Serge Chermayeff was born in Grozny, North Caucasus, Russia in 1900. At the age of 12 he went to London to study. When the Russian Revolution put an end to his financial support, he entered the army.
Chermayeff worked as an interior designer for Waring & Gillow until he established his own architectural practice in 1930. After 1934 he executed a number of commissions with Eric Mendelsohn. His early works show the influence of both Western-European tradition and Russian Constructivist architecture.
Chermayeff emigrated to the U.S. in 1940 where he opened a practice and entered the teaching profession, first as Art Department Chairman for Brooklyn College and later as President of the New Bauhaus in Chicago. In 1953 he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts and opened an office with Hayward Cutting and began teaching as a professor at Harvard. In 1962 he transferred to Yale.