Casbarian named RSA dean
Longtime Rice administrator will lead architecture school until January

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

John Casbarian has been named dean of the Rice School of Architecture (RSA) through the end of the calendar year, and he’s hitting the ground running.

	JOHN CASBARIAN

With RSA preparing for accreditation, which takes place every six years, the new dean is spending a hectic summer laying the groundwork for a process that is critical to every graduate of RSA.

In stepping into the role recently vacated by his friend, longtime dean Lars Lerup, Casbarian takes nothing for granted even while acknowledging the brevity of his tenure at the top.

”Obviously, in the sense that I am serving in a transition, I have a limited opportunity to effect any significant change,” he said. ”However, I am determined to keep our momentum moving forward rather than biding our time in anticipation of the next dean’s arrival. I will also do all I can to help the new dean step in with ease in the middle of an academic year.”

In his letter to Casbarian’s RSA colleagues, Provost Eugene Levy wrote, ”I am extremely grateful to John for his willingness to take on this important responsibility, bringing not only continuity but his knowledge of the school and his wisdom and experience.”

With the next dean not expected to be in place until Jan. 1, Casbarian has his plate full planning for the upcoming academic year. In addition, he must get RSA ready for accreditation, a process that will last through the spring semester. “I’ve started work on the mandatory program report, a three-volume narrative document that explains how we have met all the requirements for accreditation,” he said. “This encompasses detailed information on everything from the condition of the physical premises, the university context and our financial and human resources to 34 specific performance criteria we are required to expose our students to. We have to demonstrate that our students have gained proficiency in each and every one of these areas by presenting and documenting all work produced in required courses and design studios.”

He acknowledged his duties haven’t changed much from what he’s been doing as associate dean, handling the day-to-day administration of RSA. “The main difference is that I don’t have an associate dean to rely on,” he joked.

Casbarian turned down an offer to become dean of the architecture school at Tulane in 1997 when Lerup and the Rice provost at the time, David Austen, offered him the associate dean position. “I very seriously considered the Tulane offer, but weighing all the factors, I decided to stay here, and, in retrospect, I have absolutely no regrets,” he said. “My collaboration with Lars has been unique and extremely rewarding, and no other school can match the caliber of RSA students nor the quality of our faculty.”

He earned his bachelor of arts in architecture at Rice in 1969, a master of fine arts degree at the California Institute of the Arts in 1971 and a bachelor of architecture at Rice in 1972. After apprenticing with Cesar Pelli and Craig Hodgetts in Los Angeles, Casbarian founded Taft Architects with Danny Samuels, a Rice professor, and Robert Timme in 1972 and remains a partner in the much-honored and internationally recognized Houston firm. They recently completed their first Rice building, the Rice Children’s Campus.

He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, where he was recipient of the Graham Foundation Rome Prize in Architecture in 1986.

He rose through the ranks at RSA, teaching architectural design and theory at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He became chair and later director of the undergraduate program before being named associate dean in 1997, and he is also founder and director of the Rice School of Architecture, Paris, a study-abroad program that gives select architecture students the opportunity to experience Paris as a rich, urban lab.

Casbarian doesn’t know what his role will be come January. ”It is, of course, up to the new dean to determine what formal role, if any, I will play. Regardless, as a faculty member, I will continue to contribute, in any way, to help with the school’s trajectory.”