Architect Michael Graves Returns to his 'Precious' San Juan Capistrano Library

When people ask world-renown architect Michael Graves what his favorite building he designed is, he usually says, “The next one.” But if you push him hard enough, he’ll say the San Juan Capistrano Library is one of two he loves so much.

“This is so intimate and wonderful. I’d love to have a requirement to work here on a paper or a Ph.D. or something because the spaces are so conducive to scholarship,” Graves said in a press conference Friday afternoon.

As he sat in the courtyard, he delighted in the sharp shadows cast along the building's many edges.

“You don’t have that where I am, where the skies are gray,” Graves said of his Princeton home, an old warehouse he converted.

More than 30 years ago, Graves competed in a design competition for the library. He was young and hungry for the work.

“To get a letter saying, ‘You’re on the [finalists] list was already an exciting thing,” he said.

Graves since went on to design public spaces all over the world, such as U.S. Embassy Compound in Seoul, the Denver Central Library, the Louwman Museum and so much more. He even designed scaffolding for the Washington Monument restoration project.

Teri Garza, retired San Juan Capistrano librarian, said back in the day, Graves’ design was controversial. Supporters wore buttons that said, “I dig Graves.” But once put into service, visitors were nearly unanimous in their praise, and if they weren’t, she gave them a tour and convinced them.

Clearly thrilled to be back, Graves was brutally honest in expressing his disappointment that when the San Juan Capistrano Friends of the Library decided to add a bigger bookstore, they didn’t call him.

He was told they thought he’d be too expensive. “Try free,” he said.

“I said, ‘Why didn’t you ask me given it’s such a precious thing to me,’” Graves said. “I was clearly very, very disappointed in that I didn’t get asked to do the bookstore or the side here as if you didn’t like what I had done. That was a negative to me because I didn’t understand why you would do that.”  

Graves, who has also gone on to design consumer goods for the likes of Target and more recently, JC Penney, said other architects would sneer behind his back.

“They’re not laughing now,” he said.

Patch will have more coverage on Michael Graves Day.