A Japanese proverb says, “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” Teaching is one of the oldest and most noble professions. However, what is a teacher’s primary job nowadays? Just complete the curriculum and conduct exams, or is the picture more extensive than this? Teachers are indeed the backbone of society; it is a magnanimous profession where a person shares their knowledge and expertise with others. Teachers are crucial because they play a substantial role in developing the student’s character besides teaching in the classroom.
The most critical characteristic of teachers is that they inspire their students. A study shows that a healthy student-teacher relationship allows students to feel confident and perform better academically. Unfortunately, nowadays, it is rare to find competitive teachers, and it has various reasons. Lack of training and guidance, stressful workloads, and low wages are vital factors that add to the chaos. Even in this sad situation, some teachers are incessantly shining a ray of hope and making more effort than their job requires. Thomas Fowler IV is one of them.
Thomas Fowler IV is a licensed architect and a Distinguished Professor of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ASCA). He is the director of the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) Graduate Architecture Program. Fowler has approximately 20 years of experience as a professional architect before coming to Cal Poly and over 30 years of teaching experience. Still, he continues his architecture practice as an architect, collaborating with the industry and selected clients. Fowler teaches and trains undergraduate architecture students in the comprehensive building design studio. Moreover, he is also co-teaching along with a structural engineer in an interdisciplinary graduate building design studio.
Being an exceptional professor and diligent architect is one of the many facets of Fowler. Since 2015, he has partnered with Mbesese Initiative for Sustainable Development (MISD), a Tanzania-based NGO. Fowler has been assisting the NGO in collaboration with undergraduate and graduate students, and his structural engineering partner, in developing multi-layer layered structure projects, which include a steel bridge over a naturally occurring swale and the design and construction of a classroom building and a masterplan for a new Polytechnic College.
Being a humanitarian, Fowler is creating opportunities to bridge the gap between education and resources. With the program “INTERNNECT,” Fowler is collaborating with a former student to bring underrepresented high school students to Cal Poly for exposure to university opportunities along with providing students an understanding of opportunities for working in the professions (i.e., architecture, construction management, architectural engineering, city regional planning and landscape architecture – and all of these are departments within Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design that build for the environment.
Picture Courtesy: BeyondtheBuilt.com
A steel bridge design, fabricated and installed for a community in Same Tanzania, Africa
A steel bridge design, fabricated and installed for a community in Same Tanzania, Africa
Fowler has also initiated an apprenticeship program collaborating with Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM) at the San Francisco, CA office to create an advanced high-rise professional design studio. Fourth-year students can take a design studio for academic credit and an internship for professional credit toward licensure requirements.
“Expanding the creative building design process beyond the walls of the classroom has been the most inspirational aspect of collaborating with the students over the years; in many ways, it’s allowed them to become my teachers, showing me what is possible.”
– Thomas Fowler IV
“With Tom’s guidance, I was able to develop a unique industry 5th-year thesis which built on my previous professional experience (from Tom’s SOM program), that led directly to the career I have today.”
- Sarah Jester, AIA (BARCH 2011 and previously a Senior Architect, SOM, Shanghai)
To memorialize his experiences and to educate the next generation of architects, Fowler has contributed essays in several publications (selected highlights include): Professional Practice 101, A Compendium of Effective Business Strategies in Architecture (2020), A Teachers View by Thomas Fowler IV: Becoming an Architect (Guide to Careers in Design) (2014) and Cal Poly Architecture and Architectural Engineering Studio: A Collaboratory. Collaborations in Architecture and Engineering (2014). He has also successfully documented a range of advanced building design studios with industry partners, including the 2020 Skyscraper Collaboratory, An interdisciplinary architecture and structural engineering design studio collaboration with industry partners (2022).[i]
Fowler is the recipient of many awards and recognitions. He is highly respected in the educational architecture community of academics and professionals who enjoy engaging in the profession by participating in various volunteer activities (i.e., the collateral organizations that define the architecture profession and impromptu-type activities that provide excellent learning opportunities for students).
“Thomas is an educator admired for his collegiality, creativity, empathy, humor, and undying enthusiasm for design students and teachers. Our Architecture Department is a pretty special place where teaching is excellent, inspired, and also a bit magical, and Thomas is an essential component of that.”
– Christine Theodoropoulos, Dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED)
To recognize his innovative teaching and collaborative community design-build work, Fowler was elevated as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 2019, an honor granted to only 3% of the professional membership. He received the prestigious Cal State University (CSU) Wang Teaching Award in 2019; a single University professor selected annually from all 23 CSU campuses. Also, Fowler was chosen twice by Design Intelligence as one of the 25 most admired Educators in the USA. In 2010, Fowler received the NCARB Prize for the Design Collaboratory, in collaboration with three colleagues, issued by the National Council of Registration Boards (NCARB). And early on in his career, he was recognized with a Young Faculty Teaching Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) (1997), along with a Young Architects Selection for Progressive Architecture Magazine (July 1993).
Fowler was born on May 24, 1960, in America. He received his master’s in Architecture from Cornell University and his bachelor’s in Architecture from the New York Institute of Technology.
For over 25 years, Thomas Fowler, IV, has been shaping the top-ranked architecture and design programs. Fowler’s innovative approach to teaching always utilizes new media but also in conjunction with traditional methods and various disciplines involved to challenge students in a way that they can adjust to the creative process of making.
[i]https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44150-022-00041-0