courtesy the University of Notre Dame
Thomas Gordon Smith, an architect and educator marked by his commitment to modern applications of Classical architecture, died on June 23 at the age of 73. A professor emeritus and former chair of the Notre Dame School of Architecture in Indiana, Smith was the 1979-80 Rome Prize Fellow in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome and the author of several books, including Classical Architecture: Rule and Invention (Gibbs Smith, 1988).
Born on April 23, 1948, in Oakland, Calif., Smith attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a degree in painting in 1970 and his M.Arch. in 1975. In 1979, Smith began his year as the Rome Prize Fellow, dedicating his studies to Classical architecture. His fellowship concluded with an exhibition focused on the “La Strada Novissima” at the 1980 Venice Biennale. Smith taught at institutions including Yale, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and the University of Illinois at Chicago before becoming the chairman of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture. There, Smith “applied his perspective of classical architecture to the curriculum of the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, becoming the primary school for study of classical and traditional architecture at the turn of the 21st century,” according to a statement from the School of Architecture.
“For many postmodernists, classicism was mainly of visual interest, but Thomas Gordon Smith was genuinely interested in classicism as ‘theory and invention,’ pursuing it with eye and hand; accurately taking its measure; and absorbing its treatises, to which he added his own,” John J. Parman, a visiting scholar in architecture at U.C. Berkeley and contributor to a forthcoming collection of Smith’s extensive drawings, wrote to ARCHITECT. “His most interesting work is eclectic, exploring classicism’s remarkable use of art, light, and volume in the service especially of contemporary domestic life. But he also drew attention to early 19th-century ‘Grecian’ architecture in the U.S. that he felt had untapped potential. He admired the postmodernists in the same way that Marx admired the bourgeoisie: freeing themselves of the dead hand of corporate modernism. They cleared the way for late modernism and much else, but for him, they confirmed a quite early instinct that architecture occupies something like Walter Benjamin’s idea that we sense the presence of the past within a pregnant now-time.”
In addition to doing research and organizing exhibitions, Smith completed Vitruvius on Architecture (Monacelli Press, 2003), and his work appeared in Richard John’s monograph, Thomas Gordon Smith and the Revival of Classical Architecture, (Papadakis, 2001). He also founded his eponymous firm, Thomas Gordon Smith Architects, designing projects such as the Cathedral City Civic Center in Cathedral City, Calif., the Notre Dame Bond Hall School of Architecture, and residential projects across the country.
The design community has mourned its loss on social media.
In memoriam: Architecture chair, professor emeritus Thomas Gordon Smith https://t.co/bYPvxKA1Xg pic.twitter.com/Vi9yoqAyg0
— ND_News (@nd_news) June 24, 2021
A great light has gone out in the world with the passing of Thomas Gordon Smith, architect. He created Notre Dame's Classical architecture program and will forever be the intellectual spirit and driving force of the contemporary Classical renaissance. Requiescat in pace, Thomas. pic.twitter.com/T6Fnfp5vLk
— Christine Huckins Franck (@cghfranck) June 24, 2021
Thomas Gordon Smith, professor emeritus & former chair in the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, died Tuesday June 22 https://t.co/paY37dsssM #RIP #architects #architecture @NotreDame @ND_Arch pic.twitter.com/eWDXSikc9a
— Randy Deutsch FAIA (@randydeutsch) June 25, 2021
This article has been updated since first publication.
