"The son of Bessarabian immigrants. For much of his career, Abramovitz was one-half of the noted architectural firm Harrison and Abramovitz. His major architectural works: the U. S. Steel Building (Pittsburgh), Phoenix Mutual Headquarters (Hartford), Brandeis University, Krannert Center and Assembly Hall at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). The most heroic of Abramovitz's buildings - in scale, apparent simplicity of form, and engineering prowess required - the Assembly Hall ranks among his favorite. Commissioned by his alma mater in 1962, the Assembly Hall reaffirms his lifelong commitment to putting to architectural use the scientific advances of engineering. In the Assembly Hall, Abramovitz strove to develop the new possibilities promised by prestressed concrete into the basis of an entirely new architecture. He graduated in 1929 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Architecture. He later received an M.S. from Columbia University's architecture school in 1931. He also was the recipient ofa two-year fellowship at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before returning to the US and becoming partners with Wallace Harrison from 1941 to 1976. In 1961, he was an invited resident (RAAR) of the American Academy in Rome. For 30 years Abramovitz oversaw university planning, was a Brandeis University Fellow and served on its Board of Overseers and the Creative Arts Commission."