LAWRENCE "Andy" BERNHART ANDERSON
Born: May 7, 1906 Geneva, Freeborn, Minnesota
Died: April 4, 1994 Emerson Hospital, Concord, Lincoln, Massachusetts
| Parents: Occupation: Marriage: |
Anders "Andrew" Soren Anderson Lena C. Christianson Late Professor Emeritus of Architecture and former Dean of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor at MIT for 46 years Worked with Frank Lloyd Wright Rosina duPont 1936 |
| Children: | Judith | ||
| Karen | |||
| Lawrence S. | |||
| Notes: | At the time of the March 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Lawrence was 13 years old and living with his parents, sister |
| Doris (age 15), and paternal grandmother
Maren (age 81) in Geneva, Freeborn County, Minnesota [Source: E.D. 49,
Sheet 7B, Dwelling 60, Family 60, Lines 61-65, FHL US/Can Film #1820830].
At the time of the April 2, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, Lawrence B. was 23 years old, attending the University, and living with his parents and sister Doris M. (age 25, working as a stenographer) in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota. His parents owned their own home worth $5,000 and the family had a radio [Source: E.D. 27-19, Sheet 4, Dwelling 14, Family 17, Lines 16-19, FHL US/Can Film #2340824]. On May 3, 1932, Lawrence departed from La Havre, France on the S. S. Champlain and arrived in New York, New York on May 10. Born in Geneva, Minn., Lawrence Anderson earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts at the University of Minnesota in 1927 and a degree in architecture from the same school in 1928. He taught architectural design at the University of Virginia for two years before earning a master's degree in architecture at MIT in 1930. While studying at MIT, he was awared the prestigious Paris Prize for postgraduate study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He returned to MIT as assistant professor of architecture in 1933, became a full professor in 1944 and head of the department of architecture in 1947. He became dean of the school of architecture and planning in 1965, the job from which he retired in 1972. During his stewardship, he added studies of illumination, solarheating, mobile housing and the applications of plastics in constructionto the school's curriculum. He was a partner in the Cambridge architecural firm of Anderson, Beckwith and Haible. In 1978, he received a joint award from the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture for lasting achievement in architecture education. In 1984, he was the first recipient of both the Boston Society of Architects Award and the St. Botolph Club Foundation Award for excellence in architecture. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Institute of Architects and past president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. In 1957 he was appointed Fulbright Lecturer to the Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. He was called the Dean of Boston Architects. Though Mr. Anderson was an educator who taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 46 years, his designs had wide influence within the architectural community. In. 1940, he and Professor Herbert L. Beckwith '26 designed Alumni Gymnasium at MIT, a swimming pool complex that was one of the first significant modern works in the United States. As an advisor to the Boston Government Center Commission, he managed the competition that resulted in the modernistic design of Boston's City Hall. In a review of an exhibit of Mr. Anderson's life's work at MIT on Nov. 6, 1990, Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell noted that Mr. Anderson was the "recognized dean of living Boston architects, the Grand Old Man - a title he would surely detest." "The change from the architecture of the previous periods to the modern movement was a very fundamental change and Andy was the inspiration in Boston for that change," said William E. Hartmann '38, a retired partner of the architecture firm of Skidmore, Ownings, & Merrill who studied under Anderson at MIT. Students and colleagues said Anderson was a great professor and was very friendly with students. "He was very much a part of the fervor that was in the spirit of the architecture school then," Hartmann said. After his retirement, Anderson continued his association with the Institute as a member of the Council of the Arts from 1974 to 1977. MIT established a biannual award in Anderson's name after his retirement. The initial endowment for the fund was made by two former students, Hartmann and I. M. Pei '40. In his retirement, he found joy in painting watercolors. He also enjoyed carpentry, cooking and playing the violin. Lawrence died of heart and kidney failure during surgery in Emerson Hospital, Concord, Massachusetts. He was 87 years old. Dana Stimler reminisces on Lawrence Anderson: "I met Lawrence and Rosina Anderson at their home in 1991 while on a tour of the Northeast with my mother, Diane Rae (Anderson) Stimler (his first cousin, one generation removed). Lawrence gave me much of the descendent information concerning the Anderson line as he was very interested in the descendents of his grandfather, Soren Anderson, and I had traced the family back in Denmark from Soren on back." |
| Ancestry: | The Anderson Line |
Obituary of Lawrence B. Anderson, Boston Globe, Saturday, April 9, 1994
Former Dean L.B. Anderson Dies, TechTalk, April 13, 1994
Former Dean L.B. Anderson Dies, TechTalk, April 13, 1994
S. S. Champlain
on which Lawrence Anderson sailed from La Havre, France to New York in May 1932
Last modified: July 21, 2012
Copyright © 1998-2012 Rae Stimler Bordua. All rights reserved.
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