Ralph Rapson

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Ralph Rapson (b. September 13, 1914, Alma, Michigan) is a modernist architect.

He was educated at the University of Michigan and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan under Eliel Saarinen. Rapson led the New Bauhaus School in Chicago, and practiced in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Stockholm, and Paris before becoming head of the architecture school at the University of Minnesota in 1954.

His building projects include

• the United States embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen, both 1954
• the Pillsbury House in Wayzata, Minnesota, 1963
• Minneapolis, Minnesota:
  • the Guthrie Theater, 1963 (demolished in 2006)
  • the Cedar Square West (now Riverside Plaza) housing complex, 1962 – 1973 (a federally funded New-Town-in-Town)
  • Rarig Center, 1971

He also designed furniture and accessories, took part in the Case Study House program, and had his own furniture line in the 1950s.

At age 92, Ralph Rapson, with partner Oscar Niemeyer, is among the world's oldest practicing architects.