One of the most prominent architects of his generation, Charles Gwathmey became known for his rigorous designs that owed a great debt to early-twentieth-century "high Modernism" of Le Corbusier and others. In the late 1960s Gwathmey was one of the so-called New York Five, which included John Hedjuk, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, and Richard Meier. The group was also known as the Whites for the color most frequently used for their buildings. By the 1980s, while many of his colleagues had eschewed the simplicity of modernism for a return to historicism and ornamentation, Gwathmey's designs remained loyal to stark modernist aesthetics.
As a student at Yale University, Gwathmey studied under Paul Rudolph, where he received his Master of Architecture degree in 1962. He would later be called upon by Robert A. M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, to renovate and expand Rudolph's historic 1963 Yale Art and Architecture building, one of his many projects that would draw both praise and criticism. His earliest significant project, and the one that launched his career, was the house he designed for his parents in Amagansett, NY, completed in 1967. Graves, a long time friend, referred to the house as "a testimony to all his work." While he would go on to design numerous public projects, his private residential work remained some of his most acclaimed.
In 1968, along with Robert Siegel, he formed Gwathmey Siegel & Associates and since that time the firm has realized dozens of civic, residential, and commercial projects. In New York, Gwathmey was best known for his addition to one of the most recognizable buildings in New York, Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Wright's unconventional plan made it particularly difficult to achieve a discrete and harmonious expansion and Gwathmey's design, completed in 1992, has been both celebrated and denounced. The architect's solution was a rectangular ten-story tower that seamlessly blends into Wright's design without competing with it. This drawing for the project shows the addition in both street-level elevation and as an isometric view from above. All of Gwathmey's projects illustrated the firm's design philosophy of synthesizing the practical needs of architecture while reinvigorating the landscape and cityscape.
As a dedicated teacher, Gwathmey held numerous positions at Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia. In addition to being elected National Academician in 2004, he was also a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and won various awards including the Medal of Honor from the New York chapter of the AIA (1983) and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Society of Architects (1990) among others.
