Goodman, Percival

Architect.

Percival Goodman, 1904-1989, "architect, interior designer, planner, teacher, author and critic, and artist and illustrator, began a seventy-year career in architecture at age thirteen as an apprentice to his architect uncle. A winner of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects' 18th Paris Prize in Architecture in 1925, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. returning to New York in the late 1920s profoundly affected by the work of Le Corbusier and other European modernists. In the 1930s he began his longstanding commitment to teaching, and became an important early contributor to American modernism through his work in architectural design, theory and criticism. The leading designer of synagogues in the post-World War II period, hew was a pioneer of modern religious architecture and in the use of modern art in a religious context."

"Goodman is well recognized as a theoretician of urban planning. He is the co-author of the highly regarded Communitas (1947, new editions in 1960 and 1990), which has been translated into Japanese, Spanish and Italian. Written with his brother, the social critic and author Paul Goodman, and illustrated with his drawings, this classic work analyzes a variety of modern city planning solutions and presents three original proposals or 'paradigms' for theoretical communities. In his book The Double E (1977), Goodman developed his social concerns and visionary thinking, focusing on the relationshop between ecology, economy and planning. His sixty years of writing also includes articles for professional journals, book reviews, letters to editors, texts for government publications, lectures and symposia, as well as numerous unpublished manuscripts, such as his translation and adaptation of Auguste Choisy's L'Histoire de l'Architecture."

"A respected teacher, Goodman taught design and planning at Columbia University from 1946-1972, when he was appointed professor emeritus. He closed his architectural office in 1979, but continued to work as a design consultant. In his last decade he also undertook several theoretical and critical projects combining drawing and text, including 'An Illustrated Guide to Utopia," and 'A Direction for Post-Modern Revivalism'." -- Study Guide to the Percival Goodman Collection, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library / prepared by Joy Kestenbaum.

Percival Goodman (1904 Jan 13 – 1989 Oct 11), architect, interior designer, planner, teacher, author and critic, and artist and illustrator, began a seventy-year career in architecture at age thirteen as an apprentice to his architect uncle. A winner of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects' 18th Paris Prize in Architecture in 1925, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, returning to New York in the late 1920s profoundly affected by the work of Le Corbusier and other European modernists. In the 1930s he began his longstanding commitment to teaching, and became an important early contributor to American modernism through his work in architectural design, theory and criticism. The leading designer of synagogues in the post-World War II period, he was a pioneer of modern religious architecture and in the use of modern art in a religious context.

Goodman is well recognized as a theoretician of urban planning. He is the co-author of the highly regarded Communitas (1947, new editions in 1960 and 1990), which has been translated into Japanese, Spanish and Italian. Written with his brother, the social critic and author Paul Goodman, and illustrated with his drawings, this classic work analyzes a variety of modern city planning solutions and presents three original proposals or "paradigms" for theoretical communities. In his book The Double E (1977), Goodman developed his social concerns and visionary thinking, focusing on the relationship between ecology, economy and planning. His sixty years of writing also includes articles for professional journals, book reviews, letters to editors, texts for government publications, lectures and symposia, as well as numerous unpublished manuscripts, such as his translation and adaptation of Auguste Choisy's L'Histoire de l'Architecture.

A respected teacher, Goodman taught design and planning at Columbia University from 1946-1972, when he was appointed professor emeritus. He closed his architectural office in 1979, but continued to work as a design consultant. In his last decade he also undertook several theoretical and critical projects combining drawing and text, including "An Illustrated Guide to Utopia," and "A Direction for Post-Modern Revivalism".