Antonin Raymond

Antonin Raymond (Antonín Reimann) 10 May 1888, Kladno – 21 November 1976 New Hope, Pennsylvania, Czech architect, who lived and worked in the USA and Japan. He is recognized as the founder of modern architecture in Japan.

Life

Raymond studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague, completing his course in 1909. He left for the United States in 1910. From 1916 he worked for Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin in Spring Green and was invited to work on the construction of Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Raymond decided to stay in Japan where he designed several pioneering modern buildings in reinforced concrete. During the war Raymond returned to the USA where he founded an architectural practice in New York with another Czech architect, Ladislav Leland Rado (1909-1993) – Raymond & L. L. Rado – in 1945. After 1948 Raymond traveled to Japan again where he remained until 1973, subsequently returning to the States. In 1956 Raymond received a Medal of Honor from the AIA and in 1964, The Order of the Rising Sun, with Gold Rays and Neck Ribbon, from the Japanese.

elected works

* Reinanzaka House, Tokyo (1924)
* Hoshi University Main Building, Tokyo (1924)
* Embassy Villa, Nikko (1929)
* Troedsson Villa, Nikko (1931)
* Tokio Golf Club, Asaka (1932)
* Summer House, Karuizawa (1933)
* Morinosuke Kawasaki House, Tokyo (1934)
* Tetsuma Akaboshi House, Tokyo (1934)
* Raymond Farm, New Hope (1939)
* Raymond House and Studio, Azabu (1951)
* Reader’s Digest Offices, Tokyo (1951)
* Cunningham House, Tokyo (1954)
* St. Anselm Church, Tokyo (1954)
* Hayama Villa, Hayama (1958)
* New Studio, Karuizawa (1962)
* St. Paul Church, Shiki (1963)

Literature

* The Japan Architect 33, Spring 1999: Antonin Raymond