Kent Bloomer

Kent Cress Bloomer (May 5, 1935 – October 22, 2023) was an American sculptor of architectural ornament. He taught classes on ornament for over forty years at the Yale School of Architecture, and many of his public works of ornament have become well known landmarks. He wrote several books and articles on visual perception and architectural ornament, including the principal authorship, with Charles Moore, of Body, Memory and Architecture, 1977.^[1][2]

Bloomer was born on May 5, 1935, in Mt. Vernon, New York. He studied physics and architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1953–1957. He then studied sculpture at Yale University from 1957–1961. Art News described Bloomer’s work as "something of a stranger in this general company, both in terms of the interest that he assumes in metal textures and also in terms of the fact that his forms have anthropomorphic connotations."

Bloomer was an instructor and assistant professor in architecture at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) from 1961–66, where he taught first-year architecture students in the intensive Basic Design course. Bloomer was also a frequent critic at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Texas at Austin.^[2]

In 1966, Bloomer was recruited to the Yale School of Architecture by Dean Charles Moore and appointed assistant professor of architectural design. Bloomer was also an integral player in the development of the Yale Building Project, working with Moore and students to design and build the critically praised New Zion Community Center in rural Kentucky.^[3]

At Yale, Bloomer served as director of undergraduate studies in architecture for seventeen years. In 1978, Bloomer began teaching “Ornament Theory and Design,” exploring the history and meaning of architectural ornament expressed in built work and writings throughout the history of architecture.^[4] Through Bloomer's classes and publications, he has been influential in bringing ornament back into architecture. Bloomer remains a professor on the faculty of architecture at Yale, teaching his ornament seminar and co-teaching the first-year Visualization requirement.^[2]

In 1981, Bloomer and lighting designer Gerald Allen designed new luminaires to sit atop Central Park’s 1910 Henry Bacon-designed lampposts.

Bloomer maintained a professional practice since 1961, founding the Kent Bloomer Studio in 1982.

The studio's work began at a large scale with the installation of enormous aluminum "tree domes" within the WonderWall at the 1984 New Orleans World’s Fair, designed by Moore's firm MLTW. Bloomer designed the exuberant acroterion on Thomas Beeby’s Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago, and the ornament for many other large public works, including the ornament of the Slover Library in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2014.

Bloomer died on October 22, 2023, at the age of 88.^[5][6]

• Temple Rodef Shalom, portal bas-relief, Pittsburgh (completed 1965).
• Central Park luminaires, New York City, with Gerald Allen Architect (completed 1982).
• New Orleans World's Fair, "Tree Domes," New Orleans, with Charles Moore Architect (completed 1984).
• University of Oregon Science Complex, Willamette Hall, "Physics Wall," atrium and light standards, with The Ratcliff Architects; Moore Ruble Yudell Architects; and Brockmeyer McDonnell Architects (completed 1989).
• Yale University, gothic luminaires (completed 1990).
• Harold Washington Library Center, roof ornaments, Chicago, with Thomas H. Beeby Architect (completed 1993).
• Duke Ellington Circle and Central Park West Lightposts, New York City (completed 1997).
• Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport window tracery, with Cesar Pelli, Architect (completed 1997).
• Kansas State University, Hale Library, stone and metal ornaments and railings, with HBRA Architects and BBN Architects (completed 1997).
• Rice University, Baker Hall, exterior and interior ornament, Houston, with HBRA Architects (completed 1997).
• Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, roof ornament and mural, Kearney, NE, with Peter Dominick, Architect (completed 2000).
• Nashville Public Library, entrance frieze, Nashville, Tennessee, with Robert A.M. Stern Architects (completed 2001).
• Rice University, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, entrance ornament and sculpture, Houston, with Robert A.M. Stern Architects (completed 2002).
• Yale University, Class of 1954 Chemistry Research Building, entrance gate, New Haven, Connecticut, with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (completed 2005).
• Yale University, Bass Library entrance pavilion and Sterling Memorial Library, stairwell entrance ornament, with HBRA Architects (completed 2007).
• Yale University, Woolsey Hall, display cases (completed 2007).
• Yale University, University Theatre, display cases (completed 2009).
• Clinton Avenue School, New Haven, CT, with Ken Boroson Architects (completed 2004).
• Hill Central School, New Haven, CT, with Ken Boroson Architects (completed 2012).
• 360 State Street parking garage, façade design and ornaments, New Haven, Connecticut, with Becker and Becker Associates (completed 2010).
• New York Avenue Bridge, "Gateway Wings," Washington, D.C. (completed 2013).

• Body, Memory, and Architecture, Yale University Press, 1977, with Charles W. Moore
• The Nature of Ornament, Rhythm and Metamorphosis in Architecture, W.W. Norton, 2000.
• Mimetic Rivalry, Papadakis Press, 2012, with Rene Girard, Leon Krier, and Samir Younes

• Interiors, "Have You Heard of Haptic?" 1979
• Perspecta 17, Yale School of Architecture, "The Personality of a Ruin" and "Alfombres de Asserin, 1980
• Interiors, "Ornamentalism in Architecture" 1983
• Perspecta 22, Yale School of Architecture, "Multiple Essences" 1986
• Perspecta 23, Yale School of Architecture and Rizzoli, "Botanical Ornament: the Continuity and the Transformation of a Tradition" 1987
• Inland Architect, "Spatial Language in Architecture" 1992
• L'Architecture d’Aujourd'hui, Paris, "The Formation of Ornament" , 2001
• 306090, vol. 10, "A Critical Distinction Between Decoration and Ornament" 2006

• Liz LaManche

• Official website