Architect · United States · 1929-2000
John Hejduk Biography, Buildings and Best Books
American architect, poet and educator (1929-2000) whose Wall Houses, Diamond Houses and Masques made him one of the most poetic voices in late twentieth-century architecture.
Photo: Gampe, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Biography
John Hejduk (1929-2000) was an American architect, artist, poet and educator. One of the New York Five, he built little in his lifetime but produced an extraordinary body of drawings, models and writings, including the Diamond Houses, the Wall Houses and the Masques, that explored architecture as a vehicle for memory, ritual and narrative. As dean of the Cooper Union School of Architecture for twenty-five years, he shaped generations of architects.
The Bronx, Cooper Union and Harvard
Hejduk was born in the Bronx in 1929. He studied at the Cooper Union, the University of Cincinnati and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he completed his master’s degree in 1953, and worked for I. M. Pei and others before turning to teaching. At the University of Texas at Austin in the 1950s he joined the “Texas Rangers”, with Colin Rowe, Bernhard Hoesli and Robert Slutzky.
Diamond Houses and the New York Five
Through the 1960s Hejduk explored the grid and the square in a series of theoretical projects, the Texas Houses, the Diamond Houses and the One-Half House (1966). His work was included in Five Architects (1972), with Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey and Richard Meier, the group known as the New York Five.
The Wall Houses and the Masques
In the Wall House projects, the rooms of a house are placed on one side of a long wall and circulation on the other, so that crossing the wall becomes a passage between the past and the present. From the late 1970s his Masques, such as the Berlin Masque and the Lancaster/Hanover Masque, presented casts of characters embodied in strange, animal-like structures, accompanied by poems.
Cooper Union and buildings late in life
Hejduk led the Cooper Union School of Architecture as dean from 1975 until his death in 2000, making it one of the most influential schools in the world. In Berlin he built housing and towers for the IBA in Kreuzberg and Tegel (1988), and in 2001, the year after his death, the Wall House 2, designed in 1973, was finally built in Groningen in the Netherlands.
John Hejduk: Mask of Medusa, Works 1947-1983
Hejduk’s own collection of projects, drawings and texts from 1947 to 1983, it remains the essential introduction to his work.
View on Amazon
Timeline
- 1929Born on 19 July in the Bronx, New York.
- 1953Completes his master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
- 1954Teaches at the University of Texas at Austin with the Texas Rangers.
- 1964Begins teaching at the Cooper Union.
- 1966Designs the One-Half House.
- 1972Featured in Five Architects as one of the New York Five.
- 1973Designs the Wall House 2.
- 1975Becomes dean of the Cooper Union School of Architecture.
- 1985Publishes Mask of Medusa.
- 1988Completes IBA housing in Berlin.
- 2000Dies on 3 July in New York.
- 2001The Wall House 2 is built in Groningen.
Best Books on John Hejduk
As an Amazon Associate, ArchEyes earns from qualifying purchases. Book links open on Amazon.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is John Hejduk known for?
John Hejduk is known as one of the New York Five, for theoretical projects such as the Diamond Houses, the Wall Houses and the Masques, and for his 25 years as dean of the Cooper Union School of Architecture.
What are John Hejduk’s most famous works?
His best-known works include the Diamond Houses, the One-Half House, the Wall House 2 (built in Groningen in 2001), the Berlin Masque and his IBA housing in Berlin.
What is the best book on John Hejduk?
Mask of Medusa: Works 1947-1983 (Rizzoli) is the essential collection of his projects and writings. Such Places as Memory gathers his poems.
What is John Hejduk’s architectural style?
Hejduk’s early work explored the modernist grid and the abstraction of painters such as Mondrian. His later work is more poetic and narrative, using strange, figurative structures, drawings and texts to evoke memory and ritual.
Where can I see John Hejduk’s architecture?
You can visit the Wall House 2 in Groningen in the Netherlands and see his IBA housing in Berlin. His archive is held by the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.
