R. Randall Vosbeck, FAIA

by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: R. Randall Vosbeck, FAIA, recently was honored with the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Minnesota for his pioneering commitment to energy conservation in building design. Vosbeck has had a long and respected career in his Alexandria, Va., firm, Vosbeck, Vosbeck, Kendrick & Redinger (VVKR), which he started with his brother William in the 1960s, and later with the Washington, D.C., office of DMJM. Vosbeck’s longstanding commitment to his profession included service on the AIA Board of Directors beginning in 1976, and as president in 1981. In 2007, he was awarded the Edward C. Kemper Award for Service to the Profession by the AIA. Vosbeck recently has penned a book (with former AIA archivist Tony Wrenn, Hon. AIA, and Andrew Brodie Smith) on the history of the AIA’s elected leadership entitled A Legacy of Leadership: The Presidents of the American Institute of Architects 1857-2007.

Education
I went to the University of Minnesota and got a BArch degree in 1954. At the time, that was a five-year program and was considered a professional degree, qualifying me for registration.

Career path
I worked for a couple of different architecture firms in the Twin Cities area during school and for a while after school. Then, I had a service obligation and went into the Marine Corps for two years. When I got out of the Marine Corps I was looking for employment. My brother, who is also an architect, was working in Alexandria, Va., at the time and said: “Why don’t you come out here?” I came out and got a position with the same firm he was with at the time, and a couple years after that we formed our own firm and went into practice for ourselves. The name of the firm was Vosbeck, Vosbeck and Associates. We did real well and were very happy with our success at the firm. We worked closely with an engineering firm called Kendrick & Redinger, and we ended up merging our two firms together, forming the firm Vosbeck, Vosbeck, Kendrick & Reddinger, and that’s how we practiced through the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.

In the late ‘80s, we were courted by a Swiss AE firm and ended up selling our interest in VVKR. I stayed with VVKR for a few years after that acquisition, and [then] was offered a position with DMJM. We had a small office in Alexandria for a while called Vosbeck DMJM. Then I was asked to move that operation into their Washington, D.C., office and become vice president in charge of that office. I retired in 1994. I decided that it was time to slow down and have a change in lifestyle and moved to Vail, Colo.

I kept active in my early retirement years. I was still doing some consulting work with DMJM and a couple of other architecture firms and did a little consulting for the Vail religious foundation. The Vail Chapel needed some improvements, so it’s been little odds and ends of work I have done through the years without soliciting anything. There’s always something going on. In recent years, I’ve done more volunteer work with the AIA and other organizations as well.

Do you think you’ll ever fully retire?
I hope not. My interest is there. I have a great love for this profession, so when they ask, I try to see if I can help out and have had some really interesting assignments in recent years. I’d like to stay active serving the profession.

Why did you write a book about the AIA’s presidents?
When I was first starting to serve as president-elect and looking forward to my year as president, I often thought about the awesome responsibility that was facing me and about those who preceded me. I knew a few of them, obviously, because I had been on the Board prior to that, but I started looking back and trying to see who these people were … and what motivated them. I didn’t get very far because the job of president-elect and president is pretty time consuming, but it was something that was always on my mind: “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a collection of the former presidents and a little bit of history about them and who they were, what motivated them, and what kind of practices they had?”

I think what really got me started was that a couple of former presidents died, and there wasn’t a whole lot of information available about them. I started slowly working on it—I sent a questionnaire to those former presidents who were living Then I dug into the really hard work of going back to the architects who lived a long time ago, digging through the AIA archives, on the Internet, and in libraries. I tried to get a consistent format for each one. It was a lot of work, but I’m real happy with it and I’m pleased we’ve got it. It’s not anything that is a best seller or that people will sit down and read cover-to-cover. It’s more of a research document.

I was very pleased that Tony Wrenn, former AIA archivist, gave me support. He had written some things about the AIA’s history during the 150th anniversary of the AIA in 2007, so that information was helpful to me. He’s been very complimentary of this book and said he sure wished there had been such a book when he was archivist, because he’d always get questions from researchers about former presidents. He’s a great historian, a great person, and a great AIA supporter. There was also another helpful person at the time, Andy Smith, who was a consultant to the Institute working in the archives, and he was a great deal of help to me researching things and pointing me in the right direction.

What did you learn during your research that surprised you?
Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but one thing was that there were three former presidents who, after they served as president, were brought up on ethical charges, which was interesting. What else surprised me? The obvious dedication and devotion and love of this profession of architecture that was evident in most all of the former presidents. It’s just amazing—particularly in recent years—how an architect can give up basically two years of his or her practice to serve the profession. It’s just amazing how that happens, with real love and devotion for the profession.

Which president did you come to admire most?
The Institute moved into Washington at the end of the 19th century and became very active and very well respected in the Washington political community—we did a great deal to encourage and secure the approval of the McMillan plan for the Mall. Robert Swain Peabody, who is not particularly well known, had a great deal to do with securing the McMillan plan for the Institute.

I’ve got to also mention Charles McKim, who was a fantastic architect and did a great deal for the profession. Those are a couple names from the past. I’m obviously not going to mention the names in current times; that’d get me into real trouble.

How do you think it needs to evolve in the next few years?
The Institute has been in and out of advocating energy consciousness and sustainability for quite a few years. In fact, my thrust when I was president was energy and architecture, and my theme for the year was “A Line on Design and Energy.” That was in ’81, and we were still in the midst of an energy crisis. Then, emphasis faded. It picked up again around Susan Maxman’s time [as president of the AIA in 1993]. She gave a big push, and then it faded again.

Now we’re talking sustainability again. I think that now we’ve reached the sophistication to where it’s finally catching on. When I was trying to get architects interested in energy consciousness, there was no knowledge at all. We started a continuing education program, and we really had to struggle to find good people to lead the education. Now, I think we’re making headway and making our point known that architects can play a major role in energy conservation. I wish we could get the public more concerned and interested in—and I think that’s happening now—what role a built environment plays and what role architects play in designing the built environment. I hope it doesn’t fade like it has two or three times in the past.

What made receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award special to you?
Minnesota is where I was born and raised and went to the university, but I never practiced in Minnesota. I always kept a connection to Minnesota, and it was fortunate that when I was president, our AIA convention was in Minneapolis. I have a lot of architect friends in Minnesota, so I’ve kept a connection to the university, but not like if I would’ve been practicing there. When I received a letter from the president of the University of Minnesota about this award, I was just stunned. I thought, “How can this be?” I’m not a Minnesotan. I am a graduate, obviously, but I didn’t think there was much knowledge of my career there. I guess the College of Design, which is headed by Dean Tom Fisher, had nominated me for it, so it was a real honor and a real thrill. To go to the luncheon and have some of my friends with me was really special, and I’m very honored to receive this from my alma mater.

What advice do you have for young architects?
You’ve got to approach architecture with a passion. You’ve got to really love it, and there’s more to architecture than just design, although design is obviously the heart of our profession. Even if you’re not a designer, you need to appreciate good design and respect it, but there are a lot of other ways to enjoy and love your profession. There are so many avenues now for a young architect to take in this profession than there used to be when I was a young architect. I think it’s just a matter of finding your niche within the profession and then working hard at it.

It’s a profession that requires a lot of hard work when you’re a young person, and if you’re cut out for really giving it some attention and hard work, you can make a real fine career out of it. That’s not to say that you have to do it at the expense of other things. I think it’s important to be active in your community, to volunteer if that’s your thing, to get to know what makes a community tick and how to deal with people. It’s so important to deal with people. I have seen so many really good architects who have never learned the skill of talking to somebody about what they want in their building. That’s all part of it; there’s no one thing. You’ve got to be reasonably well rounded as a citizen—with that overriding interest and love of architecture.