Freed, James Ingo: Architect of the Museum
“The intent of the building is to be a resonator of your own imagery, of your own memory.”
James Ingo Freed
Museum architect James Ingo Freed (1930-2005) was born in Essen, Germany. At the age of 8, Mr. Freed was evacuated from Europe. He settled in Chicago at the end of 1939, where he was later joined by his parents.
He studied architecture under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and received his B.Arch. in 1953. In 1956 he joined the office of I.M. Pei (now Pei Cobb Freed).
From 1975 to 1977, Freed served as Dean of the College of Architecture, Planning and Design at IIT. Mr. Freed has also taught at Cooper Union, Cornell University, the Rhode Island School of Design, Columbia University, and Yale University. Freed has received several honorary degrees over the course of his career and was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 1977. Freed is the recipient of many awards including the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1987 and an Honor Award bestowed on him by the American Institute of Architects in 1988.
In 1994, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the American Institute of Architects Honor Award.