User:JPRiley/JRMyer

John R. Myer (1927–2016) was an American architect and architectural educator. Myer practiced architecture in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1957 to 1995 and was cofounder of the practice now known as Arrowstreet in 1964. He was head of the MIT architecture department from 1982 to 1987.

Life and career
John Randolph Myer was born February 14, 1927 in Boston to Charles Randolph Myer and Fanny (Whiting) Myer. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating from the latter in 1952 with a BArch. After graduation he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship which enabled him to study at the Università Iuav di Venezia in Venice for the year 1952–53. During the year 1953-54 he worked for Studio Valle in Udine, where he worked with Gino Valle. After returning to the United States in 1954 he joined Hugh Stubbins & Associates in Cambridge as a designer, and was promoted to associate after earning his architect's license in 1957. As associates of Stubbins, Myer and another associate, Fletcher Ashley, designed the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center of Brandeis University, which won a prestigious Progressive Architecture Award in 1958 for its design. In 1959 Myer left to establish his own office, working out of his home in Cambridge. In 1961 he began collaborating with Ashley, who had also left Stubbins, and in 1963 they entered an entry in the international competition to design the building of the Boston Architectural College (BAC).

Their Brutalist entry won, and in 1964 they formed the firm of Ashley, Myer & Associates, with offices on Arrow Street in Cambridge. They completed the BAC building in 1966, and became well known for institutional work. The firm became Ashley/Myer/Smith in 1969 to reflect the addition of Douglas Cole Smith, another Stubbins associate who had joined the firm in 1968, and in 1973 was renamed again renamed to Arrowstreet after their address. Myer was in charge of design during his entire career with the firm. Under his leadership the firm was noted as a leader in participatory design, engaging all users of a proposed project during design. During the 1970s and 1980s Arrowstreet and Myer became known for their varied use of color and material in projects, in particular their then-controversial modernization of Park Street station, completed in 1978, and the Massachusetts Archives, completed in 1985. Regarding Park Street, Boston Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell wrote that "[w]henever there is a choice between doing less and doing more, Arrowstreet always chooses to do more." Beginning in the 1980s Arrowstreet began to shift its focus away from institutional to commercial projects, and in 1987 Myer left to join Linea 5, a firm founded in 1985 by one of his former students and employees, Rosemary Grimshaw, where he remained for the rest of his career.

In 1959 Myer joined the faculty of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning as an assistant professor. In 1964 he was a couathor of The View from the Road with fellow MIT professors Donald Appleyard and Kevin Lynch. He was promoted to associate professor in 1966 and professor in 1971. In 1982 he was appointed chair of the architecture department, and filled that role until 1987. Myer retired from both practice and teaching in 1995.

Personal life
Myer was married in 1948 to Margaret Ewing Hoag, a psychiatric social worker. They had three children: Charles Randolph Myer, Anna Scattergood Myer and Margaret Keats Myer. Charles R. Myer followed in his father's footsteps and is an architect in Cambridge. The Myers lived in Cambridge until their retirements, and in 1996 moved to New Hampshire, living in Sandwich and Hanover. Myer died February 17, 2016 in Hanover at the age of 90.

Architectural works

 * Persons Auditorium, Marlboro College, Marlboro, Vermont (1962–63)
 * Boston Architectural College, 320 Newbury St, Boston (1964–66)
 * Rice–Aron Library, Marlboro College, Marlboro, Vermont (1964-65)
 * Shore Club Apartments, Shore Club Dr, St. Clair Shores, Michigan (1967–68)
 * Vaillant Wing, Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1968)
 * Warren Gardens, 45 Walnut Ave, Roxbury, Boston (1969)
 * Chandler Village, Worcester State University, Worcester, Massachusetts (1972–73)
 * Durgin Hall, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts (1973–76)
 * Park Street station modernization, Boston (1977–78)
 * Massachusetts Archives, 220 William T Morrissey Blvd, Dorchester, Boston (1985)

Published works

 * Donald Appleyard, Kevin Lynch and John R. Myer, The View from the Road (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1964)
 * John R. Myer, "Valle, Gino" in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects 4, ed. Adolf K. Placzek (New York: Free Press, 1982)
 * John R. Myer and Margaret H. Myer, People and Places: Connections between the Inner and Outer Landscape (Peter Randall, 2006)