Michael Dwyer is 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 ...

, considered to be an advocate of classical architecture, and known for designing new buildings in traditional vocabularies. He was the editor of ''Great Houses of the Hudson River'' (2001), and the author of ''Carolands'' (2006).

Education and career

Michael Dwyer graduated from Columbia College and received a master's degree in architecture from 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 was associated from 1981 to 1996 with the architecture firm Buttrick White & Burtis, where he helped design the

Saint Thomas Choir School Saint Thomas Choir School is a church-affiliated boarding choir school in Manhattan, New York, founded in 1919. The school is supported by the nearby Saint Thomas Church, an Episcopal church, continuing the Anglican tradition of all-male choral ...

, a fifteen-story boarding school in

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

, completed in 1987. He was a member of the team that prepared designs for the

Central Park Conservancy The Central Park Conservancy is a private, nonprofit park conservancy that manages Central Park under a contract with the City of New York and NYC Parks. The conservancy employs most maintenance and operations staff in the park. It effectivel ...

's rehabilitation of the

Harlem Meer Harlem Meer is a man-made lake at the northeast corner of New York City's Central Park. It lies west of Fifth Avenue, south of 110th Street, and north of the Conservatory Garden, near the Harlem and East Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan. The la ...

in New York City's

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

, in particular the design of the Dana Discovery Center, completed in 1993. In an interview with the magazine ''Progressive Architecture'' in December 1993, Dwyer noted that the building's "picturesque character" was intended to reinforce the park's "romantic landscape design." From 1992 to 1993, he was part of the team of architects that restored Bonnie Dune, the

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

residence of Ambassador

Carl Spielvogel Carl Spielvogel (December 27, 1928 – April 21, 2021) was an American marketing executive and diplomat. He co-founded the advertising firm of Backer and Spielvogel (with Bill Backer), where he served as Chairman and CEO. Spielvogel has conduc ...

and his wife, the preservationist

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel (born January 27, 1932) is an American preservationist, historian, author, and television producer. She is an advocate for the preservation of the historic built environment and the arts. She has worked in the f ...

, a project executed in collaboration with the interior designer Jed Johnson. During his time at Buttrick White & Burtis, Dwyer was an advocate of New York's prewar, classical style of architecture. In a 1995 survey by ''The New York Times'' of New York's then-emerging neoclassical school of architecture, the reporter Patricia Leigh Brown noted that, "Michael Dwyer...an architect at Buttrick White & Burtis...has recently completed a classical-style yacht and an $8.95 million town house on the Upper East Side," a house characterized by the architect Robert Stern as "...scholarly...reflecting the elegant manner of

Ange-Jacques Gabriel Ange-Jacques Gabriel (23 October 1698 – 4 January 1782) was the principal architect of King Louis XV of France. His major works included the Place de la Concorde, the École Militaire, and the Petit Trianon and opera theater at the Palace of Ve ...

." After establishing his own firm in 1996, Dwyer was the architect for the

Eleanor Roosevelt Monument The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument is a memorial located in New York City's Riverside Park, whose centerpiece is a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, said to be the first monument dedicated to an American president's wife. Hillary Clinton (First Lady at the ...

in New York City's Riverside Park, designed by the landscape architects Kelly/Varnell, with a statue sculpted by

Penelope Jencks Penelope Jencks (born 1936 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA) is an American sculptor and a graduate of Boston University (BFA, 1958). Her public works include a statue of the historian Samuel Eliot Morison (1982) on Commonwealth Ave. in Boston, Massach ...

and inscriptions designed by Dwyer. In 1997, he restored the exterior of the Francis F. Palmer House at 75 East 93rd Street, a designated New York City landmark. From 1998 to 2008, he was the architect for the restoration of the Cosmopolitan Club, a private social club for women. In addition to institutional projects, Dwyer designed residential projects for the upper strata of New York's private sector. The financier Dick Jenrette, who called Dwyer his "favorite young neoclassical architect," commissioned him to build a pair of classical pavilions at Edgewater, Jenrette's Hudson River Valley villa. The July 2018 issue of
Architectural Digest
' featured Hollyhock, Dwyer's design for a new house in

for the real-estate executive

Mary Ann Tighe Mary Ann Tighe is an American commercial real estate broker and chief executive officer of the New York Tri-State Region of CBRE, the world's largest commercial real estate services firm. Tighe has made commercial transactions totaling more than ...

, comparable in scale and detail to the prewar houses of architects such as David Adler and

John Russell Pope John Russell Pope (April 24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an American architect whose firm is widely known for designing major public buildings, including the National Archives and Records Administration building (completed in 1935), the Jeffe ...

Architectural works

*35 Meter Cruising Yacht (completed 1995). *Nureyev Apartment, The Dakota, New York City (completed 1995). *

, Riverside Park, New York City (dedicated 1996). *Windsong (Residence), Shimmo Beach, Nantucket (completed 1996). * Francis F. Palmer House, 75 East 93rd St., New York City (restoration completed 1997). *Garden Pavilion and Poolhouse, Edgewater, Barrytown, New York (completed 1997). *Longview (Residence), 27 Gin Lane, Village of Southampton, NY (completed 2001). *Mead Point (Residence), Indian Field Road, Greenwich, CT (completed 2001). * Lampert Residence, Greenwich, CT (completed 2001). *Stone Cottage (Residence), 21 Toylsome Place, Southampton, NY (completed 2004). * Cosmopolitan Club, New York City (restoration completed 1998–2008). *New Sommariva (Residence), Jefferys Lane, East Hampton, NY (completed 2009). *Hollyhock (Residence), Ox Pasture Road, Southampton, NY (completed 2015). *Triplex Penthouse, San Remo, Central Park West, New York City (completed 2017).

Gallery

File:George F. Baker Jr. house.jpg, The Francis F. Palmer House, New York City (restored in 1997). File:Edgewater Guesthouse by Micheal Middleton Dwyer.jpg, River Facade of the Garden Pavilion at Edgewater,

Barrytown, New York Barrytown is a hamlet (and census-designated place) within the town of Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is within the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and contains four notable Hudson River V ...

(completed in 1997). File:Edgewater Guesthouse Michael Middleton Dwyer.jpg, Tripartite window at the Garden Pavilion at Edgewater,

(completed in 1997). File:Edgewater Guesthouse by Michael Middleton Dwyer.jpg, Entrance Facade of the Garden Pavilion at Edgewater,

(completed in 1997). File:Michael Dwyer-Edgewater Poolhouse.jpg, Poolhouse at Edgewater,

(completed in 1997). File:Stone Cottage Facade-04-05-2008.jpg, Stone Cottage,

, New York (completed in 2004). File:MMDwyer Architect - LongIslandHouse.jpg, New Sommariva,

East Hampton, New York The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York. At the time of the 2020 United States census, it had a total ...

(completed in 2009). File:Garden Facade Hollyhock Southampton NY.jpg, Hollyhock,

, New York (completed in 2015).

Bibliography

* Carl A. Pearson (author); Michael M. Dwyer (illustrator). “Up in Central Park on the shore of Harlem Meer,” ''Architectural Record'' (March 1990). * Mark Alden Branch (author); Michael M. Dwyer (illustrator). “Flirting with folly in Central Park,” ''Progressive Architecture'' (August 1991). * Michael M. Dwyer. "Buildings in public parks," ''Traditional Building'' (March/April 1995): 26, 28, 30. * Michael M. Dwyer. "Building with stone," ''Traditional Building'' (March/April 1996): 25–26. * Michael M. Dwyer. "The arts and crafts in architecture today," ''Classicist No. 3'' (1996–97): 90–96. * Michael Middleton Dwyer, ed., with preface by

Mark Rockefeller Mark Fitler Rockefeller (born January 26, 1967) is a fourth-generation member of the Rockefeller family. He is the younger son of former U.S. Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller (1908–1979) and Happy Rockefeller (1926–2015). He is th ...

. ''Great Houses of the Hudson River'' (Boston, MA:

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

, published in association with

Historic Hudson Valley Historic Hudson Valley is a not-for-profit educational and historic preservation organization headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. The organization runs tours and events at five historic properties in Westchester County, in the lower Hudson River ...

, 2001). * Michael Middleton Dwyer, with a foreword by

Mario Buatta Mario Buatta (October 20, 1935 – October 15, 2018) was an American interior decorator. Early life and education Born in West Brighton, Staten Island, New York, he was the son of Felice Buatta, who worked as a violinist and bandleader under th ...

. ''Carolands'' (Redwood City, CA: San Mateo County Historical Association, 2006).

References

External links