George E. Patton architectural records, 1939-1990.

Format:

Other

Author/Creator:

Patton, George E. (George Erwin), 1920-1991.

Contributor:

Kahn, Louis I., 1901-1974.

Venturi, Robert.

Venturi and Rauch.

Mitchell/Giurgola Architects.

Carroll, Grisdale & van Alen.

Bower Lewis Thrower.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Patton, George E. (George Erwin), 1920-1991.

Patton, George E.

Architects--Archives.

Architects.

Architectural design--History--20th century--Sources.

Architectural design.

Architectural drawing--United States.

Architectural drawing.

Architecture--United States--History--20th century--Designs and plans.

Architecture.

Landscape architecture.

Genre:

Architectural drawings -- American.

Photographs.

Specifications.

Student drawings.

Travel sketches.

Physical Description:

6615 sheets : various media.

5 cubic ft.

56 cubic ft.

Other Title:

George E. Patton collection.

Place of Publication:

1939-1990.

Biography/History:

George Patton, a landscape architect known for his collaborations with important twentieth-century Philadelphia architects and for his independent designs, was born in Franklin, NC, in the rural western portion of the state. He began his training at North Carolina State University in Raleigh in the early 1940s. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943 before completing his degree, serving as an artist, cartographer, and model maker. After the close of the war, he worked in Hollywood as a film set decorator and designer before returning to North Carolina to complete his B.A. in Landscape Architecture (1948). He won a two-year fellowship at the American Academy in Rome and a Fulbright fellowship that ran concurrently with the second year of this prize. While in Rome, he came to know Louis I. Kahn during Kahn's pivotal three-month stay in 1951 as Resident Architect at the Academy. Patton and Kahn traveled together to Egypt and Greece. After his return from Rome, Patton entered the office of Pittsburgh landscape architects Simonds & Simonds in 1951 and remained there until 1954, when he established his own practice in Philadelphia. Patton worked with Kahn on signal projects such as the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX, the Olivetti Factory in Harrisburg, PA and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in New York City. Other prominent architect collaborators included: Venturi & Rauch; Mitchell/Giurgola; Carroll, Grisdale & van Alen; and Bower, Lewis, Thrower.

Patton was a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects; he served as its third Vice-President in 1965-1967, and then its first Vice-President in 1967-1969. He also chaired the publication board of Landscape Architecture between 1975 and 1980. Patton was a member of the Philadelphia Art Commission (1960-1968), an advisor to the Eastern Regional Office of Housing and Urban Development (1968-1969), and a member of the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta. He taught landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Fine Arts from 1955 until 1974.

Summary:

This collection is the primary archive of the work of George E. Patton, donated to the Architectural Archives by Patton himself just before his death. His architectural drawings alone document 447 projects spanning the years 1939-1990. His extensive office files and photographs (not yet fully described) may identify additional projects. The collection is a rich resource for the study of the practice of landscape architecture in America, for research on the major architects with whom Patton collaborated and for documentation of specific projects and sites.

Patton's long association with Louis I. Kahn is an important thread through the collection, and his archives complement the holdings of the Louis I. Kahn Collection at the Architectural Archives. They provide additional documentation for important Kahn projects, as well as insight into Kahn's travel sketches through the remarkable correlation between Patton's photographs made during his 1951 trip with Kahn to Egypt and Greece and Kahn's drawings made on that same trip. The collection also contains significant materials related to projects of Robert Venturi: Fairhill Square, one of Venturi's earliest known projects, and Western Plaza, Washington, DC, among others. A complete list of architects whose work is represented in this collection has not yet been prepared.

Patton's archives document many significant sites in the Philadelphia region, including a large number of parks, playgrounds, and recreational sites. His work on academic campuses includes the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and both the main campus and the Ambler campus of Temple University. Significant work in the city of Philadelphia includes designs for Rittenhouse Square, the courtyard of the Betsy Ross House, the Rittenhouse Hotel and the 1992 restoration of Logan Square on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and its Swann Fountain (originally designed in 1917 by Wilson Eyre and Alexander Stirling Calder).

Personal materials (not yet completely described) appear to be limited to intermittent personal correspondence, student drawings, travel photographs and sketches, and materials related to lectures and professional associations. His archives do not appear to contain extensive materials related to his personal and family life or to his teaching at the University of Pennsylvania.

Finding Aid/Index:

Printed finding aid available at the Architectural Archives. Electronic finding aid available at the Architectural Archives web site.

Cited as:

George E. Patton Collection, The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania.

Access Restriction:

Collection available for research by appointment only.