George Ranalli FAIA

The high point of touring a Milanese furniture factory was seeing a table made of hefty layers of plywood underneath a gorgeous ebony top. The Chief Designer leading the tour explained it was made by an Italian architect whom we had most likely never heard. The table was about to be shipped to the owner. Shortly afterward, a colleague pointed out the work of Carol Scarpa in Verona, and that marked my introduction to innovative contemporary design woven into the fabric of an ancient city. The work was nothing less than a revelation. I was much younger than Scarpa, but I trusted that my eyes had found something very special. With the encouragement of a friend, I arranged to visit Scarpa’s studio in Vincenza. When I arrive, I had expected to find a prestigious architecture studio. Instead, Scarpa was picking grapes in the garden in a simple black smock looking like the quintessential European artist. What’s more, a modernist architect was living in a16th-century carriage house, and the office was even more of a surprise! Located in the cellar, it was more like a catacomb. The drafting were desks placed were between spindly stone columns. Although the room was exceptionally beautiful, I kept saying to myself, “We are in the basement of an old carriage house?” Scarpa and I spent the whole day together. We continued talking well into the evening. When Scarpa's wife kindly invited me for dinner, I found myself sitting at the same beautiful ebony and wood table I had admired a couple of weeks earlier at the Bernini factory in Milan.

GEORGE RANALLI COMPLETED a project a few months ago that glows with the keen sensitivity to form, materials and detail that has made this New York "architect's architect" an esteemed figure in his profession.

"...The center is situated on a corner of the complex’s existing courtyard in a way that frames the rest of the courtyard and links it with a lush public park nearby, Mr. Ranalli said. As for the building, he said, his goal was to make the building feel like part of the complex while also distinguishing itself. 'It’s a dual idea of making it feel exceptional, but at the same time making it feel comfortable, like it fits in,' he said..."

Valentine #2" Chair; Designer: George Ranalli (American, born, New York, 1946). Manufacturer: Environments Plus, Inc., Date: 1988, Medium: SURELL™ solid surfacing material. Dimensions: H.32-1/4, W.20, D.23-1/2 inches (81.9 x 50.8 x59.7 cm.) Seat H. 17-3/4 inches (45.1 cm.) Classification: Furniture-Wood Credit Line: Gift of Formica Corporation, 1990 Accession Number: 1990.306

Italian America Date published: January 1, 2011

GEORGE RANALLI, award-winning New York architect has received the 2010 Sidney L. Strauss Memorial Award from the New York Society of Architects. Since 1950, the award has been given to important figures in architecture and urbanism, including powerbroker Robert Moses (1976), who built modern New York, and Robert A.M. Stern (2004) who was instrumental in helping American society become more aware of rich architectural history. Ranalli is best-known for modernist forms, craftsmanship, and artful use of light.