Bruce Goff
| Bruce Goff | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Bruce Alonzo Goff June 8, 1904 Alton, Kansas, USA |
| Died | August 4, 1982 (aged 78) Tyler, Texas, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | AIA Twenty-five Year Award (1987) |
| Practice | Tulsa, Oklahoma Chicago, Illinois Norman, Oklahoma Bartlesville, OK |
| Buildings |
Bachman House Bavinger House Ruth VanSickle Ford House Ledbetter House Pavilion for Japanese Art |
Bruce Alonzo Goff (June 8, 1904 – August 4, 1982) was an American architect, distinguished by his organic, eclectic, and often flamboyant designs for houses and other buildings in Oklahoma and elsewhere.
A 1951 Life Magazine article stated that Goff was "one of the few US architects whom Frank Lloyd Wright considers creative...scorns houses that are ‘boxes with little holes."
Born in Alton, Kansas, Goff was a child prodigy whose family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1915. He was largely self-educated and displayed a great talent for drawing. His father apprenticed him at age twelve to the Tulsa architectural firm of Rush, Endacott and Rush. Goff's employers were impressed with his talent; they soon gave him responsibility for designing houses and small commercial projects. One of his earliest designs that was actually built was a house at 1732 South Yorktown Avenue in Tulsa's Yorktown Historical District; another was the 1920 McGregor House, at 1401 South Quaker Street in what is now known as the Cherry Street District. This house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. During this period, his work was heavily influenced through his correspondence with Wright and with Louis Sullivan, both of whom had encouraged him to practice architecture with Rush, Endacott and Rush instead of enrolling in Massachusetts Institute of Technology; they felt the formal education would stifle his creativity. Goff was made a firm partner in 1930. He and his high-school art teacher Adah Robinson are co-credited with the design of Tulsa's Boston Avenue Methodist Church, one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the United States.
In 1934 Goff moved to Chicago and began teaching part-time at the Academy of Fine Arts. He designed several Chicago-area residences and went to work for the manufacturer of "Vitrolite", an architectural sheet glass introduced during the 1930s. At the outbreak of World War II, Goff enlisted in the U.S. Navy, was assigned to the Naval Construction Branch ("Seabees"), and designed a number of military structures and residences during his service. He also obtained a teaching position with the School of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma in 1942. Despite being largely self-taught, Goff was named chairman of the school in 1943. This was his most productive period. In his private practice, Goff built a large number of residences in the American Midwest, developing his singular style of organic architecture that was client- and site-specific.
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