Everyone calls Carlton DeWolff “Bud,” and he became an architect because he got in the wrong line. The story he tells is that after he got out of the military and went to the University of Illinois in 1953 on the G.I. Bill, he was standing in line to sign up for industrial design courses at the School of Fine Arts. Next to him in a parallel line, was a fellow who happened to be from his home town of Rochester, N.Y. DeWolff, a talkative type, and they fell into conversation.
It wasn’t until he got to the front of line that he realized he had edged over into the parallel line. He was told to go to the rear of the line to sign up for industrial design, but his new friend said, “Why don’t you just sign up for architecture. It’s the same classes for the first year.” So, DeWolff did, and he became an architect.
DeWolff, is founder and senior Design Partner of DeWolff Partnerships Architects based in Rochester and with an office in Cleveland.
An Artist
It wasn’t so unusual for the 81-year-old DeWolff to accidentally end up an architect instead of an industrial designer. “When I got out of the service, I know I was going to do art or graphics or something,” says DeWolff. His whole life has been devoted to being an artist, and architecture was just one part of that.
After graduating from the five-year architecture program in 1957 at the University of Illinois, he worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago. The school was known for delivering good renderers and DeWolff’s artistic talent put him in that camp. He was able to get quite a bit of work doing renderings.
He continued to do renderings sideline for other architects, developing a national clientele. But that changed. “What was happening was architects would come with unfinished projects and would want me to finish the design during rendering,” DeWolff says. “I thought, ‘If I’m going to design for them and not get paid, I might as well go into business for myself.'” So in 1962, he returned to Rochester and opened up his own firm.
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| The Voplex Building, Perinton, N.Y. |
The Breakthrough
DeWolff did not necessarily fit the Rochester aesthetic. “My father cautioned me that Rochester was very conservative,” he says. Still, his willingness to bring new perspective both to design and how to land a project resulted in securing the corporate headquarters for Voplex, a company that manufactured auto trim. Because he was going to be interviewed, DeWolff needed to impress the company owners, so he rented office space and placed people at drawing boards, including his father, to show his firm was more substantial than it really was. It worked, and he landed the project. “They wanted an unusual building, so I came up with a round building that looked like a pie with a piece taken out of it.”
“After they retained me, I told them what I did,” he says. “They said, ‘We knew that. We liked your approach and your tenacity.'” Today, the Voplex building is one of the most important buildings in the Rochester area, and it cemented DeWolff’s reputation as a dynamic architect.
A Niche and a Mentor
For more than 20 years, DeWolff Partnerships was listed as one of the top 100 design firms in the health care industry in the United States. That came about because DeWolff found a niche in health care that he enjoyed and a mentor, in the form of Dr. James Block, who was CEO of a couple of major hospitals, including Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
Block, who was working in Rochester at the time, noticed the talented young architect and the Voplex Building. “He loved the building so much that he hired me,” says DeWolff, “and that started a great relationship… . That’s how you get into your niche. Whenever he went to a new hospital, he would ask me to do work, and it was wonderful.
“He always said I was a horizontal thinker. Eventually I asked him because I didn’t know what that meant. He said a horizontal thinker is somebody who looks at something and doesn’t just look at it one way, but stretches it out in his mind and looks at everything around it.”
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| Expansion to the Internatioal Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, N.Y. |
Metal and the Eastman Wing
One of the most noted projects DeWolff landed was the expansion to the International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, that was housed in the Eastman mansion. Originally, he wasn’t invited to submit, but a Rochester local on the board of directors thought it important to bring in a local firm. “I only had a few days,” said DeWolf. I had some thoughts about the campus. But I went into that interview and put up a huge pad, and just started sketching. I sketched what I thought would be a great addition, keeping as much of the historic property and putting two-thirds of the addition underground.”
The innovation of keeping most of the addition underground combined with the modern play on the historical structure got the board’s interest, and DeWolff won the award. “I’ve won some really wonderful projects because I go in and I show that we’re active and I’m creative enough that I can do it right in front of them,” he says.
One of the most important elements of the wing was the use of metal panels and how they worked with the glass. “The metal and glass were the two things that provided the articulation,” DeWolff says. “You can do anything with metal.”
Always an Artist
At his core, DeWolff is an artist, and it shows in his skill with rendering and his confidence in designing in front of people. As with many architects who are skilled at drawing, he laments the influence of computer-aided design. “I’m becoming a dinosaur because I think architectural renderings should still occupy a bright spot,” he says. As part of his solution, he has merged the art with the computer.
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| Model of the King Hussein Institute for Biotechnology and Cancer, Na’ur, Jordan |
“We have devised methods where our architectural technician, Ron Broida, will do the wireframe work on the computer, and I will go in and paint then,” DeWolff says. “Then we will together modify and finish the rendering. For example: painting mullions on windows is done with a brush. Ron can make it cleaner and neater, but my brushwork is still there.”
A few years back, DeWolff endured a horrific wood-working accident that nearly chopped off his hand. Doctors managed to save the hand, but he doesn’t have its complete functionality. “I render differently now,” he says. “But Jean says they’re better. I hold the brush differently. But it’s not the hand that does the drawing, it’s your mind.”
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Arch Connect
What is the best advice you ever received as an architect?
From Richard Neutra personally. He stated that his book, “Survival through Design” has no chapters, and that I should progress through architecture the same way. Seamlessly, without chapters.
What’s on your iPod while you work?
Classical for inspiration and country for relaxing.
What do you do on weekends?
I am a published artist and do painting, work on design sketches at home through computer sketching apps.
What is your favorite book?
“Psychocybernetics,” by Professor Maxwell Maltz, which explains creativity and the subconscious.
What is your favorite app on your phone or tablet?
iBook Library. Where is your favorite place to vacation? Our lake house is 45 miles from home on Cananduiga Lake, which is regarded in the same class as Lake Tahoe. It’s a little like Switzerland in Upstate New York.
What historical figure would you most like to have dinner with and why?
Frank Lloyd Wright. In college, I picked up Mr. Wright in 1956 from the St. Louis train station and drove him to a lecture at the University of Illinois in Champaign. I did not have dinner with him then.
Who was the person who inspired your success in architecture?
There were two. My lovely and talented wife, Jean, and Dr. James Block, the former CEO of Johns Hopkins Hospital. And through the years, my staff continuously inspired me to set the bar high for creativity.