FISHER: The wonder of working with Michael Graves

Whenever I hear someone on TV talking about the road to the Final Four in Indianapolis, I pause to see which shots of the city they’ll show. Every time the NCAA headquarters Hall of Champions flashes on the screen, it’s an immediate source of pride for my colleague Kevin Shelley and me.

We’re proud because it’s a project we worked on more than a decade ago, but even more than that, NCAA will forever stand out as the project where we had the privilege of working with Michael Graves.

Graves, who died on March 12 at age 80, grew up in Indianapolis and became a leader in the postmodern architecture movement. It was a fascinating journey to work with him and get to know him.

The design process began during an early-morning breakfast with architects and NCAA executives in Kansas City (then home of the NCAA). When asked about his vision for the project, Graves didn’t just explain how he thought the new headquarters’ design should be reminiscent of a college campus. He also began to sketch his vision on the restaurant napkins.

I wish I had those napkins, but they were packed up and taken back to his Princeton, New Jersey, studio.

This became typical Michael Graves. An unassuming man, quiet, thoughtful and kind, who drew inspiration from art and his natural surroundings.

It might have been easy to have been intimidated by him, but Shelley and I never were. That’s because he made it easy to be comfortable around him. Even his design studio inside an old house not far from the Princeton campus was the kind of place you immediately felt at home, and his dogs milled around.

For those of us who have had the privilege to work with him, even for a short time, we’ll remember his ability to create a vision for a project and inspire everyone around him to share in that vision.

The world will remember this Broad Ripple graduate as an icon, an architect of such buildings as the Swan Hotel at Disney World, The Denver Central Library and Humana headquarters in Louisville. Of course, he’ll be remembered for his tea kettles, toasters and pepper mills at Target, too.

While it’s not as well known, Graves, who became paralyzed in 2003, one day will be regarded just as highly for his designs of user-friendly medical equipment and supplies.

Architecture transcends. Michael Graves taught us that.•

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Fisher is principal and director of operations at the architecture firm Schmidt Associates. Send comments on this column to ibjedit@ibj.com.