User:JPRiley/WFPedersen

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William F. Pedersen
Born(1908-04-18)April 18, 1908
DiedDecember 26, 1990(1990-12-26) (aged 82)
NationalityUnited States
OccupationArchitect
Earl Hall of Southern Connecticut State University, completed in 1960.
The New Haven Savings Bank Building, completed in 1974.
The NYPD 7th Precinct station house in New York City, completed in 1975.

William F. Pedersen FAIA (1908–1990) was an American architect in practice in New Haven, Connecticut from 1952 to 1989.

Life and career[edit]

William Francis Pedersen was born April 18, 1908 in Stamford, Connecticut to Anthon Pedersen and Helen (Blondon) Pedersen. He was educated in the Stamford schools and at Harvard University, graduating with a BA in 1931 and an MA from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1934. He then practiced independently in Stamford until 1940, when he joined the New York City office of George B. Post & Sons and then that of Antonin Raymond. In 1941, during World War II, he joined the navy. He was discharged in 1946 and returned to New York, where he joined the office of Harrison & Abramovitz as a project architect. In 1952 he returned to private practice, forming a partnership in New Haven with Bradford S. Tilney, who he had met in Raymond's office.[1][2]

Pedersen & Tilney developed a substantial regional practice, but were best known as the winners of a competition to design the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1960.[3] Their design, for a cluster of monumental tablets, was supported by prominent architects including Paul Rudolph and Philip Will Jr. and critic Ada Louise Huxtable but was opposed by Roosevelt's children. After revisions it was approved by the United States Commission of Fine Arts but following continued opposition was formally abandoned in 1965.[4] Amidst this controversy Pedersen and Tilney dissolved their partnership in 1964.[5] Pedersen reorganized his practice as William F. Pedersen & Associates in New Haven and New York City and retired in 1989 when he dissolved his firm.[6]

Norman Foster worked in Pedersen & Tilney's New Haven office during 1962,[7] and J. Max Bond Jr. later worked in their New York office.

Pedersen joined the American Institute of Architects in 1941 and was elected a Fellow in 1982.[8]

Personal life[edit]

Pedersen was married in 1942 to Priscilla Auchincloss, had three children, and lived in New Canaan, Connecticut.[1] Pedersen died December 26, 1990 in a nursing home in Mitchellville, Maryland.[6]

Architectural works[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Pedersen, William Francis" in American Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1956): 426.
  2. ^ "Pedersen, William Francis" in Who's Who in America 1984–1985 2 (Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1984): 2551.
  3. ^ Bess Furman, "Design Selected for Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington" in New York Times, December 31, 1960, 1 and 18.
  4. ^ Nan Robertson, "Roosevelt Panel Abandons Design" in New York Times, June 22, 1965, 12.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Pedersen, William Francis" in American Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1970): 705.
  6. ^ a b "William Pedersen, Architect, 82, Dies; Led His Own Firm" in New York Times, December 29, 1989, 11.
  7. ^ Deyan Sudjic, Norman Foster: A Life in Architecture (London: Phoenix, 2010): 91.
  8. ^ "William Francis Pedersen," AIA Historical Directory of American Architects, no date. Accessed February 14, 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d e "Pedersen, William Francis" in American Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1962): 541–542.
  10. ^ a b c d Elizabeth Mills Brown, New Haven: A Guide to Architecture and Urban Design (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976)
  11. ^ a b c d Norval White, Elliot Willensky and Fran Leadon, AIA Guide to New York City (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010)
  12. ^ New Haven County, US Courthouses.