Marcus Whiffen (4 March 1916 - February 2002) was an English architectural journalist, historian, author and photographer specialising in British and American architecture. He was Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

Life and career

Marcus Whiffen was born in

Ross-on-Wye Ross-on-Wye ( Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

on 4 March 1916, the son of Thomas Joseph Whiffen and Jessie Anne Hardy. He graduated from

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

with a BA in 1937, and then completed his MA in 1946. Following his graduation, he joined ''The Architect and Building News'' in 1937. After the war, in 1946, he joined the ''Architectural Review'' (London) as assistant editor. Whiffen moved to the United States in 1952, where he held lecturer positions at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

and then at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. In 1954 he joined

Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has 7300 employees at this location and ...

as architectural historian. He moved to Arizona State University in 1960 where he held various positions, and finally as Professor Emeritus. He corresponded extensively with several other leading architectural historians including Sir

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

Henry-Russell Hitchcock Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903–1987) was an American architectural historian, and for many years a professor at Smith College and New York University. His writings helped to define the characteristics of modernist architecture. Early life He ...

and Sir

John Summerson Sir John Newenham Summerson (25 November 1904 – 10 November 1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century. Early life John Summerson was born at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington. His grandfather wo ...

, plus architects including

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...

Paul Schweikher Robert Paul Schweikher (1903–1997) was a mid-century modern architect from Denver, Colorado. Biography Paul Schweikher was born in Denver, Colorado in 1903 to a family of musicians. He originally trained at the University of Colorado for a ...

, and Bart Prince. Whiffen served as director of the

Society of Architectural Historians The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) is an international not-for-profit organization that promotes the study and preservation of the built environment worldwide. Based in Chicago in the United States, the Society's 3,500 members include ...

(1969-1971, 1975-1978) and director of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (1963-1968). His awards included the Society of Architectural Historians Annual Book Award for ''The Public Buildings of Williamsburg'' (1958) and the Arizona State University Alumni Association Faculty Achievement Award (1979). Marcus Whiffen lived in a house designed for him in 1963 by architect (and Arizona State University colleague) Calvin C. Straub in the

Arcadia Arcadia may refer to: Places Australia * Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Arcadia, Queensland * Arcadia, Victoria Greece * Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese * Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...

district of

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. He died, aged 85, in Phoenix in February 2002. Photographs by Marcus Whiffen are held at the Conway Library in the Courtauld, London, and are being digitised.

Select bibliography

* ''Stuart and Georgian churches: the Architecture of the Church of England outside London 1603-1837''. Marcus Whiffen. B. T. Batsford, 1948. * ''

Thomas Archer Thomas Archer (1668–1743) was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. His buildings are important as the only ones by an English Baroque archit ...

: Architect of the English Baroque''. Marcus Whiffen, Art & Technics, 1950. * ''The Architecture of Sir

Charles Barry Sir Charles Barry (23 May 1795 – 12 May 1860) was a British architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster (also known as the Houses of Parliament) in London during the mid-19th century, but also respons ...

in Manchester and Neighbourhood''. Marcus Whiffen. Manchester, 1950. * ''An Introduction to Elizabethan and Jacobean Architecture''. Marcus Whiffen. Art & Technics, 1952. * ''The Public Buildings of Williamsburg - colonial capital of Virginia - an architectural history''. Marcus Whiffen. Williamsburg, Va. Colonial Williamsburg, 1958. * ''American Architecture, 1607-1976''. Marcus Whiffen. Cambridge: MIT Pr. 1981. * ''The Eighteenth-century houses of Williamsburg - a study of architecture and building in the colonial capital of Virginia''. Marcus Whiffen. Williamsburg, Va. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1983. * ''Pueblo deco: The art deco architecture of the Southwest''. Marcus Whiffen and Carla Breeze. Albuquerque. University of New Mexico Press, c1984. * ''American architecture since 1780: a guide to the styles''. Marcus Whiffen. Cambridge, Mass. London: MIT, 1992.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whiffen, Marcus Architectural historians People from Ross-on-Wye 1916 births Arizona State University faculty 2002 deaths People from Phoenix, Arizona