Robert Andrews Little (1919–2005) was a
modernist architect based in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
. He received the Cleveland Arts Prize for Architecture in 1965. Little practiced in the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 2 ...
and
International styles. He also designed and advocated energy-efficient features, and employed Jewish and African-American architects and engineers.
[
Born in ]Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
, he was a direct descendant of Paul Revere
Paul Revere (; December 21, 1734 O.S. (January 1, 1735 N.S.)May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith, engraver, early industrialist, Sons of Liberty member, and Patriot and Founding Father. He is best known for his midnight ride to al ...
. Little studied with Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most ...
and Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...
.[ He graduated from Harvard in 1937 and continued there completing his masters 1939.][
Little came to Cleveland in 1947.][ He taught at ]Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Res ...
’s school of architecture.[
His firm, Little & Associates, merged with Dalton·Dalton Associates in 1969.][ He was married to Ann Halle Little.]
Work
* Halle Brothers Shaker Square department store (1948), located between the Shaker Square Cinemas and the rapid transit station
A metro station or subway station is a station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the system in th ...
, was his first commission. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
and won the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce Award for Commercial Building as well as the Architects’ Society of Ohio Medal for Commercial Building.
* Albert Pick Music Library at the University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, ...
* Timken residence in Canton, Ohio
Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes ...
* Little invented and patented a pre-computer design tool called Solux "that allowed him to trace the path of the sun over a cardboard model mechanically, instead of having to use laborious mathematical calculations," used for lighting calculations.[
* Steel home prototype, on roof of Kauffman's Department Store in Pittsburgh.
* All-electric home prototype for ]Westinghouse Corporation
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
.
* Pepper Ridge
Pepper or peppers may refer to:
Food and spice
* Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant
** Black pepper
* ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae
** Bell pepper
** Chili ...
development in Pepper Pike, Ohio
Pepper Pike is a city in eastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 6,796 as of the 2020 census. It is an affluent suburb of the Cleveland metropolitan area.
History
In 1763, sixteen pioneers settled the area along the eas ...
, including a converted barn studio for Cleveland sculptor William McVey (a design that received the Progressive Architecture award).
* Community Health Foundation facility in University Circle (later occupied by Kaiser Permanente and then as the Community Dialysis Center)
* Jane Addams High School
* Case Institute of Technology
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Res ...
dorms along Cedar Hill
* Buildings for Hawken School
Hawken School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school in Northeast Ohio.
Hawken currently has two main campuses, the Lower and Middle Schools in Lyndhurst and the Upper School in Chester Township, plus a third, an urb ...
’s upper school campus in Gates Mills
* Cleveland Municipal School District
Cleveland Metropolitan School District, formerly the Cleveland Municipal School District, is a public school district in the U.S. state of Ohio that serves almost all of the city of Cleveland. The district covers 79 square miles. The Clevela ...
’s spherical Supplementary Education Center (and planetarium) on Lakeside Avenue
* Revco corporate headquarters
Revco Discount Drug Stores (known simply as Revco or Revco, D.S.), once based in Twinsburg, Ohio, was a major drug store chain operating through the Ohio Valley, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the Southeastern United States. The chain's stock ...
, Twinsburg
Twinsburg is a suburban city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, located about halfway between Akron and Cleveland. The population was 19,248 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Akron metropolitan area.
History
In 1817 Ethan Alling, then ...
, Ohio (became part of CVS)
* United States Air Force Museum
The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the ...
in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater ...
.
* Cleveland's Metro General Hospital's twin towers (now MetroHealth Medical Center)
* Master plan for the revitalization of area around St. Vincent Charity Hospital
St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is a medical facility in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. It has been administered for much of its history by the Sisters of Charity of St. ...
including the hospital's new buildings. (The plan won Progressive Architecture's urban design award).
* Jetport plan for Lake Erie landfill [Robert Little]
Cleveland Arts Prize
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Robert
Architects from Cleveland
1919 births
2005 deaths
Architects from Boston
Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni
Case Western Reserve University faculty