Alan Buchsbaum papers

Alan Buchsbaum (1935-1987) was an influential architect and designer whose work was primarily showcased in New York City.

Born in Savannah in September of 1935, Buchsbaum received his early training at Georgia Tech, graduating in 1958 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture. He served for six months in the U.S. Army Ordinance Corps after graduation, as part of the ROTC program. After earning a second architectural degree from M.I.T. in 1961, he worked in several architectural firms, including Conklin and Rossant in Virginia and Warner, Burns, Toan, and Lunde in New York. Buchsbaum took a year-long sabbatical for extensive travel around Europe and Asia in 1966 and 1967, a seminal experience that shaped his development as an architect and designer.

After returning home in the summer of 1967, Buchsbaum founded his own New York City firm, the Design Coalition. It is his work under the auspices of this firm that would propel him to become the designer for many well-known and wealthy clients. His early career was based on the concept of livable, unconstrained, accommodating style, especially the High-Tech style of Manhattan residential loft living. Buchsbaum lived and worked in two lofts he designed on Greene Street in SoHo, New York City. His initial partners were architects Howard Korenstein and Rosario Piomelli and graphic designer Alan Mitelman. Stephen Tilly was a partner at the time of Buchsbaum's death. The firm designed private residential spaces and commercial spaces, often bringing industrial objects and symbols of popular culture into them. Buchsbaum also designed furniture, rugs, and wallpaper. Selected drawings and wallpaper designs were purchased by the Cooper Hewitt Museum’s permanent collection.

Among Buchsbaum's notable architectural and design projects were Paper Poppy (1968); Metamorphosis, Great Neck, NY (1969); the Tenenbaum House, Columbia, SC (1978); the Gerber House, Chappaqua, NY (1979); Buchsbaum Loft 1 (1976); Buchsbaum Loft 2 (1982); Moondance Diner (1983); Joel/Brinkley Penthouse (1985); and the Dennis Apartment (1986). Current celebrities benefited from Buchsbaum's work, including Diane Keaton (Apartment, 1979), Ellen Barkin (Loft, 1984), and Bette Midler (Loft, 1984). As sidelines Buchsbaum pursued photography and became a food critic, writing occasional restaurant reviews for the Village Voice under the pseudonym FAT.

Buchsbaum’s work has been published in practically every design magazine in the United States as well as in Japan, France, Italy, England, and Germany. He was a guest lecturer for the Pratt Institute, New York University, the New School of Social Research, Fashion Institute of Technology, and Open Atelier. He also taught architectural design at City College of New York, Columbia University, and Yale University.

Although Buchsbaum is well-known for his innovative, free-flowing design and romantic modernism, he is quoted in Alan Buchsbaum, Architect and Designer: The Mechanics of Taste, (edited by Frederic Schwartz): Please don’t pin any label on my work. I have no philosophy to speak of, there’s no ideological content in my work. (p. 78)

Buchsbaum died of complications from AIDS on April 10, 1987 in New York City. After his death, projects were generally completed by his partners at Design Coalition. He is survived by his sister, Gloria Buchsbaum Smiley.