Situated in the Green Building—the home of the School of Architecture—Dean Alan Balfour’s office is unlike those I have encountered in the course of writing my column. The space seemed very specifically arranged, although I can’t ascribe that feeling to any one detail. All I can say is that it felt “well designed.” We sat down at a small, round meeting table with a view of the Hassan Quadrangle, opposite a wall of bookcases and a desk.
Balfour is originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, where many of his family members still reside. “Edinburgh is one of the great architectural cities of Europe, and so it had a great influence on my career,” he remarked with a noticable Scottish accent. “In Europe, many architecture schools are also linked with schools of painting, so I did that as well,” he continued. Balfour received a degree in architecture from the Edinburgh College of Art in 1961, and then began graduate studies on a Fulbright scholarship to Princeton University in 1963. “The comparison between [a] European education and [an] American education is quite salutary. I loved [the] European education, but [an] American education is tough. Princeton was very disciplined,” he recalled.
After entering practice back in Europe, Balfour was soon asked to return to the U.S. to become a part of a group at Alfred D. Little doing research in urban planning design. While working there, he was also a research professor at MIT, where he conducted his first major academic research. “Some schools at the time were questioning the value of traditional architecture education, and we examined the transactions in five schools across the country,” explained Balfour. “We found that the studio is the most fertile place to learn anything.”
Balfour was then recruited by Georgia Tech to direct the undergraduate programs in architecture. There he designed a master’s program for the architecture school and built up the school’s faculty. “Atlanta was just beginning to go through a period of growth. It’s still a marvelous city today, and it was an interesting environment to work in,” he added. Balfour was instrumental in creating the Architecture Society of Atlanta, and helped to unify the local architecture community. Once he was ready to move on to a new challenge, he accepted a position as dean of architecture at Rice University.
“Rice is marvelous, but the weather was certainly difficult,” laughed Balfour. He wasn’t in Houston for long, however, as he was presented with a unique opportunity. “The most interesting school of the avant-garde in the English speaking world is the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London … and they voted me their new chairman!” he stated. Balfour helped bring the association out of the red and oversaw a broad range of academic publications, discussions, and programs. After several years at the helm of the school, he stepped down. “It was wonderful, but absolutely exhausting,” stated Balfour, who confessed that he enjoys running architecture schools but also equally enjoys writing books. Leaving London allowed him more time to publish his books, which he sees as critical to his profession and his teaching.
The dean position at Rensselaer’s architecture school opened and Balfour was intrigued. Joining the school in 1996, he has helped develop the teaching and programs academically, as well as continually improveing research, including the development of the Lighting Research Center. In 2000, he was awarded the Topaz Medallion, the American Institute of Architects’ lifetime achievement honor.
In his spare time, Balfour enjoys traveling around the world. (He visited Syria, Istanbul, Damascus, and the Golan Heights, all within the last month). He also spends time writing and researching. “We shouldn’t be afraid to think. Sometimes we are limited by our guidelines, and there is a danger to that. The world is an extraordinary place, but sometimes it seems that scholarship prevents me from saying things about what I’m working on,” observed Balfour.
His new book, World Cities: Shanghai, will be published in June 2002. Balfour can be contacted at bafloa@rpi.edu.
Next Week: Claude Rounds, Vice President for Administration
