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Percival Goodman

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Percival Goodman
Born(1904-01-13)January 13, 1904
DiedOctober 11, 1989(1989-10-11) (aged 85)
New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
OccupationArchitect
PracticePercival Goodman
BuildingsMultiple (see list)

Percival Goodman FAIA (January 13, 1904 – October 11, 1989) was an American urban theorist and architect who designed more than 50 synagogues between 1948 and 1983. He has been called the "leading theorist" of modern synagogue design,[1] and "the most prolific architect in Jewish history."[2]

Biography

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Percival Goodman was born in New York City to parents who were in the arts business. His father was a leading New York auctioneer who abandoned the family when Percival was young. His brother was the noted writer and sociologist Paul Goodman. At age 14, he became an apprentice for an architect. In 1925, Percival Goodman received the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects Paris Prize which sent him to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, for architectural training.[3]

In the earlier part of his career, Goodman designed department store interiors, apartments, and country houses. He also had an interest in urban planning: he submitted a 1930 proposal for the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow, and proposed a master plan for Long Island City. He was an early critic of Robert Moses' parkway plans for New York City, preferring to "improve the center and make livable neighborhoods"; he also criticized the garden city movement of Ebenezer Howard and the Ville Radieuse of Le Corbusier.[3]

Goodman called himself "an agnostic who was converted by Hitler", and after World War II he became more interested in Jewish architecture. At a 1947 conference of the Reform Jewish movement, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Goodman advocated the use of modern architecture for new Jewish buildings, rather than following the models of older churches and synagogues. He quickly began to receive commissions. Many of these were for new buildings in suburban areas reachable only by car, and Goodman responded by using a variety of designs intended to attract motorists' attention. In 1949 his proposal was selected for a large Holocaust memorial in Manhattan's Riverside Park, but it was never built.[2] His student Peter Eisenman much later completed a Holocaust memorial in Berlin, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

His design for B'nai Israel in Millburn, New Jersey (1951), has been called "the first truly modern synagogue".[4] Goodman's design for B'nai Israel included sculpture, painting, and ark curtain design by Herbert Ferber, Robert Motherwell, and Adolph Gottlieb, respectively.[5] This integration of modern sculpture and artworks, along with the use of natural light, became hallmarks of Goodman's work.[2] Goodman "stressed the human scale in his prayer halls and collaboration with modern artists where expressive symbolism was warranted", according to Philip Nobel at the New York Times.[1]

Percival Goodman was also considered a distinguished urban theorist. He was the co-author, with his brother Paul, of the landmark urban planning text Communitas, and he illustrated editions of a number of his brother's other works. Percival Goodman was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He was a professor at the Columbia University architecture school for more than 25 years, where notable students included Peter Eisenman and Wang Chiu-Hwa. In 2001, Columbia exhibited a retrospective of his works at its Wallach Gallery.[6]

Selected buildings

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Selected writings

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References

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  1. ^ a b Philip Nobel, Art/Architecture; What Design For a Synagogue Spells Jewish?, New York Times, December 2, 2001.
  2. ^ a b c Michael Z. Wise, "America's Most Prolific Synagogue Architect Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine," The Forward, March 9, 2001.
  3. ^ a b Paul Goldberger, Percival Goodman, 85, Synagogue Designer, Dies, The New York Times, October 12, 1989.
  4. ^ George James, Places of the Heart; Historic Houses of Worship, From Soaring Spires to Simple Quaker Meeting Houses, The New York Times, March 28, 1999; see also Matthew Baigell, Jewish Art in America: An Introduction, p.108 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).
  5. ^ Janay Jadine Wong, "Synagogue art of the 1950s: a new context for abstraction," Art Journal (Winter 1994)
  6. ^ "Percival Goodman: Architect, Planner, Teacher, Painter: Retrospective Exhibit" (Columbia University press release, February 21, 2001)
  7. ^ "NWIGS - Porter County Views: Beverly Shores".
  8. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2008-06-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ^ "Congregation B'nai Israel – Congregation B'nai Israel is an egalitarian congregation affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism". Cbi-nj.org. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  10. ^ "Percival Goodman architectural records and papers, 1929-1989 - Series II: Projects and Office Job Files, 1925-1989". Columbia University. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  11. ^ "Congregation Beth Israel -- About Us". Archived from the original on 2006-02-19. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  12. ^ "Home". tbsmb.org.
  13. ^ "Temple Israel". Archived from the original on 2009-08-16. Retrieved 2009-01-16.
  14. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2008-06-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. ^ "Temple of Aaron, St. Paul | 290840". Emporis. Archived from the original on February 20, 2013. Retrieved 2022-05-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  16. ^ "Temple of Aaron - About Us". Archived from the original on 2009-01-07. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
  17. ^ "Congregation Beth Emeth, Albany, NY - History". Archived from the original on 2008-07-01. Retrieved 2010-05-10.
  18. ^ "CONGREGATION SHAARAY SHALOM - We are centrally and conveniently located in the heart of western Nassau County, Long Island, NYCONGREGATION SHAARAY SHALOM". Shaarayshalom.org. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  19. ^ "Home". 5as.org.
  20. ^ "Home". bchillel.org.
  21. ^ "Our Congregational Family - History | Congregation Shaarey Zedek". Archived from the original on 2008-05-29. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
  22. ^ "Congregation Beth Shalom Continues to Innovate". Retrieved 2023-02-02.
  23. ^ "Temple Beth El - Rochester, NY". Tberochester.org. 2022-03-15. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  24. ^ "Our Communities". Archived from the original on 2015-08-15. Retrieved 2015-07-17.

Further reading

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