James Gamble Rogers

Who was James Gamble Rogers?

James Gamble Rogers was an American architect best known for his academic commissions at Yale University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and elsewhere.

Rogers was born in Bryan Station, Kentucky, to James M. and Katharine Gamble Rogers. Rogers attended Yale University, where he contributed to The Yale Record and was a member of Scroll and Key, a senior society whose membership included several other notable architects. He received his B.A. in 1889, and is responsible for many of the gothic revival structures at Yale University built in the 1910s through the mid-1930s, as well as the university's master plan in 1924. He designed for other universities as well, such as the Butler Library at Columbia University, many of the original buildings at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, and several buildings at Northwestern University, notably Deering Library.

Rogers was philanthropist Edward Harkness's favorite architect, and Harkness would often condition a gift for a new academic or medical building upon the institution's agreement to hire Rogers for the project.