1939 in architecture

Barber Institute of Fine Arts

The year 1939 in architecture involved some significant events.

Events

• Jane Drew sets up an all-female architectural practice in London.

Buildings opened

• April 21 - The San Jacinto Monument near Houston, Texas, United States.
• April 30 - 1939 New York World's Fair. Notable examples of temporary architecture include the Trylon and Perisphere designed by Wallace Harrison and J. André Fouilhoux and the Ireland pavilion designed by Michael Scott.^[1]
• May 7 - Vulcan Park in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
• June 14 - St Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church, Gorleston, England, designed by Eric Gill.
• July 26 - The Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham, England, designed by Robert Atkinson.

Other buildings

• The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., designed by John Russell Pope, is begun.
• St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, Australia, completed.
• Dome of Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal is completed.
• Daily Express Building, Manchester, England, designed by engineer Sir Owen Williams, is completed.
• Marine Gate (apartments) in Brighton, England, designed by Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie, is built.

Trylon, Perisphere and Helicline photo by Sam Gottscho

Awards

• Royal Gold Medal - Percy Thomas.
• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Bernard Zehrfuss.

Births

• June 21 - Charles Jencks, American architectural theorist, landscape architect and designer
• October 1 - Philip Cox, Australian architect
• October 9 - Nicholas Grimshaw, English modernist architect
• December 5 - Ricardo Bofill, Catalan postmodernist architect

Deaths

• February 2 - Vladimir Shukhov, Russian structural engineer (born 1853)
• February 7 - Detmar Blow, English architect (born 1867)
• September 26 - Kirtland Cutter, American architect (born 1860)

References