Arguably the nation’s top art and design school, Pratt is to Clinton Hill and New York City what Harvard is to Cambridge and Boston —not only the top international academic institution, but a college that has helped its neighborhood grow rather than dominate it physically and philosophically.
This month, Pratt Institute turned 125 years old. To celebrate, the Pratt community held a gala at the Waldorf-Astoria, assembled a special edition of its Prattfolio magazine, and named 125 of its alumni and faculty as icons for creating some of the most important designs the world has seen. WNET aired a PBS documentary, “Treasures of New York: Pratt Institute,” narrated by New York City writer and former Pratt student Pete Hamill.
"So many objects fundamentally important to how we live our lives came from the mind of a Pratt person,” says Todd Galitz, vice president for institutional advancement. “We thought, ‘What better way to teach people about Pratt than through the things that were made or invented or designed by the people who came though here?’ When we stared researching, we couldn’t believe the incredible body of work.”
To name a few — the Trimline telephone from AT&T, an improved Cuisinart, Scrabble board, Life magazine logo, the compact blow-dryer of the 1970s, no-ghost Ghostbuster logo, and the 1955 Ford Thunderbird. Oscar-winning actor Martin Landau went to Pratt to study illustration. Philip Johnson taught there.
The final 125 items in the Icons exhibition were decided by votes cast online by members of the Pratt community. The exhibition is free and open to the public, and will be on view Nov. 30 to Jan. 19 at Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 W. 14th St.
“When Charles Pratt opened the school in the 1880s he said, ‘Be true to your work, and your work will be true to you,’ ” says Galitz. “If you look at these people and objects, you can see that legacy still lasts.”
New York architect Annabelle Selldorf is a Pratt 125 Icon. She came to the school as a 19-year-old from Cologne, Germany, to study architecture. Her designs include the Sky Garage building in Chelsea, profiled here last week, and a contextual residential building off the High Line on 19th St.
“There was a tremendous amount of intellectual diversity at Pratt,” says Selldorf. “There was not a prescribed style or overt dogmatic approach to the study of architecture. Rather, students were allowed to explore many avenues of thought. I really appreciated this openness to new ideas. It allowed me to explore and develop my own personal expression, and find my voice as an architect. It is something that I continue to value in my practice today.”
In its 125 years of educating men and women, here are some of the things that came from the minds of people who discovered part of themselves at Pratt, in Brooklyn.
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