Professor honored in architecture book
By JOHN FANNING
News Writer
Architecture Professor Thomas Gordon Smith, who has been with the University since 1989, had his work and achievements featured in a book entitled, "Thomas Gordon Smith and the Rebirth of Classical Architecture."
The book, written by fellow architect Richard John, a professor at the University of Miami, presents a monograph of Smith's support of the Classical revival in architecture, and his lifetime achievements in the field.
Growing up in the San Francisco area, which is well know for its inspiring architecture, Smith became interested in the field very early on, and by the age of 12 had already set his sights on becoming an architect. Further, after traveling all over Mexico and Europe with his family and spending his first year of college in Paris, Smith had the opportunity to expose himself to many different cultures and types of architecture.
After graduating from the University of California-Berkeley with a liberal arts degree, Smith went on to study architecture at Berkeley graduate school, where he completed his masters degree in architecture after three years. Smith graduated in 1975, and then worked for an architectural firm for several years in order to qualify himself to become a licensed practitioner in the field.
Since becoming a certified architect, Smith has won many awards and his career has been filled with many noteworthy achievements. In 1979, his work was displayed in New York City and then later in Venice, as part of an exhibit entitled, "The Presence of the Past." In 1980, Smith was awarded the prestigious Rome Prize, which gave him the opportunity to study in Rome for an entire year.
"That was an invaluable time for me because it was when I made the decision to make classical architecture my focus," said Smith. "That was a critical year."
Though Smith had always been most fascinated with classical work, there was a strong modernist trend at the time, which had pushed more traditional work out of the spotlight.
Since that time, Smith served as a visiting professor at both Yale and UCLA and as an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago before becoming a chairman of the Notre Dame School of Architecture in 1989. Upon coming to Notre Dame he insisted upon maintaining his classical focus, and actually started the classical school of Architecture at Notre Dame.
"Notre Dame was the first school to reestablish a Classical focus after the post-world war European Modernism movement took over," Smith said.
Throughout his career at Notre Dame, Smith spent nine years as the chair of the classical school and five years as a professor, in addition to designing Bond Hall, which currently houses the school of Architecture.
Moreover, since stepping down from his chair position, Smith has dedicated much more time to his professional work, with his company Thomas Gordon Smith Architects, which is based in South Bend. With the company Smith has focused primarily on residential work as well as work for the Catholic Church. In fact, one of Smith's proudest accomplishments is the design of a Benedictine monastery in Oklahoma, which was completed very recently.
In addition to numerous other awards, projects and achievements, Smith's own home was actually featured as part of a three-part series done by Bob Villa entitled, "Bob Villa's Guide to Historic Homes."
The book highlights all of these accomplishments as well as many others that have occurred throughout Smith's long and impressive career as a Classical architect, and became available in print last December.
When asked if he had any advice for those going into architecture, or any field for that matter, Smith said, "Love your profession, love your work and that will supply the motivation that you need."
All News Stories for Tuesday, April 16, 2002
