Robert Venturi, American architect, designer and influential theorist, was born in Philadelphia in 1925. From 1943 until 1950, Venturi studied architecture at Princeton University. For a while Robert Venturi worked in the practice of Eero Saarinen and Louis Kahn. From 1954 until 1956, Robert Venturi was in Rome on a scholarship to the American Academy. Robert Venturi taught at several universities and institutes. A series of lectures Robert Venturi gave at the Museum of Modern Art in New York was published as the influential book "Complexity and Contradiction in Modern Architecture" in 1966. In 1973 Robert Venturi co-authored, with Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour, a book that made just as big an impact on architecture theory: "Learning from Las Vegas". A quintessential Postmodernist, Robert Venturi advocates a symbolic, sophisticated language of forms that is easier for modern man to feel comfortable with. In 1958 John Rauch and Robert Venturi founded an architectural practice in Philadelphia, which by 1989 had become Venturi Scott Brown & Associates, with Denise Scott Brown as a partner. Robert Venturi's most important buildings include the Sainsbury wing of the National Gallery in London (1991), the Philadelphia Orchestra Hall (1987-1996), and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (1996). In 2000 the Venturi-designed Campus Center at Princeton University was finished. For Knoll International, Robert Venturi designed several pieces of furniture, including the "Grandmother" (1984) sofa. Between 1978 and 1984, Robert Venturi designed the "Venturi Collection", a line of nine laminated wood chairs boasting backs that are quotations from various period styles. For Alessi, Robert Venturi designed a four-part tea and coffee service for the 1983 "Tea & Coffee Piazza" project. In 1990 Robert Venturi designed a tea and coffee service for Swid Powell.