Borough honors Geddes for life crafting buildings, community

As crowds flocked to Nassau Street for Communiversity on Saturday morning, a small group filled the lobby of the Garden Theatre.

They gathered not for an early-morning matinee, but to honor Robert Geddes – former dean of the University's School of Architecture – as this year's recipient of the Margen Penick Award for community service.

Though not a traditional venue for an awards ceremony, the Garden Theatre was symbolically appropriate.

Just as the Garden Theatre was recently renovated, Geddes seeks to remodel existing structures within Princeton Borough.

Like the Garden Theatre renovation, which sought to increase the building's usability while maintaining its character, Geddes' work tries to integrate the personal and the practical in his work.

"There is always a physical and a social idea," Geddes said, "and the creative tension between the two is what architecture seeks to address."

With his sanguine demeanor and patient temperament, Geddes is well suited to a profession in which he must constantly find a balance between two often-competing demands.

Geddes notes that he was drawn to architecture in part because it was "the most public of the arts."

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A 1950 graduate of the Harvard School of Design, Geddes taught architecture for almost half a century. He worked at the University of Pennsylvania's "Philadelphia School," and in 1965, Geddes became the first dean of Princeton's newly created School of Architecture. After acting as dean for 18 years and serving in advisory capacities, he taught at New York University until 2000.

Renewing neighborhoods

Throughout his teaching, Geddes integrated civic involvement with scholarly engagement. While at NYU, he worked with Crosstown 116, a non-profit organization that concentrated on cultural preservation, renewal and development in city neighborhoods.

"He was very knowledgeable and supportive," thesis advisee Jean Chu '86 recalled. "When he was involved in something, he didn't take it lightly."

During the past several years, Geddes has focused his creative energies and deep sense of civic commitment on the development of the Borough. Having returned to Princeton in 2000 as the winning design applicant for the construction of several new buildings for the Institute for Advanced Study, Geddes soon became involved in a second project: Princeton Future.

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Over lunch at the institute in February 2000, former University president Robert Goheen '40, fellow architect Sheldon Sturges and Geddes discussed the concerns facing Princeton's development in the coming years.

Their conversation focused on the issues of providing affordable housing to low-income families in Princeton, developing the downtown area with both diversity and practicality in mind and preserving Princeton's neighborhoods.

"The concern was, how do you preserve people and their lives?" Geddes said. "You can protect buildings through grants, but it's harder to protect neighborhoods."

Out of this lunchtime chat Princeton Future was born.

"It came about in an unplanned way," Geddes said of the creation of Princeton Future. "It was one of those nice serendipity things."

Princeton Future

A non-profit organization comprising both professionals and residents, Princeton Future seeks to provide "Balance, Diversity, Viability and Affordability."

In its first year, Princeton Future organized more than 40 meetings for neighborhood residents, and it continues to foster ongoing dialogue on what direction Princeton should take in the coming years.

The creation of Princeton Future conveniently coincided with the 2001 revision of the Princeton Community Master Plan, which is reviewed every six years.

Through Princeton Future, neighborhood residents were better able to contribute to the framing of the plan.

Geddes' architectural acumen and willingness to listen helped to integrate residents' wishes into the plan.

"His is a brilliant mind," co-founder Sturges said. "He has a wonderful commitment to inclusion and to the idea of listening to neighbors and what they're saying and trying to relate the physical buildings with the social implications of the buildings."

Borough Mayor Marvin Reed also stressed Geddes' great contribution to Princeton's Future.

"Robert Geddes has a deep interest in the quality of life and the appearance of Princeton," he said. "He is very people-oriented in the way in which he sees people wanting to use spaces."

At the awards ceremony Geddes encouraged audience members to be active citizens in their communities and to try to work for positive change.

"We as citizens can try to make participatory democracy work better," Geddes said.

University professor Paul Starr said Geddes embodied that democracy.

"Some say democratic planning is impossible, but this is democratic planning in action," Starr said in his introductory speech for Geddes on Saturday.

"He has done the right thing and done it the right way."

An accomplished teacher, dean, architect and founder of Princeton Future, Geddes has earned the right to cut back on his workload. However, he shows no intention of slowing down.

"Stay tuned," he said at the close of his acceptance speech.