by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: Thomas Fowler IV, AIA, is an associate professor of architecture at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and a former president of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS). Fowler’s teaching accolades include the “Young Faculty Teaching Award 1996-97” from the Association of Collegiate Schools of America (ACSA) and AIAS. His Collaborative Integrative-Interdisciplinary Digital-Design Studio (CIDS) ties together third- and fourth-year design and building technology courses to connect a diverse range of students, faculty, and professionals in community design projects with real clients and budgets. The CIDS studio was a recipient of the 2008 AIA Education Honor Awards for excellence in course development and architectural teaching.

Education
I earned a BArch from New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, N.Y., and then my MArch from Cornell University.

Interest in architecture
I have a cousin who is an architect in New York, [Garrison] Gary McNeil, RA, NOMA. I didn’t know I had a cousin in architecture until I graduated from high school and was informed that he wanted me to work for him. I worked for him that summer and throughout my whole five years in architecture school at New York Tech. That’s how I decided I wanted to be an architect.

After college
After my schooling at New York Tech, I became a national AIAS president. I was quite involved with the student organization starting in 1982. I ran for regional director, was elected, and decided to run for president. I did that for a year after I graduated from New York Tech.

From there, I wanted to go directly into practice, but was convinced to go to graduate school by Bill McMinn, who was the dean at Cornell. I also worked in the college as an administrator—I was director of minority educational affairs. It seemed very bizarre at the time that he wanted me to do that, but it actually provided me an opportunity. When I got to Cornell, I first worked for a year as an administrator and then applied to the graduate program. Fortunately, I was accepted, which allowed me to do graduate work basically for free while working as an administrator. Instead of two years, I took almost four years to complete the two-year post-professional program, but it was the nature of doing it part time.

Practice
After AIAS and Cornell, I worked for Hartman-Cox in Washington, D.C., for almost a year. That’s when the recession hit. It was pretty horrendous. I had an offer from UC Berkeley to work as a campus architect, working as an architect on the owner side. I was at UC Berkeley during what they call the second largest building boom in the history of the campus. I also was able to teach while working as a campus project manager.

After UC Berkeley, I wanted to go back into practice. I got an offer from Davis Brody in New York and was there for about eight months. That’s when I decided that I really wanted to go back into teaching. I applied for a full time lecturer position at Cal Poly and, after the first year, was hired on a full time basis.

There was just something about being around these young students and being quite stimulated in the classroom—always having a fresh bunch of students every quarter. There was something very uplifting and rewarding about that, not that practice didn’t have that, but the rewards in practice are not as frequent. They take longer. I felt it took longer to have that same level of accomplishment and reward, and I was just quite stimulated by working with all these bright minds.

In the classroom
For the most part, I’m a very quiet and, at some level, introspective person. In the classroom, I’m a different character, though. I’m animated and I find the students to be great company. They’re a great audience, and it’s really fun to be around them. I consider myself almost collaborating with them in the classroom.

I tell the students that I have a lot of fun in the studio, and I hope they would too. If they can have fun, then everything else is easier. I say: “It’s going to be a very difficult time if you’re not enjoying the class, because I’m having fun. So let’s have fun together.” We only have 10 weeks, too, which to me is great because it simulates the urgency of practice and decision making.

Receiving the AIA Education Honor Award
That was a pleasant surprise, and actually a little bit of a shock. I was happy that it received some recognition. The acronym is CIDS. It’s a long title: Collaborative Integrative-Interdisciplinary Digital Design Studio. CIDS allows me to bring the outside world into the studio. The interdisciplinary aspect gives students an opportunity to engage with professionals with whom they will work out of school: the construction management students, the structural engineering students, landscape architecture students, and also the city/regional planning students. Fortunately, all those disciplines are in the same college as architecture. At another level, even outside of the college, it’s a chance for them to be with other disciplines: students from English and film to computer science. That interfacing is interesting because the students get a better sense of what you need to communicate to people outside of architecture on the client side.

I started CIDS in 1997 with a Cal Poly Plan Grant of $106,000. I was very happy and surprised that the university had so much faith in my proposal to give me that much money, but it allowed me to start a computer facility, which has evolved beyond what I thought it was going to be. Initially, it was to do high-end computing and integrate it into the design studio with the undergraduates. But, in 2001, I started doing collaborative, interdisciplinary projects using the digital tools as a way of allowing students to generate high-end models. It provided the means and the method by which to collaborate—since ’97, I’ve completed more than 100 interdisciplinary projects.

Mentors
For some reason, I’ve always been lucky to find people in high places to act as mentors. When I was at New York Tech, I got to know the president of the university, Matthew Schure. Every time I had a question or needed a letter or someone to run something by, he was always a willing participant.

Also, my cousin Gary McNeil continues to be a mentor. I don’t think I would’ve gone into architecture if I hadn’t had that serendipitous initial summer internship at his office in New York.

Also, Bill McMinn at Cornell, who started Mississippi State’s architecture program and won the Topaz Medallion in 2006. He was the one who provided me the opportunity to come to Cornell as an administrator and a student. I couldn’t have become a teacher without the master’s, so he was in some ways the person who opened that door.

Leroy Bean is another one. He convinced me to apply for the UC Berkeley position. I met him when I was the national student president. He was one of the co-chairs for the AIA national convention.

The last one is the former dean here at Cal Poly, Paul Neel. He’s the one who convinced me to apply for this full-time position at Cal Poly when I was in New York working at Davis Brody. He said: “Why don’t you give it a try? If you don’t like it, you can always go back.” I liked it, and 14 years later I’m still here. I guess I still like it.

Engaging young architects on staff
One of the most interesting interviews I’ve ever had was one with John Winkler at SOM. I sat down with him and he said: “Tell me what you want to do at SOM.” I was floored by that question. It was an excellent question because he really wanted to know what my interests were as opposed to the many firms that say: “This is what we need and this is what you want to do,” and they don’t seem to connect with their potential employees and their employees.

I actually spend time trying to figure out what my students are interested in. I have them fill out weekly e-mail journals where they tell me what they accomplished this week and what they’re going to accomplish next week. I don’t think firms connect with employees the way that academics connect with students. I think it would be good for the partners or associate partners to figure out how to connect with the employees. The project architects and the people on the team probably do connect at better levels because they’re in the trenches with their team, but there definitely seems to be a disconnect between those running the firm and the young people in the firm. In some ways, the young people are the ones bringing the firm up to date on how to integrate the latest technology. I find they’re a really important aspect of the profession. If you ignore them or don’t engage them, I think it’s a missed opportunity.