Background
William Frederick Lamb was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of William Lamb, a builder, and Mary Louise Wurster Lamb.
William Frederick Lamb was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of William Lamb, a builder, and Mary Louise Wurster Lamb.
He received the B. A. from Williams College in 1904 and from 1904 to 1906 was a graduate student at the Columbia University College of Architecture. He studied in Paris at the Atelier Deglane and received the diploma in architecture from the French government in 1911, after graduating sixth in his class--despite his rudimentary French--from the École des Beaux-Arts.
As the result of a motorcycle accident while he was touring the Continent, Lamb spent a year in the hospital and subsequently had a leg amputated. Consequently he was ineligible for service during World War I, and he began to pursue his architectural career.
Lamb returned to New York City about 1914 to work for the architectural firm of Carrére and Hastings. His grasp of composition and design soon became evident, and he was in charge of the formative work of several important structures erected during the construction boom of the 1920's. It was at Carrére and Hastings that Lamb met and worked with Richmond H. Shreve; both became partners in the firm but left in 1924 to establish Shreve and Lamb. Among their first commissions was the General Motors Building in New York City.
In 1929 Arthur Loomis Harmon joined the firm; in that year--due in part to their previous association with John J. Raskob, former GM official and vice-president of Empire State, Incorporated--Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon was commissioned to design the Empire State Building. Although Lamb--the "design member" of the firm--was actually responsible for the plans, the partners agreed that the project should be considered a joint effort. The architects not only had to consider the project's physical limitations--building size (36, 000, 000 cubic feet), available funds, and city zoning requirements--but also were forced to work under a deadline--eighteen months from drawing board to occupancy.
Governed by the dictates of engineering and structural principles, Lamb designed the building from the tower down; he continually revised the drawing, and his sixteenth plan resulted in the building that is still considered one of New York's greatest landmarks. In addition to fulfilling the demands of their commission, the architects were concerned that the building be a work of beauty; and Lamb, worried about suicide attempts, devised measures for preventing people from jumping. Although Lamb was pleased with the completed project, and probably considered it his masterpiece, with typical modesty he absented himself from the dedication ceremony in May 1931. He also disliked the numerous souvenirs later fashioned after the Empire State Building.
Lamb preferred the clean lines and classical look of the French Romanesque. His aversion to ornate detail was evident in other noteworthy New York City commissions of this period, which included the Standard Oil Building (1922), additions to the New York Times complex, and the Bankers Trust Building--a thirty-nine-story structure at 14 Wall Street that became a prominent feature of the Manhattan skyline. In addition he designed academic buildings for Cornell University, Connecticut College for Women, the Kent School, Wesleyan University, and Hunter College.
From 1932 to 1936 Lamb was a member of the Art Commission of the City of New York. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed him to the Federal Commission of Fine Arts in Washington, D. C. ; Lamb served two terms (1937 - 1945). He was also coordinator of design for the 1939 New York World's Fair. In the same year Lamb was also vice-president of the Society of Beaux-Arts.
During World War II, Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon was involved in the planning and execution of projects for the armed services. In 1940, with consulting engineers Fay, Spofford, and Thorndike, the firm was awarded contracts by the Army Corps of Engineers for several bases and airfields in Newfoundland and other parts of Canada. Two years later the firms were chosen to construct the naval training center at Sampson, New York; within seven months the architects provided facilities for 30, 000 sailors and 10, 000 other servicemen.
In 1943 the firm became Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon, Associates, as it expanded to include four architects who had been employed by the firm for several years. Business continued to flourish, and they completed commissions for the home office building of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, several branch banks, and research centers for Johns-Manville Corporation (Manville, N. J. ), Armstrong Cork Company (Lancaster, Pa. ), Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation (Linden, N. J. ), and Standard Oil and Gas Company (Tulsa, Okla. ). In 1950 Lamb was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He was also a fellow of the American Institute of Architecture and a member of the Architectural League of New York and the National Academy of Design. He died in New York City.
Lamb was chiefly known as one of the principal designers of the Empire State Building. He drew up the plans for this project in two weeks. His other notable projects include the Standard Oil Building, 521 Fifth Avenue, the Forbes Magazine Building, and the General Motors Building in New York City. In 1931 his firm was awarded the gold medal of the American Institute of Architects for drafting plans of the world's tallest building.
Quotations: Lamb stressed the importance of functionalism in design: "An interesting development in the planning of present day office buildings is the change in the conception that the architect has of his work. . His scorn of 'practical' has been replaced by an intense earnestness to make practical necessities the armature upon which he moulds the form of his idea. . He must know how to plan his building so that it will 'work' economically and produce the revenue for which his clients have made their investment. "
Member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters
Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture
Member of the Architectural League of New York
Member of the National Academy of Design
Quotes from others about the person
Cuthbert Lamb recalled her husband's initial model for the building: "He was at the drawing board one day and set a large pencil on end. The clean soaring lines inspired him, and he modeled the building after it. "
On July 29, 1926, Lamb married Cuthbert Dufour. They had one child.
