Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library Acquires the Edgar A.
Tafel Archive
<http://library.columbia.edu/news/libraries/2012/20120117_edgar_tafel_archives.html>
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NEW YORK, January 18, 2012 – The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts
Library <http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/avery.html> is pleased to
announce the donation of the architectural archives and research files
of architect and historian Edgar Tafel, as well as a $100,000 gift to
support the processing, preservation, and presentation of the
collection. The donation was made by the Edgar A. Tafel Living Trust as
part of its mission to support architectural education.
"Edgar would have been so pleased to see the records of his life's work
being treated with such care and dignity. We are thrilled that they will
be available to scholars and others interested in his work over future
generations. We can think of no better place than Avery Library to house
the Edgar A. Tafel Archive," the Trustees, in making this bequest, stated.
A native New Yorker, Edgar Tafel was one of the first students to study
architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright as an apprentice in the Taliesin
Fellowship. He was one of three apprentices charged with designing and
supervising the construction of Fallingwater, Wright's masterpiece for
the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh. He also worked on the Johnson Wax
Headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin and Herbert F. Johnson's residence,
Wingspread.
A prolific architect, Tafel is best known for his addition to the Fifth
Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York and his master plan for the State
University of New York campus at Geneseo. In all, Tafel designed 80
houses, 35 churches and other religious buildings, and three college
campuses.
"In addition to his architectural talents, Tafel was blessed with a
vivacity of thought and expression that made his books and lectures
popular and rewarding. Anyone studying Frank Lloyd Wright will be
interested in seeing these papers," Janet Parks, curator of Drawings and
Archives at the Avery Library, said.
Due to his close connection with Wright, Tafel was a well-known
historian of Wright, authoring two books on the architect: /Apprentice
to Genius: Years with Frank Lloyd Wright/ (1979) and /About Wright: An
Album of Recollections by Those Who Knew Frank Lloyd Wright/ (1993). He
lectured frequently on Wright and appeared in several documentaries on
Fallingwater, notably Ken Love's /Fallingwater: The Apprentices/ (1996).
In addition to the research files on Wright, the archives contain more
than 250 rolls of drawings for Tafel's own projects dating from the
1950s through the 1990s.
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