Ralph Walker

Born in 1889, in Connecticut, Ralph Thomas Waker was an American architect. He studied at M.I.T but left during his final semester. In 1919, he joined the New York architecture firm McKenzie, Voorhees and Gmelin. Walker's design of the Barclay-Vesey telephone building between 1922-1926 catapulted him to notoriety, subsequently becoming a partner within the firm. He went on to design buildings such as the Salvation Army Headquarters, the Irving Trust Bank, and the New Jersey Bell Headquarters Building. In 1949, Walker became president of the American Institute of Architects and served a term of two years. He continued to work at Voorhees, Walker, Foley, Smith and Smith until 1959. Walker passed away in 1973.

Ralph Walker: Architect of the Century is the first book dedicated to this New York architect and was published by Rizzoli New York in September 2012. The author, Kathryn E. Holliday teaches architectural theory at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she is the director of the David Dillon Center for Texas Architecture.

Ralph Walker: Architect of the Century is featured in Edition: Rizzoli: New York