by Russell Boniface
Associate Editor

Summary: The New Jersey Hall of Fame announced that Michael Graves, FAIA, of Princeton, N.J., has been nominated for its Class of 2010—the first architect to be so honored. Graves’ nomination, championed by AIA New Jersey, was nominated to the “Enterprise” category.

The New Jersey Hall of Fame announced September 15 that Michael Graves, FAIA, of Princeton, N.J., has been nominated for its Class of 2010. Graves’ nomination was championed by AIA New Jersey. Graves is the first architect to be nominated for the Hall of Fame.

Voting for the Class of 2010 is now under way and open to the public. AIA New Jersey encourages all AIA members to vote for Graves online through Nov. 20 at the New Jersey Hall of Fame Web site. To vote for Graves, you must cast a vote in all categories. All winners will be announced later this fall and will be inducted at a ceremony in May.

“The New Jersey Hall of Fame recognizes people from New Jersey who have contributed in every form of social interaction, whether they are scientists, artists or athletes,” says Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA, president of AIA New Jersey. “While Michael Graves is very famous in the world of architecture, I think he is one of the few architects who has also crossed over and become a figure who is known to the public. He has created designs for public buildings that are recognized outside the architectural circle, and he has also created housewares that have brought his name into the public.

“I think the opportunity for him to become part of the New Jersey Hall of Fame is a benefit for New Jersey and architecture on the whole because it is the first time an architect has been nominated for the New Jersey Hall of Fame, which brings awareness of the world of architecture right out into the public.”

Bruce Turner, AIA, president of AIA South Jersey and president of AIA New Jersey in 2005, coordinated the Graves application for AIA New Jersey. “This is the third year the New Jersey Hall of Fame is considering inductions,” Turner says. “The first year, none of the nominees were architects, and that made me look into it. The nomination was a three-phase process, and there weren’t any architects in the first step, called the expert panelists, nor the second phase, which is the voting academy. These are internal structures that decide from all the nominations who to move forward to the third phase, the public ballot.”

The second year AIA New Jersey had its then-president appointed to the voting academy. “That was a step in the right direction,” Turner says, “but I still saw that there was an absence.” Turner says that when deciding on an architect to nominate, a poll of New Jersey architects put Michael Graves consistently on top. “I prepared a nomination for Michael Graves, we got the support of AIA New Jersey to make that submission, and we were fortunate enough to make it through the expert panelists and the voting academy to reach the point where we are now, which is a public vote.”

In prior years, the New Jersey Hall of Fame has had up to 50,000 votes for nominees. “That is the reason why we are reaching out to a national audience,” Turner says. “We have about 1,900 members here in AIA New Jersey and we know that it has to go far beyond the reach we have as architects in New Jersey. It is a wonderful opportunity to promote Mr. Graves and his nomination. The other thing that comes along with it is that It promotes architecture and the fact that good design matters. Excellence in design is something that people can aspire to.”

Kliesch says that for the next two months AIA New Jersey is going to campaign for Graves’ election to the New Jersey Hall of Fame. “We are doing a lot of publicity with his office, with school children of New Jersey, and the general public of New Jersey,” she says. “It is an opportunity for people to vote all over the world because it is an online voting system. We are very proud and excited that we were able to have Graves included as a nominee. Even making it to this step was a major hurdle.”

On September 30, AIA New Jersey is holding New Jersey Design Day, an annual event highlighting its design awards with a series of lectures related to design. “For the first time we are going to have online voting registration and a voting booth set up at Design Day so all of our members will be able to participate and vote,” Kliesch says. “We are going to have voting stations connected to the Hall of Fame site so our members can vote on that day. They can bring the literature home with them and share it with their communities.”

The Enterprise category also includes scientists, business leaders, inventors, leaders in medicine, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists.

Several Graves New Jersey projects have won the AIA national honor awards, and Graves is a Gold Medalist
Graves founded his practice in Princeton, N.J., in 1964. In addition to his involvement in Michael Graves & Associates and the Michael Graves Design Group, he is the Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture, emeritus, at Princeton University, where he taught for almost 40 years. Graves’ architectural practice has designed more than 350 buildings worldwide, including the Newark Museum, encompassing many building types. He was an early proponent of Post-Modernism. He has also designed houswares for the Target retail chain.

Graves and his firms are the recipients of nearly 200 prestigious awards and citations for architecture, interiors, and product design. Graves’ honors include being elevated to AIA fellowship in 1979, receiving the National Medal of Arts from the President Clinton in 1999, being awarded the AIA Gold Medal in 2001, and, in 2005, becoming the first recipient of the AIA New Jersey Lifetime Achievement Award.

Among Graves’ New Jersey projects that have garnered the AIA National Honor Award are the Newark Museum, as well as the Gunwyn Ventures Offices, and the Schulman House, both of the latter being in Princeton.