About
Robert Godshall AIA
Director of Planning
I believe that the design principles of firmness, commodity and delight remain relevant 2,000 years after Vitruvius articulated them.
Firmness in the past meant a building’s ability to stand up to nature; today I think Vitruvius would welcome sustainability within that meaning. Commodity meant how well a building functioned to its purpose. This still applies and includes how well the program of a building is accommodated. Delight began as the Greco-Roman definition of beauty. Today I measure delight by the level of affection people feel for a building.
I find pleasure in creating and observing architecture at all levels—from imaginatively monumental structures to a resolved collision of materials. And I enjoy solving puzzles. In architecture, you begin with a blank page, create the pieces and manipulate them to solve the design.
The push-pull quality of architecture is intriguing. Outside forces of site push in, while inside forces of program push out. I love watching amorphous ideas take form through this encounter.
