Gunnar Birkerts facts for kids
Gunnar Birkerts (Latvian: Gunārs Birkerts, January 17, 1925 – August 15, 2017) was a Latvian-American architect. He was born in Riga, Latvia.
Birkerts, for most of his career, was based in the metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan. Some of his designs include the Corning Museum of Glass and the Corning Fire Station in Corning, New York, Marquette Plaza in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri, and the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela.
In 2014, he designed the National Library of Latvia in Riga, Latvia, aka the Castle of Light, whose architectural form references and draws inspiration from Latvian folklore.
Birkerts died at the age of 92 on August 15, 2017 at his home in Needham, Massachusetts of congestive heart failure.
Images for kids
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The Corning Fire Station facade and floor plan. The building has a strict form where small vehicles are placed in the narrow portion at the tip. All function spaces have been baked into the base of the triangle, such as changing rooms, storage room, dining room, dormitory and office, where all rooms are accessed via a wide corridor.
