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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1961)
Tuesdoy, Jon. 17, 1961 The Nebroskon Page 5 By CARROLL KRAUS "His ociy fault, if tins can be described aa such, is an exceptional store of energy." That is a colleague's description of Patrick Horsbrugh, associate professor of architecture at the University of Nebraska. Tall, lean (6T 17S pounds) and bespectacled, this British-born city planner fits to a T the American idea of what an Englishman should look like. The unmistakeable accent, graying hair, conservative English-tailored suit and vest with gold w atch chain complete the picture. But Horsbrugh is not an ordinary man. At 38, he has accomplished more than many ambitious architects would plan in a lifetime. Co-author of the first serious British downtown development proposals, an effective teacher but with rather unorthodox methods Horsbrugh has been described as one of the two outstand ing graduates of the Architectural Assn. School of Architecture m London during the years 1940- With Horsbrugh's record, it isul surprising Chat colleagues describe him in glowing terms hke "exceptional" and "outstanding" and col leges jump at the chance to put this former Royal Air Force pilot on their staff. One associate put it this way: Horsbrugh is "the most outstanding architect planner I know among his generation, as wel s a man of high ideals and integrity, and of great human warmth and kindness." Now at NU for an indefinite period after staff Assignments at Harvard, Toronto, North Caro lina State College and the University of Illinois, Horsbrugh brings along his own ideas of bow to teach the college student. And he also carries with him enthusiasm for the American Midwest which probably couM sway many Plains States residents from their pessimism about the future of their states. Settling in a Nebraska teaching position after world-wide travels inchiding eight visits to this country - Horsbrugh doesn't identify himself with the typical teacher even though he has been wrapped up with university teaching as signments in recent years. He has no formal teacher's training, he ex plains. But his ideas on education are worth not ing. Teaching, as Horsbrugh sees it, can take many forms. But the basis is putting across the ideas to others and trying to get ideas from them. The ultimate, be says, is fanning enthu sism. making a person "come to his own con etustoos" to gam" self-confidence. He adds these opinions: The student must be given latitude for his own development. Students can instruct others to a far higher degree than is generally recog nized. There are no set roles in teaching, es pecially so in architecture, a subject which is essentially a process of imagination. He says it is foolish to try to teach archi tecture in the conventional sense. It is "not lace" mathematics there is bo right or wrong.' - But teaching is fee necessity of any archi tect, Horsbrogh points out. If not m a school, then the architect must teach his staff or the citizens with whom he deals. Trying to con vince a civic committee of the validity of an architectural plan, for instance, demands this sort of teaching ability, he says. la regards to his new environment, Hors brugh said it's the Central United State's torn to rise and ' bring together north, south, east and west." This area has great potential, he says, especially through it water resources, "absolutely fundamental to civic devekspmeot." Chicago, he thinks, could be the stimulus for the pendulum development which started oa the East Coast, swung west and "now what could be more natural" thaa fettling m the center? Horsbrugh, initiated into the field of educa tion after an offer from Harvard to lecture there, is adamant about the idea of environ ment. His civic design course is designed "to broaden the mind of the student to include some appreciation of environment, be it rb&a or rural. Getting the student to look at his environment and assess it for the good, bad or indifferent must be done, be says, be fore progressing to the next essential step M bis method of teaching, arouasing an interest A Profile Patrick Horsbrugh in history. "History and past events are ab solutely inescapable and cant be denied," he points out Included in the class plan is increasing the understanding of what Britain has been do ing in the past, for Horsbrugh says where commonwealth development has been con cerned, "America has had a part of it whether M knows it or not." Students already seem to have grown fond of their new instructor. And they agree that he can inspire their enthusiasm. They like . his "different" approach to humor, too. He gave this light-hearted version of how he ar- . rived in Lincoln to one of his classes. He had -been operating in the four extreme comers of the continent, be related, and the diagonals of these four points are found to intersect here. ' - One day early in the school year he an nounced to this other class fifth year design that it should select a class "sheriff" (pro . nounced by Horsbrugh as sher-eef) responsible for the regulation of conduct and handing in of work on time among other things. The class failed to elect its lawman, however, until one morning when Horsbrugh arrived with a small Carroll Krass, a senior ia jwsraalism in Arts aad Sciences, is a past editor of The Daily. Ne braskaa. A recent study he did m Nebraska taxes appeared ia more , thaa 2t state news papers. Kraas wilt gradaate ia February aad plans to cm tinge working for The lincala JavraaL white box which be placed on his classroom desk. After roll was taken he inquired as to whether the class had elected the sheriff, and several students simultaneously suggested the name of a classmate. At this point Horsbrugh said, "I trust by the remarks of the class that you have not yet done so." A student then moved that his above-mentioned peer be pro claimed sheriff. Horsbrugh, then, with great dignity, congratulated the new office-holder fort being selected "Sheriff Extraordinary." Then he picked up the small white box, opened it and presented a glittering gold badge, "the seal of your office." Students in the same class like to tell of one stormy day when rain poured down in cloud- . burst proportions. During this time Horsbrugh was discussing nothing other than the prob lem of water scarcity. Background to the Horsbrugh story begins in the small British town of his birth, an "I8th century village of superb beauty." To the de signers of this town, he says, he owes a "debt beyond recognition. The- surroundings made Horsbrugh interested in conditions of environ ment from the first. His interests went from the Bat oral to the mec hanical. He buCt model railways and ships, his parents not buying him anything be "couldn't baQd himself." But after entering a boarding school and coming across some photographs of Eagish cathedrals, Horsbrugh was sokt on architecture and design, and since has "never had any piece of mind." la 1333 be entered the Architectural Associa tion School but with World War II approaching the next year entered the Royal ArUSery. Ia 1941 he west into the RAF and trained ia Can ada as a pOot His rank rose from sergeant through Sight lieutenant as be was involved m operations in the Far East, Africa and Britain. After the war he returned to the Arct!tctural School and graduated with honors in 1943. As a fourth year student his achievements were re markable. He entered two design competitions one British, the other international winning the first and placing highest among British en tries in the latter, a fine record for a student In 1949 he received a scholarship to the British school in Rome where he did research on Italian hill cities and in the same year began post graduate work at London University in civic de sign. As a student in (he years 1946-49, he had been actively concerned with the Middlesborough and Oxford city plans and bad considerable re sponsibility m presenting each of these schemes. In 1951-52, he worked with Ronald H. Sims . former University associate professor of arch itecture whom Horsbrugh "sent here" on pro posals for the town of Goomsport in northern Ireland. In 1955-54, Horsbrugh and colleagues engaged in the ftrst serious British downtown redevelop ment proposals, called "High Paddington," and "New Barbican." Since that time the two Lon don projects have received international town planning acclaim. But when presented then, the proposals were, as Horsbrugh put it, "pro foundly unpopular," and "frought with political issues." An appeal to the Ministry of Housing, for example, concerning the proposals brought what Horsbrugh says was the greatest legal battle the Ministry bad ever undertaken. But now, he says, opinion in Great Britain is swinging across to the need of the original pro-, posals but in general "have missed the mark."" Many ideas expressed in the proposals were of American experience, a thing many British couldnt relish. One Londoner said he didn't want the city to look like New York, expressing the attitude of -most Englanders who were 'terrified at the idea," feeling that the tall buildings and city planning of New York would tend to make Eng lishmen feel they were at the bottom of a well. But London is congested and tight, Horsbrugh added, while New York is a city where "the open sky and roadways meet" "The highness of the buildings leads to the sky, he said, thus a counterbalance. Later in 1954 he became an associate of Rag Ian Squire and Partners, a job involving con siderable travel in the Middle and Far East. For the next year through 1957 he taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana and began prep aratiua of a book on the life of William Bio re, a - ' Victorian architect He was chairman of Im pact, a group of English consultants, and be came deputy director of planning of Hamilton, Ont, and recently became director. This varied atmosphere in the last four years was possible, Horsbrugh explains, since he has been spending about 50 per cent of his time is this country and half in England. That has brought about a special hobby showing Americans the best and most of Britain an return trips to his native country. Touring London buildings with Americans and seeing their reactions always "sheds new qualities in something utterly familiar." Besides this hobby," Horsbrugh's interests cover a wide field. Travel and its consequences rate very high. - 'I'm interested in the history of every place I've been." be says. A visitor will find more than a couple books on the history of Nebraska and Lincoln in his Architectural Hall office. In a different aspect of design, be is inter ested in women's styles. But Horsbrugh is unmarried. Highly interested in lunar and interplanetary discov ery and exploration, he is a member of the British Interplanetary Society. And besides spaces ships, the ocean-going type also are objects of interest. Among the many groups to which he belongs are the Institute of Landscape Architects; The Town Planning Institute and the Royal Institute of British Architects, both of which be is an associate; and is an Honours Diplomatist of the Architectural Assn. But for Horsbrugh, there probably are more honors coming. As a Harvard associate once said of him, "I know no other man with his greatest challenges still ia frost of him."