William S. Huff Papers MS 139.2 University Archives State University of New York at Buffalo Note: This inventory is incomplete. Item descriptions provided by William S. Huff. Terms of Access: This collection is unprocessed. Permission to use unprocessed materials requires the approval of the University Archivist. Contact University Archives at 716-645-2991 or lib- [email protected] for more information. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Container List Box 1 Compilations of First Year Architectural Design assignments—1975-1986: On the whole, the examples of the solutions to the assignments are not identified in regard to the students who executed them or the instructor under whom the students did their tasks: This is poor pedagogic practice. In some instances, the students’ names and even the instructors’ names appear on the reproduced drawings. On the whole, these compilations were made by the team’s coordinator, with little input, if any at all, from the other instructors—often during the summer recesses. The assignments were usually devised and written by individual team instructors—usually with the input and/or approval of other members of the teaching team. The names of the authors on some of the assignments’ statements do not indicate that they were the critics behind the examples that are reproduced along with those statements. • Compilation of problem statements and students’ designs: First Year Design 1975/1976; Czajka, coordinator; Kamages; Houriahan; Steiglitz. • Compilation of problem statements and students’ designs: First Year Design 1976/1977; Czajka, coordinator; Barbasch; Huff; Kleinman. • Compilation of problem statements and students’ designs: First Year Design 1977/1978; Czajka, coordinator; Huff; Kleinman; Sadao; Loftness . • Compilation of problem statements and students’ designs: First Year Design 1978/1979; Czajka, coordinator; Downing; Hamilton; Huff; Loftness . • Compilation of problem statements and students’ designs: First Year Design 1979/1980; Malo, coordinator; Downing; Hamilton; Huff. The first of a series of classic assignments, Building Analysis (Malo), that were originated over the next half decade, was introduced this year. Compilation of problem statements and students’ designs: Architecture Studio 1-2: ’80-‘82; Malo, coordinator; Cordts; Downing; Huff (also Fearing and Hamilton). Most of the rest of the classic assignments for this period were introduced at this time: Activity Studies (Downing); Space Boundaries—Carving (Malo) and Space Boundaries—Casting (Malo/ Cordts); Ordering Principles (Cordts); Structure (construction/joining and lateral stability in wood)—The Path and the Place (Huff); Experiments with Daylight (team); Toy—with shop log (Cordts); Toy Shop—using shop log, in concrete block (Cordts). These classic assignments were meant to address 5 major aspects of architectural design, and these 5 aspects were targeted so that at least one problem in each aspect was assigned during the First Year: (1) Anthropometrics and Ergonomics—the body’s relation to itself and to space; (2) Formal or Syntactic Studies— abstract composition; (3) Construction—joining materials and stability; (4) Passive Environmental Control— natural light, acoustics, air flow; (5) Context—urban setting and non-urban landscapes. • Compilation of problem statements and students’ designs: Order Structure Architecture n.d. [1982- 1985]; Malo, coordinator; Cordts; Huff, Schneekloth (also others). William S. Huff Papers MS 139.2 page 2 (Cordts left the program at the end of Fall 1982 and left the school at the end of Spring 1987.) Box 2 • Compilation of students’ analytic works: Architecture: Building Analysis—First Year Studio—Spring 1983; Malo, coordinator; Brill; Houston; Huff; Shibley; Schneekloth. (Malo left the program at the end of Spring 1985 and left the school at the end of Spring 1986; Huff left the program at the end of Spring 1985 and retired at the end of Spring 1998.) • Compilation of problem statements and students’ designs: First Year Design Studio: 85-86; Schneekloth, coordinator; Barnes; Houston; Jacobsen. (Most of the classic assignments of the Cordts, Downing, Huff, Malo era were carried over by this new team; however, the original intents of these assignments tended to be lost or eroded.) • [catalog] Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart: First American Exhibition, Richard Feigen Gallery, Chicago, Sept. 16-Oct. 30 [1971] • Annual strip calendar, 2009 [in box designed for shipping], designed by Hans (Nick) Roericht • [essay] Richard Cordts, Coterminous, designed by Hans (Nick) Roericht Collection of images of Architectural Assemblages and comments by Richard Cordts, one of the most original design teacher in the Department of Architecture in the 1980. Cordts studied at Cooper Union and was acknowledged as one of the best students of John Hejduk. • Post card announcement. ARTSPACE: Two views of architecture. March 8-April 6, 1986. Top architectural minature by Richard Cordts; bottom plan by WSH • All-departmental, all day sketch problem • Memoranda to faculty (Sept. 21, 1980 and Sept. 26, 1980) • Instructions • Photographs of all-day school event • Slides (four sheets), all architecture department, all day collaborative project, organized by Cordts, Malo and Huff. • Folder of letters and different versions of a lecture: A[rthur] J. C. Wilson to wsh, 22 ix 1993; 7 vii 1993; 30 ix 1994. Lecture by A. J. C. Wilson: “Crystals and Wallpaper.” One thesis student, Pamela McCracken, was developing a thesis with me on the subject of the 17 repeating wallpaper patterns. There was one facet of the problem, regarding the problem’s regulating definition that general, interdisciplinary texts did not cover and that was, therefore, left as a seeming contradictory point. McCracken’s thesis meant to correct this shortcoming (whose clarification I discovered in one 19th century scientific text, translated coincidentally by UB’s David Harker and wife). McCracken had an especial facility for visual language, especially diagrammatic—and she addressed thoroughly and masterfully the dilemma that was the focus of her thesis. She had, however, difficulty expressing herself verbally. As a result, I began writing some letters of inquiry for her—taking care to keep a proper distance from the execution of the thesis itself. I had engaged a number of outstanding people, who were either crystallographers or were otherwise experts in crystallography, as consultants and advisors. Papers from the important contemporary crystallographer A. J. C. Wilson are in this file. There was a redundancy of different copies of the same Wilson lecture, so I discarded the earliest version with unreadable passages due the quality of the copy. This thesis was of such interest, that it was scheduled for publication. However, McCracken’s husband entered the scene at the end; and he maneuvered for a colleague of his, who was on the UB faculty, to be put onto the thesis committee. In McCracken’s final version, she introduced an extensive feature that she and I had never considered for inclusion and that was, in fact, antithetical to the whole point of the thesis. This action may attest to her not comprehending the worth of what she had done. She could not be persuaded to delete this extraneous and contradictory material, for she had jumped the gun on having the thesis printed and bound. Therefore, I signed her off on her thesis requirement (due to her excellent graphic exposition), but I refused to attach my signature to the printed copies. The plan to publish it was dropped • Article in Journal: Herbert A. Simons, “Understanding Creativity,” Carnegie Review (No 2, 1964- 1965), [8 pages]. William S. Huff Papers MS 139.2 page 3 Herbert Simon was a Nobel Lauriat in Economic. That aside, he was one of the innovators of artificial intelligence (AI). This article on creativity is an important statement of his along those lines • A return to Memphis : the art of Samuel Hester Crone (1858-1913) : September 6-November 8, 1997. o Also in this folder: The Part of Sarah in the Art of Samuel Crone. William S. Huff, 2015 • Papers of the American Association of Architectural Bibliographers. Vols. 1 (1965), 2 (1966), 3 (1966), 12 (1977) Box 3 • Sketch model: Wayside Market, Wood Construction Problem, First Year Architecture Design Studio, attributed to Ricardo Santos and instructor W. S. Huff, Fall 1983. The final design is recorded in Order Structure Architecture n.d. [1982-1985]: This is a smart, deceptively simple solution in regard to the establishment of stability through triangulation—other than in the mode of Bucky Fullerism. Pinning the structure to the ground completes the triangulation that is otherwise achieved through the wood members. (The wood members were not engineered—only intuitively sized in this sketch model.) The student did not sign his work; his identity is deduced from records of W. Huff. Box 4 Full size prototype: Wood Toy, Toy Problem, First Year Architecture Design Studio, anonymous, instructor unknown, Spring 1982 (or Spring 1981). Babushka wood blocks, shown on cover of Architecture Studio 1-2: ’80-‘82: Through the logic of the construction, the object begins Box 5 Perspecta: the Yale architectural journal, no. 1-10 Box 6 Perspecta: the Yale architectural journal, no. 11-15 Box 7 Perspecta: the Yale architectural journal, no. 16-19 Box 8 Perspecta: the Yale architectural journal, no. 20-23 Box 9 Oppositions: a journal for ideas and criticism in architecture, no. 1-8 Box 10 Oppoitions: