Robert Venturi
Architect
Architect who designed Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. Known for saying, 'Less is a bore,' a take-off on Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's 'Less is more,' a statement with which he adamantly disagreed.
He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1947 and obtained his M.F.A. in 1950. He spent two years in Europe after winning the American Academy in Rome's Rome Prize Fellowship in 1954.
He received the Pritzker Prize in 1991 and requested that his wife and collaborator, Denise Scott Brown, be included with him, but the Pritzker Prize jury ultimately refused.
He married Denise in 1967; she became a member of his firm in 1969, holding the position of partner in charge of planning. His parents raised him as a Quaker.
He worked for architect Eero Saarinen in 1951.