ABSTRACT
While Lewis Mumford was well known as a critic of functionalist modern architecture and an advocate for a more “humane” Modernism, this chapter, by Eric Bellin, documents Mumford’s positive influence on shaping such ideas in architecture education at North Carolina State College. In 1948, the same year that a contentious symposium titled “What is Happening to Modern Architecture?” took place at the Museum of Modern Art, the new dean of NC State Henry Kamphoefner reached out to Mumford for help in shaping a new academic program. Together with Matthew Nowicki, Mumford helped to shape a curriculum defined by its humanistic approach to education and design. Although suddenly interrupted by Nowicki’s tragic death in 1950, Mumford’s and Nowicki’s pedagogy transformed NC State into a pioneering architecture school in the American South.
