RICHARD GUY WILSON LEGACY PROFESSORSHIP IN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY
ABOUT THE FUND
The Richard Guy Wilson Legacy Professorship in Architectural History (RGW Legacy Fund) honors the legacy of Richard Guy Wilson's scholarship and teaching, as well as his profound impact on the School of Architecture's Architectural History Department and program.
ABOUT RICHARD GUY WILSON
Richard Guy Wilson’s architectural journey began in Los Angeles — the home of everything new — in a house designed by the leading modernist Rudolph Schindler for his parents. The journey continued with Riverside’s Mission Inn and then side tracked with the University of Colorado and the US Navy. The architectural adventure returned with his marriage to the wonderful Ellie, a student of Bill Jordy’s at Brown, and then a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1972 under Leonard K. Eaton. The architectural adventure really got going with teaching at Iowa State (1972–1976), and then the University of Virginia where he is the Commonwealth Professor. More architectural awakenings came with summer programs — 39 years for the Victorian Society — and commentator for PBS and A&E television.
Wilson’s scholarship includes architecture and design from the 17th to the 21st centuries. In addition to articles, reviews, papers and talks, he is the author/joint author of 16 books and catalogues with titles such as McKim, Mead & White, Architects, The Colonial Revival House, Edith Wharton at Home, and Buildings of Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont, a volume in the Society of Architectural Historians’ Buildings of the United States series. A real adventure has been major museum exhibitions such as The American Renaissance, 1876–1917, The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, The Machine Age in America, Tiffany’s Laurelton Hall, The Making of Virginia Architecture, The Architecture of R.M. Schindler and 3 exhibits on the architecture and design of Thomas Jefferson. Books on Jefferson’s career and on Louis Comfort Tiffany are in progress. He was selected into the 2019 class of Fellows by the The Society of Architectural Historians.
Richard Guy Wilson began teaching at the Univerity of Virginia in 1976 and during his 43-year teaching career he has significantly impacted students through a wide variety of courses that range from global history of cities, surveys of architectural history, historic preservation and more specialized courses on Thomas Jefferson's architecture, the American architecture of the 19th century, and seminars on the American Renaissance and the Beaux-Arts, the Arts & Crafts Movement, mid-20th century modernism and more.
Not surprising, he notes: A most important part of my architectural journey are the colleagues and extraordinary students: undergrads, graduates, and those interested in the history of the built environment. These individuals have made this adventure in architecture possible, and it will continue.
TO MAKE A GIFT TO THE RGW LEGACY FUND
- Make your gift online (including one-time gifts, multiple payments and ongoing gifts).
If you have questions, please contact Woody Wingfield at the UVA School of Architecture Foundation:
434-924-0266
sww2j@virginia.edu