Chain smoking, hard drinking Stuart Wilson was the bane of our existence for virtually every minute of our fourth year. Late at night (actually early in the morning), he would bounce from desk to desk in our studio, flicking cigarette ashes on the drawings of our latest design endeavors. We were all affected. He was an equal opportunity offender. The retelling of the night old man Wilson remarked to the sadly outmatched Badar Khan "Going to go down fighting, eh?" is a highlight of our class reunion reminiscences.
Through all this, Professor Wilson demanded we exert effort and strive for whatever excellence we were capable of. For some, the scrutiny was withering. For others, motivating. In my case, I had one semester of each - fortunately the good followed the bad. His bullying (probably carefully planned) forced me to grow in ways that serve me to this day.
Why would Professor Wilson be on my mind? For a few weeks, I have had writer's block about something relevant to say in this blog. Nothing seemed to coalesce. Eventually, though, I was reminded of one of Professor Wilson's lectures. The subject was "How to Design". As I recall, he paid lip service to historical precedent setting, visual massing concepts, adjacency matrices, and all the other "tools" of our trade. He adamantly insisted that ideas flow out of what might be unfocused doodling of ideas. (Remember, this was for Architects.) He loudly insisted that our process would find it's resolution, if only we "JUST GET STARTED!!"
He saw this as all about doing whatever it takes to overcome the inertia brought on by over-analysis and uncertainty. I should have been more obedient, I suppose. Actually, we all should. Peering though Stuart Wilson's rheumy eyes was a profound vision.
