Ralph Gerganoff

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Ralph Stephens Gerganoff (born Rashko Stoyanov Gerganov; January 19, 1887 – November 25, 1966) was an American architect who spent most of his career in Michigan.

He was born in Kereka, Bulgaria, and moved to the United States in 1905, settling in Boston. He finished high school at Fredonia State Normal College in New York in 1913, then studied architecture at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1917. After working in Detroit, he became a naturalized citizen in 1920 and opened his own office in Ypsilanti in 1927.

Gerganoff became the main architect for Ypsilanti and the nearby area, designing many public buildings such as schools, fire stations, a hospital, and other public facilities. He also designed Cleary College, the Washtenaw Country Club, several churches, businesses, factories, union halls, and the Salvation Army headquarters in Ypsilanti. He built many private homes as well, ranging from small cottages to larger, stylistic houses and apartment buildings.

For Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) in Ypsilanti, he designed the President’s Home, several dormitories, the Frederick Alexander Music Building, the 1938 football stadium, a laboratory and greenhouse, the Administration Building, the Rackham School for Handicapped Children, and a Service and Shop building. Some of these buildings have since been torn down.

Gerganoff also designed around two dozen service stations in the Ann Arbor–Ypsilanti area, many of which were later removed or replaced. In Ann Arbor, his notable works include the Wolverine Building, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the Kingsley Apartments.

Early in his career he developed a Low Style Art Deco vocabulary, using stepped pyramid shapes and rounded Moderne elements, a style he continued to use into the 1950s. After World War II, he brought his nephews Steven and Zach Gerganoff from Bulgaria to the United States to study architecture and join his practice; they likely contributed to his International Style designs in the 1950s and 1960s. He sometimes worked with Detroit sculptor Corrado Parducci to add sculptures to his buildings.

Gerganoff died of a heart attack in his Ypsilanti office on November 25, 1966, and was buried in Highland Cemetery in Ypsilanti.