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for Lorimer Rich
1891-1978
Rich received a Bachelor in Architecture degree from Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, in 1914. He worked in the New York office of Charles A. Platt from 1919 to 1921, when he left for a year of study at the American Academy in Rome, 1921-22, on a traveling scholarship awarded him by Syracuse University. On his return he entered the firm of McKim, Mead and White, where he remained to 1928, when he established his own architectural practice. In 1940 Syracuse University conferred on Rich an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree; and in 1951 he was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Much of his work was in designing for the federal government, including a number of community post offices; an example of these is the Madison Square post office in New York. However, the design for which he was most celebrated was that of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetary, District of Columbia. The design, done in cooperation with Thomas Hudson Jones who executed its relief sculptural decorations, was selected in a competition which drew submissions from more than eighty architects; Rich received this commission within a year of establishing his own practice. He also carried out the expansion of the memorial, the addition of the Tomb of the Unknowns of World War II and the Korean Conflict and monumental approaches to the tombs' site.
Rich was a vice president of the Architectural League of New York, secretary of the New York Municipal Art Society, and member of the Board of Architect Examiners of New York State. Rich returned to live in Camden in 1971.
Much of his work was in designing for the federal government, including a number of community post offices; an example of these is the Madison Square post office in New York. However, the design for which he was most celebrated was that of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetary, District of Columbia. The design, done in cooperation with Thomas Hudson Jones who executed its relief sculptural decorations, was selected in a competition which drew submissions from more than eighty architects; Rich received this commission within a year of establishing his own practice. He also carried out the expansion of the memorial, the addition of the Tomb of the Unknowns of World War II and the Korean Conflict and monumental approaches to the tombs' site.
Rich was a vice president of the Architectural League of New York, secretary of the New York Municipal Art Society, and member of the Board of Architect Examiners of New York State. Rich returned to live in Camden in 1971.
