ABSTRACT
This chapter, by Stephanie Pilat and Angela Person, tells the story of the so-called “American School” of architecture, at the University of Oklahoma, under the visionary leadership of Bruce Goff. The authors explain how, Goff and his colleagues, created a creative environment geographically and purposefully detached from traditional centers and modes of architecture education. While focused on the charismatic leadership of Goff, who did not have academic training in architecture, the essay calls into question not only the architecture pedagogies and practices contemporaneous with Goff’s tenure between 1947 and 1956 but those of today. Although Goff’s time at Oklahoma was cut short by prejudice against his sexual orientation, the “American School” had an outsized impact on architecture culture owing to Goff’s powerfully free imagination and educational approach.
