George  Gardner,  A’51

George Gardner A’51 received the 1991 Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award. He is a leader in the field of museum exhibition design. He Graduated from the Industrial Design program at The Cooper Union, he decided to specialize in architectural interiors and exhibition design. After duty in the U.S. Army, he interned in the office of Charles Eames in Venice, California. He then worked four years as a design coordinator at Walter Dorwin Teague Associates for international exhibitions in Europe and the U.S. In 1960, he co-founded the design firm of Yang/Gardner & Associates, completing government pavilions in Africa and the United States.

In 1973, George Gardner joined the American Museum of Natural History as Chairman of the Department of Exhibition and Graphics, which resulted in the merging of his science and art interests. He taught a course in exhibition planning at NYU’s graduate school for a decade. He was co-founder and first President of NAME (National Association for Museum Exhibition), with a membership of over 1,800. After eighteen years at the American Museum of Natural History, Gardner retired and moved to the Rocky Mountains. He operates a museum-planning consultancy out of a studio he designed in Whitefish, Montana, serving several new and expanding regional museums.  He was inducted into The Cooper Union Hall of Fame in 2009.