Alfred Easton Poor (May 24, 1899 – January 13, 1988) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

noted particularly for buildings and projects in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, for the U.S. government. A son of

Charles Lane Poor Charles Lane Poor (January 18, 1866 – September 27, 1951) was an American astronomy professor, noted for his opposition to Einstein's theory of relativity. Biography He was born on January 18, 1866, in Hackensack, New Jersey, to Edward Erie ...

, Alfred Poor served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and in the

U.S. Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called R ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.Social Networks and Archival Context Project
/ref> As a student at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, he studied under

Paul Philippe Cret Paul Philippe Cret (October 23, 1876 – September 8, 1945) was a French-born Philadelphia architect and industrial designer. For more than thirty years, he taught at a design studio in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylv ...

.Art of the Print
/ref>
/ref> Poor served as the president of the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

in New York from 1966 to 1977, organizing its 150th anniversary in 1975.Obituary, New York Times
/ref> He has been called "one of America's most prominent twentieth century architects" and a "prominent member of the international school of modern architecture."
/ref>

Projects

Over his long career, Poor's projects included public and private-sector works. Along with fellow New York architect Robert P. Rogers, Poor won the open international design competition for the

Wright Brothers National Memorial Wright Brothers National Memorial, located in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, commemorates the first successful, sustained, powered flights in a heavier-than-air machine. From 1900 to 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright came here from Dayton, Oh ...

in 1928. For the U.S. government, he worked on a project that restored and extended the East Front of the

US Capitol building The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

in the early 1960s, and was also a leading architect in designing the US Library of Congress'

James Madison Memorial Building The James Madison Memorial Building is one of three United States Capitol Complex buildings that house the Library of Congress. The building was constructed from 1971 to 1976, and serves as the official memorial to President James Madison. It is ...

,Library of Congress
/ref> the third-largest public building in Washington. Poor was especially active in the New York City area. His projects include the

Jacob K. Javits Federal Building The Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building at 26 Federal Plaza on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City houses many federal government agencies. At over 41 stories, it is the tallest federal building in the U ...

,New York Architecture - Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building
/ref> the Queens County Courthouse and prison in Kew Gardens, the Home Insurance Company Building,A View on Cities
/ref> and the 40-acre Red Hook housing projects. Poor was chosen by

Walter Annenberg Walter Hubert Annenberg (March 13, 1908 – October 1, 2002) was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and diplomat. Annenberg owned and operated Triangle Publications, which included ownership of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' ...

to design the Annenberg School for Communication at the

.University of Pennsylvania: An Architectural Tour. By George E. Thomas and Lewis Tanner
/ref> His work was also part of the art competitions at the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

and the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

. According to his obituary in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', he also "designed dozens of branch offices in Manhattan and abroad for the

Chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

, National City and

Marine Midland Marine Midland Bank was an American bank formerly headquartered in Buffalo, New York, with several hundred branches throughout the state of New York. In 1998, branches extended to Pennsylvania. It was acquired by HSBC in 1980, and changed its ...

banks" and "designed a number of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

country homes." Other works include the

Cape Cinema The Cape Cinema is a movie theatre located in Dennis, Massachusetts, United States, on Cape Cod. It specializes in independent American and international film, simulcasts of the Metropolitan Opera and National Theatre, and live music performances. ...

, in

Dennis, Massachusetts Dennis is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, located near the center of Cape Cod. The population was 14,674 at the 2020 census. The town encompasses five distinct villages, each of which has its own post office. These cons ...

.Cape Cinema, About
/ref>

Books

Poor's books about historical architecture include ''Formal Design in Minor French Buildings - The Tuileries Brochures'' (1931) and ''Colonial Architecture of

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

and

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...

'' (1932).

Personal life

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poor, Alfred 1899 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American architects Architects from New York (state) Harvard University alumni University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni Olympic competitors in art competitions United States Navy personnel of World War I United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy reservists