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Roger Montgomery/tempI am writing this in my own words. This is not a violation. This is entirely original material. Thank you for advising me on how best to proceed. -Peter Montgomery , peter_mont@yahoo.com , www.petermontgomery.com & www.rogermontgomery.info
Roger Montgomery Urban Designer, Architect, Planner, Educator
1925: Born, New York City. Parents Graham Livingston, and Anne Cook. 1925-30: Lives in Greenwich Village, New York City. c. 1931: Family moves to Port Washington, Long Island. Grandmother Amelia, a craftswoman with Greenwich Settlement House, carves oak mantel piece, and front doorway. 1930s: Attends a John Dewey influenced grade school. Emphasis on mechanical and play skills over reading and writing. 1930s: Interest in New Deal politics. Family are FDR supporters. Discovers love of aviation, particularly civil aviation. 1939: Roger gets Summer pass to New York Worlds Fair. GM pavilion, Futurama. Dances to Glenn Miller orchestra numerous times. 1941: Unable to be accepted into military due to punctured eardrum. As with most peers continues regular attempts to be accepted. 1942: Voted most likely to succeed and also The Great Orator in Port Washington High School graduating class. 1942: Father dies suddenly from heart attack. Roger comes home briefly from Oberlin. 1942-45: Attends Oberlin College. Great interest in politics. Dismissed from Oberlin due to several transgressions. Meets future wife Mary Hoyt. 1945-47: Accepted to Army. Basic training plus Radio School in U.S.. Sept 10, ships out to Europe. On boat, becomes editor of ship newsletter and gets in trouble for thinly disguised slanders against commanding officers and cooks. Roger makes additional income as semi-professional Bridge player while in service. Works in intelligence unit in occupied German, primarily as radio operator. 1947: Returns to Long Island from Europe. Interest in architecture tours of New York area modernist houses by Bauhaus refugees with family friends. 1948: Returns to Ohio. Rekindles romance with classmate Mary Hoyt, who graduates Oberlin that year. 1949: Roger and Mary marry in Ohio, and later church ceremony in Michigan on April 23. Mary wears Coco-brown suit with pearls. 1948-53: Architecture begins. Roger works as architecture apprentice in Springfield Ohio. His first boss is an African American architect. He and Mary live in Yellow Springs. The combination of the great shortage of architects and huge post war boom in industry and building, meets with Rogers innate ability to learn quickly. In addition to his employment at firms such as Hunter-Zeller, Roger independently designs Breuer-like wood and steel-frame Modernist houses. Roger and Mary become good friends, Bridge partners and drinking buddies with local design community, including Budd Steinhilber and Reed Viemiester (father of Tucker) 1954: Europe: Grand Tour in Summer, with brother Hugh and their respective wives Mary and Helene. Two months in England, France, Italy, Austria. 1954: N.C. State in the Fall: Then a hot-bed of activity with Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, Mies van der Rohe, Eduardo Catalano, and George Matsumoto. Roger gets highest marks ever seen in NC State math and engineering placement tests according to legend. 1955-56: Harvard GSD. Meets classmates Shouichi Kajima, Fumihiko Maki, Ben Weese. Takes studio with Josep Luis Sert, history with Sigfried Gideon and becomes friends with teaching assistant Eduard Sekler. 1956: Son, Richard Wallace born in Cambridge. 1957: Moves to Saint Louis as professor of architecture at Washington University. Works with Maki and Dean Joe Passeneau. 1957: Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, after experiencing intermittent optical failure. Doctors tell Roger and Mary that He may only have one-year to live. He should stay in bed and get rest. Roger ignores doctors orders. 1958: Son, Thomas Vinton born. 1958: Offered partner position at S.O.M. Chicago to focus on Urban Design, decides to stay and teach in St. Louis instead. 1958: Founding Director (1957-63) Landmarks Association of St. Louis, one of the nations first and most successful building and neighborhood preservation groups. 1960-70s: Private urban development consultant to Montreal, New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, Little Rock, and a number of smaller cities. 1960: Forms architecture partnerships with George Anselevicius, at times Dolf Schnebli, known as SAM Schbebli, Anselevicius, Montgomery. Practice culminates in the 1972 opening of the Washington University Law School Building. 1961: Federal Government: Takes job for Kennedy Administration Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency (later HUD) as first-ever Urban Design Officer. Roger helps change the nature of federal programs by creating technical guidelines for the aesthetics, urban design and architecture of future developments housing in particular. As part of the Johnson administration War on Poverty, housing is given huge part of federal budget many billions in 2004-dollars. 1964: Returns to Washington University and continues professorship. Founding Director of the schools Urban Renewal Design Center studies characteristics of blight across different cities. 1964: Towne South St. Louis. Acts as designer and project planner for a two-thousand home community built near St. Louis, including homes, shopping, a school, and church. 1965: Son, Peter George born. Named after partner George Anselevicius. 1965: Urban Housing Foundation, Inc. Founding Director (1965-67). 1967: Berkeley. Joins the faculty of U.C. after several visits with Mel Webber, Dean Bill Wheaton and others. Hired concurrently, as package deal, along with Donald Appleyard to create an Urban Design curriculum and program. Roger has joint appointment in Architecture and City Planning, Appleyard in Landscape and City Planning. 1968: Juror for Progressive Architecture P/A Design Awards. Other jurors: Henry Cobb (Pei Cobb Freed); Lewis Davis (Davis Brody Bond); R.M. Gensert (Engineer); and Cesar Pelli. 1969: Peoples Park: Roger is active in Peoples Park movement and speaks to Ronald Reagan in filmed faculty meeting with Reagan (see clip in movie Berkeley in the 60s). Marches in Sacramento against Viet Nam war. 1970: Travels to Japan to see Osaka World Fair, and lecture on architecture. Late 60s 70s: UC. Teaches architecture studio classes for both graduate and undergraduate students. 1967-72: West coast editor for Architecture Forum magazine, then a major publication. Writes design reviews of new Weyerhaeuser building, CCAC and SF Art Institute buildings, Acorn Project, BART system, etc. 1973: Housing in America, co-authored with law professor Daniel Mandelker published. The book is a survey of housing economics, race and land-use issues. 1973: Co-author of A guide to Architecture in San Francisco and Northern California, along with David Gebhard, Sally Woodbridge and other. Book is designed by UC professor Marc Treib. 1969-74: La Cite Montreal. Conceptual design and project planning for $120M (1972) multifunction, high-rise project including shopping center, office tower, hotel, apartment towers, and restored historic structures. 1974 1977: Oregon and Washington guidebooks: Travels extensively in Pacific Northwest to research two architecture guides. Though the Oregon guide is largely completed, only the Washington guide, co-authored with Sally B. Woodbridge, is published. First major guide to Pacific Northwest architecture and vernacular buildings. 1970 - 80s: U.C. Berkeley. At CED Roger focuses increasingly on City Planning including CP111, though he continues to teach architecture studios. In architecture, Roger reacts positively to Horst Rittles theories regarding problem solving in design; and Brink Jacksons approach to interpreting everyday landscapes. Roger shares session Cal football tickets with Joe Esherick. 1970s 80s: Public service. During this period Rogers serves as President of the California Council of Architectural Education, and the National Board of Architects, Designers and Planners for Social Responsibility. Additionally, Roger serves on boards for a number of voluntary organizations related to the design professions including Planners for Equal Opportunity, Planners Network and Northern California Non-Profit Housing Coalition. In the Bay Area, Roger advises City and County boards in Berkeley, Alameda County, Santa Clara and San Francisco. Mid 80s 1990: PhD students include: Greg Hise; Kate Bristol; Cliff Ellis, James Buckley, among others. Mid-1980s: Associate Dean for Undergraduate affairs and later Acting Dean. Roger loves to give personally targeted council and coaching to students. 1985: Soviet Union. While iron curtain is still firmly in place, travels with academic and government group, tours central Asia and Moscow. 1989 1996: Dean, College of Environmental Design. May 1, 1989 Jan, 1996. Helps save college programs during severe budget crisis of early 1990s, including massive Verip retirement program. Crusades for undergraduate programs often overlooked by other faculty. Late 80s 90s: Studies and publishes articles on changing labor statistics of the architecture profession. Collaborates with Robert Gutman and Dana Cuff on sociology of professionalism as applied to architecture. 1993 - 1994: Juror. Takes pride in being a juror for a couple of the first Federal GSA projects to use the new Excellence in Design program aimed a improving the architectural quality of important Federal building. Roger is juror for new San Diego courthouse, and the billion dollar additions to the National Institutes of Health campus in Virginia. 1990s: Teaches professional practice internship class, previously co-taught with Howard Friedman. 1990s: Travels and socializes with partner Margaret Hendel: Italy, England, Mexico, Hawaii. 1997 2002: Peer councilor of National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Roger takes training classes on active listening among other things, and then works weekly for several years doing phone-based counseling for MS patients and families. Roger builds several long-distance friendships with those suffering from the disease. 1999 2000: Teaches both fall of 99 and 2000, a freshman seminar entitled The Museum and the City under the umbrella of the recently created Berkeley Consortium for the Arts. Students learn the inner workings and agendas of museums of all types; their role in society and commerce, as well as behind the scenes field trips to meet with staff at many Bay Area museums. 1989 2002: Board of Trustees, Berkeley Art Museum. In addition to helping the board to interpret art and architecture issues, Roger helps guide efforts to save the earthquake-prone Mario Ciampi building and search for a future home. 1997 & 2000: Roger goes on grand museum-related trips to Spain and England. Visits the just completed Bilbao museum, private art studios, gardens, and historic houses in both countries. 2002: Oral History: Roger is interviewed as part of the U.C.B. Bancroft Librarys Regional Oral History Project. Four hundred pages of transcripts come from a dozen hours of taped interviews. 2002: Travels alone to his home town of New York City. Takes subway everywhere and sees eleven museums in seven days, including the tenement museum. 2003: February: Travels to NYC to view finalist in World Trade Center rebuilding competition. March: Travels to Death Valley. June: Cancer returns in full force after three year battle. October: Attends Wurster Redux The official building reopening, anniversary celebrations and lecture series at CED. October 25th: Attended by children and grandchildren, Roger passes away peacefully in the room he designed in his own home in Berkeley.
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