William Katavolos Receives 2012 Rowena Reed Kostellow Award

Genius designer, architect, visionary, and inspirational professor Bill Katavolos will be honored with the Rowena Reed Kostellow Award for his dedication to three-dimensional design. The ceremony will take place at the Knoll Showroom, 76 9th Avenue, NYC, on March 8, 2012.

The Award recognizes individuals who advance the principles of design developed by Rowena Reed Kostellow. Katavolos said that Rowena’s teachings “are as important as physics!”

“I heard about his 48-hour marathon Charettes when I was a boy! The design process can be fun!” says Tucker Viemeister, Rowena Group Chair. “The committee selected Bill because of his long dedication to multidisciplinary exploration, the beauty of his work, and because he is truly an amazing man.”

Until the late 1940s, Bill Katavolos was a painter; then, he and fellow Pratt students Ross Littell and Douglas Kelley produced a furniture line that included the “T” chair, which is now in the collections of MoMA and the Louvre. He designed furniture collections for Laverne International, partition systems for Time-Life and Owens Corning, and a suspension ring system for the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow. His manifesto, “Organics,” published in Holland in 1961, became the basis for chemical architecture. His theory of the fundamental structure of nature is being prepared for publication.

In one of his stimulating moments, Bill said, “If you want to see Rome, pick one cat and follow it everywhere!”

Bill joins the other champions of the abstract principles of visual relationships who have received the Award. These teachers, entrepreneurs, and designers embody the mission of the fund: to encourage and guide a systematic educational approach to all forms of visual expression, which is inspired by Rowena’s teaching.