by Christopher Coe, AIA
CEO of COE Architecture International
I first met Charles Gwathmey when I was selected as the AIAS student representative on the 1983 National AIA Honor Awards Jury that he chaired. Of course I knew his work well, Five Architects was my primer in school. Three weeks later I moved to New York and started my architectural career at Gwathmey Siegel, even before finishing architecture school. It was the greatest education I could have received.
With Charles there was always great certainty about the approach to the work, that Modernism still had much to offer and that it could accept change and invention without losing its inherent power or meaning. In art, certainty this is hard to come by, but Charles was unrelenting in his beliefs about how he approached the work. There was certainly investigation and exploration, but always within that strict framework of belief. For a young architect beginning his career and looking for his “way” in the world, this was obviously appealing and inspiring.
The office was and still is simply unsurpassed in its devotion and execution to how buildings are conceptually and physically put together. There literally were internal “competitions” among different project teams to see who could put together the most complete, exacting, well-coordinated and beautiful set of construction drawings. It was a quest to uncover and solve every single minute detail of construction and to ensure the project was built exactly as envisioned. There was a tangible reverence for the craft of drawing and building. This is an extremely rare trait among architecture firms.
Photo caption: Charles Gwathmey (standing, third from left) chaired the 1983 AIA Honor Awards Jury on which Christopher Coe (seated, center) served, representing the American Institute of Architecture Students. Also on the jury were (seated left and right) David L. Browning and Graham Gund (standing left to right) George J. Hasslein, Bates Lowry, Milo Thompson, Robert J. Frasca, and Antoine Predock.
Since our first meeting Charles has been a great mentor and friend. Simply put, I would not be the architect I am today were it not for him. He pushed for my acceptance at his alma mater Yale University, sponsored my AIA Young Architect Award, and referred clients when I started my own firm. The exacting standards he set for himself, his office, and the work served as the benchmark for how I wanted to practice our art. In addition to his work, which will most certainly stand the test of time, he should also be remembered for the unyielding support he so willingly extended to many other younger architects like me.
I last saw Charles in November 2008 at Yale during the rededication of Paul Rudolph’s Art and Architecture Building that he so lovingly restored and to which he completed a new addition for the Art History Department. He looked thinner and tired; I thought from the monumental task he had just finished. I did not know then that he was ill. I told him I was happy for what he was able to do for his former teacher, Rudolph, and for Yale. He remarked something like “the press is going to kill us.” It was a moment of vulnerability I had never before seen from him. To me, he was always a unique paradox, tough-talking but with an astounding intellect, big in words, work, and life.
I let the comment pass but later that night I remembered a cutting quotation I had heard him deliver 25 years earlier in response to an architecture critic’s article about one of his house designs. To me, it summed up his supreme dedication to the art of architecture and the single-mindedness with which he pursued it. In his put-on tough-guy New York accent he shot back: “Misinterpretation is not the preoccupation of the original artist.”
Charles Gwathmey was an original, an artist, and he will be greatly missed."
Comments (5)
so informative, thanks to tell us.
Posted by Guirequarfdaf | September 29, 2010 6:44 PM
Posted on September 29, 2010 18:44
There is obviously a lot to know about this, I think you made some good points in Features also.
Posted by Philadelphia SEO | February 4, 2010 7:17 PM
Posted on February 4, 2010 19:17
As a grade school child his work spoke to me of the power of light and surface, as architecture and sculpture, illuminated my mind and empowered a capacity to see what could be and would be possible. We mourn the passing of a true giant.
Posted by Terry L. Walker | August 17, 2009 4:41 PM
Posted on August 17, 2009 16:41
Christopher Coe,
What a wonderful letter to write to honor your mentor, Charles Gwathmey. It was both interesting and touching, well done.
Having worked with young architects in my own office for the past 38 years it is nice to know that the mentoring process is worthwhile.
Regards,
Richard Fry
Posted by Richard E. Fry, FAIA | August 14, 2009 9:13 AM
Posted on August 14, 2009 09:13
The following information was posted on the Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Web site [http://www.gwathmey-siegel.com/]:
Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects deeply mourns the loss of our respected and beloved colleague, friend and mentor. We all feel very privileged to have worked with and learned from one of the great architects of our time. We are honored to have collaborated with Charles to help him realize a remarkable portfolio of built work spanning more than four decades. We have been and will always be inspired and guided by his dedication, prodigious talent, love of architecture, rigorous standards and enduring commitment to Modernism. As we go forward in our practice, we will continue to aspire to his example as an architect and a person. We offer our deepest sympathies to his wife Bette-Ann and his entire family.
A memorial service will be held at a later date. When details of the memorial service are available, we will post them on our website. The interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Charles Gwathmey Scholarship Fund at the Yale School of Architecture. Gifts should be directed to:
Yale University
c/o Monica C. Robinson
Yale University Office of Development
PO Box 2038
New Haven, CT 06521-2038
Charles Gwathmey received his Master of Architecture degree in 1962 from Yale University, where he won both The William Wirt Winchester Fellowship as the outstanding graduate and a Fulbright Grant.
In the decades since, Mr. Gwathmey has been honored with the Brunner Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1970 and elected to the Academy in 1976. In 1983, he won the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and in 1985, he received the first Yale Alumni Arts Award from the Yale School of Architecture. Three years later, the Guild Hall Academy of Arts awarded Mr. Gwathmey its Lifetime Achievement Medal in Visual Arts, followed in 1990 by a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York State Society of Architects.
Mr. Gwathmey has served as President of the Board of Trustees for The Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies and was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1981.
From 1965 through 1991, Mr. Gwathmey taught at Pratt Institute, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Texas, and the University of California at Los Angeles. He was Davenport Professor (1983 and 1999) and Bishop Professor (1991) at Yale, and the Eliot Noyes Visiting Professor at Harvard University (1985).
Mr. Gwathmey was the spring 2005 William A. Bernoudy Resident in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome.
Posted by Anonymous | August 13, 2009 3:32 PM
Posted on August 13, 2009 15:32