The late architect retired from his firm in 2016 Noted American architect Robert Venturi has died at age 93. According to a statement provided by Venturi?s family to The Architect?s Newspaper yesterday, he passed away peacefully at his home following a short illness.
Venturi, along with his wife, architect Denise Scott Brown, was known for kickstarting postmodernism in architecture. Where famous modernist Mies van der Rohe stated ?Less is more,? Venturi coined ?Less is a bore.? Naturally, his works embraced curves, color, angles, and general whimsy.
A prime example is the iconic Vanna Venturi House, which Venturi designed for his mother in the early 1960s. The house received the esteemed 25-Year Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1989 and was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Matt Wargo/Courtesy of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.
The Vanna Venturi House.

In a visit to the house shortly after it received historic designation, Curbed?s architecture critic Alexandra Lange elaborates on the exterior?s nuanced shapes and color:

...the exterior is an unusual coppery gray-green, which underlines the flatness of the great, two-part gable and the chimney behind. It looks like a cardboard cutout, but not necessarily a playful one, for all the references to children?s drawings of houses. A child wouldn?t color a house this green, because it is not in the standard set of markers. In the basement...