Patrick Horsbrugh Papers

Fonds

Identifier: HRS

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Papers of Patrick Horsbrugh representing his whole life and career, consisting of extensive office files, environics files, and research files, correspondence, diaries, architectural drawings, artwork such as paintings and drawings, and his Italian thesis; consisting of files labelled PH (Patrick Horsbrugh): a chronological series representing his projects; Churchill Memorial files; correspondence files; environics files; files on individuals and locations associated with environics; diaries 1954-2012; back office files, including High Paddington, Edward Blore, and drop files representing his interest in alternative power sources and transportation; loose letters, including family correspondence; binders of professional correspondence by project; syllabi for Horsburgh classes and theses directed by Horsbrugh.

Also binders of slides used by Horsbrugh in the classroom and on the lecture circuit; one folder of slides in sleeves and one stack of oversize exhibit boards with photographs mounted on them; two albums of Horsbrugh cards and sketches (5"); three boxes of oversized architectural documents and posters, some concerning High Paddington, along with even larger stacks of such documents; video tapes of architecture students and architects; many VHS video tapes; films, some regarding New Barbican; many reel-to-reel audio tapes of "Cities in Context"; cassette audio tapes of "Plants in Urban Well-Being"; and some 200 cassette tapes with recordings of Horsbrugh lectures from 1975 and a series of 21st-century interviews of Horsbrugh conducted by the donor, Clifford Peterson.

Dates

Creation: 1954-2012.

Creator

Horsbrugh, Patrick (Person)

Language of Materials

English.

Legal Status

Private

Background

From Wikipedia:

Patrick Horsbrugh (21 June 1920 - 12 January 2014) was a British architecture professor. Born in Belfast, he took an interest in architecture at a young age, but his studies were interrupted by military service during World War II. Following the conflict he studied in Britain and the United States before embarking on teaching career that spanned numerous major American universities. He also competed for Great Britain at the art competitions at the 1948 Summer Olympics. As a researcher, he coined the term "environics" to cover the study of the environmental implications of modern architecture development and taught courses on the subject until his retirement. He held the title of professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame until his death in January 2014.

Horsbrugh was born on 21 June 1920 in Belfast.[1] Although Scottish in ancestry, his parents had been born in India and his father was a member Canadian Forces who also worked as a taxidermist and hunter. Patrick decided by the age of twelve to pursue a career in architecture and moved to Dorset to further his studies. During World War II he served in the British Army and the Royal Air Force as a member of Coastal Command 279 Squadron stationed at RAF Thornaby. Horsbrugh was stationed with a detachment in northern Scotland to cover the activities of strike and patrol.[2] He was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy to act as an observer on the country's first aircraft carrier. He also volunteered at the Middlesbrough Survey and Planning office during his leave times. After seven years of military service he studied at a student-run private school known as the Architectural Association School of Architecture and eventually ended up on scholarship in Rome, where he was convinced to study landscape architecture at Harvard University.[3] As a representative of Great Britain, Horsbrugh entered a work entitled "Sailing Club" into the "architectural design" category of the art competitions at the 1948 Summer Olympics, but did not win a medal.[1]

After teaching at Harvard for several years, Horsbrugh lectured at North Carolina State University as a visiting professor in 1952.[3] During this same year, High Paddington was published by Sergei Kadleigh, with Horsbrugh's assistance, describing a vertically built town suitable for eight thousand individuals.[4] After a stint at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign,[5] he spent five years teaching at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, which was at the time the maximum number of years that a foreigner could be employed with the University of Nebraska system. Although the law was rescinded at the end of his tenure, he had already signed a contract with the University of Texas at Austin, where in 1965 he had planned and hosted a conference on the environmental impact of modern architecture. He spent two and a half more years at the institution prior to arriving at the University of Notre Dame in 1968 to teach environics, a term that he had coined in 1954 to encompass the studies of the interplay between the environment and architecture. During his career he also lectured at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, and Pennsylvania State University.[6]

He returned to the University of Notre Dame in 1984.[7] He was an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.[8] He resided in South Bend, Indiana[3] until his death in January 2014, at the age of 93.[9]

1. Gjerde, Arild; Jeroen Heijmans; Bill Mallon; Hilary Evans (February 2011). "Patrick Horsbrugh Biography and Olympic Results". Olympics. Sports Reference.com. Retrieved 2011-02-06.

2. Docherty, Tom (2013-06-25). Dinghy Drop: 279 Squadron RAF 1941 - 46. Pen and Sword Aviation.

3. Owens, Yona (2008-01-13). "Interview with Patrick Horsbrugh - Part 1" (PDF). Lewis Clarke Oral Histories Project. North Carolina State University. Retrieved 2012-04-09.

4. Kadleigh, Sergei; Patrick Horsbrugh (1952). High Paddington. Iliffe News and Media. p. 40. OL18747615M.

5. "Illinois Municipal Review". Illinois Municipal Review (Illinois Municipal League). 35-37: 58. 1956. Retrieved 2011-02-06.

6. Owens, Yona (2008-01-13). "Interview with Patrick Horsbrugh - Part 2" (PDF). Lewis Clarke Oral Histories Project. North Carolina State University. Retrieved 2012-04-09.

7. "University of Notre Dame Emeriti Faculty" (PDF). Reports. University of Notre Dame. 2009-05-04. Retrieved 2011-02-06.

8. "Honorary Membership in ASLA". American Society of Landscape Architects. 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-06.

9. Dunker, Chris (2014-01-14). "Former architect professor remembered for unique teaching methods". Lincoln Journal Star (Lee Enterprises). Retrieved 2014-01-16.