Ehrman B. Mitchell Jr., FAIA, the 1979 president of the Institute and half of the internationally renowned firm Mitchell/Giurgola of Philadelphia, passed away January 18. He was a week shy of his 80th birthday.

Mitchell was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and was graduated from the Hill School in nearby Pottstown, Pa., in 1941. He put his academic career at the University of Pennsylvania on hold in 1943 to serve as a U.S. naval officer. After the end of World War II, he returned to Penn and earned a Bachelor of Arts and Science in 1947 and a BArch summa cum laude in 1948. He began his professional career with Philadelphia’s Savery, Sheetz & Gilmour. In 1951 he joined Gilboy & O’Malley. It was there he met Romaldo Giurgola, FAIA, who was also working as a design associate and teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. They founded Mitchell/Giurgola in their beloved city of Brotherly Love in 1958.

Synergism in partnership
Mitchell’s long-term partnership with Romaldo Giurgola was a synergistic match that heightened the considerable talents of both men. Mitchell acknowledged Giurgola as the firm’s primary designer, while Mitchell himself was acknowledged by others as the business genius. Mitchell/Giurgola won the 1976 AIA Firm Award, and Giurgola received the AIA Gold Medal in 1982.

The Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project terms Mitchell/Giurgola “one of the most important firms of the ‘Philadelphia School,’” characterized by a kinder, more personal interpretation of Modernism. One of Mitchell/Giurgola’s first commissions, the Wright Brothers’ Memorial National Visitors’ Center at Kill Devil Hill, N.C., won acclaim when first built in 1960, and then again in the 1990s when public and professional outcry saved the design intact.

Mitchell/Giurgola’s national and international stature grew throughout the ’60s and into the next two decades. In 1966, when Giurgola left the University of Pennsylvania to head the department of architecture at Columbia University, he established the firm’s New York City office. Among the firm’s myriad notable buildings are:

• 30th Street Site Redevelopment Plan, Philadelphia
• Acadia National Park Headquarters, Bar Harbor, Maine
• The original design of the AIA headquarters building in Washington, D.C.
• Australian Parliament House, Canberra
• INA Tower, Philadelphia
• The Liberty Bell Pavilion, Philadelphia
• Penn Mutual Tower, Philadelphia (which won a 1977 AIA Honor Award and is on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places)
• Restoration of the Philadelphia College of Art (Athenaeum), on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places and the National Register
• Princeton University Art Museum.

The founding partners retired in 1990. Their associates formed MGA Partners in Philadelphia, and kept Mitchell/Giurgola as the name of the New York City firm. Both offices continue the firm’s tradition of design excellence and award-winning buildings.

Service with dignity and integrity
Mitchell’s inauguration for his term as the 55th president of the Institute took place at the newly opened East Building of the National Gallery of Art, designed by I.M. Pei and Partners. It proved to be a fitting start point for the architect who strove to bring to the public’s attention the importance of design through a series of events nationwide that emphasized energy conservation through design, preservation of the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, and architecture education in the schools.

Mitchell’s term as 1979 AIA president was only part of a long tradition of service to the profession that he began early in his career. He first joined the AIA in 1951 and was elevated to Fellowship in 1969. He was a director of the AIA from 1973 until 1976, vice president in 1977, and first vice president in 1978. He also was active locally, serving on the boards of the Philadelphia Chapter (1964–1968), and the Pennsylvania Society of Architects (1964–1965). He also was very much a part of the state’s leadership in the 1960s, serving as secretary (1966), vice president (1967), and president (1968). In 1979, he was named an honorary fellow of the Royal Canadian Institute of Architects and, in 1980, a fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.

“Ehrman, or ‘Bud,’ as many of us called him, was a great influence on this organization during a time when its leaders were challenged by the pressures of newly developing technology, the influx of the Baby Boom into the profession, and the growing need for environmental sensitivity in designs and building products,” recalls AIA Executive Vice President/CEO Norman L. Koonce, FAIA, “In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he served as a member of the Board of Regents for the American Architectural Foundation. During my early years as the AAF’s president, I found his advice and support invaluable. He served the profession with dignity and integrity and will be deeply missed.”

Mitchell’s wife of 58 years, Hermine Mitchell, Hon. AIA, passed away June 15, 2004. They are survived by two children and three grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. January 29 at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia. Memorial donations may be made to the Ehrman B. Mitchell Fund at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.

Copyright 2005 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved. Home Page