Designer: Frederic Schwartz (1951 – 2014)

Item: Roses Dinner Plate

Manufactured by: Swid Powell

Country of origin: Japan

Year made: Circa 1990

Materials: Porcelain with overglaze transfer decal decoration

Dimensions: 12” in diameter

Condition: Excellent

Description: Although not an household name like Frank Gehry or Robert Venturi, Frederic Schwartz was an internationally known and multiple award-winning American architect and public planner whose works can be found across the globe.  Schwartz started his professional architecture career working for the architecture firm Skidmore, Owning & Merrill, and then went to work for Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.  Venturi and Brown mentored him and they became close family friends.  Schwartz then started the Anderson/Schwartz Architects firm in 1984, which is credited on this design.  But the actual design itself was solely by Schwartz.

Some Schwartz’s most important and noteworthy projects include the design for the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.  His design for the New York City September 11 Memorial and tower to replace the World Trade Center won the juried competition, but it was later overruled by then New York State Governor George Pataki, who chose another firm for the project.  However, his designs for the New Jersey and the Westchester September 11 Memorials were realized. 

Schwartz did four designs for Swid Powell porecelain dining ware, but each are very hard to find, as their runs were likely limited to 300 pieces each.  An example of this design is in the permanent collection of the Yale University Art Gallery as gifted by Nan Swid from her personal collection. 

Provenance: Marc Hacker, Vice President for Design and Development at Swid Powell.  Hacker is an architect who studied with Michael Graves at Princeton University.  Upon graduating he moved to New York City and was recommended for a job working for architect Richard Meier.  As a result of his work for Meier, Hacker was hired by Swid Powell, because they needed a formally trained architect to work with their stable of architects and designers to achieve the final objects produced for sale.  Hamel20, LLC is honored to represent the Hacker collection of Swid Powell objects, which includes prototypes and designs that were never produced for sale.