Louis Sauer
Encyclopedia
Louis Sauer (aka Louis Edward Sauer, born 1928), FAIA
, is an American architect and design theorist. In the 1960s and 1970s Sauer untypically worked with housing developers, producing low-rise high-density housing projects.
As principal of Louis Sauer Associates, Architects, Philadelphia, his work in the period 1961–79 focused on over 90 residential and urban design commissions in differing contexts, from central city urban infill to suburban and rural areas, and new town
developments at Reston (Virginia), Columbia (Maryland
) and Montreal
(Quebec).
His innovations in low-rise high-density housing breathed new life into the previously maligned ‘row-housing’ form. Sauer's designs for the David Buten House Philadelphia in particular, and Pastorius Mews, were early templates for the system he developed. The conceptual innovation of most of these housing designs was a 12 feet (3.7 m) or 14 feet (4.3 m) structural and functional module, which was part of a grid.
Sauer's advocacy work with the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority
on the Morton Urban Renewal Project (MURP) for a low-income minority neighbourhood helped to define his career interest in advocating for good design and planning for people left out of the market economy and generally neglected by mainstream design professionals. This interest led him to employ the social sciences (especially social-psychology) in his design research and programming in order to better understand the interrelationships between architecture and the occupancy needs of the anticipated users of his sites and buildings.
.
At age 25 his life was temporarily interrupted by conscription into the US Army. After basic training at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas
, Sauer joined the occupying army in Baumholder
, Germany (December 1953 to June 1955) as Private First Class in the US Army Corps of Engineers. During this tour of duty he found himself in hot water after he declared himself a conscientious objector
, willing to do everything asked except to harm or kill someone. Sauer was nonetheless able to complete his service and receive an honourable discharge.
While travelling in Italy on furlough he met the Italian architect Gino Valle at his home in Udine
, and Valle introduced Sauer to the ideas and work of the American architect Louis I Kahn, who practiced in Philadelphia. After returning to the States in 1955, Sauer obtained his first architectural employment in the office of Jules Gregory in Lambertville NJ.
He then joined the 1956 summer session of Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
(CIAM) in Venice
at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura and spent a formative period studying under notable architects such as Giuseppe Samonà
, Jacob Bakema and Giancarlo De Carlo
. Sauer stayed another six months in Venice before he returned to America to work for the Philadelphia Planning Department under Edmund Bacon on the Society Hill Redevelopment Plan. He met Louis I Kahn and for post-graduate architectural studies he entered Kahn’s Master’s Studio at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1959.
After graduation Sauer worked in a number of Philadelphia architect’s offices and then in 1961 he started his own office with William Winchel as Winchel and Sauer, Architects and in 1962 as Louis Sauer Associates. Frustrated that his market-developer focused Philadelphia practice isolated him from working with economically disadvantaged social groups, in 1968 he organized a separate architectural and planning office with David Marshall and Steven Kerpen – Peoples Housing, Inc – in Topanga (California), that focused on design and construction for economically and physically disadvantaged social groups. During this period Sauer also taught architecture and urban design part-time at Philadelphia’s Drexel Institute of Technology (1960–65) and the University of Pennsylvania
(1965–79).
It took many of Sauer's fellow practitioners by surprise when he suddenly closed his office in Philadelphia in 1979, giving up a successful private practice and moving on to a full-time academic career as Head of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University
. Sauer felt strongly about the role of education for shaping future practitioners. He believed that unless architectural schools learned to teach students how to design for increased building performance and to deal with society on realistic economic terms, society would simply deal architects out of the game.
Between 1989 and 1997 Sauer returned to professional design practice in Montreal
, Canada, as Director of Urban Design at Daniel Arbour and Associates, an urban planning office. There, he did 50 urban design master plans that included large-scale residential on green-field sites, structure plans for the redevelopment of brown-field sites, high-density mixed-use urban infill, and a master plan for structuring public and private sectors for a new town.
Sauer holds dual citizenship in the United States and Canada. He lives in Melbourne
, Australia, where he moved with his third wife in 2000.
(1965–79), Colorado (Boulder; 1985–89) and a visiting professor at MIT
, Yale
and at numerous other US and Canadian universities. In 1984 Sauer was given the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Promoting Architectural Education. Although he retired from design practice in 1997, he is teaching design studios at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT
), School of Architecture and mentoring PhD and Masters architecture students at the University of Melbourne.
Sauer’s legacy in urban design includes a unique ‘signature’ new town in the Quebec development context designed in 1992–93 for 25,000 people adjacent to and northwest of Montreal. His vision and design was an urban plan, rather than a conventional suburban plan, for 8000 dwellings on 202 hectares at Bois-Franc
in the borough of Saint-Laurent http://iaps.scix.net/cgi-bin/works/Show?iaps_12_1992_1_208. His urban approach provided a strong singular image, with the streets and squares as social spaces, and allowed for integration of economic groups, building types and architectural styles. He used water as a major theme to provide contrast been the summer and winter city and social landscapes. The urban precedents were Savannah (Georgia), Amsterdam and more specific places in Canada, Europe and the United States.
He won six Progressive Architecture Design Award
's (PADA) for:
Other award-winning projects include:
For his teaching and academic work:
FAIA
Fellow of the American Institute of Architects is a postnomial, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects...
, is an American architect and design theorist. In the 1960s and 1970s Sauer untypically worked with housing developers, producing low-rise high-density housing projects.
As principal of Louis Sauer Associates, Architects, Philadelphia, his work in the period 1961–79 focused on over 90 residential and urban design commissions in differing contexts, from central city urban infill to suburban and rural areas, and new town
New town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...
developments at Reston (Virginia), Columbia (Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
) and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
(Quebec).
His innovations in low-rise high-density housing breathed new life into the previously maligned ‘row-housing’ form. Sauer's designs for the David Buten House Philadelphia in particular, and Pastorius Mews, were early templates for the system he developed. The conceptual innovation of most of these housing designs was a 12 feet (3.7 m) or 14 feet (4.3 m) structural and functional module, which was part of a grid.
Sauer's advocacy work with the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority
Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority
The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, with the legal name of "Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia", was created by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Urban Redevelopment Law of 1945...
on the Morton Urban Renewal Project (MURP) for a low-income minority neighbourhood helped to define his career interest in advocating for good design and planning for people left out of the market economy and generally neglected by mainstream design professionals. This interest led him to employ the social sciences (especially social-psychology) in his design research and programming in order to better understand the interrelationships between architecture and the occupancy needs of the anticipated users of his sites and buildings.
Personal life
Louis Sauer was born to an Italian mother and a German father. His parents were both doctors in alternative medicine, and the family lived modestly. Between the ages of 10 and 18 he held a variety of part-time jobs, as a window washer, corner newspaper boy, life guard, magazine distributor, shoe salesman etc. Sauer began as a student in pre-medicine at DePaugh University, but moved out of the sciences to pursue an interest in art and photography, and then discovered a passion for architecture and modern design while studying at the famous Moholy-Nagy's ‘New Bauhaus’ (named the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1952) from 1949 to 1953 in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
At age 25 his life was temporarily interrupted by conscription into the US Army. After basic training at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, Sauer joined the occupying army in Baumholder
Baumholder
Baumholder is a town in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, in the Westrich, an historic region that encompasses areas in both Germany and France...
, Germany (December 1953 to June 1955) as Private First Class in the US Army Corps of Engineers. During this tour of duty he found himself in hot water after he declared himself a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
, willing to do everything asked except to harm or kill someone. Sauer was nonetheless able to complete his service and receive an honourable discharge.
While travelling in Italy on furlough he met the Italian architect Gino Valle at his home in Udine
Udine
Udine is a city and comune in northeastern Italy, in the middle of Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic sea and the Alps , less than 40 km from the Slovenian border. Its population was 99,439 in 2009, and that of its urban area was 175,000.- History :Udine is the historical...
, and Valle introduced Sauer to the ideas and work of the American architect Louis I Kahn, who practiced in Philadelphia. After returning to the States in 1955, Sauer obtained his first architectural employment in the office of Jules Gregory in Lambertville NJ.
He then joined the 1956 summer session of Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
The Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne – CIAM was an organization founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged around the world by the most prominent architects of the time, with the objective of spreading the principles of the Modern...
(CIAM) in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura and spent a formative period studying under notable architects such as Giuseppe Samonà
Giuseppe Samonà
Giuseppe Samonà was an Italian architect and urban planner, whose notable works include the post office in the Appio quarter of Rome , the Banca d'Italia in Padua and a theatre in Sciacca, Sicily ....
, Jacob Bakema and Giancarlo De Carlo
Giancarlo De Carlo
Giancarlo De Carlo was an Italian architect.He was born in Genoa, Liguria in 1919. He trained as an architect from 1942 to 1949, a time of political turmoil which generated his philosophy toward life and architecture...
. Sauer stayed another six months in Venice before he returned to America to work for the Philadelphia Planning Department under Edmund Bacon on the Society Hill Redevelopment Plan. He met Louis I Kahn and for post-graduate architectural studies he entered Kahn’s Master’s Studio at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1959.
After graduation Sauer worked in a number of Philadelphia architect’s offices and then in 1961 he started his own office with William Winchel as Winchel and Sauer, Architects and in 1962 as Louis Sauer Associates. Frustrated that his market-developer focused Philadelphia practice isolated him from working with economically disadvantaged social groups, in 1968 he organized a separate architectural and planning office with David Marshall and Steven Kerpen – Peoples Housing, Inc – in Topanga (California), that focused on design and construction for economically and physically disadvantaged social groups. During this period Sauer also taught architecture and urban design part-time at Philadelphia’s Drexel Institute of Technology (1960–65) and the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
(1965–79).
It took many of Sauer's fellow practitioners by surprise when he suddenly closed his office in Philadelphia in 1979, giving up a successful private practice and moving on to a full-time academic career as Head of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
. Sauer felt strongly about the role of education for shaping future practitioners. He believed that unless architectural schools learned to teach students how to design for increased building performance and to deal with society on realistic economic terms, society would simply deal architects out of the game.
Between 1989 and 1997 Sauer returned to professional design practice in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada, as Director of Urban Design at Daniel Arbour and Associates, an urban planning office. There, he did 50 urban design master plans that included large-scale residential on green-field sites, structure plans for the redevelopment of brown-field sites, high-density mixed-use urban infill, and a master plan for structuring public and private sectors for a new town.
Sauer holds dual citizenship in the United States and Canada. He lives in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia, where he moved with his third wife in 2000.
Notable projects
- Penn's LandingPenn's LandingPenn's Landing is the waterfront area of the Center City along the Delaware River section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is so named because the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, docked near here in 1682, along the now paved over Dock Creek, after landing first in New...
Square, Society Hill, Philadelphia, which takes up an entire block and includes 118 homes.
- Eight constructed residential and commercial developments in Society Hill Historic District, Philadelphia.
- Four city blocks of townhouses in BaltimoreBaltimoreBaltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, which introduced the first market-rate housing in the city’s central business district and the Inner Harbour.
- Waterfront Redevelopment Plan for Baltimore’s Fells Point Historic District and the design of its Main Square facing the Inner Harbour.
- Bois-FrancBois-FrancBois-Franc is a residential neighbourhood located in the borough of Saint-Laurent in Montreal. It was designed by architect Louis Sauer-Transportation:...
, a new 8000-dwelling community on 202 hectares adjacent to MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
- Newmarket, a speciality retail centre and noteworthy contribution to Edmund Bacon's transformation of the Philadelphia Society Hill landscape.
- Spring Pond (Painted Post, NY, 1966–8), 108 units of townhouses and apartments for the Corning Glass Works to promote new development in Corning, New York.
- Golf Course Island, 256 townhouses in the new town of Reston, Virginia.
"It has been a long time since the architecture of our day has accomplished as much for human liveability…Sauer's splendid design, at relatively moderate prices, should remove the last reasonable objections to the row-house idea. The houses appear wide on the inside, rather than narrow and vertical. And each has an unmistakably individual entrance, not just a kind of apartment door out on the street. I am almost tempted to call the Sauer townhouses a new breakthrough in townhouse design."
- Concourse Fountain Plaza at Yeatman's Cove (opened in 1976), a landscape water park with pools, fountains blasting large jets of water, concourse plaza and an apartment building and bridge (across an expressway) connecting Cincinnati’s Central Activity District to the Ohio RiverOhio RiverThe Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
."A towering snorkel…like a shower massage on steroids."
Academia
Sauer was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture at Carnegie-Mellon University (1979–85). His research focus was on the relationships between public and private development processes and their marketplaces, as well as how people use their residences and the cultural meanings of street landscapes. Sauer was also a professor at the universities of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
(1965–79), Colorado (Boulder; 1985–89) and a visiting professor at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and at numerous other US and Canadian universities. In 1984 Sauer was given the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Promoting Architectural Education. Although he retired from design practice in 1997, he is teaching design studios at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
), School of Architecture and mentoring PhD and Masters architecture students at the University of Melbourne.
Urban design
Sauer has served on several bodies appointed to advise on architectural and urban design development proposals, including:- Chair, Design Advisory Panel, Mornington Peninsula Shire, VictoriaVictoria (Australia)Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia (2007–present) - Design Review Committee, Frankston Shire, Victoria, Australia (2004–07)
- The Jacques Viger Commission in MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada (1990s) - The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Europe in DubaiDubaiDubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
(1995) - US Agency for International Development advising LebanonLebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
on physical design policies for developing public housing (1977) - The World Bank and the US Agency for International Development to evaluate the Oporto (Portugal) historic district’s urban renewal program and LisbonLisbonLisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
’s social housing design program (1978) - During the US-Soviet détenteDétenteDétente is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. The term is often used in reference to the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War...
of the 1970s, Sauer was part of a public diplomacy effort by the United States Information AgencyUnited States Information AgencyThe United States Information Agency , which existed from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, USIA's broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created Broadcasting Board of Governors, and its exchange and non-broadcasting information functions were...
, in a mission to MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, for the transfer of housing knowledge.
Sauer’s legacy in urban design includes a unique ‘signature’ new town in the Quebec development context designed in 1992–93 for 25,000 people adjacent to and northwest of Montreal. His vision and design was an urban plan, rather than a conventional suburban plan, for 8000 dwellings on 202 hectares at Bois-Franc
Bois-Franc
Bois-Franc is a residential neighbourhood located in the borough of Saint-Laurent in Montreal. It was designed by architect Louis Sauer-Transportation:...
in the borough of Saint-Laurent http://iaps.scix.net/cgi-bin/works/Show?iaps_12_1992_1_208. His urban approach provided a strong singular image, with the streets and squares as social spaces, and allowed for integration of economic groups, building types and architectural styles. He used water as a major theme to provide contrast been the summer and winter city and social landscapes. The urban precedents were Savannah (Georgia), Amsterdam and more specific places in Canada, Europe and the United States.
Research
Sauer was active in early initiatives to promote the inclusion of ‘user needs’ in design practice and education. He undertook his own research by conducting post-occupancy evaluations of his built work and worked with social scientists, such as John Zeisel, during his design programming. He received the first Design Fellowship Research Grant from the US National Endowment to the Arts to examine the relationships between building development processes and architectural design. He was active in the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) and was a director of its board. Sauer was also a review editor for the Journal of Architectural Research (JAR).Publications
Sauer has been published extensively, with articles and book chapters that influenced and remain relevant to contemporary thinking on a range of topics, including minimum-cost housing, historic preservation, environmental design, the role of the architect in society, user needs for human habitats, public open space and housing design, architectural production and urban renewal.Awards
In 1973 Sauer was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and has received many national, regional and local AIA awards, including two AIA Pennsylvania Chapter Silver Medals.He won six Progressive Architecture Design Award
Progressive architecture award
The Progressive Architecture Awards annually recognise risk-taking practitioners and promote progress itself in the field of architecture. The editors of Progressive Architecture magazine hosted the first Progressive Architecture Award jury in 1954. In 1996, the magazine folded and the venue was...
's (PADA) for:
- The Richard Cripps residence (Lambertville, New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
– PADA Jan 1963) - James Hamilton House (New Hope, PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
– PADA Jan 1964) - 11th and Waverly Town Houses (Philadelphia – PADA Jan 1964)
- Pastorius Mews (Germantown, Philadelphia – PADA Jan 1965)
- Head House Square East (Society Hill, Philadelphia – PADA 1969)
- Queens Village (Philadelphia, with Cecil Baker, Architect – PADA Jan 1973)
Other award-winning projects include:
- McClennen Residence
- 256 townhouses in Golf Course Island, Reston, Virginia
- Urban design and 100 townhouses for the new Harbour Walk neighbourhood at BaltimoreBaltimoreBaltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
's Inner Harbor
For his teaching and academic work:
- Award for Outstanding Achievement in Promoting Architectural Education, American Academy of Higher Education, Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, 1984
Louis Sauer quotes
External links
- Oct 2007 Interview with Louis Sauer about his practice and teaching work. The Architects radio show on RRR 102.7FM Melbourne http://www.rrr.org.au/playlist/3185/
- http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display_projects.cfm/23135#projects Philadelphia Buildings site, Louis Sauer Projects
- 'Un Architetto Americano: Louis Sauer' (1988) by Antonino Saggio. The Officina Edizioni
- http://www.arc1.uniroma1.it/saggio/Libri/Sauer/SauerIlaud.html 'Absorbing Venice. Low-rise High-density Housing by Louis Sauer' by Antonino Saggio, published in G. De Carlo, C. Occhialini a cura di Ilaud, Territory & Identity, Comune di Venezia-Maggioli editore, Santarcangelo Romagna, 1998 pp 74–79.