Architect is taken ill

Architect and designer Michael Graves has contracted meningitis, which has resulted in lower-body paralysis, his Princeton, N.J. office confirmed Monday.

Graves contracted the disease in February, and has been undergoing treatment at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, N.J., said the firm’s director of communications, Caroline Hancock. Graves will be returning to work and his home in Princeton this summer, she said.

In the meantime, Graves remains actively involved in the daily office matters, Hancock said.

“He is still doing his work,” she said in a phone conversation from Princeton. “We have people shuttling back and forth between here and West Orange.”

Graves’ designs include the Portland Building in Oregon, the Humana Building in Louisville, Ky., as well as the Swan and Dolphin hotels in Disney World. He has created a housewares line for retail chain Target and designs for Italian manufacturer Alessi.

In 2001, he was awarded the American Institute of Architects’ highest honor, the Gold Medal, joining a list that includes Frank O. Gehry, Thomas Jefferson, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Graves taught for almost 40 years at Princeton University, where he is Robert Schirmer emeritus professor of architecture.

A collection of his Target designs are in the permanent collection of Richmond’s Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.