The Listening Architect

What first drew me to Sam Allis’ major Boston Globe profile of architect William Rawn, Starting slow, finishing fast, was the emphasis on Rawn’s  listening skills. Rawn says architects aren’t trained in this skill, yet he spends considerable time at it, especially at the beginning of a project. William Rawn Associates was named the top architectural firm in the country by Architect magazine in its May 2009 edition. Beyond the idea of success-through-listening, the profile is a fascinating portrait of a professional at the top of his game. He is 66 and took a non-traditional path into the profession. Rawn says that architects reach their peak in their 50s, 60s, or even older.  He graduated from Yale and Harvard Law School, and then practiced law in Washington for a couple of years. He spent four years he spent as assistant to the president and then assistant chancellor for physical planning at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The UMass experiences honed his listening skills and convinced him to become an architect, enrolling at the MIT School of Architecture + Planning. He started as a solo, growing to a 32 person firm that does high profile work for universities, arts centers, libraries and religious institutions. The photo portfolios on the company’s site and the photo gallery that accompanies the article are stunning. Although I didn’t know at the time that he was the architect, I was highly impressed by a visit last year to one of Rawn’s buildings, the Glavin Family Chapel at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., before I gave a presentation elsewhere on campus. It’s a nondenominational space that I wandered into and had to myself for half an hour. The combination of wood and 30 foot high floor-to-ceiling windows opening onto the adjacent wooded area makes for a powerful spiritual experience. I made a mental note at the time that I’d like to return to speak there in the future. That’s an affirmation of a building’s power that I think Rawn would like to hear.