Romaldo Giurgola, FAIA

Year Awarded: 1982
Born: September 02, 1920; Rome, Italy


Projects
• 2003: St Patrick's Cathedral in Parramatta
• 1988: Australian Parliament House, Canberra
• 1985: Lafayette Place (now Swissotel), Boston
• 1977: Sherman Fairchild Center for the Life Sciences, Columbia University
• 1976: Tredyffrin Public Library, Strafford, Penn.
• 1973: Lang Music Building, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Penn.
• 1972: Columbus East High School, Columbus, Ind.
• 1971: United Fund Headquarters Building, Philadelphia


Biography
Romaldo Giurgola, an architect, author, and professor, began his education in the School of Architecture at the University of Rome, earining a bachelor’s degree in 1949. He went to Columbia University as a Fulbright Scholar and received an MArch in 1951.

In 1957 he joined with Ehrman Mitchell to work on the Wright Brothers Memorial Visitor Center for the U.S. National Park Service. This project brought them national recognition, and in 1958 they formed Mitchell/Giurgola Architects in Philadelphia, creating one of the world’s leading architecture firms. The firm later became Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp and began working internationally, designing commercial, educational, civic, and cultural projects in Europe, the United States, and the Pacific Rim.

Giurgola became a professor of architecture, teaching first at Cornell University, then at the University of Pennsylvania, and eventually at Columbia University. He became the Ware Professor of Architecture and architecture department head at Columbia University in 1966. At that time, the firm opened an office in New York City.

During the U.S. bicentennial year, 1976, Mitchell/Giurgola's second U.S. Park Service building, the Liberty Bell Pavilion across from Independence Hall, was dedicated.

In 1980 Giurgola moved to Australia and began work on the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, opening offices there. He has lived in Canberra permanently since the Parliament House was opened; he became an Australian citizen in 2000. Although now retired, he continues to work in Australia and serves on the National Planning Authority in Canberra. He is a professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne, and at the University of Sydney he is an adjunct professor.

Giurgola and his firms have been recognized for a number of honors from around the world, including the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1966. In 1972 the Italian Government awarded him the Commendation of the Order of the Republic of Italy. He was made a fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1975, and the firm Mitchell/Giurgola won the AIA Architecture Firm Award in 1976. He received the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture from University of Virginia in 1987, and the Gold Medal from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1988. In 2003 the University of Sydney awarded Giurgola an honorary doctorate in architecture.