Everything about Charles Luckman totally explained
Charles Luckman (
1909,
Kansas City–
January 26,
1999,
Los Angeles) was a businessman and an
American architect, famous as the "Boy Wonder of American Business" when he was named president of the
Pepsodent toothpaste company in
1939 at the age of thirty. Through acquisition, he later became president of
Lever Brothers.
During the
war, Luckman served on the
President's Committee on Civil Rights, and in
1947, President
Truman asked him to help feed starving Europe. For this work, he was honored with Britain's
Order of St. John, France's
Legion of Honor, and Italy's
Star of Solidarity.
Luckman had always wanted to be an architect. As a nine-year-old paper boy outside the
Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City, he asked a customer about the pretty lights and was told they were called "
chandeliers." Then he asked, "Who does... Who decides on things like that?" "An architect," came the reply. "He designs the hotel and says to put the chandeliers there." Luckman wrote in his memoir, "Right then and there I decided to become an architect."
He trained at the
University of Illinois where he was a member of the Professional Engineering Fraternity
Theta Tau, but went into sales after graduating during the depths of the
Great Depression. After almost twenty years of great success in business, he helped plan
Lever Brothers' New York
skyscraper,
Lever House, one of the first sealed glass towers that began the curtain wall trend. The complex, designed by
Gordon Bunshaft of
Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, was innovative in several other ways, as well, including a rare public plaza at ground level.
Reminded of his architectural roots, Luckman resigned the presidency of Lever Brothers, moved to
Los Angeles and began practicing architecture with fellow University of Illinois graduate
William Pereira c
1950. Their partnership led to works such as
CBS Television City, but the two went separate ways in
1959. Luckman's firm went on to design the
Prudential Center in
Boston, the new
Madison Square Garden in
New York City,
Aloha Stadium in
Honolulu,
Aon Center in
Los Angeles, and the
NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in
Houston.
Luckman's autobiography is
Twice in a Lifetime: From Soap to Skyscrapers (New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 1988)
0-393-02584-5.
"Learn to listen to your clients. It's a shocking thought, but your client was smart enough to make enough money to hire you and to afford to build a building. Listen. You just may possibly learn."
Notable Projects
- Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas (1961)
- Prudential Center, Boston (1964)
- The Forum, Inglewood, California (1965)
- Madison Square Garden, New York City (1968)
- Macy's Plaza, Los Angeles (1972)
- Los Angeles Convention Center (1972) (partially demolished)
- Aon Center, Los Angeles (1974)
- Hyatt Regency, Dearborn, Michigan (1976).
- Hyatt Regency Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ (1976)
- Wells Fargo Center, Portland, OR, (1972)
Further Information
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