Conversations in Context invited leaders from creative fields to reflect on the site’s past, present, and future, and to contribute their perspectives on the Glass House and its significance to contemporary debates.

Michael Graves was credited with broadening the role of the architect in society and raising public interest in good design as essential to the quality of everyday life. A native of Indianapolis, Graves received his architectural training at the University of Cincinnati and Harvard University. In 1960, he won the Rome Prize and studied at the American Academy in Rome, of which he was also a Trustee. In 1962, Graves began a 39-year teaching career at Princeton University, where he was the Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture, Emeritus. He received twelve honorary doctorates and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.  Cited by Paul Goldberger, former New York Times critic, as “the most truly original voice American architecture has produced in some time,” Graves received many prestigious awards, including the 1999 National Medal of Arts, the 2001 Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects, and the 2010 Topaz Medallion from the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. Graves was the first architect inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, and the first recipient of the Michael Graves Lifetime Achievement Award from the AIA-NJ.

Go to Film page