Serge Chermayeff

Sergius "Serge" Ivan Chermayeff (; 8 October 1900 – 8 May 1996) was a Russian-born British–American architect, industrial designer, educator and writer. Chermayeff co-founded several architectural societies, including the American Society of Planners and Architects.

Early life Chermayeff was born Sergius Ivanovich Issakovitch on 8 October 1900 in Grozny, Caucasus Viceroyalty (present-day Chechnya, Russia) to Ivan Akimovitch Issakovitch (died 1924), a banker and landowner, and Rose Issakovitch (née Sonnschein). Initially educated by a governess alongside his elder sister, Chermayeff was sent to England in 1910 to be educated at Peterborough Lodge School and later at Harrow School. He changed his name to Serge Chermayeff in 1924 after the death of his father.

Early career as an architect After practicing architecture for three years, he and the German architect Erich Mendelsohn briefly partnered in 1933 to form their own architectural firm. They created important works in the British modernist movement, notably the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, East Sussex, Cohen House, London, and Shrubs Wood (formerly Nimmo House) in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire. He was also responsible for Shann House in Rugby, Warwickshire, and Gilbey House, an office and factory complex in Camden for gin distillers Gilbey's. These are all now Listed Buildings, being designated Grade I (De La Warr), Grade II* (Cohen House, Shann House, and Shrubs Wood) and Grade II (Gilbey House) respectively. Both Mendelsohn and Chermayeff were members of the MARS Group.

He also designed Bentley Wood, a Modernist house in a rural location in the Low Weald in Sussex, completed in 1938. Bentley Wood was Chermayeff's personal residence, designed for himself and his family, although he was forced to sell it only a few years later. The house quickly reached a wide acclaim within architecture circles, with Charles Herbert Reilly calling it 'a regular 'Rolls-Royce of a house' in the Architects' Journal, and James Maude Richards featuring it in his 1940 book An Introduction to Modern Architecture.

During the 1930s, Chermayeff designed bakelite radio cabinets for the Southend-on-Sea based company EKCO and taught at European Mediterranean Academy in Cavaliere, France. Chermayeff taught in 1940 and 1941 at the California School of Fine Arts before moving to Brooklyn College, where he served as chair of the department of design until 1946. From 1941 until his death, he maintained his principal residence on Cape Cod at Wellfleet, Massachusetts. In 1946, he was recommended by Walter Gropius to become the president of the Institute of Design in Chicago; there, he was a close friend and mentor to graphic designer Robert Brownjohn. Beginning in 1949, he oversaw the Institute's merger with the Illinois Institute of Technology before ultimately stepping down in 1951. After teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a year, he served as a professor and chair of the architecture department at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (1953–1962) and the Yale University School of Architecture (1962–1971). Following his retirement, he briefly taught at Harvard again in 1974.

Personal life On 22 March 1928, Chermayeff married Barbara Maitland May (1904–2000). Chermayeff was the grandfather Sam Chermayeff, an architect and furniture designer , and , a documentary producer.

Chermayeff became a British citizen in 1928, and an American citizen in 1946.

On 8 May 1996 Chermayeff died at his home in Wellfleet, aged 95.