Michael Middleton Dwyer
Garden Pavilion on the Hudson River at Barrytown, New York
Born	1954 Philadelphia, PA, USA
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Rose Bay Secondary College, Sydney, New South Wales. Columbia College (B.A.) University of Pennsylvania (M.Architecture)
Occupation	Architect
Buildings	Edgewater Pavilions, Barrytown, New York. Hollyhock, Southampton, New York.

Michael Dwyer is an Americanarchitect and author of books about architecture, includingGreat Houses of the Hudson River (2001) andCarolands (2006).

Michael Dwyer was associated from 1981 to 1995 with the New York architecture firmButtrick White & Burtis, where he helped design several noteworthy buildings. among them theSaint Thomas Choir School, a fifteen-story boarding school inMidtown Manhattan, completed in 1987.^[1][2] Writing inThe New York Times, architecture criticPaul Goldberger placed the school "among the city's best examples of contextual architecture."^[3]

Another project, theDana Discovery Center, a venue for environmental education, was the centerpiece of theCentral Park Conservancy's 1990–93 reconstruction of Harlem Meer, an eleven-acre lake in Central Park's northeast corner.^[4][5] In a 1993 interview with the journalProgressive Architecture, Dwyer said that the building's "picturesque character" was intended to reinforce the park's "romantic landscape design."^[6][4]

In his bookThe Architecture of Additions (1998), architectPaul Byard wrote that the Dana Center "is sized to be not too big for its adopted idiom but at the same time an effective presence and marker for one of the defining corners of the park." To Byard, the building's use of the "spiky polychrome architecture of the [earliest] park buildings, with porches, porticos, a steeply pitched and pinnacled tile roof, and rich, multi-colored ornamentation" served to connect, architecturally speaking, the northernmost end of the park to the more developed southern part.^[7]

During his time at Buttrick White & Burtis, Dwyer was an advocate of New York's prewar, classical style of architecture and a protagonist of its resuscitation. In a 1995 review of architecture's nascent classical revival byThe New York Times, reporter Patricia Leigh Brown wrote that, "Michael Dwyer...an architect at Buttrick White & Burtis...has recently completed a classical-style yacht" and a "town house on the Upper East Side,"^[8] a house characterized byRobert A.M. Stern, dean ofYale's School of Architecture, as "scholarly...reflecting the elegant manner ofAnge-Jacques Gabriel."^[9]

Interviewed by Brown for the article, dean Stern opined that the young classicists were "perhaps the true radicals of their time," whereas architectJames Stewart Polshek, formerly dean ofColumbia University's School of Architecture called them "bizarrely backward" and "lacking new ideas." Asked to weigh in, Yale historianVincent Scully declared that "classicism speaks fundamentally to what people want, to security and dignity and permanence."^[8]

In 1996, Dwyer and interior designer Ungkun Sae-Eng formed Dwyer & Sae-Eng, an architecture and design firm, after which they repurposed a derelict auto-repair garage on Gansevoort Street in Manhattan'sMeatpacking District, a newly formed historic district in the northwest corner of Greenwich Village. The renovated space did double-duty as a studio for Dwyer's architecture practice, and a venue for Establishment, Sae-Eng's showcase for Southeast Asian art and antiques.

In 1996, Dwyer was the architect for theEleanor Roosevelt Monument in New York'sRiverside Park, where he supplemented landscape architectKelly and Varnell's circular oakbosque andPenelope Jencks' bronze statue with granite medallions set into the surrounding bluestone paving (one inscribed with a quotation from a 1958 speech of Roosevelt's; the other with a quotation fromAdlai Stevenson's 1962 eulogy for her).^[10][11] At the monument's dedication on October 5, 1996, first ladyHillary Rodham Clinton delivered the keynote address.

In 1997, Dwyer restored the exterior of theGeorge F. Baker Jr. House, built in 1918 at 75 East 93rd Street and designated a landmark by the city'sLandmarks Preservation Commission in 1969. The commission called the house "an outstanding example of a modified Federal style...one of the finest works in New York City by the architects,Delano and Aldrich."

From 1998 to 2007, Dwyer was the consulting architect to New York'sCosmopolitan Club, a private social club for women, helping to restore its clubhouse, designed by architectThomas Harlan Ellett and awarded theArchitectural League's 1933 gold medal.

On a parallel track, Dwyer prepared designs for the upper strata of New York's private sector, including apartments on Manhattan's east side (960 Fifth Avenue,720 Park Avenue, andRiver House); its west side (The Dakota,The Majestic, andThe San Remo); and houses in diverse locations such asBridgehampton,East Hampton, Southampton,Rye,Greenwich, andNantucket.

In 1996, the financier, preservationist, and authorDick Jenrette engaged Dwyer to design a major alteration to hisCarnegie Hill town house at 69 East 93rd Street, which he described in his memoir,Adventures with Old Houses:

For the next seven years (1989–1996), I lived quite happily at No. 69 East 93rd Street...I liked the light and the height of the ceilings, but the house lacked a grand ceremonial entrance staircase as I had enjoyed next door at No. 67 East 93rd Street...I even went so far as to commissionMichael Dwyer, my favorite young neo-classical architect in Manhattan, to design a new interior layout. His plan 'borrowed' half the six-car garage on the first floor and would have created an elegant entrance hall and elliptical staircase ascending to thepiano nobile.

Jenrette abandoned his plan to renovate No. 69 when he bought the house next door for a second time and returned to 67 East 93rd Street.

In 1997, Jenrette engaged Dwyer to design a pair of classical pavilions atEdgewater, Jenrette's villa on the Hudson River. Jenrette described them in his memoir:

In recent years, I've begun making more of my own architectural imprint on the Edgewater property. This past year I added a small neo-classical guest house, built on a point of land across the lagoon to the north of Edgewater—far enough away not to compete with the main house. Designed by Michael Dwyer of New York, the guest house is a small Grecian temple with four columns of the Doric order framing a large porch looking downriver. Viewed from the front porch of Edgewater across the lagoon, the new structure serves as an architectural folly extending the sweep of the landscape to the north.

Michael Dwyer also relocated the swimming pool and added a charming pool house, again in classical style with four Doric columns along the side of the pool. The effect is quite Roman—rather like a small corner of Hadrian's Villa. From guest house to pool house and back to the main house provides a scenic one-mile roundabout walk, mostly along the winding riverbank.^[12]

The July 2018 issue ofArchitectural Digest featured Hollyhock, a new house inSouthampton, New York designed by Dwyer for real estate executiveMary Ann Tighe, a decade-long collaboration with interior designer Bunny Williams, reminiscent of the prewar houses of architectDavid Adler and interior designerFrances Elkins.

In Dwyer's plan for Hollyhock's main wing, an entrance hall leads to an enfilade of three high-studded, south-facing rooms: a dining room designed by Dwyer and embellished by Williams with 18th-century wall paper inset into panels; a living room with boiserie designed by Dwyer and painted a "rich watery blue" by Williams; and a 55-foot-long, pine-paneled library designed by Dwyer, divided into three spaces by projecting bookcases in the tradition of David Adler's Wheeler House library (1934); Bigelow & Wadsworth's reading room at theBoston Atheneum (1914); Charles Follen McKim's University Club library (1904); and Christopher Wren'slibrary at Trinity College (1695).

The principal feature of the entrance hall is Dwyer's design for an elliptical staircase, inspired by a design of Adler's that was inspired by a design ofJohn Russell Pope's, to which Dwyer added a black and white starburst marble floor.^[13][14]

In Hollyhock's gardens, designed by landscape architect Quincy Hammond in thegrande manière, Dwyer built a guest house (a kind of modern-dayPetit Trianon); a garden pavilion in the form of anorangery; an arbor with limestone columns supporting teak lattice panels; and a garage building in the guise of a caretaker's cottage. (Link to photographs of Hollyhock's landscape.)

Hollyhock's tile roofs and stucco facades allude toRed Maples, a house designed by the architectsHiss and Weekes, with gardens designed byFerruccio Vitale, that stood on the site from 1913 until its demolition in 1947.^[13][14]

In its 2013 review of Michael Dwyer's work, the editors ofThe Franklin Report wrote, "Dwyer has a strong command of historical reference and is adept at renovating prewar building interiors. Sources praise Dwyer's impressive intellect and charming nature while noting that the firm's 'confidence in its skills' may come across as rigid to unsuspecting clients."

In 2015, the Institute of Traditional Architecture ranked Dwyer No.22 on its list of the world's top 50 architects working in the traditional idiom.

• 
  Venetian window at theEdgewater Garden Pavilion.
• 
  Pool Pavilion atEdgewater
• 
  Longview, on Lake Agawam inSouthampton, New York.
• 
  Detail of entrance door at Longview.
• 
  Detail of staircase at Longview.
• 
  Stone cottage in Southampton, New York.
• 
  Classical house inEast Hampton, New York.
• 
  The entrance court at Hollyhock in Southampton, New York.
• 
  The portico at the entrance to Hollyhock.
• 
  Garden gate and guest house at Hollyhock, Southampton, New York.

• 35 Meter Cruising Yacht (interior architecture; completed 1994).^[15]
• Nureyev Apartment;The Dakota, New York City (interior architecture; completed 1995).^[8]
• Eleanor Roosevelt Monument,Riverside Park, New York City (granite medallions and bronze plaques; completed 1996).^[16]
• Windsong; Shimmo Beach, Nantucket, MA (new house; completed 1996).
• George F. Baker Jr. House, 75 E 93rd St, New York City (roof replacement and window restoration; completed 1997).^[17]
• Edgewater,Barrytown, NY (Garden Pavilion and Pool House; completed 1997).^[18]
• Maisonette duplex, 960 Fifth Avenue, New York City (interior architecture; completed 1999).^[19]
• Longview; 27 Gin Lane, Southampton, NY (new garden facade, new wing with indoor pool, and interior architecture throughout; completed 2000).^[20]
• Mead Point; Indian Field Road, Greenwich, CT (new house; completed 2001).^[21]
• River House Apartment (apartment alterations; completed 2003).^[22]
• Stone Cottage; Toylsome Place, Southampton, NY (new house and interior architecture; completed 2004).
• 720 Park Avenue, New York City (apartment alterations; completed 2006).^[23]
• Cosmopolitan Club, New York City (alterations to the entrance hall, ballroom, and garden penthouse, from 1998 to 2007).
• New Sommariva; East Hampton, NY (new house; completed 2009).
• Hollyhock; Southampton, NY (new residence, guest house, garden pavilion, and arbor; completed 2017).^[13][14]
• Triplex penthouse;The San Remo, New York City (alterations completed 2017).^[24]

• Carl A. Pearson (author); Michael Dwyer (illustrator). "Up in Central Park on the Shore of Harlem Meer,"Architectural Record (March 1990).
• Mark Alden Branch (author); Michael Dwyer (illustrator). "Flirting with Folly in Central Park,"Progressive Architecture (August 1991): 23.
• Michael Dwyer (contributing illustrator). "Proposed Addition to the Harvard Club of New York,"Architecture in Perspective No. 7 (American Society of Architectural Illustrators, 1992): 29.
• Michael Dwyer (contributing illustrator). "A View of the Dana Discovery Center, Central Park, New York,"Architecture in Perspective No. 8 (American Society of Architectural Illustrators, 1994): 10.
• Michael Dwyer (author). "Buildings in Public Parks,"Clem Labine's Traditional Building (March/April 1995): 26, 28, 30.ISSN 0898-0284.
• Michael Dwyer (contributing illustrator). "New Master Plan - Trinity School,"Architecture in Perspective No. 11 (American Society of Architectural Illustrators, 1996): 83.
• Michael Dwyer (author). "Building with Stone,"Clem Labine's Traditional Building (March/April 1996): 25–26.ISSN 0898-0284.
• Michael Dwyer (author). "The Arts and Crafts in Architecture Today,"Classicist No. 3 (1996–97): 90–96.ISBN 1-56000-936-5.
• Michael Dwyer (editor) with a preface byMark Rockefeller.Great Houses of the Hudson River (Boston:Little, Brown and Company, in association withHistoric Hudson Valley, 2001).
• Michael Dwyer (author) with a foreword byMario Buatta.Carolands (Redwood City, CA: San Mateo County Historical Association, 2006).

• Clem Labine. "A Townhouse in the Corinthian Order,"Clem Labine's Traditional Building (September/October 1991): 48, 49.ISSN 0898-0284.
• Lee Goff. "Manhattan Townhouse,"Stone Built (New York: The Monacelli Press, 1997): 40.ISBN 9781885254696.
• Richard H. Jenrette.Adventures with Old Houses (Charleston: Wyrick, 2000): 8, 105, 161.ISBN 0-941711-46-3.
• Diane DiPiero (author), John Hall (photographer). "In Grand Tradition,"Classic American Home (April/May 2001).
• Elizabeth Pochoda (author), Pieter Estersohn (photographer). "The Long View,"House & Garden (August 2001): 76-82.
• Editors ofThe Classicist, with an introduction byRobert A.M. Stern.A Decade of Art & Architecture 1992–2002 (New York: Institute of Classical Architecture, 2002).
• Robert A.M. Stern et al.New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Bicentennial and the Millennium (New York: The Monacelli Press, 2006): 788, 933.ISBN 1580931774.
• Laura Beach (author), J. David Bohl (photographer). "Sojourn On The Sound,"Antiques & Fine Art (Summer 2006): 92-103.
• Jean Phifer.Public Art New York (New York: W.W. Norton, 2009): 148.
• Dan Shaw. "Top Tier Design Team Breathes Elegance into a Southampton Estate,"Architectural Digest (July 2018).
• Bunny Williams. "Hollyhock,"Love Affairs with Houses (New York: Abrams, 2019):13-35.ISBN 9781419734649.

• Francis F. Palmer House (75 East 93rd Street, New York City)
• George F. Baker Jr. House (69 East 93rd Street, New York City)
• Edgewater (Barrytown, New York)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMichael Middleton Dwyer.

• Michael Dwyer on Instagram
• Institute of Traditional Architecture 2015 Rankings.

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