LOOSE ENDS: Kean University will make educational platforms out of properties owned by Michael Graves

By Pam Hersh
   Three Princeton properties that include an architect’s world-famous home and studio just sold for $20, quite an affordable housing coup. According to “The New York Times,” it will cost about $40,000 per year to maintain and $300,000 to renovate for the use specified by the seller, but the properties are valued at $3.2 million.
   The new owner of the properties is a new institutional resident for Princeton — Kean University, whose main campus is located in Union. Kean intends to use this gift from the estate of internationally renowned Michael Graves, who died in March 2015, to make a priceless contribution to the education of Kean students, as well as students and scholars from other higher education institutions and anyone else eager to enrich their lives in the area of art, architecture, and history.
   Michael Graves, the Princeton-based architect and Princeton University professor, helped found the Michael Graves College at Kean University. The college consists of the Robert Busch School of Design and the School of Public Architecture. David Mohney, dean of the recently established Michael Graves College, is a Princeton University graduate alumnus (class of 1981) and was mentored by Mr. Graves. The two of them were in particularly close contact during the past six years, according to Dean Mohney, who is writing a book about the role Mr. Graves and another postmodernist iconic architect Peter Eisenman played in shaping the contemporary discourse over architecture.
   ”The establishment of a Graves-inspired, but Kean University-implemented, education research center for architecture and design in Princeton seems very natural to me,” said Mr. Mohney.
   The Michael Graves estate has deeded three Michael Graves properties to Kean University for use by the Michael Graves College as an educational platform, classes, salons, lectures to be attended by Kean University architectural students. Some of the programming, however, will be open to students from any university and the general public. In a “New York Times,” report, Mr. Mohney said he didn’t expect many changes to made to Mr. Graves’ home. He added that the home, known as “The Warehouse,” will continue to be used as Mr. Graves’ used it, as a museum and spot for seminars and salons.
   Kean University President Dr. Dawood Farahi noted that “Michael Graves was a good friend to Kean University… The Warehouse, where he lived and worked will provide… access to the thinking, the inspiration and internal processes of one of the most visionary and prolific architects of our time.”
   Since Kean announced the gift, Princeton residents have been wondering why Kean University and not Princeton University, where Michael Graves taught for decades, was the recipient of this gift. It turns out that PU did get first dibs on the property, but rejected it.
   According to the official Princeton University statement issued on June 27, Princeton University was “grateful to be able to consider the possibility of accepting Michael Graves’ properties, but concluded that we could not meet the terms and conditions associated with the gift.” The terms stipulated by his will require preserving the buildings and coordinating their use for educational purposes. The architect’s will states that if Princeton did not accept the gift, it would be offered to another nonprofit. Kean University, with its Michael Graves College led by a dean who was mentored by Michael Graves, was first runner-up and crowned winner of the property.
   Princeton University was unwilling to further elaborate on the reasons for its refusal to acquire the properties. Neighbors of mine, loving conspiracy and gossip, wondered that maybe Princeton University had a “complicated” relationship with Graves or maybe the PU acquisition of the properties, adjacent to the campus, would stir “campus creep” paranoia and heighten town/gown tensions.
   I personally gravitate toward the obvious and uncomplicated. It could be simply due to the nature of the two architecture schools. PU has many famous architects associated with its school, but Kean has a school dedicated to the design philosophy of one architect, Michael Graves — thus making the gift a good fit for the mission of Kean.
   ”Developing the curriculum for the Michael Graves School of Architecture at Kean University and Wenzhou-Kean University has been a deeply gratifying experience for me,” Michael Graves said in the fall 2014, when Kean announced the new architecture initiative. “Students will develop a well-rounded understanding of the role of architecture in society, with a respect for its history and clear vision for the future.”
   On this same occasion, Mr. Mohney (then acting dean) described the unique approach of his former instructor and mentor. A report on the website ArchDaily.com quoted him as saying, “In our technologically savvy world, to this day, Michael Graves’ philosophy is to draw by hand first so that the students see, ‘feel’ and experience the new building spatially. Then, only after the drawing is complete will the students transfer the design to a computer so that the computer becomes an execution tool, not an ‘ideation’ tool,’” he said.
   As a non-scholarly fan of Michael Graves (my personal landscape is dotted with Graves household items, jewelry, and art posters), I look forward to attending a salon discussion in what will be Princeton’s most famous affordable housing to be used not for sleeping but for dreaming, visioning, and learning.