In Memoriam

Gerald P. Allen

Gerald Allen
1964 graduation

Obituary

Charlotte Observer

November 15, 2015

Gerald Pitman Allen, 73, of Spring Lake, NC, died on Sunday, November 1, 2015, from heart failure. Born and raised in Lumberton, NC, Mr. Allen attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA, and Yale University. After studying English at Cambridge University in England and returning to Yale to study architecture, he worked in New York for Philip Johnson and Architectural Record before starting his own firm, Gerald Allen & Associates.

Gerald Allen
(in later life)

Mr. Allen's architectural career spanned a broad scope of work. He wrote several books with Charles Moore and taught in various universities, including Yale, Harvard, North Carolina State University, and Carnegie Mellon. He also designed sets for the Santa Fe Opera.

In 1982, he and Kent Bloomer designed the lights currently in Central Park, and he designed the restoration of the Bethesda Fountain, both projects as part of an effort to revitalize the park.

Later in his career, his work focused on church design and renovation and included projects in Manhattan at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, the Church of the Heavenly Rest, and Riverside Church, as well as projects in Larchmont and Oyster Bay and Wilson, NC.

Mr. Allen returned to his native North Carolina in 2015.

Mr. Allen is survived by his sister, Alice Allen Smyth, a niece, two nephews, a network of extended family, and friends, and also by his beloved dog, Agnes.

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