Michael Graves, architect of the Denver Central Library, dies at age 80

By Megan Arellano
· Mar. 12, 2015, 9:15 pm

Architect and designer Michael Graves died Thursday at the age of 80. He created household items for Target, the Portland Building and much more, but in Colorado, we'll remember him for his work designing the Denver Central Library. 

Photo: Denver Central Library (flickr)(Flickr: BellaEatsBooks)
The downtown Denver Public Library. Licensed via Creative Commons 2.0.

wrote the Denver Post.

Another staff writer from the Denver Post lauded its interior charm:

In the Michael Graves-designed building, seemingly no detail was overlooked and no corners cut in producing a facility filled with warm maple columns, custom-designed work tables and lamps, good old-fashioned curved wooden chairs and floors paved not with linoleum but bright carpeting. 

The books, and the standard-issue metal shelving, almost look dowdy in their elegant new home. 

If God is in the details, as architect Mies van der Roe said, then God probably would like this library. 

Photo: Michael GravesASSOCIATED PRESS
Architect and designer Michael Graves at his studio in Princeton, N.J., in 2003. 

by Arch Daily. Graves was also considered part of the New York Five, a group of architects whose work was displayed in the Museum of Modern Art. 

Here's what others are saying about Graves:

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