In the history of building, Rosario Candela is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists Rosario Candela as Italian American architect (1890–1953).
Rosario Candela was born at Montelepre in 1890. His recorded nationality is United States. He trained at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Modernism rejected ornament and historical style, arguing that a building should express its structure and its function - a claim contested ever since.
He is recorded as architect and cryptographer.
His best-known building is 740 Park Avenue. An architect is judged by how a building is used a century after the drawings.
That the work was built in United States shaped it: climate, materials, planning law and who holds the budget all decide what can actually be built.
Rosario Candela died in 1953, aged 63. The buildings remain, still in use by people who never knew the name - which is the particular afterlife architecture offers.
Achievements
- Notable work: 740 Park Avenue
- Trained at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
