Kleinman named chair of architecture
Expert in design and theory brings national reputation to UB

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

Kent Kleinman describes himself as a man "with a passion for the built environment." Although not a preservationist in the strictest sense of the term, Kleinman, a designer with a distinguished international reputation in architectural design and theory, considers buildings constructed in the past to be carriers of culture.

"A culture is inscribed in stones and forms of its built environment," says Kleinman, who took over this semester as chair of the Department of Architecture in the School of Architecture and Planning. "For good or ill, these structures express the values of those who built them. We treat our older buildings with respect because they represent our cultural past. If we lose them, we lose part of who we are.

"We needn't encapsulate the past on the assumption that we can't produce buildings of the same quality, however. Our generation has the values, intelligence and training to produce great architecture. We need to exercise our excellence, express it in the work we create.

"To honestly represent our life and times, our built environment cannot only incorporate the values we hold, but stimulate a public debate about what those values should be," Kleinman says, citing as examples the work of Daniel Libeskind of Germany and Alvaro Siza of Portugal.

Kleinman comes to UB from the University of Michigan, where he was associate professor of architecture in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He has worked and written extensively in Europe and the U.S. and is the author of several books.

The UB architecture department had been without a permanent chair since the departure of Elizabeth Cromley for Northeastern University in January 1997. A national search for her replacement began at that time, but was unsucessful.

During this time, students staged a protest in which they piled up a number of chairs and then asked for a "chair" for their department.

While the school received an excellent five-year accreditation last fall, the National Architecture Accreditation Board encouraged the school to continue to search for a department chair of national reputation.

The school's acting dean, Thomas Headrick, says he welcomes Kleinman's "superb blend of talents."

"He's an immensely creative and visionary architect and educator with broad-ranging interests and a well-published scholar who also understands academic administration," Headrick says. "Even more importantly, he brings a commitment and enthusiasm to make UB an outstanding school for architecture and planning. We are indeed fortunate that he has joined our UB community."

Kleinman, who also is an associate professor, notes that one of the attractions of coming to UB is the city of Buffalo itself. "It has many impressive and intact physical structures, unlike many other cities-Detroit, for example. Buffalo's great buildings may not be fully used or fully occupied, but they are of landmark value.

"And the school itself is very important to New York State." he adds. "It's SUNY's only architecture school and is poised to be great. It has an excellent faculty and bright, energetic, intelligent students."

Kleinman notes that this year, architect Michael Sorkin will be teaching in the graduate program every two weeks, giving students an opportunity to learn from one of the finest architectural critics and thinkers in the world.

"We expect to do this sort of thing every year," he said. "We'll have classes taught by some of the finest architects, designers, theorists and planners in their fields."

Kleinman also points to the school's annual lecture series as strong and provocative.

"On Oct. 13, for instance, our speaker is Wolfgang Tschapeller, a young, up-and-coming architect who is very successful in Europe, particularly in the German-speaking realm. Tschapeller's work will demonstrate the role that European governments play in promoting high quality, sometimes radical architecture, particularly through the vehicle of open competitions." Kleinman says it usually surprises Americans to learn how much government support has to do with the spectacular buildings going up overseas.

Kleinman holds a master's degree in architecture from the University of California at Berkeley, from which he also received a bachelor's degree summa cum laude in 1979.

Between 1986 and 1995, he has been an invited visiting professor or critic at Cornell University; UC-Berkeley, the University of Michigan and important architectural schools in Denmark, Austria and Germany.

A prominent author and editor in his field, Kleinman is working on "Notes on Almost Nothing," an assessment of two significant but under-documented buildings designed by Mies Van Der Rohe.

Earlier works include "Rudolf Arnheim: Revealing Vision" (1998), with Leslie van Duzer, a critically applauded anthology of writings on the work of Harvard psychologist Rudolf Arnheim-who famously applied the principles of Gestalt perceptual psychology to the fields of film, art and architecture. Kleinman calls Arnheim a close friend and a source of inspiration.