Many great architects have come from somewhere else to the land of opportunity. I originally aimed for 250, for obvious reasons, and there are that number and more, but column inches prevented a celebration at that length.

Here are some notable immigrant architects who have made lasting impacts on American architecture, some making significant work now. Hopefully the future architects can get past ICE to add to the panoply of American architecture, formidably shaped by immigrant architects.

Rudolph M. Schindler

Austrian immigrant, arrived in the 1910s. Established the iconic California Modern style, open indoor and outdoor living, pushing the boundaries of residential design. I regard his Kings Rd House the epitome of exploration and invention, if not the finest modernist house ever.

Richard Joseph Neutra

Born in Leopoldstadt, Austria, to a wealthy Jewish family; arrived in 1920. Long career in Southern California, prominent and important modernist. The Kaufmann Desert House, in Palm Springs, California, is rightfully his best-known house, as it’s a cracker.

Walter Gropius

Founder of the Bauhaus school, fled Nazi Germany in 1937. Taught at Harvard, bringing European modernism and influencing a generation of American architects, including our Harry Seidler. A devastating critique of his teaching in The Decorated Diagram is discussed in ToT here.

Marcel Breuer

Hungarian architect and furniture designer. Moved to the United States in 1937. At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair. Designed art museums, libraries, college buildings, office buildings, and residences, many are Brutalist icons. Also taught extensively, including Harry again.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Fled Nazi Germany in 1938, with his "less is more" philosophy. A former Bauhaus director, he led the Illinois Institute of Technology as well as transformed the skyline of Chicago and every big city with his minimalist steel-and-glass skyscrapers.

Louis Kahn

Born in present-day Estonia, he emigrated to the USA at 5 and became the most celebrated architect’s architect of the 20th century. Significant works are the Salk Institute, the Richards Medical Research Laboratories and two brilliant museums opposite each other in New Haven Ct.

Eero Saarinen

Born in Finland, emigrated to the USA at 13 with his architect father Eliel (also very significant). After judging the Sydney Opera House competition, famous for his sweeping, sculptural buildings; the Gateway Arch in St. Louis; and the TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport.

I. M. Pei

Ex-China, 1935. Studied architecture and became a prolific modernist. Famous for the Louvre Pyramid. I absolutely adore his East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.—the very opposite of Trump’s gaudy wannabe grandeur. As good as our NGA, and that’s saying everything.

Moshe Safdie

Born in Haifa, Israel, he emigrated to Canada, studied at McGill in Montreal, moved to Philadelphia to apprentice for Louis Kahn, and moved back to Montreal to build the revolutionary modular housing concept, Habitat 67; returned to Israel; and moved to Boston, where he directs Safdie Architects.

Frank Gehry

Canadian, immigrated to the USA in 1947. The earliest projects were purely modernist, then explored deconstructivist houses, and then iconic sculptural projects, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Sadly, one of his lesser projects landed in Sydney.

Daniel Libeskind

Born in Łódź, Poland, in 1946. Moved to a kibbutz in Israel, then Tel Aviv, then emmigrated to New York as a teenager. Fame came from the Jewish Museums in Berlin and elsewhere and from masterminding the World Trade Centre site redevelopment in New York City.

Rafael Viñoly

From Uruguay, settled permanently in NYC in 1979 and founded a practice in 1983. Start: John Jay College of Criminal Justice; won an international competition for the Tokyo International Forum in 1989 (another favourite for me); practiced in the USA, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Enrique Norten

Mexican-born, founded TEN Arquitectos in 1986. In 2003, opened an office in NY with traditions of Mexico and the USA; border-straddling practice; working in D.F. and elsewhere in Mexico; designed a master plan for a 4.5-mile stretch of the New Orleans riverfront and other major projects in the USA.

Neri Oxman

An Israeli-born designer and architect, she did pioneering work in material ecology and bio-architecture. She is a professor at MIT’s Media Lab and leads the Mediated Matter studio, researching how digital fabrication technology interacts with natural environments and the biological world. Won the Vilcek Prize.

Nader Tehrani

Born in Iran, emigrated to USA; founding principal of NADAAA, a globally recognised design practice based in Boston; has cited international upbringing as being formative; received the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award; Dean of Cooper Union’s School of Architecture

Amale Andraos

Lebanese, she emigrated to the USA. As Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, she had a major impact on American architectural education and history. Alongside Dan Wood is the founder of the New York-based firm WORKac. She also published the acclaimed book The Arab City.

Lorcan O'Herlihy

Born in Dublin, moved to LA. Highly celebrated for his forward-thinking multi-unit urban housing, often in strong colours, adjacent pocket parks, and his philosophy that "architecture is a social act". I shared a stage at a Dwell conference in LA with him and mourn his recent passing at 66 years old.

Ma Yansong

Chinese. Founder of MAD Architects in 2004, his nature-inspired modernism in LA is typified by the George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art as evidence. Living up to their name, they are extending the language of Zaha Hadid. Now has offices in Beijing, Los Angeles, and New York.

Craig Dykers and Kjetil Trædal Thorsen

The former is from Germany, and the latter is from Norway. Founding partners of Snøhetta, responsible for the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion; a landscape, interior, and brand design studio with offices in Oslo, Norway; New York City; San Francisco; Innsbruck, Austria; Singapore; and Stockholm.

Oana Stanescu

Romanian, she worked at SANAA and Herzog & de Meuron before settling in the US; she is a founding partner of the architectural practice Family, with her partner Dong-Ping Wong. Quote: "(Our) business would not exist without the immigrants and children of immigrants that founded and work at it.”

Says it all for me.

Cross-Sections are Friday musings from Tone Wheeler, formerly of Tone on Tuesday. Amateurs draw plans, and professionals draw sections; they are never at cross purposes.

Tone Wheeler

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