Romaldo Giurgola

Romaldo (Aldo) Giurgola AO (born 2 September 1920) is an Italian-American-Australian academic architect, professor, and author. Giurgola was born in Galatina, in the south of Italy in 1920. After service in the Italian armed forces during World War II, he was educated at the Sapienza University of Rome. He received a master's degree in architecture from Columbia University, and has been a partner in Philadelphia firm Mitchell/Giurgola Architects since 1958.

Professor

He has been a professor at Cornell and at the University of Pennsylvania, then at Columbia, before becoming chair of the Columbia architectural department in 1966. He is presently Ware Professor Emeritus of Architecture at Columbia. He was awarded the AIA Gold Medal in 1982.

Architect

The first important building of Mitchell/Giurgola was the Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center (1957) for the US National Park Service, a building that brought them national attention for three reasons. It was one of the first NPS visitors' centers that became a building type unto itself. The design was consonant with a certain aesthetic preoccupation with aviation, flight, technology and space travel of the time, the same zeitgeist that produced Saarinen's TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. And it was seen as a break with strict modernist tenets in its respect for the site and the program, as opposed to what Giurgola called "the imposition of abstract forms".

In Philadelphia, Giurgola had formed a relationship with Louis Kahn, who held similar views. In April 1961 the architectural critic Jan Rowan grouped Giurgola, Kahn, Robert Venturi, George Qualls, Robert Geddes and others into "The Philadelphia School". Giurgola has published several books on Kahn's work and philosophy.

Parliament House competition

He was invited to join the panel of judges for the 1980 international competition for the landmark Australian Parliament House in Canberra. Instead, he preferred to be an entrant himself.^[1] After winning the competition, Giurgola moved to Australia and practises there. He adopted Australian citizenship in January 2000.^[2]

Honours and awards

The ACSA (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) honored Giurgola with the ACSA Distinguished Professor Award in 1987-88.^[3]

He was awarded the RAIA Gold Medal by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1988.

In January 1989 he was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia, "for service to architecture, particularly the new Parliament House, Canberra".^[4] The award became substantive when he adopted Australian citizenship in 2000.^[2]

In 1990 Giurgola's second notable Canberra building, the modest St Thomas Aquinas Church in Charnwood, won the RAIA's Canberra Medallion.

In 2001, he was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal, "for service as Principal Architect of the new and permanent Parliament House".^[5]

In 2004 his St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta, won him Australia's highest architectural award, the RAIA's Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Buildings, which he was first awarded in 1989 for the Parliament House.

In 2003 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Sydney.^[6]

A resident of Canberra since the 1980s, Giurgola recently completed work on his own house at Lake Bathurst near Goulburn.

The portrait of Romaldo Giurgola painted by Mandy Martin, was gifted by the RAIA to the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra in 2005.^[7]

Major projects

• Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (1958-60).
• Additions to University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1960-73).
• United Fund Headquarters Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1971).
• INA Tower, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1971-75).
• Penn Mutual Tower, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1971-75).
• Columbus East High School, Columbus, Indiana (1972).
• Lang Music Building, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania (1973).
• Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brasília, Brazil (1974).
• Liberty Bell Pavilion, Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1974-75, demolished 2006).
• Tredyffrin Public Library, Strafford, Pennsylvania (1976).
• Sherman Fairchild Center for the Life Sciences, Columbia University, New York City (1977).
• Parliament House, Canberra, Australia (1981–1988).
• Layfayette Place (now Swissotel), Boston, Massachusetts (1985).
• Addition to St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia (2003).

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  Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center (1958-60), Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

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  Penn Mutual Tower (1971-75), opposite Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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  Lang Music Building (1973), Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

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  Liberty Bell Center (1974-75, demolished 2006), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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  Parliament House (1981-88), Canberra, Australia.

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  Australian Senate, Parliament House (1981-88), Canberra.

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  Australian House of Representatives, Parliament House (1981-88), Canberra.

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  St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia (2003 addition, right).

References