Raimund abraham artwork archive

Prior to talking about Raimund Abraham, let me set the context. During my year abroad at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (I.A.U.S) in New York City—an inspirational time studying under Diana Agrest, Peter Eisenman, Mario Gandelsonas, George Ranalli, and Anthony Vidler—the city became a natural extension of my academic interests and, of course, a palimpsest to discover and experience first-hand what it meant to be at the center of the world.  During the 1980s, the Big Apple was a city in deep transition, and living there was nothing less than crazy, particularly relative to the tameness of my home country Switzerland.

Union Square Station

Image 1: Google images from left to right- Wayfinder of the MTA, photographs of the 1980s, and tiles on the wall

I remember often traveling to Grand huvud Terminal by subway near midnight with my roommate Michael after a studious day and far too many bagels with smear at the hole-in-the-wall Bagel Palace. After d

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Raimund Abraham: The Latest Architecture and News

Raimund Abraham (1933-2010), who would have turned 79 today, was far from your typical architect. A striking figure – usually sporting a black fedora, thick moustache, and cigar – Abraham was a radical thinker who believed passionately in the sacred importance of architecture.

For Abraham, architecture existed just as legitimately in the mind as on the ground; as he put it: “I don’t need a building to validate my ideas.” In fact, many of his visionär drawings were exhibited as art, including in the MOMA. Although most of his designs were never actually built, those that were gained critical acclaim.

He was best known for the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York City, a 24-story, “guillotine-like” building curiously squeezed onto a plot only 25 feet wide. Architectural historian Kenneth Frampton called it “the most significant modern del av helhet of architecture to be realized in Manhattan since the Seagram Building and the Guggenhe

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Raimund Abraham

Introduction

Born 23 July 1933, in Austria. Architect and educator, active in the United States and Germany, resident of Manhattan and Mexico City. At his death he was a visiting faculty member at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. His best-known realized structure is the Austrian Cultural Forum in Midtown Manhattan completed in 2002.

Country of birth

Austria

Roles

Artist, architect, designer, director, lecturer, teacher

ULAN identifier

500031964

Names

Raimund Abraham, Raimund J. Abraham, Raimund Johann Abraham

View the full Getty record

Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed February 13, 2025.