Wiki/Biography
Albert Mayer was born in New York City on Wednesday, December 29, 1897 (age 83; death). In 1919, he received engineering degrees from Columbia University and MIT. After college, Mayer worked in civil engineering for several years and became interested in social impact design. After a few years, he decided to become an architect.
family
Parents and siblings
There is not much information about his parents and siblings.
wife and children
Albert Mayer first married Phyllis Carter and then divorced her for unknown reasons. His second wife, Marion Mill Preminger, died in 1972. In 1975, Mayer married Magda Pastor for the third time. Stella Staltonstall, Kerry Mayer and Rafael Pastor are Mayer’s three children.
Profession
Albert Mayer began his career as a civil engineer in New York City. First, he was a co-founder and senior partner of Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass, founded in 1935, and later as a planning consultant, working in India, British Columbia and Israel. He was the master planner of Chandigarh, an Indian city that gained international acclaim in the 1950s when Le Corbusier was commissioned to design its major public buildings.
Chandigarh master plan designed by Albert Mayer
Mayer’s last work in New York was the East Harlem Plaza, an open-air cultural and recreational center built in 1960. At the age of 64, Mayer retired from Mayer, Whittlesey and Glass in 1961, but served as a consultant thereafter.
Manhattan buildings
Albert was involved in many large-scale projects in New York, and due to his great interest in this area, the US government was persuaded to change its housing policy in the 1930s, leading to the introduction of the American Housing Administration in 1937. He designed many buildings in Manhattan including:-
- Butterfield House, 37 West 12th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
- 240 Central Park South, Manhattan.
- Manhattan Tower in 1950. (co-designed)
- East Harlem Square, Manhattan
- 333 East 69th Street, Manhattan. (co-designed)
india master plan
Albert Mayer developed a keen interest in Indian life and culture while managing the construction of an airport in Bangladesh. His pilot project is located in the rural district of Etawah in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He has been recognized for planning:-
- gujarat university master plan
- Allahabad Agricultural Institutions Master Plan
- Uttar Pradesh Pilot Development Project
- Integrated Community Development in Uttar Pradesh
- Greater Bombay Master Planning Consultant (1947)
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- “New York Chapter” Medal of Honor
- Certificate of Merit from the New York City Council of the Arts
- Awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects
die
On October 14, 1981, Albert Mayer died of cardiac arrest at his residence in Manhattan, New York, at the age of 83.
Facts/Trivia
- [In1945AlbertMayermetJawaharlalNehruanddiscussedaplanfora”modelvillage”thatwouldcreategoodhousingsanitationandcommunitystructure.
“The Village in the City” by Albert Mayer
- After Mayer prepared a structured master plan for Chandigarh; he wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru,
I feel we have been able to make it (Chandigarh) feel and function very Indian while still being contemporary. ”
Albert Mayer and his Chandigarh Master Plan
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education