Architectural historian and curator. His father owned Kaufmann's Department Store in Pittsburgh. Kaufmann, Jr. studied painting and then apprenticed at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin. He taught in the art history department at Columbia and headed the Department of Industrial Design at the Museum of Modern Art, where he directed the Good Design exhibition series from 1950-55. He also invited Breuer to participate in the Competition for Low-Cost Furniture at MoMA.