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Eric Gugler (March 13, 1889 – May 17, 1974) was an American Neoclassical architect, interior designer, sculptor and muralist. He was selected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to design the Oval Office. Eric Gugler, from Archives of American Art.
Gugler altered a rowhouse at 319 East 72nd Street, Manhattan into Manship's residence and studio in 1925.Christopher Gray, "Streetscapes: Rockefeller Center", The New York Times, February 28, 1999. Gugler later bought a 5-foot (1.52 m) diameter glass sphere etched with the constellations. He lent this to Manship, who created multiple sculptures inspired by it.Sotheby's, "Celestial Sphere", American Paintings, November 29, 2006, Lot 22. For what became the Aero Memorial (plaster 1933), Manship modeled Zodiac figures in clay directly atop the glass sphere, then cast them in plaster and bronze.Harry Rand, Paul Manship (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1989), pp. 124–27. In projects together and separately, Gugler and Manship repeatedly returned to the idea of spheres, heavenly bodies and signs of the Zodiac.
Gugler and architect Roger Bailey won a 1929 design competition for the World War I memorial for the City of Chicago.James O'Donnell Bennett, "War Memorial Designs Express the Modern Age", The Chicago Tribune, January 16, 1930, p. 2. $20,000 Prize Design for Chicago War Memorial Because of the Great Depression, the $3,000,000-to-$5,000,000 project was never built. Chicago War Memorial Competition, from Art Institute of Chicago. Gugler designed a massive obelisk as a World War I memorial for Battery Park, at the southern tip of Manhattan. Battery Park, New York, New York. Proposed Development, from Library of Congress. It also was never built.
Gugler and muralist Ricard Brooks created large Art Deco murals for the 1,883-seat Forum Auditorium of the Pennsylvania State Library and Education Building (1931) in Harrisburg. Forum Auditorium, from American Institute of Architects, Central Pennsylvania. The walls of the semi-circular hall feature mural maps of ancient empires. The vast celestial ceiling mural depicts constellations and signs of the Zodiac, and incorporates lighting and ventilation fixtures. "The Forum Auditorium" from Pennsylvania Department of General Services. The building, by architects William Gehron and Sidney Ross, also features architectural sculpture by Lee Lawrie, Carl Paul Jennewein and Harry Kreis. The auditorium is home to the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra.
In New York City's Central Park, overlooking Conservatory Water, is the Waldo Hutchins Memorial Bench, a curved Concord white granite exedra designed by Gugler.Henry Hope Reed, Sophia Duckworth (1972). Central Park; a History and a GuideAndrea Kannapell (1999). The Curious New Yorker; 329 Fascinating Questions and Surprising Answers about New York City.Natalie Zaman (2016). Magical Destinations of the Northeast; Sacred Sites, Occult Oddities & Magical MonumentsElizabeth Macaulay-Lewis, Matthew McGowan (2018). Classical New York; Discovering Greece and Rome in Gotham. The bench is almost tall, wide, and weighs several tons. Waldo Hutchins Bench Sundial, New York, USA, October 6, 2016. It was executed in 1932 by the Piccirilli Brothers studio, the firm that carved the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The bench has a small sundial, a variation on a 3rd century BC Hellenistic period Berossus sundial, at its back designed by sculptor Albert Stewart. The sundial features a small Art Deco bronze gnomon sculpture of a female dancer trailed by a wind-blown gown and flowing scarves at its center. The gnomon sculpture was modeled by sculptor Paul Manship.István Hargittai, Magdolna Hargittai (2017). New York Scientific; A Culture of Inquiry, Knowledge, and Learning
Gugler collaborated with architect Henry J. Toombs on Georgia Hall (1932–33), the main building of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Warm Springs Institute in Warm Springs, Georgia.
Gugler served as consulting architect to the White House, 1934–48. He designed the Honduras mahogany case for the Steinway & Sons grand piano (1938) – serial number 300,000 – in the East Room. Albert Stewart modeled the large gilded eagles that are its legs. Dunbar Beck painted its gold-leaf mural that depicts five scenes of indigenous American music—a New England barn dance, a cowboy with guitar, a Virginia reel, a pair of black field hands singing, and Native American ceremonial dancers. Steinway Grand Piano, from White House Historical Association.
For the State Dining Room mantel, in 1945 Gugler designed the inscription of John Adams's 1800 benediction for the White House: State Dining Room, from White House Historical Association.
I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.John Adams to Abigail Adams, November 2, 1800.
He served as chairman of the Joint Advisory Committee on Planning and Development of the United Nations Headquarters, 1946–1948. Joint Advisory Committee on Planning and Development of the United Nations Headquarters Records, from Columbia University.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Gugler expanded the campus of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, designing Waugh Hall, Campus Center (now Sparks Center), Wolcott and Morris Dormitories, Lilly Library, and Baxter Hall."Eric Gugler to Design Wabash College Units". The Indianapolis Star, December 17, 1944, p. 16. He collaborated with sculptors James Earle Fraser and Donald De Lue on the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial (1950), in Akron, Ohio. He designed the setting for Fraser's Mayo Memorial (1952), in Rochester, Minnesota.
With sculptor Paul Manship and landscape architect Ralph E. Griswold, Gugler designed the Sicily–Rome American Cemetery and Memorial (1956), in Nettuno, Lazio, Italy, where more than 7,800 U.S. soldiers from World War II are buried. Gugler's chapel ceiling mural depicts the positions of the stars and planets on January 22, 1944, at the hour when the Battle of Anzio commenced. The Chapel, from Sicily-Rome American Cemetery. Manship and Gugler were awarded the National Sculpture Society's Henry Hering, for noteworthy collaboration between sculptor and architect.
Gugler collaborated with Manship on an ornate armillary sphere for the 1964 New York World's Fair. They also collaborated on the FDR Memorial Block (1965), outside the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.; and the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial (1967), on Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac River, opposite the national capital.
The project was resurrected in 1957, proposed for one of the most prominent locations in the United States: Arlington Ridge Park, on the west side of the Potomac River, between Arlington National Cemetery and the Marine Corps War Memorial. This was the visual terminus of the National Mall, on axis with the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial.
Paul Manship's relief portrait of Anne and Eric Gugler (1932) is at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Anne and Eric Gugler, from Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Business
Gugler maintained his own office at 101 Park Avenue (17th floor), Manhattan,American Institute of Architects, American Architects Directory (R. R. Bowker, 1956), p. 215. and collaborated on projects with architects such as Roger Bailey, Walker O. Cain, Ferdinand Eiseman, Henry G. Emery, Henry Powell Hopkins, and Henry J. Toombs. He formed a partnership with architects Richard A. Kimball and Ellery Husted. The Architects, from Sicily-Rome American Cemetery.
Honors
Gugler served as a trustee of the American Academy in Rome, 1918–1945. American Academy in Rome Records, 1855–2012, box 20, reel 5782, Archives of American Art.[26] He was elected a member of the National Academy of Design in 1941, and an academician in 1946. Eric Gugler, from National Academy. He was a member of the National Sculpture Society, a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and a trustee of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. He became a member of the American Institute of Architects in 1921, and was elected an AIA Fellow in 1939. Eric Gugler, from American Institute of Architects.
Personal
Gugler married Broadway actress and dancer Anne Tonetti in 1932. They were part of an artist's colony at Sneden's Landing in Orangetown, New York. He designed their house there, "Green Barn", where he died in 1974. "Eric Gugler, 85, Architect, Dies", The New York Times, May 17, 1974.
Legacy
Gugler donated his White House papers to its Office of the Curator. Eric Gugler Papers, from the White House Historical Association. His widow donated additional papers to the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution. Eric Gugler Papers, from Archives of American Art.
Selected works
Notes
External links
Categories: 1889 Births, 1974 Deaths, American Neoclassical Architects, Architects From New York, American Muralists, American Interior Designers, Architects From Milwaukee, People From Orangetown, New York, Illinois Institute Of Technology Alumni, School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago Alumni, Columbia College Alumni, Fellows Of The American Institute Of Architects, Members Of The American Academy Of Arts And Letters, National Sculpture Society Members, Military Personnel From Milwaukee, 20th-century American People
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