Face of the AIA

Summary: Thomas R. Fisher, Assoc. AIA, is dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota and president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. The author of five books, including In the Scheme of Things: Alternative Thinking on the Practice of Architecture (2000) and Architectural Design and Ethics (2008), he is one of the profession’s most innovative thinkers and has authored numerous book chapters and more than 250 major articles. His essays have appeared in Architect, Architectural Record, and other leading journals, including Progressive Architecture and Building Renovation, for both of which he was editorial director.

Occupation: I’m a professor and dean, although I also think of myself as a writer.

Education: BArch from Cornell University; graduate degree in intellectual history from Case Western Reserve.

Hobbies: I paint, play guitar, and write. Writing is as much an avocation as it is a vocation for me.

Career arc: Back in the '70s and ‘80s, I worked for architecture firms in Ohio and Connecticut, then as a state historical architect for Connecticut. I joined Progressive Architecture magazine as an editor in 1982 and worked there until it folded in 1996, after which I became the dean at Minnesota.

Last book read: On Architecture, an excellent compendium of Ada Louise Huxtable's architectural criticism.

Source of inspiration: One of the people who had a big impact on my life was the writer and New Yorker architecture critic, Lewis Mumford, who I was fortunate to meet and interact with when he was elderly and I was still in college. He talked about how architects used to be more at the center of intellectual life in this country, and that we had largely given up our place as public intellectuals, which he thought was a shame, given the importance the physical environment has on our lives. I've been trying to live up to that challenge ever since.

Place you’d most like to visit: India. It’s a place I’ve never been, but we have a lot of Indian students and I’ve learned a lot about it. I’ve been to many of the usual places in Europe and Asia, but India is a country that still fascinates me.

Greatest professional challenge: Being a dean involves wearing several hats. At times, I’m a CEO of a $24 million operation, which is the size of this college. At other times, I'm like the mayor of a town, moving the organization forward with tenured faculty, who can vote me out of office and who are like the residents of a community: more or less permanent unless they decide to leave. I also teach classes, write books, give talks, serve on boards, help select architects, write articles and opinion pieces—doing everything that I can to help restore architecture's rightful place closer to the center of public discourse and debate.

Issues facing interns: The economic situation clearly presents an enormous challenge for those entering architecture. At the same time, the period we are in holds some of the greatest opportunities for recent graduates willing to think broadly about themselves and their careers. We have several billion people on the planet in desperate need of better shelter, improved sanitation, and more secure communities. We have half the species on the planet facing extinction because of the thoughtless destruction of their habitat through overdevelopment. And we have global climate change that will remake where and how humans inhabit the planet, requiring the redesign of almost every object and environment based on how much water it uses, carbon it emits, habitat it destroys, and waste it creates. At the same time, we have newfound respect in the business community, which has discovered the value of design thinking as a strategic competitive advantage and the importance of creativity and innovation in the global economy.

So even as the traditional path to architecture practice has shrunk because of the recession, opportunities for architecturally educated people have never been greater. We will see, in this decade, the rise of whole new fields. One will be a public health version of architecture, in which architects, in partnership with a range of other disciplines, will develop low-cost, locally made, appropriate solutions to the needs of millions of people, with clients such as the World Bank, World Health Organization, and the Gates Foundation funding this work. Another will be a strategic thinking version of architecture, in which architects will not only design facilities for businesses but also participate in their strategy development and in their creative evolution of products and services, something that business leaders like Roger Martin, the dean of Toronto's business school, have long advocated.

Advice for young architects: Think broadly about your skills. Get engaged in your community. Do what you love, even if you have to volunteer initially, for it will eventually turn into a paying job, which you may have to create yourself. Imagine the world as you think it should be and then act, in everything you do, as if the change has already happened. Pay attention to what people—and the planet—really need and then create a practice that meets those needs, even if it looks nothing like a traditional architecture firm. If you stay focused on the work that needs doing in the world, you will discover that there is more than enough for you to do and that the world will find a way to help you do it.

(adapted from AIArchitect, Doer’s Profile, vol. 13, October 13, 2006)

Copyright 2006, The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.