By Darryl Geddes
Former colleagues and students of Colin Rowe will return to Cornell this weekend to participate in a Festschrift honoring one of architecture's most influential scholars and one of its leading commentators.
Rowe, the Andrew Dickson White Professor of Architecture Emeritus, taught at Cornell from 1962 to 1990.
"Colin is one of the top three educators in architecture," said Fred Koetter, professor of architecture at Yale University, who taught with Rowe at Cornell from 1967 through 1973. "He has tremendous influence on practicing architects in the last two or three generations.
"Colin brought incredible insights into the nature of 20th-century architecture and contemporary architecture," said Koetter, co-author with Rowe of Collage City (MIT Press, 1978) who will moderate a panel discussion during the Festschrift. "Colin also brings a high degree of consciousness to the studies with respect to the nature and importance of the city."
Judy Wolin, head of the architecture department at Rhode Island School of Design, wrote her thesis under Rowe's supervision. "He was absolutely the most dominant influence in architecture for students from 1965 until 1980," she said. "His way of defining architectural problems was a reference point for a large circle of those teaching architecture in America."
Wolin will participate in a presentation titled "On Architectural Education," Saturday, April 27, at 3:30 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall
Kent Hubbell, chairman of Cornell's architecture department, will offer closing remarks at the Festschrift. "Colin's graduate program trained a generation of people who went on to find much success in architecture," he said.
Hubbell, who participated in one of Rowe's architecture workshops as a Cornell undergraduate, said Rowe was a "charismatic and fascinating teacher, who impressed his students with his breadth of discussion."
"Our view of the urban world is still very much influenced by Colin's views," he said.
The Festschrift, which opens Friday, April 26, at 1 p.m. in 115 Tjaden Hall with remarks by William McMinn, dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, will feature four major addresses, a panel discussion and eight papers delivered by Rowe's former students and colleagues. Rowe will speak Sunday, April 28, at 10:30 a.m. in Schwartz Auditorium.
For information, contact Gail Kolbe in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning's Public Affairs Office at 255-6808.