Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: Michael McCarthy records

Michael A. McCarthy’s career as an architect spanned more than four decades and produced a wide variety of buildings for corporate and institutional clients. He also worked on interior design projects as well as preservation and rehabilitation projects for buildings belonging to, both, recent and historic past. McCarthy also served on art advisory committees, most notably that of the Chase Manhattan Bank.

Michael Anthony McCarthy was born on July 15, 1934 in Buffalo, New York. In 1957, he received the Bachelor of Architecture degree at Cornell University, where his fifth-year thesis project won accolades. In 1957, he worked briefly for the firm Harbach and Clark. Upon graduation he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army and chose to do active duty in the Far East, where he visited places such as Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Hawaii, and Macau. After completing his army service, he was granted the Eidlitz Fellowship, an award administered by the Department of Architecture at Cornell. He then worked for three years for Foit and Baschnagel, until 1963, when he received the license to practice architecture in New York State, and became a member of the American Institute of Architects. He received his M.Arch. degree in 1964 from Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

In the autumn of 1964, McCarthy was hired by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), a leading architectural firm credited with iconic modernist works. McCarthy’s work as a Junior Designer for the Gordon Bunshaft designed headquarters of the American Can Company in Greenwich, Connecticut led to his promotion to Participating Associate in 1967, and to Partner in 1973. Worldwide, McCarthy has designed mixed-use, office, residential, and recreational complexes for sites in Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, and Latin America. His awareness of and sensitivity to cultures outside the United States were particularly notable in the Middle East, where he designed interiors for the Joint Banking Center, the Commercial Bank of Kuwait, the Al Ahli Bank in Kuwait, and the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia in New York, among others. His work for the Chase Manhattan Bank, which he considers as among the most rewarding and satisfying experiences of his career, consisted of designs for new buildings as well as significant contributions to the style and experience of their interiors, both through his own designs and by serving on their art committee. Over the course of his career, he also contributed to the interior designs of corporate clients, such as General Electric, Texaco, IBM, and Chrysler. McCarthy’s work with SOM has won many honors and awards.

He served on the Cornell University Council and the College of Architecture’s Advisory Council endowed a Chair of Architectural Theory at the Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning; and gifted to the Cornell University Library of the drawings, slides, photographs, and other related materials documenting his career as an architect He regarded the gift of his papers to Cornell as one of the most important contributions he has made to architectural education. He also provided a research fund for use of the collection by students and scholars.