Aymar Embury II
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Aymar Embury II (June 15, 1880 - Nov 15, 1966) was an American architect. He was born in New York City to Aymar Embury and Fannie Miller Bates. He married Dorothy Coe in 1904.[1] During the 1930's and 1940's, Embury was commissioned by Robert Moses during the latter's tenure as New York City Parks Commissioner, and many examples of his work can be found in the city today.
[edit] Early Work
Aymar Embury graduated from Princeton University in 1900 [2] and further received a Masters of Science in 1901. Following graduate studies, Embury worked for various firms in New York City, including Cass Gilbert, George B. Post, Howells and Stokes, and Palmer and Hornbostel. During this period he developed a keen interest in the architecture of small country houses, publishing seven books and several pamphlets on the subject. In 1905, Embury won both the first and second prize in a design contest sponsored by the Garden City Company for a modest country house in Garden City, Long Island. This gave him visibility as a "society architect"; he acquired a reputation as a builder of contry houses for the upper middle class and he received many further commissions for such houses in the years surrounding World War I.
During World War I, Embury served as a Captain in U. S. Army Corps of Reserve Engineers. [5] where he helped establish a unit of eight professional artists to document the activities of the American Expeditionary Force in France. During this time, Capt. Embury designed the Distinguished Service Cross and The Distinguished Service Medal. [6]
By the late 1920's, Embury was well-known and had received a wide range of commissions all over the east coast of the United States, entailing college buildings and social clubs in addition to residences. He designed the Players and Nassau Clubs in Princeton, New Jersey, the Princeton Club in New York City, and the University Club in Washington, D.C.[3]
[edit] Work with Robert Moses
In 1934, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia appointed Robert Moses as sole commissioner of a newly unified Department of Parks for New York City, commencing a seven year period of construction and renovation of New York City parks. Robert Moses assembled at the Arsenal in Central Park a design and construction team 1,800 strong including Embury and landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke. [7]
In the following years, Embury was chief or consulting architect in numerous projects in the New York City locale. [8] Exact figures are not available, but it is possible that Embury supervised the design of over six hundred public projects. Surviving examples include the Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, Prospect Park Bandshell, McCarren Park and four of the other ten WPA pools built throughout the city in the mid-1930's, the New York City Building at the 1939 New York World's Fair (Currently the Queens Museum of Art), [9] Triborough Bridge, and Henry Hudson Bridge [10] Orchard Beach, Bryant Park, the Donnell Branch of the New York Public Library, the Hofstra University Campus, and Jacob Riis Park.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Silobhan's Tree. Retrieved on 2006-12-24.
- ^ Firestone and the Post-War Building Boomlet. Retrieved on 2006-12-23.
- ^ a b c New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2006-06-20). "ASTORIA PARK POOL AND PLAY CENTER". Retrieved on 2006-12-24.
- ^ Aymar Embury II. Retrieved on 2006-12-23.
- ^ U. S. Army Offical War Artists. Retrieved on 2006-12-23.
- ^ US Army Decorations. Retrieved on 2006-12-24.
- ^ Robert Moses and the Modern Park System (1929-1965). Retrieved on 2006-12-23.
- ^ Big Chill of ’36: Show Celebrates Giant Depression-Era Pools That Cool New York. Retrieved on 2006-12-24.
- ^ (1988) The World of Tomorrow The 1939 New York World's Fair. The Main Street Press, 140. ISBN 0-06-015923-5.
- ^ (1939, reprinted 1982,) WPA Guide to New York City, 352.
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