Malcolm Quantrill 1931–2009
-
Upload
bruce-webb -
Category
Documents
-
view
224 -
download
0
Transcript of Malcolm Quantrill 1931–2009
Op Arch IIBRUCE WEBB
University of Houston Malcolm Quantrill 1931–2009
Malcolm Quantrill, who died September 22, 2009,in College Station, Texas, was a consummatestudent of modern architecture. The quintessentialglobal academic, he was a historian who believedin the importance of being there to see things firsthand and with all the senses. For fifty years, heexplored the world seeking out architects andplaces that captured and excited his interest anddocumenting his unique and faithfulinterpretations.
Malcolm held academic posts from London toLouisiana, from Amman, Jordan to Montana,before settling in at Texas A&M University wherehe was named the first Distinguished Professor ofArchitecture in 1984. Wherever he went, he actedas the impresario of his own international roadshow of notable architects, historians, and critics,many of them subjects of books or articles andwith whom he kept in touch through lengthyletters written in script that were themselves worksof art. He would always be looking for ways ofbringing his wide circle of international friends totown to lecture or for design reviews and othercollaborations.
As architecture careened through a dust stormof ‘‘isms,’’ Malcolm continued to expand on hismodernist perspective that put little stock inappearances, style, and novelty but valued study,knowledge, and informed observations as the triggersof modern creative inspiration. In a typical Quantrillexplanation, he used an analogy to the game of chessthat he said could be played successfully by(1) knowing the code of rules, (2) studying the greatgames in history, and (3) practice. ‘‘Likearchitecture,’’ he concluded, ‘‘it cannot be treated asa guessing game by serious players.’’
The architects Malcolm focused on were allserious players and included stars like Alvar Aalto,the subject of his first monograph (Alvar Aalto:A Critical Study, 1983), Reima Pietilä (Reima Pietilä:Architecture, Context and Modernism, 1985, andReima Pietilä: One Man’s Odyssey in Search ofFinnish Architecture, 1988), and Norman Foster (TheNorman Foster Studio: Consistency throughDiversity, 1999). And there were new voices whomhe helped to bring into more expansive criticaldiscourse, like the natively introverted Finn, JuhaLeiviskä, architect of several little known butethereally beautiful churches (Juha Leiviskä and theContinuity of Finnish Modern Architecture, 1988),and the canny Nova Scotia regionalist, BryanMackay-Lyons (Plain Modern: The Architecture ofBryan Mackay-Lyons, 2005). Stanford Andersonrecognized the important role of the critic in thesetransactions: for an architect like Juha Leiviskä andhis work to reach broader circles, there must be anagent who values not only the work but also thequiet, deep nature of the man.That Malcolm tookboth the opportunity and the responsibility to besuch an agent is documented in the Leivisikämonograph.
In recognition of his contributions to the studyof Finnish architecture, Finnish president MaunoKoivisto made Malcolm a Knight Commander in theorder of Knights of the Lion of Finland.
Malcolm and I founded the Center forAdvancement of Studies in Architecture (CASA) in1989, a joint venture between Texas A&M and theUniversity of Houston, which published threebooks of essays on architecture and culture.Malcolm remained active as director of CASA afterhis retirement and turned his publication intereststo the architecture of Latin America, a subjecthe thought was a natural trajectory for a Texasschool. In 2000, he published Six Voices ⁄ SixArquitectos: Latin American Architecture incollaboration with Kenneth Frampton. He wasappointed international representative for the LuisBarragan Chair at Monterrey Institute ofTechnology in Queretaro, Mexico. Thisappointment followed several years ofcollaborations with Mexican colleagues and thepublication of Space and Place in the MexicanLandscape: The Evolution of the Colonial City(2007) by Fernando Nunez, Carlos Arvizu, andRamon Abonce, which Quantrill edited andpublished in the CASA series. He also co-editedand co-translated The Architectural Project byArgentinean scholar Alfonso Corona-Martinez.
Dapper and a bit fusty and old school, Malcolmhad an actor’s way with the English language thathovered somewhere between English upper crustand a whiff of Monty Python. His memory wasprodigious and he had a practiced gift for narrativeand wit. And never did he have a case of l’esprit del’escalier, the writer’s curse of thinking of the rightthing to say only on the way home from the partyor the crit. He could bring lofty ideas down toearth, getting them into the mind’s eye of adesigner with a storehouse of engaging metaphors,illustrations both highbrow and bawdy and stories.As a teacher and a writer, he was not playing verbaltennis with a ball made out of silly putty. Heseemed always to be saying, ‘‘By God, I want you toget inside this thing and look around and reallyunderstand.’’
143 WEBB Journal of Architectural Education,p. 143 ª 2010 ACSA