Robert Marquis
Robert Marquis (1927 – January 3, 1995) was a German-born American architect and academic known for his socially conscious architecture. Primarily active in San Francisco, he was a professor of architecture at the University of Virginia in the early 1980s. He was chancellor of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 1991. Life and career Born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1927, Marquis's family left their native country in 1937 due to the rise of Nazi Germany. He settled with his family in Los Angeles, California, when he was 10 years old. From 1946 through 1949, he studied architecture at the University of Southern California, but left without obtaining a degree to pursue studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze in 1949–1950. He established his first architecture business in San Francisco in 1953. In 1956 Marquis formed a partnership with architect Claude Stoller, entitled Marquis & Stoller Architects. Together they designed the highly regarded St. Francis Square housing complex with landscape architect Lawrence Halprin; a racially integrated housing development for working-class people which was built in 1963. Funded by the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, this project gained national recognition for its socially conscious architecture,