10/24/2009: The Architecture Foundation of Oregon has given President Emeritus Frohnmayer an award for “contributions to Oregon’s built environment”. Seems very appropriate – Dave spent a huge amount of energy improving campus buildings – almost as much as he spent on making sure he and his cronies would get fat PERS busting retirement … no wait … must control fingers … this is about bricks and concrete. Frohnmayer had a point: a great university is about more than faculty, students, teaching and research – appearances count too. Interestingly the award citation doesn’t mention Dave’s biggest projects – the $235 million Matt Court, or the $30 million “Athletes Only” class cube on Franklin. I sort of like the cube, but most of the architects on campus go ballistic about it as a gateway to UO, since it ignores UO’s Ellis Lawrence heritage.
This campus has some beautiful, subtle buildings, and Lawrence did most of them. And if you don’t who I’m talking about, follow the link and get the book on him at the bookstore. The Art Museum, Knight library, Mac Court, Chiles with all it’s details. Is there something arabic going on here? Walking through campus will be much more interesting after you read about Lawrence and his ideas and influence – you’ll see something new every day, and when you realize the seminar speaker you are spending the next three hours hosting has nothing interesting to say and apparently is not the anonymous reviewer of that revise and resubmit you have been sweating over, just take them on a walk and thank UO Matters.
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