June 18, 2020

RCF PROFILE

As many of you may know I worked in Charles Moore’s office all the way through school. That gave me great experience and the opportunity to work on a number of great projects. It did, however, take me a while to learn what flashing was really about. Also, after the Venturi and Scott Brown LLV studio Dan and I put together a proposal to the American Academy in Rome and ended up receiving a Rome Prize which we split. This gave us a year in Rome and, as everybody says, it was life changing.  Since leaving New Haven I’ve practiced and taught internationally. I spent almost three years in Algeria, half of it in the Sahara Desert. Another great experience with many good stories too long or embarrassing to go into here. I returned to New Haven fully expecting to pick up where I left off but the recession got in the way so I headed off to California. I ended up getting recruited to teach at UCLA by Tim Vreeland and Bill Mitchell who had been a couple of years ahead of us in the MED Program. I also directed The Urban Innovations Group. I was joined there by the Torch who quickly proceeded to fall in love with the lovely Lucia del Sol and swept her up and repatriated to Maine.

In 1980 I was hired as Dean of the School of Architecture at Tulane University. I had gotten to know the school through a number of projects there that I did with Charles Moore. I was Dean until 1992 when I stepped down to teach and spend more time practicing in two or three different partner configurations over the years. I was made Acting Dean again from 2003-2005 when I started what was to be a phased retirement. For a number of years I directed the School’s semester long program in Rome. Another great opportunity which allowed us to live in Rome almost five months each year. Also during this period I also renovated our old family farm house in Ohio. For a few years we split time between New Orleans and Ohio and ended up based there and making numerous trips back and forth to Plymouth where we had purchased a small house on Leyden St which needed extensive renovation. I sold the farm in Ohio and we’ve been in Plymouth solely since late 2018-early 2019. We had both fallen in love with Plymouth over the years and many trips. Once here I was volunteered to be the Project Manager for The Mayflower Meetinghouse, an extensive restoration and adaptive reuse of the nation’s oldest continual spiritual site. We’ve just completed a $2.6 million exterior restoration and  are in the early design phases of the $12 million Visitor Education and Interpretive Exhibit Center.

Over the years I’ve been on the boards of a number of Arts and Community non-profits both in Los Angeles and New Orleans, sat on the New Orleans Planning Commission and The Vieux Carre Commission, served as President of AIA New Orleans and Louisiana  AIA, The Yale Alumni Association of Louisiana and a number of other organizations.

Working with great colleagues I’ve been lucky over the years to have won a number of design awards and other recognition.

It’s been great to have had the opportunity to travel quite a bit. I led State Department Professional Exchange programs to China (1981), Japan (1983) and Eastern Europe (1984), worked on a few projects in Central and South America, and led research trips to Cuba in the 1980’s.

I’ve also been through a lot of normal life stuff; divorce, kids, grandkid, marriage, cardiac events and implant surgery, back surgery, cancer, etc. Still here.