User:NGregory21^^/sandbox

Superscript text

Jules Gregory (August 3, 1920–March 13, 1985) was an award-winning American architect and innovative urban planner who worked in the mid-twentieth-century modern era from Princeton, New Jersey for most of his career.

Early life

Jules Gregory was born in New York City on August 3, 1920, one of two sons of Julius Gregory, a noted New York architect[1] and Mary Lovrien Price Gregory, a painter, muralist[2] and cartoonist[3]. His grandfather, Eugene J. Gregory was mayor of Sacramento from 1880–1881[4], and his great-grandfather emigrated from France, settling in northern California in 1850 for the Gold Rush. Jules Gregory graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1938, and from Cornell University College of Architecture in 1943. During World War II he worked with surveying teams in Alaska.

He married Nancy Shippen Bangert Eyerly of Pleasantville, New York, in 1945; the couple lived in Greenwich Village in New York City. With a Fulbright scholarship, Gregory studied architecture in Paris at the École de Beaux Arts from 1949 to 1950. He met the Swiss-French architect and designer Le Corbusier and made friends with many artists.

In 1950 Gregory and his wife moved to Lambertville, New Jersey, where he partnered with architect William Hunt and then established his own firm, creating an office from a converted chicken coop. They had two daughters, Kathe Gregory, now of Boston, and Nicole Gregory, of Los Angeles.

Architecture

As a young architect, Gregory worked in five New York City offices: Harrison & Abramovitz; Ketchum, Gina & Sharpe; Sanders & Malsin; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; and the United Nations design team. During this time, he won two awards in a “Hidden Talent” in architecture competition organized by The Museum of Modern Art and Architectural Record.[5]

Gregory’s first designs as an independent architect were private homes with a dramatic modernist style. He designed award-winning houses throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. Owners included Dr. David and Edith Rose, Gerome and Mrs. Choderov, David and Naomi Savage, Herbert R. Axelrod, Lee and Mrs. Mendelson, Elizabeth and William Goryl, John E. Gombos, Edith and Yosh Kawano and Donald Palese.[6]

Signature elements of these homes are soaring open and often multi-level spaces framed by bent natural wood, white textured stucco and walls of glass that let in sunlight and provided an intimate closeness with nature.[7]

His own home, built on a 10-acre wooded site outside of Lambertville, New Jersey in 1960, was featured in The American Home magazine, winter 1963 edition, Architectural Record 1961, House and Gardens Building Guide, 1963 and other publications. Gregory’s home featured a curved roof supported by one-foot-thick laminated wooden beams and high glass walls.[8]

Gregory was increasing sought after to design larger buildings, so he moved his office to Princeton, New Jersey, establishing a firm with the name Uniplan in a converted car-wash.

He designed schools, libraries, offices and churches, among them:

•      Marlboro Middle School (awarded Special Jury Citation for Architectural Excellence); •	William S. Hart Sr. East Orange Middle School (awarded Citation from the American Association of School Administrators and Award of Merit for Outstanding Architectural Excellence in Design, New Jersey Society of Architects);

•	White Plains Community Church;

•	Luther Memorial Evangelical Lutheran Church (awarded the National Gold Medal Exhibition Award, the Architectural League of New York and the American Federation of the Arts); •	Kilmer Library (awarded American Association of School Administrators and Special Jury Citation for Architectural Excellence College and University Conference and Exposition)[9]

Jules Gregory served as Director of the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) from 1965 to 1968, Chairman for Commission on the Environment 1967–68, Vice President from 1968–69 and became an AIA Fellow in 1969. He was affiliated with numerous organizations including the Architectural League of New York, the New Jersey Society of Architects and the National Institute for Architectural Education. He was co-editor along with David Lewis of Process: Architecture, Community Design: By the People, December 1977 edition, which featured stories of citizen participation in urban design [10] and he was once listed in Who’s Who in America. [11]

Teaching

Gregory mentored many young architects throughout his life. His obituary noted that “Jules seldom lectured, he taught in architectural schools as a visitor,” [12] including Columbia University (where he was adjunct associate professor for three years), Princeton University, Pratt Institute, Rutgers University, Yale University and Ohio State University. [13]

Urban Planning

In the late 1960s, urban planning increasingly captured Gregory’s interest, and he coordinated a group called Regional Urban Design Assistance Team (R/UDAT).[14] This was a constantly changing group of architects, urban planners and engineers who traveled to more than 90 cities around the country. These R/UDAT teams created master plans and provided guidance to mayors and government officials on how to expand development and revitalize downtrodden areas based on the interests and needs of communities and local businesses. [15]

In 1983 Gregory won the Edward C. Kemper Award, [16] highest honor of achievement from the American Institute of Architecture, “For tireless service to his profession and to the enhancement of the urban life in America as a prime organizer and enthusiastic proponent of the Institute’s Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team Program, he has helped communities across the land redefine and shape themselves within the context of their own unique and precious values. His service, wisdom and powers of persuasion have greatly enhanced the public’s understanding of its designers to America’s vitality.”

Legacy

Today, with the ongoing interest in the mid-century style, the homes designed by Jules Gregory are much sought after real estate.

Gregory’s ground-breaking community-driven urban design philosophy was posthumously acknowledged by an AIA Institute Presidential Citation, which stated that his “vision of ‘architects in service of society’ is now embedded in the AIA mission. More importantly, professionals around the world have answered his call to service by transforming their own communities through democratic design processes. His leadership legacy has had a singular impact on this field of work.” [17]

An obituary that appeared in Progressive Architecture magazine stated, “Here was an architect who had the courage to be a humanist in an increasingly business and technological world, one who maintained—long before urban design was even a phrase in our vocabulary—that architectural responsibility must be broadened from individual buildings to buildings as city-making…Underlying his efforts was the belief that in every local urban situation there are reservoirs of citizen wisdom, that local people everywhere need and want the opportunity to debate the issues and establish comprehensive directions into which new buildings can fit meaningfully. He felt that no architect—indeed, no single individual—could ever grasp the intricacy of contexts alone. For Jules, the answer lay in teamwork.” [18]

References

[1] New York Times obituary, December 6, 1955

[1] “An English-American Home of Rare Craftsmanship,” Arts & Decoration, March 1926

[1] Gillespie, Harriet Sisson, “A House of Character Within and Without,” The House Beautiful, July 1924

[2] "Artist Does Mural Paintings for Children's Corner," The Scarsdale Inquirer, December 1, 1933

[3] https://www.lambiek.net/artists/g/gregory_lovrien.htm

[4] Willis, William L., History of Sacramento County, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1923

[5] Museum of Modern Art “Hidden Talent in Architecture” Winners

[6] Family archives

[7] Family archives

[8] Wagner, Walter, F, and Schlegel, editors, Houses Architects Design for Themselves, New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1974

[9] Family archives

[10] Gregory, Jules and Lewis, David, guest editors, Process: Architecture, Community Design: By the People No. 3 1977

[11] Family archives

[12] Lewis, David, Progressive Architecture magazine, June 1985 “Jules Gregory: 1921–1985”

[13] Family archives

[14] Rhinehart, Ray, “The Legacy of Whitney M. Young, Jr.: Participatory Design,” American Institute of Architects

[15] Batchelor, Peter and Lewis, David, editors, Urban Design in Action: The history, theory and development of the American Institute of Architects’ Regional/Urban Design Assistance Teams (R/UDAT) Program. The Student Publication of the School of Design, North Caroline State University, Raleigh North Carolina, Vol. 29, 1985. Copyright ©1986 The American Institute of Architects and The Student Publication of the School of Design

[16] American Institute of Architects, Kemper Award recipients

[17] Family archives

[18] Lewis, David, Progressive Architecture magazine, June 1985, “Jules Gregory: 1921–1985”

Category:Architects