Vitruvius on the Plains: 
Architectural Thought at Kansas - 1912-2012
Edited by Stephen Grabow

$25.00.

To mark the centennial of architectural education at the University of Kansas, we are offering a book consisting of a selection of faculty writings since 1912.

From Goldwin Goldsmith, former apprentice to Stanford White and first Professor of Architecture, through the changeover from Beaux Arts design instruction to the influence of the Chicago School, the modernism of the Bauhaus, the social concerns of the 1960’s and 70s to recent issues of technology, aesthetics and the environment, the writings portray a reflective body of thought by a diverse group of individuals – most of whom, like Goldsmith, bring an urban, cosmopolitan and international perspective to this school on the Plains.

An introductory essay gives a brief history of the school and its faculty, focusing on strong connections to Wright and Sullivan, to Cornell and Texas architecture schools, exchange programs with British and German schools and the influence of the endowed professorships of Victor Papanek (of Design for the Real World), Wojciech Lesnikowski (who worked for Le Corbusier), Peter Pran (who worked for Mies van der Rohe) and Dan Rockhill (whose Studio 804 has won many awards).

Today, under Dean John Gaunt, former student of Louis Kahn and head of Ellerbe Becket, many of the faculty are considered leading proponents of their area of specialization, including design-build, health-care and wellness, computer graphics, residential and urban design, historical and biographic research, sustainability, design theory and criticism. They are characterized by connections to manyof the most important intellectual movements in architectural education, professional experiences in major centers of practice, personal collaborations with leading members of the field, international training and experience, an affinity for rational and scientific approaches, an openness to experimentation and an aesthetic sensibility that is historically cultivated and socially humane.

Like Vitruvius writing down his ideas as a record of experience in the outer reaches of the Roman Empire, this publication represents a selection of the faculty’s published thoughts out on the Great Plains. From Goldsmith’s reflections on working for McKim, Mead & White and Curtis Besinger’s description of his first arrival at Taliesin, through Steven Padget’s analysis of Christopher Wren’s use of Christian Cabala and Harris Stone’s “Dispersed City of the Plains,” to Peter Pran’s thoughts on the role of women in architecture and Paola Sanguinetti’s description of using building information modeling technology, thirty six essays are included. Edited by Stephen Grabow, its publication will not only celebrate the centennial of architectural education at Kansas but will serve to illustrate our intellectual connections to various schools of thought over the past century and provide a glimpse into their convergence at a single institution whose mission is to educate a new generation of architects for a changing world while retaining important connections to the past.