'Guy Lowell' (
August 6 1870 –
February 4 1927),
American architect, was the son of Mary Walcott (Goodrich) and Edward Jackson Lowell, and a member of
Boston's well-known
Lowell family.
As
Percival Lowell's third cousin, Guy became the sole trustee of the
Lowell Observatory after his cousin's death in 1916. His combined practice of architecture and landscape design was perhaps sparked by his father-in-law,
Charles Sprague Sargent, the first director of the
Arnold Arboretum.

Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Huntington Ave, Boston, MA
Lowell graduated from
Harvard College in 1892, and received his degree in architecture from
MIT in 1894. He then studied landscape and horticulture at the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and architectural history and landscape architecture at the
École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, with diplomé in 1899. In the middle of these studies he married Henrietta Sargent of
Brookline, Massachusetts on May 17, 1898.
Returning to the United States, Lowell opened his own practice in Boston and was successful immediately. By 1906, he had opened a branch office in New York, and later split each week between New York and Boston. His commissions included large public, academic and commercial buildings, as well as many distinctive residences, country estates and formal gardens. He also worked on the
Charles River esplanades in collaboration with
Charles Eliot. Lowell is perhaps most recognized for his design of two public buildings, the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts (1906–09 and later additions) and the
New York State Supreme Court building in
New York City (1912–1914 and 1919–1927). Some of his other commissions included Lowell Lecture Hall at Harvard, and academic buildings at
Phillips Academy Andover,
Simmons College, and
Brown University.
Guy's work on
Harvard University's
President's House was commissioned by his cousin,
Abbott Lawrence Lowell, during his tenure as Harvard President (1909–1933). The house remained the residence of succeeding presidents until 1971 when
Derek Bok (1971–1991) moved his young family to the bucolic grounds of the
Elmwood colonial mansion. Interestingly, Elmwood was the lifelong home of another of Guy's ancestors, the celebrated American writer, poet, and foreign diplomat
James Russell Lowell (1819–1991).
Lowell also published several books including ''American Gardens'' (1902), ''Smaller Italian Villas and Farmhouses'' (1916), and ''More Small Italian Villas and Farmhouses'' (1920). He also contributed to ''American Gardens'', a photographic magazine.
Guy Lowell died in the
Madeira Islands.
Major buildings and gardens

Coe Hall at Planting Fields
Oyster Bay, New York
★ 1902 Lowell Lecture Hall,
Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
★ 1906 Fox Clubhouse, 44 JFK Street (formerly 44 Boylston),
Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
★ 1904 Emerson Hall,
Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
★ 1909
Boston Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston
★ 1912
Natirar,
Somerset Hills, New Jersey
★ 1913
New York State Supreme Courthouse,
New York City
★ 1913
Planting Fields Arboretum,
Oyster Bay, New York
★ 1929
Grosse Pointe Yacht Club,
Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other selected buildings
★ 1901 Tupper Hall (now part of
Endicott College),
Beverly, Massachusetts
★ 1904 Spring Lawn, Kemble Street,
Lenox, Massachusetts
★ 1907 Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island,
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
★ 1909 New Hampshire Historical Society building, 30 Park Street,
Concord, New Hampshire; the pediment contains sculpture by
Daniel Chester French that includes the Society's crest flanked by figures representing ''Modern History'' and ''Ancient History''
★ 1910 13 Follen Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
★ 1911 Piping Rock Clubhouse,
Locust Valley, New York
★ 1912
Harvard University President's House,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
★ 1915 Boscawen Public Library,
Boscawen, New Hampshire
★ 1921 Community House,
Hamilton, Massachusetts
★ 1922 (
[1]) Fuller Memorial Bell Tower,
Phillips Academy,
Andover, Massachusetts