1925-
Architect

Early Life and Education.

Robert Venturi was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 25 June 1925. Though his father owned a wholesale fruit company, Venturi dreamed of becoming an architect from boyhood. He graduated with a B.A. in architecture from Princeton University in 1947, where he went on to earn a master of fine arts degree in 1950. He won Rome Prize Fellowships in 1954 and 1956, providing the means for Venturi to continue his studies at the American Academy in Rome.

Early Career.

Venturi returned to Philadelphia and began his career with the firm of Louis I. Kahn. Kahn's firm departed from the dominant modernist architectural approaches exemplified in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Kahn encouraged his designers, including Venturi, to develop their own individual styles. Venturi moved on to several partnerships before forming forming Venturi and Rauch in 1964. He had...