The centerpieces of the "The American School of Architecture" exhibition will be original drawings and  newly constructed models of buildings by architects associated with the American School. While some of these buildings, such as Herb Greene's Prairie House, are well known to scholars and architects, many others, such as the Autumn House (San Francisco) by OU alumna Violeta Autumn or the Blizzard House project by Arn Henderson, are relatively unknown. A virtual reality model of the Bavinger House will allow visitors to experience this lost architectural treasure through digital historic preservation techniques. In addition to architectural projects, the exhibition will include original works of art by alumni such as Chayo Frank, as well as furniture, including a chair designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Price Tower in Bartlesville. These works will be complemented by video interviews of alumni, associates and patrons, including Bart Prince, Herb Greene, Carolyn Price and more. A comprehensive online database, interactive digital timeline and map illustrating the key architects and their built legacy around the world will serve to frame and define the context and key figures of the American School.

If you would like to contribute materials to the American School exhibit, such as original drawings, models, or works of art, created by a student or alumnus of the OU College of Architecture under Bruce Goff or Herb Greene's leadership, please click here.

The American School in Context

By Stephanie Pilat and Luca Guido,

Co-Curators of the American School exhibition 

"A new school, probably the only indigenous one in the United States" is how the architect Donald MacDonald once characterized the OU school of architecture that emerged in the postwar era.[1] At that time, architecture schools in the United States followed a curriculum inspired by either the French Beaux Arts school or the German Bauhaus school. On one hand, the French model centered on studies of classical principles of design and entailed meticulous copying of the great classical architecture of Greece and Rome. On the other hand, schools such as the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Harvard Graduate School of Design adapted the Bauhaus curriculum model-known for embracing industry and abstraction in art, architecture and design-to the American context. Only the OU College of Architecture stood apart from these two trends and developed an original and authentically American approach to architecture and pedagogy.

Under the leadership of Bruce Goff (1904-82), Herb Greene (b. 1929), E. Fay Jones (1921-2004), Mendel Glickman (1895-1967) and many others, OU faculty developed their own design curriculum that emphasized individual creativity and experimentation. The faculty rejected the rote copying of historical styles as well as the abstract minimalist approach popular elsewhere. Under Goff, who served as dean from 1947-55, and the faculty he recruited to OU, students were taught to look to sources beyond the accepted canon of western architecture and to find inspiration in everyday objects, the natural landscape, and non-western cultures such as the designs of Native American tribes. As MacDonald described, at OU there emerged "a truly American ethic, which is being formulated without the usual influence of the European or Asian architectural forms and methodologies common on the East and West coasts of the United States."[2] At OU, each student was encouraged to develop their own individual approach to design. In part, this rejection of existing pedagogical models in favor of experimentation reflected Goff's own training. He was never formally educated in architecture; rather he learned architecture by doing it, having started in practice at the age of 12.

The work of architects associated with the American School has been recognized around the world for its originality, organic forms and poetic connection to landscape. Students of the American School such as Herb Greene and Bart Prince went on to develop their own unprecedented approaches to design and teaching. The novel pedagogical approach employed at OU combined with the body of work of architects associated with it drew attention from around the world and praise from even the most skeptical architects and critics such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Italian historian Bruno Zevi. As a result of both the experimental pedagogy and the organic architecture that developed from OU, the Architecture Program at the University of Oklahoma has long been characterized as an outlier among its peers. It is the only original American School of Architecture.

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If you would like to learn more about the American School project, please contact Stephanie Pilat at ( [email protected]).