In the spirit of the upcoming IIDA Student Mentoring week, I’ve brought you another education-related post. When I heard that Lawrence Speck, IIDA, FAIA, award-winning architect and Professor of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin, recently received the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architecture Education, I immediately reached out to him to see if he’d share some stories with the IIDA crowd. You might think after all of his professional success Lawrence would be ready to slow down, but you would be wrong.
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How do you define your role as an educator?
I see education as an integral part of everyday life. Learning and teaching is just as natural as eating and breathing, and it happens all the time and in a wide range of contexts. I am constantly learning from and passing on knowledge to friends, family, colleagues and students. Having lunch and catching up on career progress of a former student, working with a team of colleagues on a project in the office or standing up in front of 300 people in a lecture class all seem equally parts of my role as an educator.
What formal partnerships do you engage in with other departments?
For the past eight years I have co-taught an interdisciplinary course every spring with a core group of four colleagues from other departments–a historian, a poet, a mathematician and a philosopher. The five of us generally invite a couple of rotating faculty members to join us each year who have been from fields as diverse as business, advertising, film, geosciences, engineering, music and education. I think this kind of interdisciplinary interaction is incredibly stimulating for designers. I have learned amazing things from this long-term partnership with a diverse set of colleagues in radically different fields.
In addition to being a professor at The University of Texas at Austin, you’re also a Principal at Page Southerland Page. How do you balance your busy schedule?
It is often hard for me to see a clear dividing line between my academic work and my professional work. The networks of people I have been able to develop in my role as a professor and a dean have been immensely beneficial in business development in my professional life. Colleagues and consultants I have gotten to know through my work at Page Southerland Page have made significant contributions, both in knowledge and resources, to improving the School of Architecture at UT. When I am serving on the Executive Committee for Texas Society of Architects or on the Board of Directors for an environmental non-profit or when I am lecturing or serving as a juror for AIA chapters I am not sure whether I am doing it as an academic or as a professional. I know that I am a much better designer and firm principal because of the exposure and stimulus I get from UT and that I am a much better faculty member because of the knowledge and experience I have gained as a practicing architect. For me it is not so much about balancing two conflicting things as it is about benefitting from the synergy that is possible with the two roles.
As an educator, what collaborative relationships do you maintain with architecture and interior design firms?
One of the very best things about being an educator for as long as I have been, is the wide range of colleagues one can develop over time. There are literally thousands of former students out there in architecture and interior design firms, and it is relatively easy to keep up with and maintain collaborative relationships with a core group of them. I genuinely love these people and take great satisfaction in seeing the good work they are doing. Architecture and Interior Design are relatively small professions, and it is easy to run into colleagues at conventions, meetings of professional societies and even at interviews for projects where your friends are walking out the door just as you are walking in.
How does UT-Austin integrate communication, business, management and marketing skills– all of which are encompassed in the practice of interior design?
Design education, when properly conducted, naturally develops skills in communication, management and marketing. A well-run design studio will emphasize the necessity of explaining concepts and design directions and even “selling” ideas in a jury context. Team projects are essential in helping students learn about playing a management role and optimizing various members’ skills and energies. I think UT Austin does a good job of using studio teaching to hone some of these skills. Students can also take advantage of a small suite of courses offered in the McCombs School of Business to supplement any degree program with rudimentary business knowledge.
You recently received the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architecture Education, where do you go from here? Are you ready to slack off now?
I am definitely not interested in slacking off! I feel like I am at the peak of my productivity both as a designer and as an educator. I have never enjoyed my work in either area more than I do right now. I am looking for new and interesting design opportunities like the performing arts center in South Texas we are currently doing–the first of that building type I have been able to undertake. I am also enthusiastic about some recent new directions in my teaching like a course in Creative Problem Solving I have been developing over the last couple of years. I recently completed a book co-authored with a colleague on the architectural history of the UT campus and am anxious to make progress on another book I have had on the back burner for a number of years.
IIDA’s Student Mentoring Week is coming up in mid-February. Did you have a mentor as a young professional?
I had three extraordinary mentors in my early career–Donlyn Lyndon, Stan Anderson and Hal Box. I am deeply indebted to each of them. I feel a real responsibility to pass on that gift they gave me to others. I have great admiration and respect for this younger generation of architects and designers and take tremendous pleasure in interacting with them as a mentor and friend.
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