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September 17, 2004
An architect of many of New York City’s
most iconic mid-Century Modernist cultural buildings and skyscrapers,
Max Abramowitz, FAIA, died Sept. 12 at the age of 96. A partner
of Wallace K. Harrison, Abramowitz designed the Philharmonic
Hall, later renamed Avery Fisher Hall, which opened in 1962
as part of Lincoln Center.
With Harrison, Abramowitz also designed the last Rockefeller
Center skyscrapers: the Time & Life, McGraw-Hill, Exxon
and Celanese Buildings on the Avenue of the Americas. Harrison
and Abramowitz oversaw the United Nations project in New York
from 1945 to 1952, and Abramowitz served as deputy director
of planning for the complex.
Born in Chicago in 1908, Abramowitz earned a Master of Science
degree from Columbia University in 1931. He joined Harrison’s
firm in the 1930s, became a partner in 1941, and Abramowitz
and Harrison remained partners until 1976.
Abramowitz died just three days before the first major retrospective
of his work, “The Troubled Search: The Work of Max Abramowitz,”
opened. The exhibition is on display now through December
11 at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia
University in New York. In conjunction with the exhibition,
a guided walking tour of Abramowitz’s New York buildings
will be held on October 16.
John E. Czarnecki, Assoc. AIA
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