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Raymond [Rajman], Antonin
(b Kladno, Bohemia [now Czech Republic], 10 May 1888; d Langhorne, PA, 21 Nov 1976). American architect of Czech birth, active also in Japan. He graduated in 1910 from the Czech Technical University, Prague, where he was particularly influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright; he then emigrated to the USA and worked in New York for Cass Gilbert, who was then involved with the Woolworth Building. Raymond was naturalized in 1914 and entered Wright’s studio at Taliesin, WI, in 1916 for a year. Following a period in Europe, he went with Wright to Japan in 1919 to work on the Imperial Hotel (1919–21; destr. 1968), Tokyo. Deciding to stay in Japan, he opened his own architectural office in Tokyo in 1920. Raymond’s early works continued to be influenced by Wright until 1923 when he designed his own house at Reinanzaka, Tokyo, in the simple, cubic forms of the early Modern Movement with exposed concrete. He played an important role in introducing modern Western architecture to Japan, designing many buildings in the International Style in the 1920s and early 1930s but moving towards a less austere expression in the mid-1930s. He had a considerable influence on such architects as Kunio Maekawa and Junzo Yoshimura. Works of this period include St Paul’s (1932), Karuizawa, where he used the style of Bohemian wooden churches; and the auditorium and chapel at the Tokyo Women’s College (1934), the latter adapted from the plan of Auguste Perret’s Notre-Dame (1923) at Le Raincy, Paris. The quality of design and construction is high, and these characteristics contributed to his influence on Japanese architecture.
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