The year 1937 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
Events
* May – The
Georgian Group
The Georgian Group is a British charity, and the national authority on Georgian architecture built between 1700 and 1837 in England and Wales. As one of the National Amenity Societies, The Georgian Group is a statutory consultee on alterat ...
is set up as part of the
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in ...
in England.
* September 7 –
Witley Court
Witley Court, Great Witley, Worcestershire, England is a ruined Italianate mansion. Built for the Foleys in the seventeenth century on the site of a former manor house, it was enormously expanded in the early nineteenth century by the architect ...
in Worcestershire, England, is gutted by fire.
*
J. M. Richards
Sir James Maude Richards, FRIBA (13 August 1907 – 27 April 1992) was a British architectural writer.
James Maude Richards was born in 1907, at Ladypath, Park Lane, Carshalton, Surrey. His father, Louis Saurin Richards, was a solicitor, ...
becomes editor of the ''
Architectural Review
''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...
'' (London), continuing until 1971.
* Icelandic State Architect
Guðjón Samúelsson
Guðjón Samúelsson (16 April 1887 – 25 April 1950) was a State Architect of Iceland, and the first Icelander to be educated in architecture. He's been described as one of Iceland's most influential architects. His notable designs include the ...
's design for the
Hallgrímskirkja in
Reykjavík
Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a pop ...
is commissioned; it will be constructed 1945–86.
Buildings and structures
Buildings opened

* May 6 –
Chelsea Bridge
Chelsea Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames in west London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank, and split between the City of Westminster, the London Borough of Wandsworth and the Royal Borough of Kensin ...
in
Pimlico
Pimlico () is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by Victor ...
, London, designed by
G. Topham Forrest
George Topham Forrest, F.R.I.B.A. FGS FRSE (1872 – 1945) was a Scottish architect who became chief architect for the London County Council and was responsible for the design of many public housing estates, and also co-designed two bridges over ...
, former head of
London County Council
London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...
's Architect's Department, opened by the
Prime Minister of Canada
The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority the elected House of Commons; as suc ...
,
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A L ...
.
* May 27 – The
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco P ...
in San Francisco,
longest suspension bridge in the world by the length of central span (1937–1964), designed by
Joseph B. Strauss
Joseph Baermann Strauss (January 9, 1870 – May 16, 1938) was an American structural engineer who revolutionized the design of bascule bridges. He was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, a suspension bridge.
Life, beginnings and dea ...
.
* July 18 – ''
Haus der deutschen Kunst
The ''Haus der Kunst'' (, ''House of Art'') is a non-collecting modern and contemporary art museum in Munich, Germany. It is located at Prinzregentenstraße 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park.
History
Na ...
'' ("House of German Art") in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, designed by
Paul Troost
Paul Ludwig Troost (17 August 1878 – 21 January 1934) was a German architect. A favourite master builder of Adolf Hitler from 1930, his Neoclassical designs for the ''Führerbau'' and the ''Haus der Kunst'' in Munich influenced the style of Na ...
(died 1934), opened by
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
to display
art of the Third Reich
The Nazi regime in Germany actively promoted and censored forms of art between 1933 and 1945. Upon becoming dictator in 1933, Adolf Hitler gave his personal artistic preference the force of law to a degree rarely known before. In the case of Ger ...
.
Buildings completed

*
Thousand Islands Bridge
The Thousand Islands International Bridge (french: Pont des Mille-îles) is an American-maintained international bridge system over the Saint Lawrence River connecting northern New York in the United States with southeastern Ontario in Canada. Co ...
over the
Saint Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...
, linking Canada and the United States.
*
Petőfi Bridge
Petőfi híd or Petőfi Bridge (named after Sándor Petőfi, old name is ''Horthy Miklós Bridge'', named after governor Miklós Horthy) is a bridge in Budapest, connecting Pest and Buda across the Danube. It is the second southernmost public bri ...
, Budapest, Hungary.
*
Holy Trinity Church, Sighișoara, Romania, designed by Dumitru Petrescu Gopeş.
*
Bethlehem Church, Copenhagen
Bethlehem Church ( da, Bethlehemskirken) is a church in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, located on Åboulevard, close to Peblinge Lake and the municipal border with Frederiksberg. Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint made the first sketches ...
, Denmark, by
Kaare Klint
Kaare Klint (15 December 1888 – 28 March 1954) was a Danish architect and furniture designer, known as the father of modern Danish furniture design. Style was epitomized by clean, pure lines, use of the best materials of his time and sup ...
after original designs by his father,
Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint
Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint (21 June 1853 – 1 December 1930) was a Danish architect, designer, painter and architectural theorist, best known for designing Grundtvig's Church in Copenhagen, generally considered to be one of the most importan ...
(died 1930).
*
Church of St Michael and All Angels, Northenden
The Church of St Michael and All Angels, Orton Road, Lawton Moor, Northenden, Manchester, is an Anglican church of 1935-7 by N. F.Cachemaille-Day.Hartwell et al. 2004, p 493-4 Pevsner describes the church as "sensational for its country a ...
, Manchester, England, designed by
Nugent Cachemaille-Day
Nugent Francis Cachemaille-Day (1896–1976), often referred to as NF Cachemaille-Day, was an English architect who designed some of the most "revolutionary" 20th-century churches in the country. His Church of St Nicholas, Burnage has been c ...
.
* Church of
Our Lady Star of the Sea and St Winefride, Amlwch
Our Lady Star of the Sea and St Winefride ( cy, Mair, Seren Y Mor a Santes Wenfrewi, links=no) is a Roman Catholic church in Amlwch, a town on the island of Anglesey, north Wales. It was built in the 1930s to a design by an Italian architect, ...
, Wales, designed by
Giuseppe Rinvolucri
Giuseppe Rinvolucri (1894–1963) was an Italian engineer and architect who lived in Wales. He is known for his designs for several Roman Catholic churches, including the parabolic-arched church of Our Lady Star of the Sea and St Winefride, Amlwc ...
.
*
Senate House (University of London)
Senate House is the administrative centre of the University of London, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, London, immediately to the north of the British Museum.
The Art Deco building was constructed between 1932 and 1937 as the first phase ...
, designed by
Charles Holden
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...
.
*
Dolphin Square
Dolphin Square is a block of private flats with some ground floor business units near the River Thames in Pimlico, Westminster, London built between 1935 and 1937. Until the building of Highbury Square, it was the most developed garden square ...
in Pimlico, London, designed by
Gordon Jeeves.
* Villa Myrdal, designed by
Sven Markelius
Sven Gottfrid Markelius (25 October 1889 – 24 February 1972) was a Swedish modernist architect. Markelius played an important role in the post-war urban planning of Stockholm, for example in the creation of the model suburbs of Vällingby (19 ...
.
*
3 Mapu Street,
White City (Tel Aviv)
The White City ( he, העיר הלבנה, ''Ha-Ir ha-Levana''; ar, المدينة البيضاء ''Al-Madinah al-Baydha’a'') is a collection of over 4,000 buildings in Tel Aviv from the 1930s built in a unique form of the International Style, ...
,
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...
, designed by
Ben-Ami Shulman
Ben-Ami Shulman (Jaffa, Israel July 7, 1907 – Los Angeles May, 1986) was an Israeli architect who was posthumously recognized as one of the significant 1930s architects of the modernist White City of Tel Aviv. The White City, which features the ...
.
* St Ann's Court, near
Chertsey
Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in ...
in England, a modernist circular house designed by
Raymond McGrath
Raymond McGrath (7 March 1903 – 23 December 1977) was an Australian-born architect, illustrator, printmaker and interior designer who for the greater part of his career was Principal Architect for the Office of Public Works in Ireland.N ...
for Gerald L. Schlesinger and his partner landscape architect
Christopher Tunnard
Arthur Coney Tunnard (1910 in Victoria, British Columbia – 1979), later known as Christopher Tunnard, was a Canadian-born landscape architect, garden designer, city-planner, and author of ''Gardens in the Modern Landscape'' (1938).
Biogra ...
.
* Houses in Frognal Close,
Hampstead, London, designed by
Ernst L. Freud
Ernst L. Freud (6 April 1892 – 7 April 1970) was an Austrian architect and the fourth child of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and his German-born wife Martha Bernays. In honour of his wife, Ernst Freud added the initial L. to his name w ...
.
*
Kensal House
Kensal House is a housing estate of two curved blocks of 68 housing association flats at the northern end of Ladbroke Grove, London, completed in 1937 and designed by the architect Maxwell Fry. It was the first modernist block in the UK designe ...
in Ladbroke Grove, London, two low-rise blocks of modernist flats for the working class designed by
Maxwell Fry
Edwin Maxwell Fry, CBE, RA, FRIBA, FRTPI, known as Maxwell Fry (2 August 1899 – 3 September 1987), was an English modernist architect, writer and painter.
Originally trained in the neo-classical style of architecture, Fry grew to favour the n ...
.
* Republic pavilion,
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
, and
Spanish Republican
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 A ...
government pavilion at the ''
'' in Paris, both designed by
Josep Lluís Sert
Josep Lluís Sert i López (; 1 July 190215 March 1983) was a Spanish architect and city planner.
Biography
Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Sert showed keen interest in the works of his uncle, the painter Josep Maria Sert, and of Gaudí. He ...
.
*
Club Moderne
The Club Moderne is a bar in Anaconda, Montana, United States, in the Streamline Moderne style. It was designed by architect Fred F. Willson and built by Frank Wullus in 1937 for John Francisco. The facade was clad in Carrara glass. The interior ...
,
Anaconda, Montana
Anaconda, county seat of Deer Lodge County, which has a consolidated city-county government, is located in southwestern Montana, United States. Located at the foot of the Anaconda Range (known locally as the "Pintlers"), the Continental Divi ...
, designed by
Fred F. Willson
Fred Fielding Willson (November 11, 1877 – August 13, 1956), most commonly known as Fred F. Willson, was an architect in Bozeman, Montana who designed many buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Early life
...
, built.
*
Via della Conciliazione
Via della Conciliazione (Road of the Conciliation) is a street in the Rione of Borgo within Rome, Italy. Roughly in length, it connects Saint Peter's Square to the Castel Sant'Angelo on the western bank of the Tiber River. The road was construct ...
in Rome constructed following demolition of the
Piazza Scossacavalli
Piazza Scossacavalli, also named Piazza di San Clemente, Piazza di Trento, Piazza d'Aragona, Piazza Salviati, was a square in Rome, Italy, important for historical and architectonic reasons. The square was demolished together with the surrounding ...
.
Awards
*
RIBA
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is gi ...
–
Raymond Unwin
Sir Raymond Unwin (2 November 1863 – 29 June 1940) was a prominent and influential English engineer, architect and town planner, with an emphasis on improvements in working class housing.
Early years
Raymond Unwin was born in Rotherham, Yorks ...
.
*
Grand Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...
, architecture: Paul Jacques Grillo
Births

* February 7 –
Daryl Jackson
Daryl Sanders Jackson AO (born 7 February 1937) is an Australian architect and the owner of an international architecture firm, Jackson Architecture. Jackson also became the associate professor of the University of Melbourne and Deakin Univers ...
, Australian architect
* April 18 –
Jan Kaplický
Jan Kaplický (; ; 18 April 1937 – 14 January 2009) was a Neofuturistic Czech architect who spent a significant part of his life in the United Kingdom. He was the leading architect behind the innovative design office, Future Systems. He was b ...
, Czech architect mainly active in UK (died 2009)
* May 9 –
Rafael Moneo
José Rafael Moneo Vallés (born 9 May 1937) is a Spanish architect. He won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2003 and La Biennale's Golden Lion in 2021.
Biography
Born in Tudela, Spain, Moneo studied at ...
, Spanish architect
* September 14 –
Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City ...
, Italian Pritzker Prize-winning architect
* October 3 –
Richard England, Maltese architect
* October 24 –
M. Rosaria Piomelli
Maria Rosaria Piomelli (born Angrisano on October 24, 1937) is an Italian architect. She became the first woman to hold the position of dean at any architectural school in the United States when she was appointed dean of the CCNY School of Arc ...
, born Agrisano, Italian-born American architect
* ''date unknown''
**
Kate Macintosh
Catherine Ailsa "Kate" Macintosh MBE (born 1937) is a Scottish architect known for her work for local authorities. She designed Dawson's Heights in Southwark and 269 Leigham Court Road, a Grade II listed building in Lambeth.
Career
Macinto ...
, Scottish-born architect
**
Georgie Wolton, born Cheesman, English architect
**
Yoshio Taniguchi
Yoshio Taniguchi (谷口 吉生, ''Taniguchi Yoshio''; born 1937) is a Japanese architect best known for his redesign of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which was reopened November 20, 2004. Critics have emphasized Taniguchi's fusion o ...
, Japanese architect active in New York
Deaths
* January 10 –
Bertie Crewe
William Robert 'Bertie' Crewe (1860 – 10 January 1937) was one of the leading English theatre architects in the boom of 1885 to 1915.
Biography
Born in Essex and partly trained by Frank Matcham, Crewe and his contemporaries W.G.R. Sprague a ...
, English architect (born 1860)
* January 28 –
Anastasios Metaxas
Anastasios Metaxas ( el, Αναστάσιος Μεταξάς; 27 February 1862 – 28 January 1937) was a Greek architect and shooter.
Biography
Metaxas was the royal architect of George I of Greece and is best known for being the architect cho ...
, Greek architect and shooting champion (born 1862)
* February 11 –
Walter Burley Griffin
Walter Burley Griffin (November 24, 1876February 11, 1937) was an American architect and landscape architect. He is known for designing Canberra, Australia's capital city and the New South Wales towns of Griffith and Leeton. He has been cr ...
, US architect and landscape architect, involved in design of
Canberra (born 1876)
* May 9 –
Harry Barton, US architect from North Carolina (born 1876)
* August 27 –
John Russell Pope
John Russell Pope (April 24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an American architecture, architect whose firm is widely known for designing major public buildings, including the National Archives and Records Administration building (completed in 19 ...
, US architect known for his work in Washington, DC (born 1874)
* November 23 –
Edward Prioleau Warren
Edward Prioleau Warren (30 October 1856 – 23 November 1937) was a British architect and archaeologist.
Life
He was born at Cotham, Bristol, the fifth son of Algernon William Warren, JP. Sir Thomas Herbert Warren was his elder brother. He was e ...
, English architect (born 1856)
References
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