The American architect Gordon Bunshaft (1909-1990) as chief designer for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in New York designed major buildings from skyscrapers to museums. Bunshaft shared the esteemed Pritzker Architecture Prize with fellow architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1988.

The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Gordon Bunshaft was born May 9, 1909, and raised in Buffalo, New York. He was determined to become an architect from childhood and eventually earned a B.Arch. (1933) and M.Arch. (1935) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This education was followed by a study tour of Europe on a Rotch Traveling Fellowship (1935-1937). In 1937, after working briefly for the architect Edward Durell Stone and the industrial designer Raymond Loewy, Bunshaft entered the New York City office of Louis Skidmore. Skidmore had formed an architectural firm with Nathaniel Owings in 1936, which John O. Merrill joined in 1939 to form Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Other than serving in the U...