cord infection left him in a wheelchair.

Mr. Graves, 80, a winner of the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal, the highest honor the organization bestows upon an individual, died of natural causes Thursday, March 12, in his hometown of Princeton, N.J., a spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

In the 1980s, reacting to the strictures of sober postwar modernism, Mr. Graves was one of the postmodern architects who reintroduced color, whimsy and decoration to building design. He did so in commissions ranging from a still-controversial municipal office building in Portland, Ore., to an earth-toned Disney hotel festooned with giant sculptures of swans in Florida.

What really put Mr. Graves on the pop culture map was his angular stainless steel teakettle for Alessi, which quickly became a best-seller after its 1985 debut. He scored big again with his 1999 product line for Minneapolis-based Target, which came to encompass more than 2,000 products, including the "Spinning Whistle Teakettle," a simpler and less expensive version of the legendary Alessi teapot.

Through such work, the architect achieved the dream of the German Bauhaus modernists of the early 20th century, spreading the gospel of good design to people of modest means.

"He was the one who popularized it," Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman said Thursday of postmodern design. "He was immensely talented."

Born in Indianapolis, Mr. Graves first achieved notoriety in the 1970s as a member of the "New York Five," a group of architects influenced by the white, modernist buildings of the Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier.

He remained a relatively obscure Princeton University professor until 1980, when he won a design competition for the Portland municipal office building. The squat, midrise structure opened in 1982 with a full complement of decoration, from ersatz ribbons to a large sculpture of the female figure Portlandia.

Critics of a modernist bent derided the design as mere packaging. But the barbs did not stop Mr. Graves from winning other high-profile commissions, such as the Humana corporate headquarters in Louisville, Ky., and a proposed addition to New York's Whitney Museum of Art that was never built.

Mr. Graves got a career-changing break in the late 1990s when Target commissioned him to design scaffolding for the restoration of the Washington Monument.

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Michael Graves, architect and designer, dies at 80