… from students and classmates of Charles Gwathmey, the architect. He died on Monday.
From a New York Times comment thread:
… Professor Gwathmey’s most important lesson [as an architecture professor at UCLA in the ‘seventies] was surprisingly personal, and not technical or aesthetic. He taught us all that that it is ultimately the individual architect who must synthesize all of the many factors & forces which impact any final building design, and thus architects must nurture the courage to establish that balanced design which best reflects a comprehensive solution, shorn of any single preconceived design ideology.
He also taught us that whenever as architects we are asked why we made any given design decision, the always-correct answer should be: “Because, after careful consideration, that is the way that I thought best as to how it should be, all things considered in good balance.”
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Charlie taught a visiting critic’s design studio at UT Austin in the early 90s. i remember seeing him in the architecture building courtyard doing yoga, way before anyone cool did yoga…