1934 Indianapolis
- lebt in Princeton -

Michael Graves is one of the most important Postmodern American architects and designers. Born in Indianapolis in 1934, Michael Graves attended the University of Cincinnati from 1954 until 1959 before going on to the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1960 Michael Graves studied with a scholarship at the American Academy in Rome, remaining there until 1962. On his return to the US, Graves started teaching at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1972 he became a professor of architecture at Princeton, where he taught for more than twenty-five years although he also opened an architecture practice in Princeton in 1964. In 1993 Graves even opened a shop in Princeton, where he sold products he had designed. In 1969 the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted the exhibition devoted to the "New York Five", presenting the work of the architects Peter Eisenman, Charles Gwathmey, John Hejduk, and Richard Meier as well as Michael Graves. Not long afterwards, however, Michael Graves turned against the Modernist principles to which he had always been committed and began to design buildings and interiors featuring a lot of color. Graves's most important architectural achievements include the Public Services Building in Portland, Oregon (1982), the library in San Juan Capistrano, California (1983), the Humana Corporation headquarters in Louisville (1982-1986), the Dolphin Hotel in Disney World, Florida (1989), and the annex to the Whitney Museum of Art in New York (1989-1990). In the late 1970s, Michael Graves also designed Postmodern furniture and products inspired by the Art déco style. Around 1980 he designed furniture and objects for Memphis. Graves's collaboration with Alessi brought forth his best known designs, notably the famous conical kettle with birds (1985).