Eric Gugler

Eric Gugler (March 13, 1889 – May 17, 1974) was an American Neoclasical architect, interior designer, sculptor and muralist. He was selected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to design the Oval Office.

Gugler was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of printer and engraver Julius Gugler and his wife Bertha Bremer. He studied at the Armour Institute in Chicago, Illinois, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He graduated from Columbia University in New York City, and was awarded the 1911 McKim Fellowship in Architecture. He studied at the American Academy in Rome, 1911-1914. He returned to the United States, and worked in the offices of McKim, Mead & White. During World War I, he served in the American Camouflage Corps (Company A, 40th Engineers, U.S. Army). He opened his own architectural office in 1919.

With sculptor Paul Manship and muralist Francis Barrett Faulkner, Gugler created the American Academy in Rome War Memorial (1923-24). Installed beneath a portico in the courtyard of the Villa Aurelia, it features a pink marble bench flanked by kneeling Doughboys, and surmounted by an arched mosaic mural of a lone sailor steering his boat through rough seas beneath the constellations.

Gugler altered a rowhouse at 319 East 72nd Street, Manhattan into Manship's residence and studio in 1925. Gugler later bought a 5-foot (1.52 m) diameter glass sphere etched with the constellations. He lent this to Manship, who created multiple sculptures inspired by it. For what became the Aero Memorial (plaster 1933), Manship modeled Zodiac figures in clay directly atop the glass sphere, then cast them in plaster and bronze. In projects together and separately, Gugler and Manship repeatedly returned to the idea of spheres, heavenly bodies and signs of the Zodiac.

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