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IN MEMORIAM
CHARLES WILLARD
MOORE
Charles Willard Moore was
born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, on October 31, 1925. He studied architecture
at the University of Michigan, taught first at the University of Utah,
served in the army during the Korean War, worked briefly in the Bay
Area, and then returned to study for a master’s degree and PhD
at Princeton. He went on to teach at Princeton and was assistant to
Louis Kahn in the conduct of the master’s studio for 1958-59. He
became one of the most influential architects of the 20th century and
an innovative educator in several of the nation’s top schools of
architecture. He taught at The University of Texas School of Architecture
from September 1984 until his death on December 16, 1993.
In his graduate studies,
Charles was a distinct presence at Princeton, lending his wry, exceptional
insights and comments to any who discounted his initial shyness. Charles
was always extending the range of what students saw in the drafting
room. His subjects of study bypassed the conventions of the profession,
his drawings had unfamiliar proportions, his references to other places
were exotic and captivating. As an assistant teacher, first to Enrico
Peressutti and then to Louis Kahn, he was extraordinarily helpful,
teasing out design moves from students that they would not otherwise
have known
they could make, proffering confidence in the force of imagination.
Outside the studio, he led students to see voraciously and sympathetically,
reaching out to places with an abandon that mocked the strictures of
stylistic dogma. He brought a range of knowledge that was inspiring
and a capacity for recollection that was continually astounding. He
referred to Walter Pater’s injunction to "Burn with a hard gem-like
flame." He lived that way, but in such an unassuming, humorous way
that the heat of the flame spread almost surreptitiously through
his surroundings
and among those who knew him.
Moore was recruited to
the University of California at Berkeley faculty by William Wurster
in 1959. He taught and served as chairman of the architecture department
until 1965, when he moved to head the Department of Architecture at
Yale University, where he later became dean. Later still, he moved
to
UCLA and finally to The University of Texas at Austin, where he held
the O’Neil Ford Centennial Chair. He was recruited to UT by Dean
Hal Box to conduct a post-professional graduate program in the School
of Architecture.
In each of these schools,
Moore created a legacy of innovation in architecture. At Berkeley he
was instrumental in expanding the department’s mission, initiating
new courses, encouraging broader interest in history and research,
fostering
an exploratory attitude toward design, and recruiting many of the faculty
who have subsequently become identified with Berkeley’s leadership
in education.
At Yale, Moore presided
over a transformation in the school’s orientation and initiated
a building program for the first-year graduate students that is still
an honored part of the curriculum. At UCLA, Moore’s leadership
as program chair brought many interesting faculty to the school and
was central to the formation and success of the Urban Innovations Group,
a practice wing in the school that created new opportunities for students
and faculty to become actively engaged in real projects.
At UT, Charles initiated
a program of travel and study for graduate students, connecting their
studio experience to that of actual conditions of specific places,
and
turning attention to the variety of places that can stimulate design
ideas. He encouraged students to "Look at places, listen to people." In
his ten years at Texas, Charles attracted students from around the
world as well as a continuous flow of professional colleagues.
At each stage of his career,
he initiated architectural offices (always in generous collaboration
with younger colleagues) and created startling, provocative buildings
that have continued to be important in architectural discourse. At
Berkeley, the construction of his own house in Orinda served as inspiration
to
a generation of students, and the work of MLTW (Moore Lyndon Turnbull
Whitaker) became known internationally, especially their work at Sea
Ranch, beginning in 1964. (In 1991 the Sea Ranch Condominium won the
AIA Twenty-Five Year Award.) While teaching at Yale he created the
firm
now known as Centerbrook. At UCLA, in addition to the Urban Innovations
Group, he was a founding partner of Moore, Ruble, Yudell. In Austin,
Moore and Arthur Anderson formed a partnership that has operated out
of a compound that included the house and studio in which he lived
and
worked, surrounded by his library, portions of his extraordinary toy
collection, and many colleagues, friends, and travel plans.
Moore’s writings have
also proven to be very influential, including early, formative articles
in Perspecta and Landscape magazines and a succession
of twelve co-authored books, including: The Place of Houses;
Dimensions; Body, Memory, and Architecture; The Poetics
of Gardens; Water and Architecture; and Chambers for
a Memory Palace, which Donlyn Lyndon co-authored.
In 1991 the American Institute
of Architects awarded Charles Moore its Gold Medal in recognition of
the scope and importance of his contributions to architecture. The
University
of Texas Tower was lit with orange lights as it is when faculty receive
a Nobel Prize. In 1989 he received the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for
lifetime achievement in architectural education. These awards were
the highest honors awarded in his professions, architecture and teaching.
Charles and his collaborators received many design awards and his works
have been published in every major architectural magazine, in most
anthologies
of contemporary architecture, and in a dozen monographs devoted to
his work.
An extensive bibliography,
as submitted by the memorial resolution committee, is on file in the
Office of the General Faculty.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
This memorial resolution
was prepared by a special committee consisting of Professors Hal Box
(chair), Richard Dodge, and Simon Atkinson, adapted from a brief biography
by Professor Donlyn Lyndon, University of California at Berkeley.
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