Aymar Embury II (1880-1966) was an American architect. Born in New York City, he graduated from Princeton University in 1900 with both bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering in 1901, and began practicing architecture in New York City that same year.
Embury taught architecture at Princeton while also working for various firms in New York City, including Cass Gilbert, George B. Post, Howells & Stokes, and Palmer and Hornbostel. During the First World War he served as a captain with the 40th Engineers of the United States Army, and designed the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal (Army).
Embury's specialties were college buildings, urban and country houses, hotels, library buildings, banks, clubs and community buildings. He was the architect for college buildings at Princeton University, Kalamazoo College, and Hofstra College and created two housing developments. His most significant efforts, however, were in connection with Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, with whom he worked as architect and supervisor of a design and construction team that executed more than six hundred projects for the city of New York, including the Triborough Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Henry Hudson Memorial Bridge, the Whitestone Bridge, the Rainbow Bridge, the Jamaica Bay Bridge and The Port of New York Authority Terminal Building. Embury was also the architect for the New York City and Argentine Pavilions at the 1939 World's Fair held in New York City.
Embury was a member of the President's Advisory Committee on Architecture from 1934-1943. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the New York Society of Architects. Mr. Embury is also the author of 100 Country Houses (1901), The Dutch Colonial House (1911), Country Houses (1914), Early American Churches (1914), The Liveable House (1917), and The Esthetics of Engineering Construction (1943).
From the guide to the Aymar Embury Papers, 1911-1964, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
