BOSTON — August 31, 2011 — The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Boston Public Library, and their partners were recently awarded a federal grant to draw attention to an innovative builder and visionary architect whose work still attracts the eye of visitors to the Central Library in Copley Square and other public spaces.

Vaulted ceilings, which are considered structural and aesthetic marvels, dot the landscape of the United States because of the farsightedness and imagination of Spanish immigrant builder Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908). His thoughtful design of public spaces transformed American architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will administer the $350,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant to mount a traveling exhibition which will include historic drawings, photographs, and objects along with contemporary photographs of Guastavino ceilings. A website dedicated to Guastavino will support and expand the reach of the project.

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American architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries would often leave empty spaces in their blueprints and simply write, “Guastavino here.’’ They had faith that Rafael Guastavino would create elegant, highly functional spaces to grace their buildings. Today, few of us know who he was.

“Rafael Guastavino was one of the greatest American architects you’ve never heard of,’’ says John Ochsendorf, 36, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and architecture at MIT. A 2008 MacArthur Fellow, Ochsendorf is an expert on the work and life of Guastavino, who did some of his most notable work in Boston.

Read the rest of the article and watch a video  from the Boston Globe February 2011.