American architect. He worked in Jenney's office before enrolling at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, where he acquired an understanding of eclectic styles. He designed the Winton Building, Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL (1904—with a reinforced-concrete frame), and made his name with the scholarly Classical New Haven Post Office and Court House, CT (1911–19). His most distinguished work was at Yale University, New Haven, where he designed the Memorial Quadrangle and Harkness Tower (1916–21), a refined, scholarly, and architecturally powerful essay in Collegiate Gothic. He followed this triumph with Sterling Memorial Library (1924–30), the Sterling Law Buildings (1926–30), and the Hall of Graduate Studies (1927–32), all in a clever abstracted Gothic style of great sophistication. Other works include the Residential Buildings, Yale University (1928–33), the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, NYC (1923–8), and the Butler Library, Columbia University, NYC (1932–4).
Rogers, James Gamble, 1867-1947, American architect, b. Kentucky. He designed many buildings for Yale, his alma mater. Among them are the Sterling Memorial Library, the Sterling School of Graduate Studies, Pierson College, and the Harkness Memorial Quadrangle. For 10 years he was architectural adviser to Yale. Among his other designs are the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and the Butler Library of Columbia Univ., New York City; the New Haven (Conn.) post office; and the Deering Library of Northwestern Univ.
Gamble Rogers balanced a love of balladry and folk songs with a passion for the oral tradition and storytelling. The son and grandson of influential architects, Rogers was described as both a "modern troubadour" and the "resurrection of Will Rogers and Mark Twain". Capable of enchanting an audience with Travis-style guitar flatpicking, Rogers was as effective relying his latest tales about the inhabitants of the fictitious Oklahowa County. The Atlanta Constitution called Rogers, "an American treasure worthy of inclusion in the Smithsonian".
Rogers first attracted attention as the lead, acoustic and electric guitarist for the folk ensemble, The Serendipity Singers. His interests in tale-spinning became evident after Rogers became spokesperson for the group on such television shows as The Tonight Show, Hootenanny and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Leaving the Serendipity Singers after two years, Rogers returned to Florida and focused on his solo career. Rogers made many television appearances in the late-1970s including writing the theme song for a thirteen episode series on the Philadelphia Folk Festival, starring in his own PBS special, Live At The Exit/In and co-hosting and starring the 1985 special, AT&T Presents Carnegie Hall Tonight. Between 1982 and 1984, Rogers served as a weekly guest commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered.
The author of many plays and dramatizations, Rogers was heavily influenced by novelist James Faulkner, who he met while attending the University of Virginia. His first play, Good Causes: The Confessions Of A Troubadour, was presented on National Public Radio's drama hour in 1977. Earplay, Rogers' second play, was presented on National Public Radio's show, Folk Festival U.S.A. in 1980. Rogers' first dramatic screen play for television, The Waterbearer, was produced by PBS in 1984. Oklawaha County Laissez-Faire, Rogers' one-man play, was completed in 1990.
Music remained an important part of Rogers' career. His concerts, which combined songs and stories, often found him with his guitar strap slung around his shoulder while he told a long, humorous, narrative. Between 1988 and 1991, Rogers served as an official ambassador for the Florida Division of Tourism and the Florida Folk Festival.
Rogers was just hitting his peak when he died, on October 10, 1992, trying to save a man from drowning. The recreational area in St. Augustine, where the accident occurred, was later renamed, "The Gamble Rogers Memorial Park". In the liner notes of his album, Fruitcakes, Jimmy Buffett dedicated the recording to Rogers' memory and wrote that Rogers, "taught me how to move an audience with dialogue and delivery as much as with music". In 1993, Rogers was posthumously awarded a Folk Heritage award. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide
Rogers was born in Bryan Station, Kentucky, to James M. and Katharine Gamble Rogers.[1] Rogers attended Yale University, where he was a member of Scroll and Key, a senior society whose membership included several other notable architects. He received his B.A. in 1889, and is responsible for many of the gothic revival structures at Yale University built in the 1910s through the mid 1930s, as well as the university's master plan in 1924. He designed for other universities as well, such as the Butler Library at Columbia University, many of the original buildings at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (now the Columbia University Medical Center), and several structures at Northwestern University.
Rogers was philanthropist Edward Harkness's favorite architect, and Harkness would often condition a gift for a new academic or medical building upon the institution's agreement to hire Rogers for the project. It is thus no coincidence that Rogers' work is abundant at Yale, Columbia and the other institutions Harkness supported lavishly. Though Harkness loved Rogers's work, when Harkness donated a new home for Wolf's Head, his society at Yale, another architect (Bertram Goodhue) was chosen, for obvious reasons, according to many sources in architectural histories.
Rogers' neo-Gothic designs for Yale lent an air of instant heritage and authenticity to the campus. Rogers was criticized by other prominent Gothic-revival Ameican architects, namely Ralph Adams Cram, for his use of steel frames underneath stone cladding, and tricks such as splashing acid on stone walls to simulate age. Rogers was also criticized by the growing Modernist movement of the time. The 1927 Sterling Memorial Library came under especially vocal attack from Yale students for its historicist spirit and its lavish use of ornament.
Rogers's nephew, James Gamble Rogers II (1901-1990) was also an architect, who designed homes in Winter Park, Florida for the Rogers family architecture firm Rogers, Lovelock and Fritz, where Rogers II's son John (Jack) Rogers is a principal architect.
Rogers II's other son, James Gamble Rogers IV (1937-1991) was also trained as an architect. After working in the family firm as a young man, James Gamble Rogers IV decided to pursue his passion for music. He became a noted Florida folksinger, composer and guitarist, now memorialized by the Gamble Rogers Memorial Foundation[2], Gamble Rogers Middle School, and Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach on Florida's east coast.
The Harkness Mansion, 1 East 75th Street at Fifth Avenue, Manhattan. Constructed as the residence of Edward and Mary Stillman Harkness in 1908. Currently the home of The Commonwealth Fund. Designated a landmark in 1967.
Wieboldt Hall, Northwestern University, Chicago campus, 1926
Ward Memorial Building, Northwestern University, Chicago campus, 1926 (funded by Elizabeth Ward in honor of her late husband, mail order and department store magnate Aaron Montgomery Ward.)
Butler Library, Columbia University, 1934 (as South Hall; renamed in 1946 in honor of Nicholas Murray Butler, president of the University from 1902 to 1945)
