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Michael Brill, a founder of UB architecture school
A memorial service was held Aug. 17 in the Albright-Knox Auditorium for Michael Brill, an architectural theorist and founder of the School of Architecture and Planning who has been called "one of the gurus in the entire world of workplace design."
Brill, a professor of design in the School of Architecture and Planning, died unexpectedly July 26 in Buffalo General Hospital. He was 66,
For more than 30 years, he designed and researched the built environment and people's relationship to it—from using office design to increase productivity to figuring out how to use architecture as a natural language to mark a burial site for dangerous radioactive waste.
Brill came to Buffalo in 1969 after earning a bachelor's degree in architecture from Pratt Institute of Technology and working for architectural firms. He established BOSTI Associates (Buffalo Organization for Social and Technological Innovation), a pioneering design analysis firm, and became one of the founding figures in environmental/behavior research.
At about the same time, he joined with what he called "a band of renegades" in a 1990 interview to found what was then called the School of Architecture and Environmental Design. The goal, he said, was to challenge "what architecture and planning was 21 years ago."
Unlike virtually all architecture schools of the time, the UB program used actual, client-funded projects as its principle teaching tool.
Brill was a prolific scholar, authoring more than 75 publications, including books, book chapters, monographs, articles and papers.
He received numerous awards through the years and was made an honorary member of the American Society of Interior Designers in 1985.
The Department of Architecture in the School of Architecture and Planning has established "The Michael Brill Fund" to keep his legacy and scholarly pursuits alive. The fund will be used for a memorial lecture, a visiting teaching fellowship or student scholarships. Checks may be made payable to "The Michael Brill Fund," c/o UB Foundation, Box 900, Buffalo, NY, 14226-0900.
Friends, students, colleagues, family and acquaintances may write condolences, as well as share their memories and stories of Brill, in a guest book on the Department of Architecture's Web site at http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/architecture/people/brilltribute/brill_post.htm. The messages will be printed next year on the anniversary of Brill's death and given to his family.
Jacques Benay, professor emeritus of French
Jacques G. Benay, professor emeritus of French, died unexpectedly July 31 in his home in Irvine, Calif. He was 77.
A professor of French letters, philosophy and history of ideas and science, he had a long and distinguished career at UB. He was a faculty member in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures from 1963 until he retired in 1990.
He wrote numerous scholarly articles, reviews and a four-volume text on the French Theatre of the Avant-Garde entitled "Panorama du Theatre Nouveau."
He received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1981.
Born in Algeria when it was a French colony, Benay served in the Free French Forces during World War II. After the war, he pursued his education in the United States, earning a bachelor's degree from Wayne State University and a master's and doctorate in French literature from Brown University.
Among his survivors is a daughter, Suzanne, a development officer in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.