Collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access will require additional advanced notice. Copies of digital files may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
The Eduardo Catalano Papers contains articles, news clippings, magazines, and books on Catalano's architectural projects and professional accomplishments, as well as photographs, digital photographs, photographic slides, negatives, positive transparencies, design drawings, and one videocassette. This includes books, articles, and other writings authored by Catalano, and diplomas, certificates, and certifications he received during his professional and educational careers. The collection also contains metal printing plates of Catalano's designs used in various publications covering his work. Many of these publications can be found in the Printed Materials, Writings, and Correspondence series. There is also a small amount of correspondence.
Eduardo Fernando Catalano (1917-2010) was a well-known modernist architect and Head of Architecture at the School of Design at North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (later North Carolina State University) from 1951 to 1956. Catalano was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 19, 1917. He attended the Universidad de Buenos Aires and graduated in 1940 with an Architect's Diploma and honors for his coursework. Having received scholarships to pursue studies in the United States, Catalano relocated to attend the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. He graduated in 1944 and 1945 respectively with a Master of Architecture degree. At Harvard, Catalano studied under two masters of modernist architecture, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.
Eduardo Fernando Catalano (1917-2010) was a well-known modernist architect and Head of Architecture at the School of Design at North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (later North Carolina State University) from 1951 to 1956. Catalano was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 19, 1917. He attended the Universidad de Buenos Aires and graduated in 1940 with an Architect's Diploma and honors for his coursework. Having received scholarships to pursue studies in the United States, Catalano relocated to attend the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. He graduated in 1944 and 1945 respectively with a Master of Architecture degree. At Harvard, Catalano studied under two masters of modernist architecture, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.
After graduation, Catalano taught at the Architectural Association in London from 1950 until 1951, when he was recruited by Henry Kamphoefner to relocate to the School of Design at North Carolina State College. Catalano is perhaps best known for his work with warped surfaces and hyperbolic paraboloids. It was during his time in Raleigh that Catalano became the famed architect of the Catalano House, originally at 1467 Caminos Drive (now Catalano Drive). Built in 1954 as his personal residence, and destroyed in 2001 after falling into disrepair, this three-bedroom house featured a 4,000 square foot hyperbolic paraboloid roof built of wood only 2.5" thick. The roof was warped into two structural curves similar to the shape of a shoehorn.
This home was also known as the Raleigh House, the Ezra Meir House, and because of its unique shape it was even referred to as the Potato Chip House and the Batwing House. The home was highly publicized and, in 1956, House and Home magazine named it the “House of the Decade.” Catalano even received high praise from Frank Lloyd Wright for the home’s design. The Catalano House in Raleigh is not to be confused with the Eduardo Catalano House in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The 3,285 square foot modernist home in Cambridge, located at 44 Grozier Road, was designed in 1980 and Catalano lived there in his later years.
As a young architect, Catalano won multiple awards for his innovative designs. He won second place in the 1945 General Motors design competition using a hyperbolic paraboloid, and that same year placed third in the Second Annual Small House Competition of the magazine, Arts & Architecture. Catalano’s projects were diverse and, in 1956, he received a prize for his design of an elementary school. He also won second place for his design for the Teatro Argentino de la Plata, to be located in the capital city of Argentina’s Buenos Aires Province.
Another innovative design Catalano created with Horacio Caminos in 1953 was the B. Richard Jackson House at 1317 Westfield, Raleigh, North Carolina. Also known as the Carrier Weathermaker National Prize Winning House, this was a showcase home in a moderate price range that exhibited the benefits of air conditioning, something new to home design at the time. Catalano and Caminos innovatively incorporated HVAC vents by encasing them in the concrete flooring system. For their design, Carrier Weathermaker awarded Catalano and Caminos with the first place cash prize of $5,000. The home received publicity in 1954 as a feature in Living For Young Homemakers magazine and Raleigh’s local newspaper, the News and Observer.
Catalano left Raleigh in 1956 to accept a teaching position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He retired from teaching in 1977 to pursue other life pleasures, and received a certificate of recognition from MIT for his more than twenty years of service. In addition to emeritus professor of architecture at MIT, Catalano was also an honorary professor at his alma mater, the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Throughout Catalano’s career, he showed diverse interests. Not only did he focus on geometrical and structural properties of warped surfaces and hyperbolic paraboloids, he also worked with buildings systems and urban design. He was known for brutalist designs of government and corporate structures, such as the Julius Stratton Student Center at MIT, the Guilford County-Greensboro Government Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, and two United States Embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Pretoria, South Africa. His other well-known projects include the Juilliard School of Music at New York City's Lincoln Center, the Charlestown Library (a branch of the Boston Public Library), the Ariston Club in Mar del Plata, Argentina, various other buildings at MIT, and corporate buildings throughout Massachusetts.
Another achievement for Catalano was winning the 1989 National Peace Garden competition to design a monument to peace in Washington, D.C. From the 985 entries, it was a unanimous decision by the jury to choose Catalano’s olive branch design. The design was later rejected in 1992 by the United States Commission of Fine Arts and, due to funding and time constraints, the National Peace Garden was never built.
Catalano retired from architecture in 1995 upon closing his Cambridge, Massachusetts, practice. In 2002, he briefly came out of retirement to create one of his best known design endeavors in Argentina: the Floralis Genérica. Erected in the Plaza de las Naciones Unidas in Buenos Aires, this massive steel and aluminum flower sculpture reaches over seventy feet high. The six petals were designed with a system of motors to open and close depending on the time of day.
In 2007, Catalano received an honorary doctorate from North Carolina State University in a special presentation at Catalano's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Dean Marvin Malecha attended. Catalano passed away on January 28, 2010, in Cambridge.
The Eduardo Catalano Papers contains articles, news clippings, magazines, and books on Catalano's architectural projects and professional accomplishments, as well as photographs, digital photographs, photographic slides, negatives, positive transparencies, design drawings, and one videocassette. This includes books, articles, and other writings authored by Catalano, and diplomas, certificates, and certifications he received during his professional and educational careers. The collection also contains metal printing plates of Catalano's designs used in various publications covering his work. Many of these publications can be found in the Printed Materials, Writings, and Correspondence series. There is also a small amount of correspondence.
A significant amount of the collection covers Catalano's groundbreaking work with warped surfaces and hyperbolic paraboloids. His most well-known design in North Carolina is the Catalano House in Raleigh (also known as the Raleigh House), which is well represented in the collection. The Eduardo Catalano House in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is also represented. Other projects include Catalano's famous Argentinian flower structure, the Floralis Genérica, and various other projects in North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Argentina. Of note in the collection are photographs of Walter Gropius, and two publications by R. Buckminster Fuller, one of which Fuller inscribed with a message addressed to Catalano.
The majority of the collection is in English, but there are also publications in Spanish, including multiple news and magazine articles and books. There is also one article in French, and one book published in Italian and English.
This collection is divided into three series and arranged alphabetically within each series:
The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.
The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.
[Identification of item], Eduardo Catalano Papers, MC 00625, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
Materials from NC State University Libraries:
Materials from University of California, Berkley Environmental Design Archives:
Gift of Adrian Catalano, June 2017 (Accessions 2017.0164 and 2017.0174)
Processed by: Jessica Serrao, 2017 August; machine-readable finding aid created by: Jessica Serrao, 2017 August; digital materials processed by Taylor de Klerk, 2017 October.
The collection is organized into three principal series:
The Printed Materials, Writings, and Correspondence series includes books, magazines, articles, and news clippings about Catalano's work and professional accomplishments, especially covering his groundbreaking work with warped surfaces and hyperbolic paraboloids. It also contains books and articles authored by Catalano, and diplomas, certificates, and certifications he received during his educational and professional careers. There is a small amount of correspondence written to Catalano. Of note, this series contains two publications written by R. Buckminster Fuller, one of which Fuller inscribed with a note to Catalano.
This series is arranged in alphabetical order.
After review, access to the digital copies may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
The Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries, has digital copies of some or all of these materials.
After review, access to the digital copies may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
The Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries, has digital copies of some or all of these materials.
The Visual Materials and Printing Plates series includes photographs, photographic slides, negatives, positive transparencies, drawings, and one videocassette relating to Catalano's architectural projects. Of note, there is a significant amount of material relating to two homes Catalano designed in which he lived: The Catalano House in Raleigh, NC (also known as the Raleigh House) and the Eduardo Catalano House in Cambridge, MA.
This series also includes metal printing plates of Catalano's designs used in various publications covering his work. Many of these publications can be found in the Printed Materials, Writings, and Correspondence series.
This series is arranged in alphabetical order.
North Carolina State University does not own copyright to this collection. A portion of the Visual Materials series contains copyright markings, in particular the photographs, slides, negatives, and transparencies. Adrian Catalano, Eduardo Catalano's son, holds copyright to many of these items, which may or may not be clearly marked. Additionally, several sets of professional photographs are marked with copyright. It is the full responsibility of the user to determine copyright for any materials not clearly marked.
After review, access to the digital copies may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
The Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries, has digital copies of some or all of these materials.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
Access to the digital copy will be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
The Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries, owns a digital copy of this video.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
After review, access to the digital copies may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
The Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries, has digital copies of some or all of these materials.
After review, access to the digital copies may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
The Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries, has digital copies of some or all of these materials.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
Access to physical material and digital files not available online may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room after staff review.
Some materials may not have been digitized or made available online.
The Born Digital Materials series is comprised of two electronic file transfers of Catalano's photographs. Materials in this series may be related to materials in other series in this collection.
Files are arranged as received.
Researchers may request copies of digital files. The Special Collections Research Center cannot guarantee that all files will open and will not in all cases have software available to read files.
File count is approximate and excludes system files, deleted files, and duplicates that may have been created during processing.
Collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access will require additional advanced notice. Copies of digital files may be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request.
For more information contact us via mail, phone, or our web form.
Mailing address:
Special Collections Research Center
Box 7111
Raleigh, NC, 27695-7111
Phone: (919) 515-2273
[Identification of item], Eduardo Catalano Papers, MC 00625, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.
The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.