Alan Balfour

Alan Balfour (born 1939 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is the former dean of the Georgia Tech College of Architecture. He has also held research and/or faculty positions at MIT, Rice University, Architectural Association School of Architecture, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and was instrumental in establishing the master's degree program in architecture at Georgia Tech.

Biography

Balfour received a diploma in architecture from the Edinburgh College of Art in 1961, and was a Fulbright Scholar at Princeton University, where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in architecture in 1965. In 1974 Balfour became a research associate and lecturer at MIT, a position he held until 1978, when he became a professor at Georgia Tech.

While at Georgia Tech Balfour was instrumental in establishing the master's degree program in architecture in 1980. He left Georgia Tech in 1988 and served as professor and dean of the Rice University School of Architecture from 1989–1991, as chairman of the Architectural Association School of Architecture from 1991–1995, and as professor and dean of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture from 1995–2008, before returning to Georgia Tech. He was Dean of the College of Architecture from 2008 - 2013, and is now a professor.

Educator

He had taught and led several Schools and Colleges over the years. 1977-89 as director of the graduate program, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. he initiated a program that invited significant emerging architects to work with the students in building an experimental structure. Among those involved were Bernard Tschumi, and Daniel Libeskind, the most spectacular result was the construction of John Hejduk’s Houses of Suicide. 1989-91 at Rice University in Houston Texas he served briefly as the William Ward Watkin Dean of Rice Architecture. Soon after being named dean he was encouraged apply for the position of Chairman of the Architectural Association in London.

1991-1995 Chairman of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. The AA Chair is an elected position from a vote of the entire AA membership after presentations by the candidates. Balfour to his surprise won a clear majority of the votes.

When he arrived, enrolment had been declining for several years and the school was viewed as having become stale. The task he faced was to renew a culture of brilliant originality and creativity that had defined the character of the school from the late 60's and 70's. This led to renewing the faculty and academic programs.

In his short time at the AA his major achievements were: Halting the decline in enrolment and resolved an inherited debt of $1.5 million; bringing British students back into the school; Establishing the Graduate Design program: Attracting new such designers teachers such as Ben Van Berkel, Alejandro Zeara-Polo, Farshid Moussavi, Don Bates. Appointing theorist Jeffrey Kipnis to establish the Graduate Design Program, and philosopher Mark Cousins to lead the Doctoral program in History and Theory.

With Willie Lim and Ron Herron he established AA Asia, in Singapore and developed an association with Tongji University in Shanghai which no longer exists.

It was an exhilarating and exhausting task so after just four years he retrained to the US, as Dean of the School of Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) from 1996-2007.

During his years at RPI the Institute was under the inspired leadership of Dr Shirley Ann Jackson, he played a central role in the development of EMPAC, Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center.

In 2001 he was a guest at the American Academy in Rome where he began preparatory work on. what became SOLOMON’S TEMPLE, Myth, Conflict and Faith, traveling to Turkey, Syria, and Israel.

In 2008 he returned to Georgia Tech as Dean of the College of Architecture (now college of Design). He served one term as Dean during which time lead in the establishment of schools in the major programs of the College -music, industrial design, construction, city, and regional planning, and architecture. He retired in 2013. Also, in 2013 he names Advisory Professor in the College od Architecture, and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai.

Balfour was the year 2000 recipient of the Topaz Medal, the highest recognition given in North America to an educator in architecture.

Author

A constant theme in all of Balfour’s writing is the relationship between the physical character of cities, and their buildings and prevalent desires in the culture. He views all man-made reality as landscapes of desire. This is seen at its most developed in the books Berlin:  Politics of Order and Solomon ‘s Temple. His books are in equal measure architectural and social histories.

Books

• PORTSMOUTH (Studio Vista, London, 1970
• ROCKEFELLER CENTER, Architecture as Theater, (McGraw-Hill, 1978)
• BERLIN: The Politics of Order: 1737-1989; (Rizzoli 1990) This and the later book on the city, received AIA International Book Awards
• BERLIN, World City (Academy Editions London, and Ernst & Sohn, Berlin, 1995)
• SHANGHAI, (Wiley/Academy, 2000)
• NEW YORK, (Wiley/Academy, 2001)
• CREATING A SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT introduction by David McCrone (Finlay Brown, Edinburgh, 2005)
• Solomon's Temple: Myth, Conflict, and Faith (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)
• THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM, Preserving the Past Controlling the Future, [1](Wiley-Blackwell. 2019)
• CLASSICAL EDINBURGH, A City Divided (Anthem Press, 2023)

Articles & Essay

• Recovering Landscape edited with James Corner, Princeton Architectural Press, Princeton, 1999.
• Contributions to Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman 1978-1988, CCA Montreal, Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 1994.
• Contributions to The Edge of the Millennium Whitney Library of Design, New York, 1993.
• Berlin: The Politics of Order, 1737- 1989, Rizzoli, New York, 1990. Winner of the AIA International Book Award, 1991.
• Contributions to Contemporary Architects, St. Martins Press, New York, 1984, revised 1987.
• Architectural Education Study, MIT, Boston, 1981, editor.
• Rockefeller Center: Architecture as Theater, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1978.
• Portsmouth, Studio Vista, London, 1970.
• Contributions to Breakthrough to the Hudson, Ottinger Foundation, New York, 1964.

Essays have appeared in the Harvard GSD News, the Graz publication MDA, Dokumente zur Architektur 7 and the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE). His Harvard studio from 1996 was published in Studio Works 4 approaches.

He has served on the editorial boards of JAE, Cite, and was briefly chairman of the board of the Atlanta based arts magazine, Art Papers. From 1991 -1995 Balfour re1designed the Architectural Association’s annual publications and was publisher and had overall editorial responsibility for AA Publications, he also led the editorial board of AA Files.

External links

• Alan Balfour web site
• Administrator Page at the Georgia Tech College of Architecture
• Georgia Tech College of Architecture web site