Urban, Joseph (1872–1933), designer and architect. One of the greatest of all scenic artists, he was born in Vienna, where he later studied at the Art Academy under Baron Carl Hassauer and at the Polytechnicum. Urban first came to America to create the Austrian Pavilion for the 1904 St. Louis Fair. The Boston Opera Company brought him back in 1911 to design its sets, but it was his work on The Garden of Paradise (1914) that brought him to the attention of Florenz Ziegfeld and launched his Broadway career. Although he designed sets for James K. Hackett's Shakespearean revivals and other plays, it was his work on musicals for which he became famous. Urban created the sets for all the Ziegfeld Follies from 1915 to 1931, as well as such shows as Sally (1920), Sunny (1925), Rio Rita (1927) Show Boat (1927), The Three Musketeers (1928), Whoopee (1928), and Music in the Air (1932). He was the first major designer to carefully coordinate colors and to employ subtle lighting to enhance his color schemes. Typical of the work of “Unfailing Urban” was his opening set for Rosalie (1928), in which a brown arch framed a brown village rising to a bluish‐brown sea. His (and Ziegfeld's) favorite color was blue, and he gained fame for what became known as “Urban blue.” He also designed several theatres, most notably the egg‐shaped, boxless Ziegfeld Theatre, with its magnificent murals and gilt stage. Away from the theatre he served as architect for numerous homes and buildings and also earned a reputation as an illustrator of children's books. Biography: Joseph Urban, Randolph Carter, Robert Reed Cole, 1992.

(b Vienna, 1872; d New York, 10 July 1933). American architect, stage designer, interior designer and illustrator of Austrian birth. He studied at the Akademie der Bildenden K?nste in Vienna under Karl Hasenauer. Urban first received recognition as an architect in the USA in 1904 when his design for the interior of the Austrian Pavilion at the World's Fair in St Louis, MO, was awarded a Gold Medal. He subsequently established himself in Europe as a stage designer; in 1911 he emigrated to the USA to assume a position as set designer with the Boston Opera Company.

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(1872–1933)

Austrian architect, he studied in Vienna under Hasenauer, settling in the USA in 1911. His best-known building is the New School for Social Research, NYC (1929–30), but became primarily a designer of interiors and theatres (about which he published a book in 1929).

Bibliography

• Architecture lxix (1934), 250–6, 275–90
• Carter et al. (1992)
• Kristan (2000)
• Jane Turner (1929)
• Urban (1929, 1985)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

(ûr'bən) , 1872–1933, American architect and scene designer, b. Vienna. He won distinction with his architectural work, including the bridge across the Neva at St. Petersburg, and with his decorative work at the Paris exposition, 1900. At the St. Louis exposition, 1904, he decorated the Austrian building. He emigrated to the United States in 1911 and was naturalized in 1917. He was active as scene designer for the Metropolitan Opera and for the Ziegfeld Follies. Urban was art consultant for the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, held in 1933–34.

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