In 1961, while he was a master’s student at the Yale School of Art and Architecture (as it was known before it was split into separate institutions in 1972), Lord Norman Foster ’62 M. Arch. had to design a skyscraper.
A native of Manchester, England — an industrial city whose skyline at the time was still decidedly low-rise — Foster felt ill-prepared for the project. He asked Paul Rudolph, then the chair of Yale’s Department of Architecture and already a leading figure in the field, if he could partner with an engineer.
“Of course, this was anathema to Paul Rudolph,” Foster said during a Sept. 3 talk at the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA), explaining that the educator had firmly believed that engineers should follow the architect’s lead. “Against all convention, he found an engineer to work alongside me and that has been a formative influence ever since.”
For Foster, who today is one of the world’s most distinguished architects, the experience was a lesson in the value of teamwork.
“I found I was empowered,” he said. “I had more knowledge by that parallel working. I was stronger, if you like, as a designer.”
Hearst Tower in New York City, designed by Foster and completed in 2006.
Earlier in the lecture, which was part of the YCBA’s “Architects in Conversation” series and drew a capacity crowd, Foster had emphasized the importance of multi-disciplinary collaboration to successful design, stating that “architecture is too important to be left to architects alone.”
“A holistic view of the world demands a simultaneous inquiry creatively by all the professions working together,” he told the audience. “That is not design by committee. That is empowering designers with more knowledge of the issues.”
One of the Yale School of Architecture’s most celebrated alums, Foster is the founder and executive chairman of Foster + Partners, a global studio for architecture, urbanism, and design rooted in sustainability. He was the 1999 recipient of the Pritzker Prize in Architecture, one of the field’s most prestigious honors. His works include Hearst Tower in New York City, the Millennium Bridge in London, the HSBC Main Building in Hong Kong, Apple Park in Cupertino, California, and Edward P. Evans Hall, the home of the Yale School of Management.
Evans Hall courtyard
Following his introductory presentation, Foster was joined by Deborah Berke, the Edward P. Bass Dean and J.M. Hoppin Professor of Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture, for a conversation about his work and his time as a Yale student.
Asking Foster about his experiences at Yale, Berke focused specifically on the influence of four individuals: Rudolph, who chaired the Department of Architecture from 1958 to 1965; Serge Chermayeff, a prominent architect who taught at Yale from 1962 to 1972; Vincent Scully, the celebrated art historian who taught generations of students to appreciate architecture’s importance to the broader culture; and Louis Kahn, who designed the YCBA and the Yale University Art Gallery where Foster toiled in top-floor studio spaces as a graduate student.
“How would you describe your education around those characters?” Berke asked.
In reply, Foster noted that Kahn’s design for the Art Gallery demonstrates how architects learn from each other, explaining that the geometric pattern in the building’s ceiling was influenced by the work of the American architect and futurist Buckminster Fuller.
“That diagrid ceiling is pure Buckminster Fuller,” he said. “It could not have happened without Bucky.”
Paul Rudolph, third from left, inspecting the presentation model of Yale’s Art and Architecture Building with Gibson A. Danes, dean of the then-School of Art and Architecture; architecture professor Serge Chermayeff; and August Heckscher, Cultural Advisor to President Kennedy.
He recalled the contrast between the strait-laced, Kentucky-born Rudolph and the debonair European Chermayeff.
“You could not imagine two more dissimilar people,” he said. “If Rudolph had the American crewcut, then Chermayeff had the slicked, Brylcreemed hair. If one had the blazer, the other had the Savile Row suit.”
Rudolph prized action, Norman said.
“If you did not have something on your drawing board, a model or a drawing to show, there was no conversation,” he said. “It was about action and that’s a powerful incentive.”
On the other hand, Chermayeff was more interested in challenging students through dialogue, Foster said.
“Perhaps the ideal in practice, and something that I’ve sought to extend as an influence, is the importance of different voices,” he said. “The opportunity to challenge, to question, but finally, to act.”
A holistic view of the world demands a simultaneous inquiry creatively by all the professions working together. That is not design by committee. That is empowering designers with more knowledge of the issues.
The influence of Scully’s singular ability to bring history alive through his teaching is apparent in several of Foster’s projects, including the Reichstag Dome, a glass dome built atop the rebuilt government building in Berlin that offers a 360-degree view of the city, and The Great Court at the British Museum, he said.
“It’s a cliché perhaps, but if you really want to look far ahead into the future, then first [you must] look far back into the past,” he said.
A member of the audience asked Norman if he had any advice for graduate students at the School of Architecture. Foster advised young architects to “stay a student,” guidance that he tries to follow, he said.
“As a student, you have the ability to question and to challenge,” he said. “… At the same time, it’s also about listening and learning. But probably more than anything, it’s about staying humble and continuing to be open.”
Elaborating on the point, he suggested that young architects immerse themselves in all aspects of the building process.
“Get out onto the building site. Get out into the factories,” he said. “… Engage with those who are making. Be part of that process… Design, in that sense, is a total activity. It’s not just a drawing.”
