Oct 26, 2023 - Sale 2650

Sale 2650 - Lot 52

Price Realized: $ 1,062
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
OFFERING ADVICE: "THE FUTURE ARCHITECT . . . MUST . . . CONTROL HIS LITTLE EGO" GROPIUS, WALTER. Typed Letter Signed, to Robert W. Beatty, briefly describing his path to architecture, advising how students should proceed in the field, speculating that prefabrication would not make architects obsolete, and summarizing the best qualities of the architect of the future. 1 1/2 pages, 4to, "Department of Architecture" stationery, written on two sheets bound together with staple at upper left; faint toning along right edge, horizontal folds. Cambridge, MA, 16 May 1945
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". . . As my father was in the building field as a state employee, and other members of my family were also in this field, I was resolved early in life to become an architect. Soon I had developed my own ideas, even some revolt against the old type of school, so I didn't finish up the university training but went into practice and made my way through various architects' offices. This, however, I do not suggest as the usual way because schools have changed enormously since then. I should advise you, instead, to go through an ordinary curriculum in a good school and get your Bachelor's degree so that you will be entitled to practice as an architect. . . .
"Prefabrication certainly is on its way but I don't think that it will throw the architect out of the market. . . . In fact, I see a great future for the architectural profession, particularly as it is widening out towards the planning of whole communities. The architect will be the coordinator of a whole new setup for community life . . . .
". . . [T]he future architect . . . must know at least the elements of those fields of knowledge which he has to coordinate into a whole entity. He has to educate his . . . capacities of . . . finding a way to control his little ego and to cooperate in teams. . . . Then he must be simultaneously a good technician, a designer with imagination, and reasonable in regard to the economic outlook. . . ."