Pratt celebrates 125 years with 125 icons

What do cultural icons such as the Chrysler Building, the Dunkin' Donuts logo and Big Bird have in common? They were all created by alumni of New York's Pratt Institute.

To mark its 125th birthday, the renowned college of art, design and architecture is showing off 125 world-famous designs by its students and faculty throughout the years. The private Brooklyn institution starts the celebration with a gala Oct. 15 at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, designed in 1929 by Pratt alumnus Lloyd Morgan.

The school was founded on Oct. 17, 1887, by businessman and philanthropist Charles Pratt, whose petroleum refinery merged with Standard Oil.

Today, 4,700 undergraduate and graduate students studying painting, printmaking, sculpture, illustration, architecture and industrial, interior and graphic designs attend the 25-acre campus that has grown to include 27 buildings in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan.

Pratt's vision was to create an "institution that would broadly educate people to be producers and creators in society," who could also make a living at their professions, said Pratt president Thomas F. Schutte, who has led the school for nearly 20 years.

The 125 designs will be on public view Nov. 30-Jan. 19 at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery. Among the visionaries they represent are leading American painters Ellsworth Kelly and Arthur Wesley Dow, Heisman Memorial Trophy sculptor Frank Eliscu, and Scrabble inventor Alfred Mosher Butts.

Below are four designs that have become part of our cultural psyche:

Two-seater 1955 Ford Motor Thunderbird. Industrial design alumnus William Boyer was the lead designer on this car, the first luxury car to be manufactured in the United States.

The Dunkin' Donuts logo. Lucia DeRespinis, an alumna and faculty member of the school's industrial design department, came up with the logo in 1980 using her 5-year-old daughter's favorite colors: pink and orange.

Big Bird. Kermit Love, a fine arts faculty member, was a costume designer who designed, developed and constructed the Sesame Street character in 1969.

The Chrysler Building. The art deco landmark, built in 1930, was designed by architect William Van Alen.