Berry Library's architect, who has always been fascinated by buildings, remembers fondly an experience he had in a famous New York train station years ago.
"When I was eight, my dad took me to Penn Station and showed it to me," Robert Venturi said -- and even so early in his life, he was amazed by the station's structure.
Venturi's father, a poor Italian immigrant, had dreamed of becoming an architect, but his dream did not materialize. However, a son in the family inherited the father's interest.
"I can never not remember wanting to become an architect," Venturi said.
Venturi specializes in designing museums and buildings for academic institutions. His work includes the Allen Art Museum Addition in Oberlin, Ohio and Gordon Wu Hall at Princeton University.
On being asked what his own personal favorite is, however, Venturi took the diplomatic route.
"If you ask a parent, 'who is your favorite child?' what will he say," Venturi said. "You always love all your children."
Although he pointed out that he works seven days a week and barely has any free time, Venturi likes to take walks with his son in lower Manhattan, N.Y. and also enjoys travelling with his family.
Venturi said he has traveled all over the globe and recently celebrated his 50th anniversary with a first visit to Rome.
Asserting that he learns something about architecture every day and from every place he visits, Venturi described Turkey as the most interesting country of today.
Venturi said he enjoys designing buildings for academic institutions as well as commercial establishments.
Venturi, who served as an architect for Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Swarthmore among other educational institutions, said he enjoys designing college buildings that blend into the rest of their campuses.
He also likes working on American commercial architecture. Although he has not had a chance to complete many such assignments, Venturi relished the opportunity of designing a hotel in Japan, where he connected with the "jubilant American commercial environment."
A lover of classical modern architecture of the mid 20th century, Venturi said he is not fond of postmodern architecture. Appreciative of New England architecture epitomized by buildings in Manchester, N.H. and Vermont, Venturi said he is "against what's going on nowadays."
Venturi has received many laurels for his work, including the Pritzker Architecture prize and several gold medals by the American Institute of Architects. Yale, Princeton and Brown universities have also awarded honorary degrees to Venturi for his work in the field.
Venturi's views on receiving prizes is somewhat unique. "Very often good artists are not recognized," he said. "I get a little worried when we get prizes."
According to Venturi, who has completed approximately 25 projects at Princeton and nine at the University of Pennsylvania, he is most proud of being invited to work multiple projects at institutions -- something that he feels is indicative of his accomplishments as an architect.
Venturi had worked at Dartmouth on the extension of the Thayer Engineering school and was invited by then-College President James O. Freedman to design Berry Library.
Venturi remembers the loud criticism that the Berry's design initially received from some members of the faculty.
He said he believes the criticism "blew over" as the majority of the Dartmouth community backed his design.
"We did not modify or compromise," Venturi said. "We didn't feel a pure Georgian historical design was appropriate for a library of the 21st century."
Venturi said Berry Library will have a rhythmic quality and is analogous to, but not purely, a Georgian brick design that will fit in well with the rest of the campus.
