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Biographical Summary
Goldsmith was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1918. In 1939 he received
his bachelor's degree in architecture from Chicago's Armour Institute
of Technology, where he studied under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
during his senior year. Goldsmith worked in various architectural
offices in Chicago until 1944, when he joined the Army Corps of
Engineers. Upon his discharge in 1946, Goldsmith returned to Chicago
to work in Mies's office, while finishing his Master's thesis
at the Illinois Institute of Technology (formerly Armour Institute
of Technology). Inspired by the pioneering work of Italian architect
and engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, Goldsmith received a Fulbright
grant in 1953 to study with Nervi in Rome. After returning to
the United States in 1955, Goldsmith joined the San Francisco
office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. In 1958 Goldsmith tranferred
to SOM's Chicago office and became a partner in the firm in 1967,
distinguishing himself as a master of both architecture and engineering.
Among Goldsmith's most praised designs were the United Airlines
Hangar and Flight Kitchen at the San Francisco International Airport,
the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope at the Kitt Peak Observatory
in Arizona, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California,
and the unbuilt Ruck-a-Chucky Bridge, all charaterized by sculptural
expressions of form and function. Goldsmith maintained an active
teaching and lecturing schedule throughout his career and was
honored through numerous awards and exhibitions. He was elected
to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects
in 1972. Goldsmith died in Wilmette, Illinois, in 1996.
Interview Highlights
Early experiences that led to a career in architecture; study
under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology;
the Army Corps of Engineers; Mies's approach to clients and projects;
social implications of work being done in Mies's office; Myron's
thesis: "The Tall Building and the Effects of Scale";
50 x 50 house project; Kitt Peak Solar Telescope and Observatory;
study with Pier Luigi Nervi; jobs at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
in San Francisco, 1955-58; types of projects and work at SOM;
Fazlur Kahn; the architectural establishment; Goldsmith as a teacher.
IIT Thesis, "The Tall Building and the Effects of Scale",
1952. Department of Architecture, The Art Institute of Chicago.
Ruck-A-Chucky Bridge; Auburn, California, 1980. Rendering
by D. Hansen. Photo courtesy of SOM.
Interview Excerpt
"If you look at [Mies's] work, it seems to me that he explored
for a long time. I think that the idea of exploring many solutions
to a problem is Miesian. He would not hesitate to make a dozen
models or a thousand sketches of something to explore it....On
the telescope there were, I'd say, ten or fifteen models of different
solutions made and some of them were visually nicer than the others...They
led to others and finally there was just one that was preferred.
Happily it was, of all that we explored, the most reasonable in
cost. It all came together. It was very Miesian, trying to make
architecture out of the facts, the plan, the planning limitations,
the limitations of normal structures, not fantstic structures.
It was the architecture, trying to make architecture out of it,
that he taught us. Not to stop at some lower point. Of course,
we were helped by that fantastic site of the telescope, the huge
scale of it..." (page 87)
Other Resources at The Art Institute of Chicago
See also oral histories of other architects who worked at SOM:
Charles Bassett, Gordon
Bunshaft, Natalie de Blois, James
Ferris, Bruce Graham, James
Hammond, William Hartmann, Gertrude
Kerbis, Walter Netsch, and Ambrose
Richardson; and oral histories of architects who studied or
worked with Mies at IIT: Jacques Brownson,
Werner Buch, Alfred
Caldwell, George Danforth, Joseph
Fujikawa, Charles Genther, James
Hammond, Gertrude Kerbis, Reginald
Malcolmson, Carter Manny, William
Priestley, Gene Summers, and Y.C.
Wong.
Funding for this oral history was provided by The Art Institute
of Chicago and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
Funding for the electronic presentation of this transcript was
provided by a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council.
About the Chicago Architects Oral History Project
Department of Architecture • Ryerson & Burnham Archives
Send questions or comments to:
Ryerson & Burnham Archives, Chicago Architects Oral History Project
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