Georgia Tech Architecture Centennial Celebration – April 25, 2009
Remarks from Dean Alan Balfour

Let me welcome all to this one-hundredth anniversary of the teaching of architecture at Georgia Tech; and a very special welcome to our new president, G.P. “Bud” Peterson and his wife, Val Peterson.

It is a particular pleasure to have with us this evening Representative Bob Smith, of the 113th District.  Representative Smith’s son Robert Smith is a graduate of the program and they are both here tonight. It is Representative Smith who helped us celebrate the centennial when he led the legislature to pass House Resolution 819 on March 26. The Resolution cites many reasons to celebrate from our history. Highlights include:

Whereas, graduates of the architectural program invented new building types and gave dramatic shape to the modernization of the New South;
Whereas, transformative ideas in architecture and urban design such as Atlantic Station and the Atlanta Beltline took shape in Georgia Tech’s studios; and
Whereas, the College of Architecture is a leading producer of research and analysis vital to effective and sustainable communities, including urban design and smart growth and much more.

The Resolution concludes:

Now let it be resolved by the House of Representatives that the members of this body commend the College of Architecture and extend congratulations to the many individuals who have benefitted the community through their contributions as students, faculty, staff, or administrators.

I believe that must include everybody who is here. Congratulations to all. And Representative Smith, we thank you.

Let me welcome friends from around campus: Provost Gary Schuster, Vice President Barrett Carson, and Associate Vice President Marta Garcia; and let me recognize Elena Fash, who with Sharon Galloway supported their dedicated husbands, deans Fash and Galloway, who shaped the evolution of this College for more than thirty years—a third of the program’s existence. Both Bill and Tom are in our minds tonight.

Thanks to our sponsors… to AIA Atlanta for all they do for the profession and for the city; to the Architectural Record, our media sponsor and the only serious architectural magazine in the nation, and vital to the profession; to our friends from Design Within Reach, Knoll, and Herman Miller—these are national institutions that lead in the promotion of good design. They donated these three seminal chairs, which will go to individuals with the most inspired costume in the competition later in the evening.  Also, thank you to Kawneer—world leader in aluminum products for the building industry, many designed here in Georgia—and its CEO, Glen Morrison. Kawneer, through Glen, generously provided the aluminum posts that hold these billowing sheets. The Alumni Committee for lending great enthusiasm as well as financial encouragement, and especially to Jennifer Ball who embraced the event immediately and whose energy has been contagious—thank you, Jennifer.

So many have done so much to bring us together. I thank all the Class Champions and Host Committee Members—sixty and more—who encouraged you, and badgered you, and got you here, particularly Mary Turnipseed and Dick Bunn. I thank the staff who has worked hard to perfect all aspects of the evening’s performance particularly assistant dean Leslie Sharp, the College communications officer Teri Nagel and the College development director and party planner extraordinaire Lucie André.

The experimental music that you create in the forest of gauze is the work of the exceptional Gil Weinberg, director of the Center for Music Technology.  And Kawneer’s donation of aluminum—it is all around you right now—went straight into the hands and the truck of Tristan Al-Haddad whom we all must thank for his visionary installation. Tristan is an alumnus and gifted faculty member, and when the concept of the party began to germinate we talked to a tent company and when Tristan heard he said anything they can do I can do better.  He and his team deserve more thanks than we can give. He is a living demonstration of the program’s greatness. And he is currently in deep disguise among us. Thank you, Tristan and the team, we will respect your wish to remain hidden.

Many other unmentioned have made all this possible—my thanks to them all and I specially thank each of you for being here.

At the end of the evening you will receive a gift, a gloriously illustrated history of one hundred years of architecture at Georgia Tech—the work of Betty Dowling and graduate student Lisa Thomason. This is a brilliant record of creativity which comes, above all, from the interaction between gifted faculty and inspired and ambitious students—graduates like you.

Your confidence in your chosen careers has always been bolstered by your knowledge that it was based on your Georgia Tech degree, and I want to continue in the path of leading this school to take its place at the very top of the best design schools. But to do so in these constrained times I will need your help. Think about what you want your diploma to continue to mean and consider what Tech has made possible for you—and as my development director cries out at the least excuse: Stay connected; get invested. You are needed.

And now, to the Shutze Medal, and to our honoree this evening, Cecil Alexander.

The award was created through the efforts of someone who is here this evening. Ken Gwinner, AIA, BS Arch 1879, M Arch 1983, was chapter president of the AIAS when in 1981 they decided to initiate an award recognizing the alumni and friends and faculty who had made a significant contribution to the life of the school. It was named in honor of one of the earliest graduates of the Architecture Program of the Georgia School of Technology – as it was then known—the most gifted classical architect of his generation—Philip Trammell Shutze.

The first recipient was Philip Shutze, class of 1912, who received the award in 1981 in a ceremony in which I was certainly present. The medal has only been awarded eight times in these last 28 years:

 1981          Philip Trammell Shutze, BS ARCH 1912; Rome Prize, 1915

1982           Julian Hoke Harris, BS ARCH 1928; AIA Fine Arts Medal, 1954

1983           Preston Standish Stevens, Sr., Class of 1919

1984          Paul Malcolm Heffernan, Faculty, 1938-1976; Director, 1956-1975
                  Dean, 1975-1976; honorary alumnus; Paris Prize, 1935

1987           Hugh A. Stubbins, BS ARCH 1933

1992           James Harrison “Bill” Finch, BS ARCH 1936

1998           Joseph Newton Smith, III, BS ARCH 1948; B ARCH 1949
                  Faculty, 1963-1982; Assistant Director, 1971-1977; Assistant Dean, 1977-1982

1999           Thomas W. Ventulett, III, B ARCH 1957

.. and now Cecil Alexander who once worked with Philip Shutze. Cecil, join me here please.

Throughout the many parts of his life—as fighter pilot, as civil rights leader, or as progressive architect—Cecil has consistently displayed both strength of character and above all courage, whether in battle over the Pacific, facing tragedy, or advancing the art of design.

His intelligence, his judgment, and his vision have always been fortified by courage, by a willingness to take risks, by a willingness to lead both the community and the profession in exploring the promise of a modern world. 
           
Now more than ever, the architect needs to renew the promise of modernism, and the achievements of Cecil’s career must be seen as exemplary to today’s graduates.

Two quotes sum up this quality of courage. Harper Lee wrote: Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. Which is echoed in the words of Winston Churchill: Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

For courage and the excellence in all that he has achieved we honor Cecil Alexander with the Shutze Medal just as he honors us by having Georgia Tech among the schools that prepared him to practice.

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Host Committee and Class Champions

We thank the following individuals for their help in realizing the potential of Function Forming Fashion:

1940s
David O. Savini ; Francis B. Sheetz Jr.; Frank J. Bull

1950s
Stanley W. Armistead; Grady R. Smith; Preston J. Stevens, Jr. FAIA Emeritus; Jack E. Cavender, AIA Emeritus; Francis Lott; John A. Busby,  FAIA, HFRAIA, HFRAIAC

1960s
Jack K. Bailey, Jr.; Ennis Parker; Larry Lord, FAIA; James A. Larkin, RA; Merrill Elam; James R. (Rusty) Barber; Niles Bolton; Joseph Trammell, AIA

1970s
Eric F. Anderson, AIA; Allen Hoss; James R. McAuliffe, AIA; Pete Polites; Ray Hoover; Eduardo Bendeck ;Michael Lehman, AIA; A. Richard Bunn, AIA; Robert Colyer; Wylie Gaston; Grant Moseley; Thomas S. Woodward, AIA; Kevin Cantley; Michael B. Randall; Janet C. Campbell; Jim Griffo, AIA, IIDA; Robert E. Meaders, AIA, ASID; Janice Nease Wittschiebe, AIA; Rick Standard, AIA

1980s
Linda D'Orazio MacArthur; Miriam Williams Dolson; Kirk Marchisen; Tim Fish; Howard Wertheimer; Jones Lindgren; Richard Nelson, AIA ;Amy Choate; David Ramsey; Ken Gwinner, AIA; Ron Stang; David Brown; Shannon Kay Fickling; Dawn Mixon Bennett, AIA, LEED® AP; Michael Neiswander; Alice Lorentzson Johnson; Benjamin Elliott, AIA; Bruce Wise; Mary Turnipseed; Preston Bennett; Mark Arnold

1990s
Mike Service; Andrew Seward Duncan, IATSE; Mark Williams; Scott West; Eve Szentesi RA; Jennifer Ball; Ed Akins II, AIA, LEED® AP; Ryan Gravel; Richard DuCree; Steve Foran, AIA, LEED® AP; Christopher Leersen; Nadine Levy

2000s
Rajiv Wanasundera; Katherine Molyson; Tristan Al-Haddad; Cassi Niemann; Kyle Kessler; Ansley Whipple; Tiffany R. Tesfamichael; Catherine Fitzgerald; Tony Piede, LEED® AP; Robert Smith; Amelia Mendez

 

 

FUNCTION FORMING FASHION launches a new century of design education

Atlanta (April 28, 2009) — Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture rang in its next 100 years at FUNCTION FORMING FASHION - a stylish affair inside an original installation environment on campus.

Alumnus, artist and architecture instructor Tristan Al-Haddad is the visionary who brought FUNCTION FORMING FASHION to life with an installation that celebrates and intertwines with the College’s two main buildings on campus. “Two orders of responsive space create a scaffold that transformed the celebration into a ubiquitous performance of interactivity and dialog between user and environment,” said Al-Haddad, who recently was awarded a prestigious Fulbright exchange position to Chile. “In the courtyard between [the two architecture buildings] a reactive tensile membrane creates a continuous translucent canopy of sensual doubly curved surfaces that are pushed and pulled, up and down, left and right, as it negotiates its own internal material logic with the desires and stimulations of the bodies that occupy its interiority.”

The inside of the building is invaded by a cloud of hung fabric columns creating a new inverted landscape overhead,” said Al-Haddad. “The glowing columns are charged with wireless sensing technology to track and react to movements and gestures. The result is an immersive interactive audio/visual landscape of algorithmically generated interlocking motifs.”

“This is our time to flaunt the great pride we have in the talents of our alumni and in our remarkable history,” said Alan Balfour, Dean of the College. “And in the spirit of awe-inspiring design, we wanted to create an experience that would properly launch the next century of architectural education at Georgia Tech.”

Guests donned “creative architectural black tie” attire - wildly interpretive ensembles mixed and mingled with bold political statements. Architecture students also made a cameo, performing for guests their visions for the architecture of the next one-hundred years. Balfour presented beloved designer Cecil Alexander with the Shutze Alumni Award, and commended for a courageous life, both personally and professionally. Honored guests Val and Bud Peterson - the newly appointed President of Georgia Tech - joined faculty, alumni and friends for an evening of unparalleled delight in design.

Set in the largest city in the southeast United States, the College’s students, faculty and alumni are largely credited with forming early Atlanta suburbs as well as the city’s distinctive skyline. The legacy endures today nationally and internationally, with proven leadership in research including urban design and high performance building. The event culminated the centennial year that welcomed notable alumni to the lecture stage and celebrated archival student work in a three-part exhibition and in a limited edition book that was released at the celebration.

Exhibition and 160-page book curated/edited by Elizabeth M. Dowling and Lisa M. Thomason featuring student works since 1908   

August 27, 2008	John C. Portman, BS ARCH 1950 Download Portman Centennial Lecture
September 10, 2008	Merrill Elam, B ARCH 1971 and Mack Scogin, B ARCH 1967 Download Elam and Scogin Centennial Lecture
September 24, 2008	Anthony Ames, B ARCH 1968 Download Ames Centennial Lecture
October 15, 2008	Ivenue Love-Stanley, B ARCH 1977 and William J. Stanley III, B ARCH 1972 Download Stanley, Love-Stanley Centennial Lecture
October 29, 2008	K. Michael Hays, B ARCH 1976
November 5, 2008	Thomas W. Ventulett, III, BS ARCH 1957, B ARCH 1958, and partners
November 12, 2008	Michael Arad, M ARCH 1999 Download Arad Centennial Lecture
January 7, 2009	Manuel Cadrecha, BS ARCH 1977, M ARCH 1979 Download Cadrecha Centennial Lecture
January 21, 2009	The Future of ‘The Firm’ Marvin Housworth, B ARCH 1963; Janice Wittschiebe, BS ARCH 1978, M ARCH 1980; Kevin Cantley, B ARCH 1976, M ARCH 1978; G. Niles Bolton, B ARCH 1968; William H. Harrison, B ARCH 1971; Bulent Baydar, BS ARCH 1993, M ARCH 1995; Cannon Reynolds, BS ARCH 1993, M ARCH 1996; George Heery, B ARCH 1951; David Goodman, BS ARCH 2004, M ARCH 2006; Susan Lineberry Baron, M ARCH 1997; Kahlillah Dotson Mosley, M ARCH 2004 Download 'The Future of The Firm ' Centennial Lecture
February 4, 2009	Harry C. Wolf, III, BS ARCH 1958 Download Wolf Centennial Lecture
February 18, 2009	One Hundred Years of Architectural Education Elizabeth M. Dowling, B ARCH 1971; Robert M. Craig; George B. Johnston; Alan Balfour Download 'One Hundred Years ... ' Centennial Lecture
March 4, 2009	Transforming Urbanism Brian Leary, BS ARCH 1996, MCP 1998; Ryan A. Gravel, ARCH 1995, M ARCH/MCP 1999; Steven R. Cover, BS ARCH 1978, M ARCH/ MCP 1981; David Green, BS ARCH 1987, M ARCH 1991; Edward McKinney, M ARCH/MCP 1996; Bob Begle, M ARCH 1993 Download 'Transforming Urbanism' Centennial Lecture
March 25, 2009	Libero Andreotti, PhD, BS ARCH 1980, M ARCH 1982 Download Andreotti Centennial Lecture
April 1, 2009	Jerome M. Cooper, BS ARCH 1952, B ARCH 1955

Lecture Gallery

View Centennial Lecture Poster designed by Armchair Media