Graves appointed to Obama Access Board

Architecture Professor Emeritus Michael Graves has been appointed to the White House Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, the Obama Administration announced earlier this month.

The board, which is also known as the Access Board, develops and enforces design criteria that ensure accessibility to federally funded facilities for people with disabilities. The board was created as an independent federal agency in 1973 under President Nixon. Half of its membership consists of representatives from various federal departments, while the other half is appointed by the President.

“A lawyer called and asked if I would be interested,” Graves said. “I thought about it, and I wanted to make a contribution. This would be a terrific vehicle to do that.”

Graves has had a long and celebrated career in architecture.

“Professor Graves has been one of the most important members of the school community for decades,” Dean of the School of Architecture Alejandro Zaera-Polo said. “For a number of years, throughout the ’90s and some of the ’80s, he was the most influential architect in the country — actually, the world.”

Graves, who has designed more than 350 buildings around the world in the course of his career, is known for his post-modern architectural style. His recent projects include the 2010 Louwman Museum in the Netherlands, the 2007 expansion of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the 2006 additions to the Wilcox and Wu dining halls at the University and the 2000 restoration of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.

He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2001, Graves was awarded the American Institute of Architect’s gold medal for lifetime achievement. He has also received 13 honorary doctorates.

Graves is also well-known for his product design, particularly for the chain store Target; over the past 15 years, his creations have ranged from kitchen appliances to cleaning equipment. Through his design company, he has also created more than 2,000 products for companies like Disney, Alessi, Steuben and Dansk.

In 2003, Graves became paralyzed from the waist down after contracting a bacterial infection. He said that his personal experience with disability will allow him to represent the perspective of disabled Americans to the board. “I’m in a wheelchair,” he explained. “These things are near and dear to me, so I want to get this right.”

“He now has a direct experience that someone using a wheelchair has to struggle with in the city and the public realm,” Zaera-Polo noted, arguing this experience is one of the factors that makes him better suited than others for the position.

Graves said he hopes to make architectural standards for handicap access more stringent. While Graves said that historic and monumental buildings must strike a fine balance between accessibility and preservation, he believes more can be done to make them accessible to disabled people.

“For example, Nassau Hall is not at all [handicap] accessible,” Graves said. “I would love to get into Nassau Hall with friends at times.”

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In the past, Graves has volunteered to design, pro bono, an aesthetically pleasing ramp for Nassau Hall that is wheelchair-accessible. “It absolutely has the potential to be made accessible,” Graves said. “It could be done easily; they just need the will to do it.”

Zaera-Polo explained that accessible design is becoming more important as populations grow older and include greater numbers of people with disabilities. “This is something that needs to be taken into account in design of buildings and public spaces,” he said.

Graves started his 39-year teaching career at Princeton in 1962, where, according to Zaera-Polo, “he has had a considerable influence on the School of Architecture.”

Graves still runs two firms with offices in Princeton and New York that bear his name: Michael Graves & Associates and Michael Graves Design Group, which specialize in architectural design and product design, respectively. Next month, the Design Group will open 700 shops in JCPenney stores across the country, which will sell a line with over 200 products.

When asked about any buildings or accomplishments he is particularly proud of in his long career, Graves said, “One — the next one. I’m always looking forward to the next one; that’s always so exciting.”