Ehrman B. Mitchell, architect (Phil. Inquirer)

[marilyn...@aol.com]

Posted on Sun, Jan. 23, 2005

By Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic

Ehrman B. Mitchell, 80, an architect who rejected the harshest aspects
of '60s modernism and instead found a way to make contemporary
buildings fit gently into Philadelphia's colonial-era street grid, died
Tuesday of lung cancer at his residence in Chestnut Hill.

At a time when many top architects were building lone towers on
windswept plazas, Mr. Mitchell and his business partner, Romaldo
Giurgola, gave Philadelphia a collection of elegant but unabashedly
modern structures that behaved like traditional urban buildings: They
sat next to their neighbors, and they came to the sidewalk.

That mix of modern design and urban values helped their firm,
Mitchell/Giurgola, gain an international reputation and win
commissions, including the Penn Mutual Tower, the United Way
Headquarters, and the 1976 Liberty Bell Pavilion. Mr. Mitchell was
elected national president of the American Institute of Architects
(AIA) in 1979.

Mr. Mitchell teamed up with Giurgola in 1958, just as Philadelphia was
becoming a hotbed of architectural exploration. Their firm became a
leading member of what was dubbed the Philadelphia School, a loose
collection of architectural innovators that included Louis I. Kahn and
Robert Venturi. But unlike Kahn and Venturi, who spent many years
toiling in academia, Mitchell/Giurgola started winning building
commissions almost immediately.

Mr. Mitchell, who grew up on a prosperous dairy farm near Harrisburg,
and Giurgola, who was born in Rome, used their complementary skills to
woo clients. While Giurgola was celebrated for his design talent, Mr.
Mitchell was a great organizer who got the projects built, said Alan
Greenberger, who joined the firm in 1974 and is now a partner with its
successor, MGA Partners.

"Mitch," as Mitchell was universally known, "was the constructor,"
Greenberger said. "He was the one who took an image on a piece of paper
and gave it life."

Mr. Mitchell could often explain Giurgola's designs better than the
designer could himself, Greenberger added.

The pair's first big success came in 1960 with a visitor center for the
Wright Brothers National Memorial on the North Carolina coast. Two
years later, they produced one of their most exquisite - and smallest -
buildings, a two-window-wide addition to the Philadelphia Life
Insurance Co. on Broad Street. Although the original portion features a
columned classical facade, the addition is as flat and geometric as a
Mondrian painting. Yet they harmonize perfectly.

Greenberger said Mr. Mitchell saw himself as the firm's conscience. In
1972, he caused a stir when he attacked Philadelphia's pay-to-play
culture. At the time, architects and engineers were told by Democratic
bosses to hand over 5 percent of their fees on government projects to
the party. Mr. Mitchell's complaints led to a grand-jury investigation.
But while it condemned the "political blackmail," no one was ever
convicted.

Mr. Mitchell was well-known for sticking to his principles. After
winning a coveted commission in 1965 to build the AIA's national
headquarters in Washington, he and Giurgola withdrew to protest
intrusive design revisions.

Not all of their buildings were successful. William Penn High School on
North Broad Street, built in the mid-1970s, is a brutal, concrete
building with tiny windows.

The firm was selected in 1980 to design the parliament complex in
Canberra, Australia.

Giurgola moved to Australia to oversee the project, but Mr. Mitchell
remained in Philadelphia. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in
1982, and retired in 1985. In addition to MGA Partners, two other
branches of the firm remain, in New York and Canberra.

Mr. Mitchell is survived by a daughter, Marianne; a son, Eric; and
three grandchildren. His wife of 56 years, Hermine, died last year. A
memorial service will be held Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. at Germantown Friends
School in Philadelphia. Memorial donations may be made to the Ehrman B.
Mitchell Fund at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.