by ArchitectureWeek

Only five times in the 100-year history of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal has the AIA's highest honor been awarded posthumously. Renowned 20th-century architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, FAIA has now joined the ranks of the others — Thomas Jefferson, Eero Saarinen, Richard Neutra, William Caudill, and Samuel Mockbee — who did not live long enough to enjoy this well deserved symbol of professional recognition.

Barnes is perhaps best remembered for fusing American modernism with vernacular architecture. In describing him, Henry N. Cobb, FAIA, founding partner with Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, remarked: "With characteristically quiet determination, Edward Barnes produced a large body of distinguished built work — some of them too-little celebrated — during his more than 40 years of practice. Although Barnes was modest, perhaps to a fault, and often seemed to operate 'below the radar' of critical acclaim, his influence has nonetheless been broad and deep."   >>>

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IBM 590 Madison Avenue, New York, by Edward Larrabee Barnes, FAIA, who has received the 2007 AIA Gold Medal. Photo: Cervin Robinson Edward Larrabee Barnes in 1984. Photo: Nancy Rica Schiff   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.