A chief executive officer (CEO, American English), managing director (MD, British English),^[1] executive director (ED, American English) for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer (executive) or administrator in charge of total management of an organization. An individual appointed as a CEO of a corporation, company, organization, or agency typically reports to the board of directors.

Responsibilities[link]

The responsibilities of an organization's CEO (US) or MD (UK) are set by the organization's board of directors or other authority, depending on the organization's legal structure. They can be far-reaching or quite limited and are typically enshrined in a formal delegation of authority.

Typically, the CEO/MD has responsibilities as a communicator, decision maker, leader, and manager. The communicator role can involve the press and the rest of the outside world, as well as the organization's management and employees; the decision-making role involves high-level decisions about policy and strategy. As a leader, the CEO/MD advises the board of directors, motivates employees, and drives change within the organization. As a manager, the CEO/MD presides over the organization's day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year operations.^[2]

International use[link]

In some European Union countries, there are two separate boards, one executive board for the day-to-day business and one supervisory board for control purposes (selected by the shareholders). In these countries, the CEO presides over the executive board and the chairman presides over the supervisory board, and these two roles will always be held by different people. This ensures a distinction between management by the executive board and governance by the supervisory board. This allows for clear lines of authority. The aim is to prevent a conflict of interest and too much power being concentrated in the hands of one person. In the United States, the board of directors (elected by the shareholders) is often equivalent to the supervisory board, while the executive board may often be known as the executive committee (the division/subsidiary heads and C-level officers that report directly to the CEO).

In other parts of the world, such as Asia, it is possible to have two or three CEOs in charge of one corporation. In the UK, many charities and government agencies are headed by a chief executive who answers to a board of trustees or board of directors. In the UK, similar to a sizable percentage of public companies in the US, the chairman of the board in public companies is more senior than the chief executive (who is usually known as the managing director).

The following presents an alphabetical list of some international common terms for the CEO position:

• Albanian: Administrator i Përgjithshëm
• Arabic: الرئيس التنفيذي‎ (eg)Al-Ra'ees Al-Tanfizi / (sa)Al-Ra'ees Al-Tanfithee (Chief Executive)
• Australia: general manager (GM) (or also managing director (MD), but only when the executive officeholder is also a member of the board of directors)
• Belarusian: Генеральны дырэктар
• Bengali: মহাপরিচালক/ব্যবস্থাপনা পরিচালক/প্রধান নির্বাহী কর্মকর্তা (Director General/GM/MD/CEO)
• Bosnian: Generalni direktor / Izvršni direktor
• Bulgarian: Генерален директор / Изпълнителен директор Generalen direktor/Izpalnitelen direktor
• Chinese: 首席执行官 / 行政總裁 Shǒuxí zhíxíng guān / xíngzhèng zǒngcái (Chief Executive Officer)
• Croatian: Izvršni direktor
• Czech: Generální ředitel/Výkonný ředitel
• Danish: Administrerende Direktør (administrating director) (Adm.Dir.)
• Dutch: Algemeen Directeur (general manager)
• Estonian: Tegevdirektor (executive director)
• Finnish: Toimitusjohtaja (executive director) (TJ)
• French: Président-directeur général (chairman & chief executive) (PDG)
• Galician: Director Executivo / Director xeral
• German: Geschäftsführer (GmbH) or German: Vorstand (AG)
• Georgian: გენერალური დირექტორი (General director)
• Greek: Διευθύνων Σύμβουλος Diefthinon Symvoulos (Managing Director)
• Hebrew: מנכ"ל/מנהל כללי‎ Mankal/Menahel Klali (DG/Director General)
• Hungarian: ügyvezető igazgató
• Icelandic: Forstjóri / Framkvæmdastjóri
• Hindi: मुख्य कार्यकारी अधिकारी
• India: CEO or managing director (MD)
• Indonesian: Presiden Direktur (Presdir) or, increasingly less common, Direktur Utama (Dirut) Direktur-Direksi (term based on Law nr. 40 / 2007)
• Irish: Príomhoifigeach Feidhmiúcháin (POF)
• Italian: Amministratore Delegato (delegated administrator) (AD)
• Japanese: 最高経営責任者 Saikō-keiei-sekinin-sha (Chief Executive Officer)
• Korean: 최고경영책임자 choe-go-gyeong-young-chek-ime-ja (Chief Executive Officer)
• Kurdish: Serokê/a Pêkanîna Civatê
• Latvian: Valdes priekšsēdētājs (chairman of the board)
• Lithuanian: Generalinis direktorius (general director)
• Macedonian: Извршен директор (izvrshen direktor - executive director) or also Macedonian: Генерален директор (generalen direktor - general director)
• Maltese: Kap eżekuttiv (Chief Executive)
• Mongolian: Ерөнхий захирал, Ерөнхийлөгч, Гүйцэтгэх захирал
• Norwegian: Administrerende Direktør (administrating director) (adm. dir.)
• Persian: مدیر عامل‎ Modir Aamel (Chief Executive)
• Pakistan|چیف ایگزیکٹو آفیسر}} Chif Igzikutu Afisr (Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director)
• Polish: Dyrektor Generalny (general director)
• Portuguese: Diretor executivo / Diretor-geral / Presidente / Administrador-delegado
• Romanian: Președintele consiliului de administrație (PCA)
• Russian: Генеральный директор, Главный исполнительный директор (generalnyi direktor – general director)
• Serbian: Генерални директор / Извршни директор (управник)
• Sinhala: ප්‍රධාන විධායක නිලධාරී / කළමනාකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂක (CEO / MD)
• Slovak: Generálny riaditeľ
• Slovene: Generalni direktor / Izvršni direktor
• Spanish: director ejecutivo, director general, gerente general o consejero delegado (executive director)
• Somali: Maamule Guud / Agaasime (CEO / MG)
• Swedish: verkställande direktör (VD)
• Tamil: தலைமை நிறைவேற்று அலுவலர் / முகாமைத்துவ இயக்குநர் (CEO / MD)
• Telugu: ముఖ్య కార్యనిర్వాహక అధికారి / నిర్వాహకుడు (CEO / MD)
• Thai: ประธานบริหาร / กรรมการผู้จัดการ (CEO / MD)
• Tagalog: Punong Tagapagpaganap (CEO / PT)
• Turkish: Genel Müdür, Yönetim Kurulu Başkanı
• Ukrainian: Головний виконавчий директор (Holovnyi vykonavchyi dyrektor - Head executive director), also Генеральний директор (Heneral'nyi dyrektor – General director)
• Urdu: چیف ایگزیکٹو آفیسر Chif Igzikutu Afisr (Chief Executive Officer)
• Vietnamese: Giám đốc điều hành
• Malay: Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif, Pengarah Urusan, Pengarah Eksekutif
• Swahili: Meneja Mkuu

In the United States, and in business, the executive officers are usually the top officers of a corporation, the chief executive officer (CEO) being the best-known type. The definition varies; for instance, the California Corporate Disclosure Act defines "Executive Officers" as the five most highly compensated officers not also sitting on the board of directors. In the case of a sole proprietorship, an executive officer is the sole proprietor. In the case of a partnership, an executive officer is a managing partner, senior partner, or administrative partner. In the case of a limited liability company, an executive officer is any member, manager, or officer.

Related positions[link]

Typically, a CEO has several subordinate executives, each of whom has specific functional responsibilities.

Common associates include a chief business development officer (CBDO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO), chief marketing officer (CMO), chief information officer (CIO), chief communications officer (CCO), chief legal officer (CLO), chief technology officer (CTO), chief risk officer (CRO), chief creative officer (CCO), chief compliance officer (CCO), chief audit executive (CAE), chief diversity officer (CDO), or chief human resources officer (CHRO).

Hospitals and healthcare organizations also often include a chief medical officer (CMO), a chief nursing officer (CNO), and a chief medical informatics officer (CMIO).

In the United Kingdom the term 'director' is used instead of 'chief officer'. Associates include the audit executive, business development director, chief executive, compliance director, creative director, director of communications, diversity director, financial director, human resources director, information technology director, legal affairs director, managing director (MD), marketing director, operations director and technical director.

See also[link]

• CEO succession
• Executive officer
• List of CEO books
• List of chief executive officers
• O*NET

• United States Department of Labor

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chief executive officers

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Top Executives: Description and Outlook
• 2008–2010 Study: CEOs Who Fired Most Workers Earned Highest Pay – video report by Democracy Now!

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.

Administrative law[link]

This section requires expansion.

While there is no clear line between executive or principal and inferior officers, principal officers are high-level officials in the executive branch of U.S. government such as department heads of independent agencies. In Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), the Court distinguished between executive officers and quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial officers by stating that the former serve at the pleasure of the president and may be removed at his discretion. The latter may be removed only with procedures consistent with statutory conditions enacted by Congress. The decision by the Court was that the Federal Trade Commission was a quasi-legislative body because of other powers it had, and therefore the president could not fire an FTC member for political reasons. Congress can’t retain removal power over officials with executive function (Bowsher v. Synar). However, statutes can restrict removal if not purely executive (Humphrey’s executor), but can't restrict removal of purely executive officer (Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52 (1926)). The standard is whether restriction "impedes the president’s ability to perform his constitutional duty" (Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. 654 (1988)).

Corporate law and other legal associations[link]

In business, the executive officers are the top officers of a corporation, the chief executive officer (CEO) being the best-known type. The definition varies; for instance, the California Corporate Disclosure Act defines "executive officers" as the five most highly-compensated officers not also sitting on the board of directors. In many insurance policies, executive officer means, in the case of a corporation, any chairman, chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief operating officer, president, or general counsel. In the case of a sole proprietorship, an executive officer is the sole proprietor. In the case of a partnership, an executive officer is a managing partner, senior partner, or administrative partner. In the case of a limited liability company, an executive officer is any member, manager, or officer.

In the airline industry, the executive officer, more commonly known as the first officer, is the second in command of the aircraft. In a fixed wing aircraft the first officer sits in the right-hand seat but a rotary wing aircraft they sit on the left.

Military[link]

In the units of some military forces, typically those that are naval in nature, the executive officer (XO) is the second-in-command, reporting to the commanding officer (CO).

United Kingdom[link]

The term is not used in the British Army or Royal Marines (RM), in which the designation second-in-command (2i/c) is used as a formal appointment. In the Royal Air Force (RAF), the term is informally used between officers and airmen, referring to the officer who is second-in-command. It is formally used in the Royal Navy (RN), however. In smaller vessels, such as submarines and frigates, the executive officer also holds the position of first lieutenant. Originally, the second-in-command was usually referred to as first lieutenant (or as "number one"), although it is becoming more common to hear the term XO. On larger ships, in which the XO holds the rank of commander, the XO is usually referred to simply as "the commander". The XO heads the executive department.

United States[link]

In the United States Army and Marine Corps, for example, there are XO billets in each company, battalion, and brigade, though not at higher levels of command. The XO billet is not a command; rather it is considered staff. The XO is typically responsible for the management of day-to-day activities, such as maintenance and logistics, freeing the unit commander to concentrate on tactical planning and execution. The XO also takes charge in the absence of the CO. While the experience gained as an XO is highly beneficial for an officer's professional development, it is not necessarily a prerequisite for a command position. In the United States Navy and Coast Guard, XOs are normally assigned to all ships and shore units, and have a similar role to their counterparts in the Army and Marine Corps. On board Coast Guard cutters that are commanded by either a junior officer or a senior enlisted member, executive petty officers (XPOs) are usually assigned to serve as second-in-command.

The United States Air Force (USAF) uses the titles of "vice commander" (CV), or "deputy commander" (CD) for an officer who serves as the second-in-command for an organization above squadron level. For a squadron, the second-in-command is typically termed the "director of operations" or "operations officer" (DO). The term "executive officer" is used to designate an officer who serves as an administrative assistant to a senior officer. ^[1] In the other uniformed services, this position is usually called an "executive assistant." The rank of an executive officer can vary from lieutenant (working for a colonel) to a colonel (serving as the executive officer to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.) ^[2]

A unique application of the term is executive officer to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and commander, United States European Command. This position is typically held by a brigadier general or rear admiral (LH) and is drawn from all of the armed services. The duties involve serving as both an "executive assistant" to Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and also includes command responsibilities for the U.S. military community at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Belgium. ^[3]

References[link]

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Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos 2005
Born	Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen (1964-01-12) January 12, 1964 (age 48) Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.
Alma mater	Princeton University
Occupation	Chairman and CEO of Amazon.com
Net worth	US$ 18.4 billion (2012)[1]
Awards	Time Person of the Year 1999

Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos (/beɪzəs/, born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, Inc., an online merchant of books and later of a wide variety of products. Under his guidance, Amazon.com became the largest retailer on the World Wide Web and the model for Internet sales.

Early life and career[link]

Bezos was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen and Ted Jorgensen.^[2] His maternal ancestors were settlers who lived in Texas, and over the generations acquired a 25,000 acre (101 km² or 39 miles²) ranch in Cotulla. Bezos' maternal grandfather was a regional director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Albuquerque. He retired early to the ranch, where Bezos spent many summers as a youth, working with him.^[3] At an early age, Bezos displayed a striking mechanical aptitude – as a toddler, he tried dismantling his crib with a screwdriver.^[4]

Bezos was born to a teenage mother in Albuquerque. Her marriage to his father lasted little more than a year. When Jeff was five, she remarried, this time to Miguel Bezos. Miguel was born in Cuba, immigrated to the United States alone when he was fifteen years old, worked his way through the University of Albuquerque, married, and legally adopted Jeff. After the marriage, the family moved to Houston, Texas, and Miguel became an engineer for Exxon. The young Bezos attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade. As a child, he spent summers at his grandfather's ranch in southern Texas, "laying pipe, vaccinating cattle and fixing windmills."^[5]

Bezos often showed intense scientific interests. He rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. He converted his parents' garage into a laboratory for science projects.^{[citation needed]} The family moved to Miami, Florida, where Bezos attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School. While in high school, he attended the Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida, receiving a Silver Knight Award in 1982.^[6] He was high school valedictorian.^[7] He attended Princeton University, planning to study physics, but soon returned to his love of computers and graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science.

According to Nick Hanauer (an early investor in Amazon) and "others who know [him]"^[5], Bezos is a libertarian; such beliefs are said to have help motivate Amazon.com's aggressive "efforts to avoid collecting sales taxes on purchases made on its website" and the company's unwillingness to engage in "sponsorships, matching grants or employee volunteer programs".^[5]

Business career[link]

After graduating from Princeton University in 1986, Bezos worked on Wall Street in the computer science field.^[8] Then he worked on building a network for international trade for a company known as Fitel. He next worked at Bankers Trust, where he became vice-president. Later on he also worked in computer science for D. E. Shaw & Co.

Amazon.com[link]

Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994 after making a cross-country drive from New York to Seattle, writing up the Amazon business plan on the way. He initially set up the company in his garage.^[9] He had left his "well-paying job" at a New York City hedge fund when he "learned about the rapid growth in Internet use", which coincided with a "then-new U.S. Supreme Court ruling [that] online retailers don't have to collect sales taxes in states where they lack a physical presence"; he had headed to Washington because its relatively small population meant fewer of his future customers would have to pay sales tax.^[5]

Amazon eventually made him one of the most prominent dot-com entrepreneurs and a billionaire. Bezos' salary as CEO was $81,840 in 2010, in addition to the $1.6 million cost of his personal security detail.^[10] He owns 20% of Amazon's stock and forgoes stock options.

According to Forbes, Amazon's shares have "defied gravity" in 2011, jumping 55% and adding $6.5 billion to his net worth.^[11]

Bezos is known for his attention to business details. As described by Portfolio.com, he "is at once a happy-go-lucky mogul and a notorious micromanager. ... an executive who wants to know about everything from contract minutiae to how he is quoted in all Amazon press releases."^[9]

Blue Origin[link]

In 2000, Bezos founded Blue Origin, a human spaceflight startup company,^[12] partially as a result of his fascination with space travel,^[13] including an early interest in developing "space hotels, amusement parks and colonies for 2 million or 3 million people orbiting the Earth."^[7] The company was kept under wraps for a half dozen years and initially became publicly known only in 2006 when purchasing a sizable aggregation of land in west Texas for a launch and test facility.^[14]

In a 2011 interview, Bezos indicated that he founded the space company to help enable "anybody to go into space" and stated that the company is committed to decreasing the cost and increasing the safety of spaceflight.^[15] Blue Origin is "one of several start-ups aiming to open up space travel to paying customers. Like Amazon, the company is secretive, but [in September 2011] revealed that it had lost an unmanned prototype vehicle during a short-hop test flight. Although this was a setback, the announcement of the loss revealed for the first time just how far Blue Origin’s team had advanced."^[13] Bezos said that the crash was 'not the outcome that any of us wanted, but we’re signed up for this to be hard.'" ^[13]

Recognition[link]

He was named Time magazine's Person of the Year in 1999.^[16] In 2008, he was selected by U.S. News & World Report as one of America's best leaders.^[17] Bezos was awarded an honorary doctorate in Science and Technology from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. In 2011, The Economist gave Bezos and Gregg Zehr an Innovation Award for the Amazon Kindle. ^[18]

He is also a member of the Bilderberg Group and attended the Swiss 2011 Bilderberg conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland.^[19]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jeff Bezos at TED Conferences
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Jeff Bezos on Charlie Rose
• Jeff Bezos at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Jeff Bezos in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Jeff Bezos collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Jeff Bezos at the Notable Names Database
• Condé Nast Portfolio Executive Profile - Portfolio.com (August 2007)
• Inside the Mind of Jeff Bezos - Fastcompany.com (August 2004)

John Riccitiello is the CEO of Electronic Arts (EA).^[2]

He received his Bachelors of Science degree from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.^[1]

He then worked in a variety of consumer product companies including The Clorox Company (Brand Manager), PepsiCo (Group Marketing Director), Häagen-Dazs International (Managing Director), Wilson Sporting Goods (President and Chief Executive Officer), and Sara Lee Corporation (President and Chief Executive Officer, Bakery Division).^[1]

From October 1997 through April 2004, Riccitiello became President and Chief Operating Officer of Electronic Arts.^[1] He then left EA and co-founded Elevation Partners,^[1] where Riccitiello served as Managing Director. In 2007, Riccitiello was re-hired by EA, this time to serve as CEO. He currently serves on the Board of Councilors of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and on the Board of Directors of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.^[1]

Riccitello has been credited with diversifying Electronic Arts' business model, and leading the company's shift from consumer packaged goods into the digital delivery of content via console, PC, tablet and mobile devices.^[3] A few months after becoming EA’s CEO in 2007, Riccitiello called a meeting of EA’s top executives to address the company’s need to transform itself to survive. Riccitiello described the company’s position at the time: “Our game quality was down, and our costs were high. I could see a fundamental digital transformation coming to our industry that we were not even prepared for. The hardest part was that we were in deep denial.”^[4]

Since 2007, with "John Riccitiello's hand on the tiller, EA has steered an extraordinary course - turning around its strategy, its reputation and its commercial performance."^[5] The turnaround “was achieved, despite a lower overall game count, by improving the critical scores of each title, adding digital offerings, and expanding EA’s social and mobile games…It also involved a restructuring of the company’s employee base, cutting about 2,000 jobs in the process.” Riccitiello’s “less is more plan” reduced the number of titles the company released from 66 in 2007 to 22 for the current fiscal year.^[4]

In May 2012, Electronic Arts announced $1.2 billion of digital revenue as part of its year-end earnings. Riccitiello said, "In the coming year, we break away from the pack, with a very different profile than the traditional game companies and capabilities that none of our new digital competitors can match."^[6]

In an August, 2011 blog post, Riccitiello spoke publicly about the transformation: “Our quality has risen dramatically. We’ve built an $800m+ digital business while pushing down operating costs ... Now, we are switching from defense to offense. We’re focusing on building our intellectual properties/franchises into year-round business. We’ve established our own platform, Origin, and we continue to grow our digital business."^[7]

Earlier in the year, at a commencement address at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, Riccitiello said "we knew it would be hard but we had no idea how hard. We knew the enormous investments would be unsettling to investors … and that the return would be a long way off. Perhaps most painfully – we had to do these three hard things while the press and many financial analysts told us we were crazy – that the cutting we were doing was great, but that the investment in digital was just not a good idea. It proved very hard to hear the negative drumbeat from out there in the public while tacking very hard challenges at work. Like everyone else who has had a long business career, I’ve had first-hand experience with failure – and I’ve had the opportunity to learn and recover from it. Everyone fails. Everyone falls down. Everyone loses a game or gets a bad grade … When it happens, fail well."^[8]

In January, 2012, EA announced that it had surpassed $1 billion in digital revenue in the 2011 calendar year.^[9] “The company is expected to close its current fiscal year in March with a 13% revenue gain and adjusted net income up 32% from the previous year. Overall revenue is expected to pass the $4 billion mark this year.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Unexpected Gamer Who Runs EA - Kotaku
• John Riccitiello named CEO of EA^{[dead link]} from San Jose Mercury News
• Spore Story - Seed Magazine
• Spore Reviews - Amazon

Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey; Price & McLanahan, architects (1905-06, demolished 1979). At the time of its construction, this was the largest reinforced-concrete building in the world.

William Lightfoot Price (1861 – October 14, 1916) was an influential American architect, a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete, and a founder of the utopian communities of Arden, Delaware and Rose Valley, Pennsylvania.

Career[link]

At age 17, Price began work in the offices of architect Addison Hutton. He subsequently joined his brother Frank in the offices of architect Frank Furness. The brothers opened their own office in 1881. Their first major commission came in 1888, to design suburban houses in Wayne, Pennsylvania for real estate developers Wendell & Smith. The brothers' partnership lasted until 1893. Price designed suburban houses for another Wendell & Smith development, "Overbrook Farms," including his own house, "Kelty" (1894). In 1903, he formed a partnership with M. Hawley McClanahan, that lasted until his death.

"Woodmont," Alan Wood, Jr. mansion, Gladwyne, Pennsylvania (1892-94).

Price was a Quaker, and his early commissions may have come through religious ties. The owners of Philadelphia's Strawbridge & Clothier Department Store were investors with George W. Vanderbilt in a proposed resort hotel in Ashville, North Carolina, and may have recommended Price to design the Kenilworth Inn (1890–91, burned 1909). Price's familiarity with Vanderbilt's then-under-construction chateau and estate, "Biltmore," seems to have gotten him his next major commission, "Woodmont."

For steel magnate and former U.S. Congressman Alan Wood, Jr., Price designed "Woodmont" (1892–94), a chateauesque mansion built on the highest point in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a bluff overlooking the Schuylkill River, the industrial town of Conshohocken, and the Alan Wood Iron & Steel Company Plant. Price would design other palatial residences, but never again on this scale.

Price experimented with new materials, especially reinforced concrete, that were cheaper for constructing hotels and industrial buildings, and allowed wide spans and soaring spaces. At Rose Valley, a utopian community he co-founded, he built new buildings and altered existing ones, creating an Arts & Crafts village.

Price's most famous building was the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel (1905–06), on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Following the 1976 legalization of gambling in the city, architect Robert Venturi hoped to make the building the centerpiece of a casino-hotel, but its reinforced concrete had deteriorated so much that it could not be saved. It was demolished in 1979.

Georgist[link]

Will was an ardent Georgist, following the economic theories of Henry George. The Arden, Delaware website (www.theardens.com) writes that "Arden was founded in 1900 by sculptor Frank Stephens and architect Will Price based on the Single Tax philosophy of Henry George, a political economist whose ideas were popular in America in the late 1800s. The land was and still is owned in common."^[1]

Additionally,the Historic Society of Delaware notes: "Stephens and Price first came to Delaware in 1895-1896 during the single-tax campaign to win political control of the state. The Single-Taxers hoped that by gaining control of a small political entity they could put their principles into action and show that they could really work. The exhibit will show a rare copy of Justice, a single-tax newspaper published in Wilmington in April 1896. The campaign failed—many of the activists were jailed—but Price and Stephens did not give up their dream. In 1900, they purchased the Derrickson farm in northern New Castle County. Price designed a town plan that preserved communal open space and encouraged people to mingle with their neighbors. Stephens and Price adopted "You are welcome hither" as the community motto because they wanted Arden to be a place open to people of all economic levels and political views, a new departure in an era when restrictions were the norm. Price never lived in Arden, but built and owned a handful of cottages;—he was more deeply involved in Rose Valley, another idealistic community nearby in Pennsylvania—but Frank Stephens did. (Stephens's) enthusiasm, leadership, and ideas guided Arden from a dream to reality. His son Donald also played a vital role in the community."^[2]

Rose Valley[link]

"Bishop White House," Rose Valley, Pennsylvania (altered 1902). Price added the 2-story porch and tile roof.

The Rose Valley Museum and Historical Society writes the following about Will Price: "Will Price died in 1916 at 55. It has been argued that, had he had as long a career as his contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), Price might also have been a giant among the world’s architects. There is certainly much about his later work like the Atlantic City hotels and the Chicago Freight Terminal to indicate a radically modern direction. And modernism exists in his earlier work, but it is now more difficult to see or understand. The houses he built before founding Rose Valley are made from the same hodge-podge of materials as any other turn-of-the-century American architect used for the show places of rich clients: cut and rough stone, cedar and slate shingles, Gothic and half-timber wood work, red brick and buff stucco. All of this historicism hid modern systems like electricity, steam heat, and interior plumbing.

When Will Price came to Rose Valley there were twelve small houses, two old mills, and an historic stone house once occupied by Bishop White. Price rehabilitated some buildings; slip covered others and, eventually, put up completely new houses. The old bobbin mill was given a quaint rustic porch. A farmhouse above the Bishop White house was encased in stucco and tile and expanded to become the grandest house in the valley, “Schönhaus.”

House of the Democrat[link]

"House of the Democrat," Rose Valley, PA (1911-12).

An unpretentious cottage went up on Price’s Lane, “House of the Democrat,” which became one of the most influential buildings of the American Arts and Crafts movement.

Before it was built, Price published designs for this house in several influential magazines with a national circulation like Ladies’ Home Journal. Along with other Arts and Crafts proselytizers like Gustav Stickley, Price sought to convince Americans that they didn’t need to “keep up with the Joneses.” He admonished both rich and poor to “…dispense with the plush albums and tea-store chromos and self-playing melodeons and comic operas and the daily installment of wood-pulp which calls itself the modern newspaper. Resigning these luxuries, they will get what in return? They will still have the necessaries of life and some of the comforts.” In 1903 Price wrote a book called Home Building and Furnishing. Being a Combined New Edition of Model Houses for Little Money published together with Inside of 100 Homes By W. M. Johnson in which they made an effort to distill his idea about how anyone’s home could have everything it needed to live the art that is life without costly materials and elaborate detail. The mere consideration of the quality of housing for the average person was a modern notion. Earlier architects may have designed small houses, but they were for the relatively rich. If and when housing was contemplated for anyone else, it was usually in terms of cheap, exploitative development.

Thunderbird Lodge[link]

Price altered an existing barn into "Thunderbird Lodge" (1904).

Price thought houses would be modern if they fit the life one lived. He was very much against copying historical styles because no one lived like Roman emperors or French royalty. He thought beauty would come not from the architect’s design but from the fitness of purpose, place, and materials. The most eloquent example of this in Rose Valley is "Thunderbird Lodge," the studio house of Charles and Alice Barber Stephens.

The structure grew from an existing stone bank barn. The second floor of the barn became a studio for Charles while the first was shaped into another for Alice. The name of the house derived from Charles Stephens’s passionate interest in Native American artifacts. His collection eventually became the core of the University of Pennsylvania museum collection. The fireplace in the upstairs studio is said to have the form of a Thunderbird, a symbol that also appears on the studio exterior, this time made of Henry Mercer’s Moravian tiles.

Price described the house: “The old barn standing near the road was converted into first and second floor studios, the old timber roof being rebuilt for the upper studio, and large windows and fireplaces being built into the old walls. The house rambles off from the fireplace and off the studios and is connected to them by an octagonal stair hall. It is built in part of fieldstone so like that in the old barn that it is almost impossible to tell old work from new. The upper part is of warm gray plaster, and the roof of red tile. All of the detail is as simple and direct as possible, and the interior is finished in cypress stained to soft browns and grays and guilty of no finish other than wax or oil.”

Citing the way the house fit its site, the way the pergola helped integrate the building and gardens, the use of local materials, and the references to indigenous architecture, magazines compared it to the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright who was then just beginning to develop his signature Prairie School style.

Thunderbird lodge later became the home of the Olmsteds: Judge Allen and Mildred Scott Olmsted, both well-known social activists. He was instrumental in the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union, and she was a tireless proponent of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom." From the website^[3] Photographs of Will's buildings are available at this website.

Price's architectural drawings along with those of his brother Walter are at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.^[4]

Selected Buildings[link]

6334 Sherwood in Overbrook Farms (1894), designed and occupied by Price.

"Kelty" in Merion (1897), designed and occupied by Price. Later owned by Chaim Potok

• Kenilworth Inn, Asheville, North Carolina (1890-91, burned 1909).^[5]
• "Woodmont," Alan Wood, Jr. mansion, 1622 Spring Mill Road, Gladwyne, Pennsylvania (1892-94). Now headquarters for International Peace Mission movement.
• Will Price house, 6334 Sherwood Road, Overbrook Farms, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1894).^[6]
• Winston Commons Apartments, 6620-24 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1895).^[7]
• Alterations to "Robindale," John S. Clarke house, Morris Avenue & Yarrow Street, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (1896 and 1901). Now Benham Gateway Building (Admissions Office), Bryn Mawr College.^[8] Frank Furness designed the original c.1883 house.
• John Marshall Gest house, 5620 City Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1897–98).^[9] Now Wolfington Hall, Saint Joseph's University.
• "Glenmede," George S. Graham mansion, 630 Old Gulph Road, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (1902–04). Now part of Bryn Mawr College.^[10]
• Jacob Reed's Sons Store, 1424 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1903–04).^[11] An early reinforced concrete structure, with brick cladding and Mercer tile mosaic work.
• Marlborough Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey (1902, demolished 1979). This was later combined with the Blenheim Hotel.
• Blenheim Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey (1905-1906, demolished 1979). At the time of its construction, the largest reinforced-concrete building in the world.
• Media Armory, 12 E. State Street, Media, Pennsylvania (1908).
• Second "Frank Stephens Homestead," Arden, Delaware (1909).
• Altered the existing Derrickson Barn into "Gild Hall," Arden, Delaware (1910).
• Traymore Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey (1914-1915, demolished 1972).
• Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Terminal, Chicago, Illinois (1914-1918, demolished 1970s).
• Pennsylvania Railroad Station, Fort Wayne, Indiana (1914).^[12]
• Additions to Union Station, Indianapolis, Indiana (1915–20).^[13]
• Flamingo Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida (1921, demolished 1950s).

Rose Valley Buildings[link]

A Rose Valley Improvement Company house

• Altered 8 existing rowhouses into "Guest House" (1901).^[14]
• Altered an existing house into "Camaredeil," Will Price house, (1901).
• Alterations to "Bishop White House" (1902). Price added the 2-story porch and the tile roof.
• Altered the existing Bobbin Mill into "Guild Hall" (c. 1904). Now Hedgerow Theater.
• Altered an existing barn into "Thunderbird Lodge," Charles & Alice Barber Stephens house (1904), 45 Rose Valley Road.
• Altered an existing house into "Schönhaus" (1904–05).
• "Auntie Bess Warrington House" (1908), 7 Price's Lane.
• "Roylencroft" (1909).
• "House of the Democrat," (1911–12).
• Rose Valley Improvement Company houses on Porter Lane (after 1910).

Gallery[link]

• 

  Kenilworth Inn, Asheville, NC (1890-91, burned 1909).

• 

  Winston Commons Apartments, Germantown, Philadelphia, PA (1895).

• 

  "Camaredeil," Will Price house, Rose Valley, PA (1901).

• 

  Marlborough House Hotel, Atlantic City, NJ (1902, demolished 1979).

• 

  Reed's Sons Store, 1424 Chestnut, Philadelphia (1903).

• 

  "Schönhaus" watertower and house, Rose Valley, PA (1904-05).

• 

  Media Armory, Media, PA (1908).

• 

  "Auntie Bess Warrington House," Rose Valley, PA (1908).

• 

  "Roylencroft," Rose Valley, PA (1909).

Notes[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Will Price

Further reading[link]

• Price, William L.; William Martin Johnson (1903). Home building and furnishing: being a combined new ed. of "Model houses for little money,". Doubleday, Page & company. pp. 191. http://books.google.com/books?id=fMQ4AAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. 
• Thomas, George E. (2000). William L. Price, Arts and Crafts to Modern Design. Princeton Architectural Press. pp. 362. ISBN 1-56898-220-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=m19alHeSKVwC. 

External links[link]

• George E. Thomas, 2010, NRHP Nomination Form for Rose Valley Historic District, p. 10. Enter "public" for ID and "public" for password to access the site.
• Camaredeil on Picasa
• Will Price from National Building Museum
• William Lightfoot Price from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings