Michael Graves, the founder of Michael Graves & Associates & Michael Graves Design Group, is credited with broadening the role of the architect in society and raising public interest in good design as essential to the quality of everyday life. Graves has received many prestigious awards, including the 1999 National Medal of Arts, the 2001 Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects, and the 2010 Topaz Medallion from the AIA and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, in recognition of his 39-year teaching career at Princeton University. Graves was cited by Paul Goldberger, former New York Times critic, as "the most truly original voice American architecture has produced in some time.”