Robert Geddes, former Princeton Architecture Dean and Philadelphia Roundhouse designer, passes away aged 99
Former Princeton University School of Architecture Dean Robert Geddes has passed away at 99. Born in Philadelphia in 1923, Geddes served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II before finishing his studies at Yale and then earning an M.Arch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. From there, Geddes went on to practice briefly under Hugh Stubbins in Cambridge, designing what would be the runner-up in the Sydney Opera House competition before returning to Philadelphia to form Geddes Qualls Brecher Cunningham Architects (or GQCA) in 1960. Their most significant building, the 125,000-square-foot Brutalist Philadelphia Police Headquarters has turned into one of the city’s most fraught and essentially iconic landmarks. After initially being intended as a progressive example of then-Mayor Richardson Dilworth’s “de-politicized” police force, the structure would later take on a more sinister connotation as a symbol of violent authoritarianism and abuse thanks to (un-autho...
Former Princeton University School of Architecture Dean Robert Geddes has passed away at 99.
Born in Philadelphia in 1923, Geddes served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II before finishing his studies at Yale and then earning an M.Arch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. From there, Geddes went on to practice briefly under Hugh Stubbins in Cambridge, designing what would be the runner-up in the Sydney Opera House competition before returning to Philadelphia to form Geddes Qualls Brecher Cunningham Architects (or GQCA) in 1960.
Their most significant building, the 125,000-square-foot Brutalist Philadelphia Police Headquarters has turned into one of the city’s most fraught and essentially iconic landmarks. After initially being intended as a progressive example of then-Mayor Richardson Dilworth’s “de-politicized” police force, the structure would later take on a more sinister connotation as a symbol of violent authoritarianism and abuse thanks to (un-autho...
