Eduardo Catalano: MIT Stratton Student Center, 1963, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Eduardo Catalano: MIT Stratton Student Center, 1968, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Eduardo Fernando Catalano (December 19, 1917 – January 28, 2010) was an Argentine architect.

Life and career

Born in Buenos Aires, Catalano went to the United States on a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Graduate School of Design.[1] In 1945, after earning his second master's degree in architecture returned to Buenos Aires where he taught at the University of Buenos Aires and ran a private practice. Catalano then taught at the Architectural Association in London from 1950 to 1951, when he came back to the United States as a Professor of Architecture at the School of Design in Raleigh, North Carolina State University. In 1956 he began teaching in the graduate program for MIT, until 1977, when he moved on "to discover and participate in other endeavors as rewarding as teaching".[2]

Catalano had an "understanding of the indivisible relationship between space and structure", which earned him praise from Frank Lloyd Wright, who wrote to House and Home magazine when he saw the publishing of the "Raleigh House" AKA the Catalano House to say "It is refreshing to see that the shelter, which is the most important element in domestic architecture, has been so imaginatively and skillfully treated as in the house by Eduardo Catalano".[2] Catalano sold the house when he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to teach at MIT. Years of neglect at the end of the 20th century culminated in the house's demolition in 2001.[3]

Other buildings designed by Catalano include the US embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina and in Pretoria, South Africa, the Juilliard School of Music at New York City's Lincoln Center, Guilford County Courthouse in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Stratton Student Center at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Catalano designed the Guilford County-Greensboro Government Center, not to be confused with the Guilford County Courthouse, designed by Harry Barton from 1918 to 1920.)

The Catalano House, built in 1954 and which Catalano is best known for, was designed using a hyperbolic paraboloid roof. Here is a picture of the original House. The roof of the house, a curved structure that is built from straight elements (tongue and groove boarding) evolved from his studies on geometric and structural properties of hyperbolic paraboloids. These studies, which included testing of new materials like aluminum and thin-shell concrete, were published by the University of North Carolina in Structures of Warped Surface.

Eduardo Catalano also created the environmental kinetic sculpture Floralis Genérica in Palermo, Buenos Aires.

Architectural works

YearBuildingAddressCityStateNotesImageReference
1948 Ariston Club Mar del Plata Buenos Aires (Argentina) In association with Marcel Breuer and Carlos Coire [4][5]
1953House for B. Richard Jackson1317 Westfield AveRaleighNorth Carolina[6]
1954House for Eduardo CatalanoRaleighNorth CarolinaSold by Catalano in 1957, and ultimately demolished in 2001.[7]
1958Juilliard School of Music60 Lincoln Center PlazaNew YorkNew YorkIn association with consulting architect Pietro Belluschi and supervising architect Helge Westermann. Remodeled in 2009 under the direction of Diller Scofidio + Renfro and FXFOWLE.[8][9]
1960Burton-Conner House,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology		410 Memorial DrCambridgeMassachusettsAddition of the Porter Room, a student commons, to a preexisting apartment building.[10]
1961Julius Adams Stratton Building,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology		84 Massachusetts AveCambridgeMassachusetts[10]
1961Technology SquareTechnology SqCambridgeMassachusettsIn association with consulting architect Pietro Belluschi.[9]
1962Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences,
University of Buenos Aires		Ciudad UniversitariaBuenos AiresArgentinaIn association with architect Horacio Caminos.[7]
1963Grover M. Hermann Building,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology		30 Wadsworth StCambridgeMassachusetts[10]
1965Eastgate,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology		60 Wadsworth StCambridgeMassachusetts[7]
1965Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism,
University of Buenos Aires		Ciudad UniversitariaBuenos AiresArgentinaIn association with architect Horacio Caminos.[7]
1966Tower Square1500 Main StSpringfieldMassachusettsIn association with consulting architect Pietro Belluschi.[9]
1966Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School100 Amsterdam AveNew YorkNew YorkIn association with consulting architect Pietro Belluschi and supervising architect Helge Westermann.[9]
1967Central Plaza675 Massachusetts AveCambridgeMassachusetts[11]
1968Springfield Civic Center1277 Main StSpringfieldMassachusettsIn association with consulting architect Pietro Belluschi. Remodeled in 2003 and renamed the MassMutual Center.[9]
1969Boston Public Library, Charlestown Branch179 Main StBostonMassachusetts[7]
1970Embassy of the United StatesAv Colombia 4300Buenos AiresArgentina[12]
1970Gorton Corporation Headquarters128 Rogers StGloucesterMassachusetts[13]
1970Guilford County-Greensboro Government Center201 S Eugene StGreensboroNorth Carolina[14]
1971Hampden County Hall of Justice50 State StSpringfieldMassachusettsNow known as the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse.[15]
1972One Washington Mall1 Washington StBostonMassachusetts[11]
1975Cumberland County Civic Center1 Civic Center SqPortlandMaineNow known as the Cross Insurance Arena.[7]
1977Additions to Cambridge Rindge and Latin School459 BroadwayCambridgeMassachusettsAddition of wing along Cambridge Street.[11]
1980House for Eduardo Catalano44 Grozier RdCambridgeMassachusetts[6]
1982Embassy of the United StatesPretoriaSouth Africa[12]
2002Floralis Genérica,
Plaza de las Naciones Unidas		Buenos AiresArgentina

Publications

  • Gubitosi, Camillo, and Izzo, Alberto, Eduardo Catalano - buildings and projects, Catalogue of the Exhihibition held in Naples, 1978.
  • Catalano, Eduardo. Structure and Geometry, Cambridge Architectural Press, 1986.
  • Catalano, Eduardo. the constant - dialogues on architecture in black and white, Cambridge Architectural Press, 2000.

References

  1. ↑ "Eduardo Catalano obituary". The Guardian. 2010-02-15. Archived from the original on 2023-01-01.
  2. 1 2 Catalano, E: "Eduardo Catalano", pages 7–10. Officina Edizioni, 1978
  3. ↑ Jetset – Designs for Modern Living: Catalano House – Destroyed Forever Archived 2012-01-06 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ "A beach club to sell a view" (PDF). Architectural Record: 134–139. July 1948. ISSN 0003-858X.
  5. ↑ "Parador Ariston" (PDF). Nuestra Arquitectura (in Latin American Spanish). Buenos Aires (224). April 1948.
  6. 1 2 "Eduardo Catalano Papers 1940-2017", https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/, North Carolina State University Libraries, n.d.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Catalano, Eduardo," Contemporary Architects, ed. Muriel Emanuel (London: Macmillan Press, 1980)
  8. ↑ "Alice Tully Hall Lincoln Center", https://www.archdaily.com/, ArchDaily, June 22, 2009.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Meredith L. Clausen, Pietro Belluschi: Modern American Architect (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994)
  10. 1 2 3 O. Robert Simha, MIT Campus Planning, 1960-2000: An Annotated Chronology (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001)
  11. 1 2 3 Keith N. Morgan, Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2009)
  12. 1 2 Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America's Embassies (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998)
  13. ↑ "GLO.1795", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n.d.
  14. ↑ "Guilford County", http://www.courthouses.co/, American Courthouses, n.d.
  15. ↑ "Hampden County", http://www.courthouses.co/, American Courthouses, n.d.
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