Born:
9/24/1912,
Died:
12/31/1977
Architect, planner, and teacher Preston Andrade was an important figure in post-World War II redevelopment in Philadelphia. Andrade was born in Philadelphia, and after graduating from the William Penn Charter School, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1936 and 1937, respectively. He had a distinguished career at Penn, winning a number of prizes and medals. He was awarded the Theophilus Parsons Chandler fellowship for graduate study his final year, 1936-37, during which he also apprenticed with Kenneth Day. Andrade worked briefly as a designer for the firm of Tinsley, McBroom & Higgins in Des Moines, Iowa in 1938, but returned to Philadelphia by the end of that year to work with Wigham & Van Alen. He became head draftsman and remained in the office until 1942, when he left to serve in the Navy's bureau of research and development during World War II. He joined the firm of Carroll, Grisdale & Van Alen after the war, and was made a partner in 1950. He left that office in 1950 and joined the de Florez Company, Inc., in New York, NY, as Senior Engineer, becoming Vice President in 1952. In 1952 he left de Florez to form a partnership with Penn classmate John W. Wright, Jr. and William Amenta, with whom he had worked at Carroll, Grisdale & Van Alen, in 1954.
Andrade served as treasurer of Philadelphia Chapter of the AIA in 1955-56.
Andrade was an architectural design critic at Penn between 1956 and 1958, when he was made professor and director of the Institute for Architectural Research of Penn's Graduate School of Fine Arts. In 1961, the Institute was awarded a substantial contract by the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia to study scattered site redevelopment in Society Hill and in Germantown. In 1965, he joined the Ford Foundation Planning Group in Calcutta as the technical director of a team of architects, planners, economists and sociologists working to assist the Indian government in developing a master plan for the city and its surroundings. From 1966 until 1975, he worked at the Ford Foundation's Indian headquarters in New Delhi in the effort to bring his planning experience to other areas of the country. After returning to the United States, Andrade joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, where he held a joint appointment as a visiting professor in the School of Architecture and the division of General and Comparative Studies until his death.
Written by
Emily T. Cooperman, and
Sandra L. Tatman.
Clubs and Membership Organizations
- American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- Philadelphia Chapter, AIA
School Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Texas
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