The importance of great architecture in education
I am greatly honored to be receiving this award from the Indiana Chapter of the American Institute of Architects today and thank most gratefully all who were involved in making this decision.
I freely confess to having no personal talent for design or architecture. However, as someone who has spent his life in universities, my appreciation of the vital and central importance of great architecture derives from a fundamental principal I have come to recognize after having visited or spent time on the campuses of hundreds of universities, both ancient and modern, on six continents. That principle is that the quality of the built environment, its exteriors and interiors, and its integration with the natural environment, can have a profound influence on stimulating thought and learning among those who work on these campuses.
From this follows the essential importance of visionary long-term planning in accord with this principle to ensure it is sustained. One of my first actions on being appointed IU president in 2007, and which I announced in my inauguration address that year, was to appoint a new master planner for the university charged with developing new master plans for the IU Bloomington and IUPUI campuses. These were to be based on an assessment of the needs of these campuses for space to support their basic education and research missions, their needs for maintenance, renovation and repurposing, and opportunities and needs to enhance the overall quality of their built environment.
The master planner we appointed was David King of the Smith Group, who led the development of superb master plans for both campuses that were completed in 2010 and 2012, respectively, and since updated. These have guided all developments on these campuses ever since.
Then finally came the need to choose architects for the myriad of projects, large and small, involving constructing new facilities or the renovation and repurposing of old, who understood and were committed to the fundamental principle I described above, while having the necessary skills and creativity. Without great architects who can produce great architecture, the best master plans in the world are of little avail.
This was the background thinking and principles that guided what Sarah so kindly called "the most extensive period of construction, preservation and adaptive reuse work in the history of the university." It involved over 200 major construction, renovation, or maintenance projects, as well as thousands of smaller ones, with a total value of nearly $2.7 billion and comprising nearly 16 million square feet. It also involved the elimination of nearly a billion dollars of deferred maintenance.
In all of this, it has been an enormous privilege to have worked with some of the finest architects in this this state and this country, some of whom are in fact here today. They have graced our campuses with superb examples of their skill and creativity. Their work will be inspiring and enthralling to generations of students and faculty for years to come, while forming a matchless backdrop to what they will learn, what they will discover, and what they will create.
Architecture in Columbus
The principles and approach I have outlined are, of course, very recognizable to those of you who live in Columbus or are familiar with it. They are, in essence, the very principles that were followed in the development of this city and led to it becoming one of the great architectural gems of this country, rightly ranked by the AIA as one of the most significant cities architecturally in the United States.
This was above all due to the guiding genius and remarkable generosity of one man, J. Irwin Miller, who had such a profound impact on what Columbus has become, along, of course, with the engagement of many other great citizens of Columbus and the indispensable support of Cummins through the Cummins Foundation. Together, they led the planning and choices of architects that led to the names of Eliel and Eero Saarinen, I.M Pei, Cesar Pelli, Kevin Roche, Harry Weese, Myron Goldsmith, and many others, being forever indelibly linked to the name of Columbus.
So, it was natural that when, as part of what became the largest academic restructuring in IU's history, we began considering prospects for expanding IU's academic programs in design, our thoughts would turn to the possibilities of greater engagement with Columbus.
Fortuitously, some in Columbus were also considering how they might develop a more substantial relationship with IU Bloomington. And so, it was in 2009 that, together with IU's outstanding long-serving vice president Bill Stephan, who has just retired, I met with John Burnett and the late Dick Johnson, Rick Johnson's father, and put in place an agreement between IU and the Community Education Coalition (CEC) to establish the IU Center for Art + Design. This was opened almost exactly 11 years ago in October 2011, in space in the Sears building, and from the outset was ably led by Professor Kelly Wilson.
Let me pay an all too brief tribute here to Dick Johnson for all that he did, not just for Columbus but for IU and the state; to John Burnett for his indefatigable energy in support of many initiatives of lasting importance to Columbus; and to Rick Johnson for taking on so ably the role his father graced for so many years.
The story from here is, I think, fairly well known. The School of Art + Design at IU Bloomington was approved in 2014 and an outstanding inaugural dean (and IU alumna), Peg Faimon, was appointed in 2016. In 2016 IU's plans to establish an architecture program were approved, and its first degree was approved in 2017. The school then became the School of Art, Architecture and Design, and the next year, in rightful recognition of his immense contributions to architecture in Columbus, the program was named the J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program. In the same year, in another great partnership with the city and CEC, IU acquired this magnificent modernist building, designed by Myron Goldsmith and a national historic landmark, to house the Miller Architecture Program.
While all this was happening, I had been discussing with Sid and Lois Eskenazi their interest in a gift to support some aspect of IU's programs in art and design. In 2013 Sid had also first told me that there were plans developed by the legendary Mies van der Rohe for a building to house Sid's then fraternity. Some exceptional work by Tom Morrison, Dave King, and, especially, Adam Thies uncovered the full plans for this building and determined that, appropriately modified for code, it could be built.
IU's plans for the school were also developing rapidly at this time, and eventually we announced that in recognition of an extraordinarily generous gift that would fund both the construction of the Mies van der Rohe building to be what I like to call the "headquarters" of the school, and to fund various academic programs, the school would, in fitting recognition of their generosity, be named the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design.
This is the first—and almost certainly last—Mies van der Rohe building that will ever be built. It has been acclaimed in laudatory articles in over a dozen architecture publications and is, as I said at its dedication, the architectural equivalent of the IU's art museum acquiring a major new Picasso or Monet.
A final point to note is that it superbly complements stylistically the very building in which we are now—the Republic building. This, of course, is no coincidence as Myron Goldsmith was a student of Mies van der Rohe.
Thanks
Much was achieved in planning, building, renovation, and renewal over the 14 years of my IU presidency. There are many people who made important contributions whom I have tried to recognize above. And IU's trustees deserve great credit for their unwavering and sustained support for all I have described. But there are three people, in particular, whose essential and irreplaceable contributions I would like to single out for recognition.
The implementation of all I have described was the responsibility of two long serving and outstanding IU vice presidents who are masters of their fields—Terry Clapacs, until 2009 when he retired, and since then Tom Morrison.
And the academic implementation of all of this was the responsibility of a scholar and administrator of exceptional ability and unimpeachable integrity, Lauren Robel, who was IU Bloomington provost until her retirement in 2021.
To all three go my most grateful and heartfelt thanks for their matchless contributions—their work was beyond praise or compare.
Again, my most appreciative thanks to the Indiana AIA for this wonderful award for which I am immensely grateful.