Since 1903, members of Arts and Letters have delivered commemorative tributes to fellow members who have passed away. These remarks celebrate and reflect on the lives and work of the members being honored and acknowledge their contribution to the arts. A selection of tributes is now available in the digital archive below. As we prepared this archive, we were reminded that these tributes reflect their times, and, in some instances, include terminology and social and moral judgments we do not endorse.
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New York City has many distinguished monuments that were fashioned by the hand of Aymar Embury during the first half of this century. These buildings, in a great variety of uses, and the bridges, on which he collaborated with structural engineers, are distinguished for their dignity, their simplicity, and for their durability of both construction and good taste; they have lasting qualities. He thought of "what the public will approve fifty years from now when the strident voices we hear today have been silenced and really distinguished works emerge from the ephemeral stuff which fills the stage at this moment."
Aymar Embury II was born in New York City on June 15, 1880. He graduated from Princeton with the degree of Civil Engineer in 1900 and served as an instructor in architecture there in 1904 and 1905. From Princeton he went on to practice the profession of architecture in New York, the city of his birth, and continued for more than half a century. His buildings were many and varied, including city and country homes, college and university buildings, banks, clubs, and public buildings. Of the latter may be included the buildings for the Central Park and Prospect Park Zoos that are known and have given pleasure to thousands of the residents of this city.
Aymar Embury was distinguished as a collaborator with members of the allied professions of engineering and landscape architecture. Many large bridges in the New York area are the more notable because of his contribution to the aesthetic quality of their design. He was ever generous in his praise of the work of those with whom he shared responsibility, and those who worked with him will ever remember him for his modest attitude respecting his own contribution to a collaborative effort.
His many books included One Hundred Country Houses, The Dutch Colonial House, Country Houses, Early American Churches, The Livable House, and The Aesthetics of Engineering Construction.
Embury served overseas as a captain in the 40th Engineers, U.S. Army, 1917-1919, and retained a commission as lieutenant colonel in the Reserve Corps until 1923. He was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1946.
Reading my Commemorative Tribute to Henry Richardson Shepley in 1963, Aymar Embury said to me:
I want to tell you that it is a lovely and truthful memoir of a great and charming man, great both as an architect and as a human being.
Aymar also was a great architect and a great human being.