American architect Thomas Gordon Smith, a leading figure of postmodernism and traditionalism, has died

Professor Thomas Gordon Smith lectures at the Brno University of Technology, October 20, 2014. (photo: Karel Struhala)

On the night of June 22-23, 2021, architect Thomas Gordon Smith passed away at the age of 73 after a long illness. This was reported by the Notre Dame School of Architecture (Indiana, USA).

Smith was born in Oakland, California on April 23, 1948. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, initially focusing on painting (bachelor's degree in 1970) and then architecture (master's degree in 1975). He divided his professional career between design work, teaching architecture, and researching classical architectural traditions, which he was convinced of the viability of in modern times since his youth.

From 1980 to 2015, he ran his own architectural studio. He gained international fame with his installation at the La Strada Novissima exhibition at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 1980. He designed several family homes in various locations across the USA (Richmond Hill House, California, 1982; Vitruvian House, South Bend, 1990), renovated older classical buildings, and more recently focused particularly on the design of sacred objects (Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Denton, Nebraska, completed 2010). Tourists may recognize his installation of classical American interiors at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Smith gained his first teaching experience in California (College of Marin, University of California, Southern California Institute of Architecture). In 1984, architect Stanley Tigerman (1930-2019) attracted Smith to the University of Illinois at Chicago, where Smith's course in classical design was meant to complement Peter Eisenman's deconstructivist course. A similar subject was taught by Smith at Yale. In 1989, he became the dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame. He drastically reformed the school, which was then at risk of losing accreditation: he oriented the teaching style traditionally, combining Beaux-Arts methodology with current practices (contemporary construction, computer design) and the study of masterpieces in the field (a year-long stay at the Rome branch of the school). At Notre Dame, he also established an exclusive library with rare European and American treatises and samples of classical architecture. Smith led the faculty until 1998 and continued teaching there until 2016. The Notre Dame School of Architecture became a key focal point for contemporary traditionalism and a mother school for similar programs founded subsequently in the USA and other parts of the world. The American Institute of Classical Architecture and Art awarded Smith the Arthur Ross Award for teaching achievements in 2017.

Smith wrote one of the best existing books on Vitruvius, accompanied by illustrative examples (Vitruvius on Architecture, 2003). He embedded his creed in the book Classical Architecture: Rule and Invention (1988). In addition, he authored several studies focusing, for example, on the history of American classical architecture and furniture in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Thomas Gordon Smith visited the Czech lands twice: in 1976 and in 2014. The first visit was a study trip where he was mainly interested in the works of Kilian Ignác Dientzenhofer and Jože Plečnik. He was guided by Prague conservationist Miloš Pistorius (1932-2015) at that time. Nearly forty years later, on October 20, 2014, Smith delivered a lecture titled Rule and Invention in Classical Architecture at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Brno University of Technology. The following day, he participated in an excursion to Žďár nad Sázavou with design theorist Jan Michl and faculty members and students of the Department of Architecture at VUT, visiting the works of Jan Santini, whose work—like that of Dientzenhofer and Plečnik—he regarded as evidence of the inexhaustible creative potential of the classical architectural language.

Throughout his life, architect Smith was supported by his wife Marika (married in 1970). They raised six children together. Former students fondly remember Smith: as a teacher, he was patient and attentive. His deliberate, carefully constructed explanations were infused with genuine love for classical architecture. He could instantly identify subtle details in a cornice or column capital, place them in the context of the Greco-Roman tradition, and attractively narrate about them. He found friends and grateful listeners among architects, archaeologists, and art historians, including the author of these lines.

More info:
https://news.nd.edu/news/in-memoriam-architecture-chair-professor-emeritus-thomas-gordon-smith/
https://www.tgsarch.com/thomas-gordon-smith