The Architects' Collaborative

Encyclopedia : T : TH : THE : The Architects' Collaborative

The Architects' Collaborative (TAC) was an American architectural firm founded by Walter Gropius and seven younger architects in 1945 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The original partners included Norman C. Fletcher (b. December 8, 1917), Jean B. Fletcher (June 23, 1915–September 13, 1965), John C. Harkness (b. November 30, 1916), Sarah P. Harkness (b. July 8, 1914), Robert S. McMillan (April 3, 1916–March 14, 2001), Louis A. McMillen (October 21, 1916–May 18, 1998) and Benjamin C. Thompson (July 3, 1918–August 21, 2002). TAC have created many successful projects, and have been well-respected for its broad range of designs. One of TAC's specialties was designing public school buildings.

TAC's philosophy reflected Gropius' central preoccupation with the social responsibilities of architecture. This lead to the idea of "collaboration", which was the basis of TAC. This unique deisgn method was carried out in that an entire group of architects have their input on a project, rather than putting an emphsis on individualism. There would be a "partner-in-charge", who would meet with clients and have the final descision of what goes into the design. This method had been practiced by Gropius when he was an instructor at the Bauhaus school years before.

Financial problems resulting in over-extension of what were many unbuilt projects caused TAC to go bankrupt in 1995. In response, many archives and architectural libraries worked fast to retrieve TAC's drawings and records. They are now stored in the Rotch Library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Important buildings

Peter Thacher Junior High School; Attleboro, Massachusetts; 1948
Six Moon Hill; Lexington, Massachusetts; 1947-1950
Harvard Graduate Center; Cambridge, Massachusetts; 1949
Five Fields; Lexington, Massachusetts; 1949-1952
Hansa Apartment Block; West Berlin, Germany; 1957
University of Baghdad; Baghdad, Iraq; 1957-1960
Pan-American World Airways Building; New York, New York; 1958-1963 (with Emery Roth & Sons)
Wayland High School; Wayland, Massachusetts; 1960, 1966 & 1972
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Office Building; Boston, Massachusetts; 1961-1966
TAC Office Building; Cambridge, Massachusetts; 1966
Parkside Elementary School; Columbus, Indiana; 1960
Rosenthal Porcelien Factory; Selb, Bavaria; 1967
Thomas Glassworks; Amberg, Germany; 1970
Tower East Complex; Shaker Heights, Ohio; 1969
AIA Headquarters; Washington, D.C.; 1973
Moos Health Sciences Tower; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; 1974
Bauhaus Archive; Berlin, Germany; 1976-1979
Corporate Headquarters for CIGNA; Bloomfield, Connecticut; 1979-1984
Johns-Manville Headquarters; Jefferson County, Alabama; 1983-1986
Embassy of the United States; Athens, Greece; 1959-1961 (with consulting architect Pericles Sakellarios)

References

"The Architects Collaborative 1945-1965"

"The Architects Collaborative Suspends Operations", Progressive Architecture, v76, June 1995.

External Links

Great Buildings Online record [link]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.