By Emily Pennington

Imagine the interior of a condo that is completely white during the day: white walls, white furniture, white appliances. As the sun begins to set, the same walls and furniture slowly change to shades of blue, pink and purple until the white disappears. Photo Jordy Wagoner

University of Texas’ Roland Gommel Roessner Centennial Professor in Architecture Anthony Alofsin uses LED lighting to create such an effect. The LED bulbs last for 50,000 hours and they generate virtually no heat making them “tremendously energy efficient” and “very dramatic,” he said.

Looking like he could double for a theater professor, Alofsin was dressed in an entirely black slim-fitting – but not tight – ensemble wearing  bright red, perfectly rectangular reading glasses for the interview for this article. He leaned casually in the chair behind his desk upon which sat a first-edition copy of Frank Lloyd Wright’s biography from Wright’s own collection.

Before Alofsin joined UT in the early ‘90s, there was not a doctoral program in architecture. In response to a directive from then-Dean Hal Box, Alofsin set about on the seven-year process of creating the program. “He [Box] believed that one of the future strengths of this [architecture] school was in advanced research,” Alofsin said. “So to do that well and compete with the best schools we needed to augment our advanced research.” One of the best ways to increase a school’s research is to have a doctoral program. While the architecture school initially focused mostly on architectural history, Alofsin said, the school now also has strong historic preservation and sustainable design components.

Nancy Kwallek, the Gene Edward Mikeska Chair for Interior Design at UT, works with Alofsin and said he is not a fan of medioctrity — that he pushes himself to the highest standard and expects the same from everyone else.

Alofsin has taught a variety of courses relating to the history of architecture in his 22 years at the University, but has recently concentrated mainly on undergraduate design studio classes and one class devoted to Frank Lloyd Wright. Alofsin is internationally recognized as one of the leading authorities on Wright. Alofsin’s teaching philosophy is threefold: Teachers are supposed to love their students as best they can and look out for them to the best of their ability while the students are in their care; professors are supposed to have something worth professing; and professors should always set a high standard in teaching critical and analytical thinking, which will help students deal with the world outside the 40 acres.

“As a studio professor, he is very patient and encouraging,” Melynn Mayfield, a student who completed design V, said. “He really helps you to achieve your goals and teaches you new methods to use to reach them.” Mayfield said she believes Alofsin really cares about his students because he schedules regular meetings with them to discuss their progress in the class.

Alofsin said that while he loves his students and does everything he can to assist them, he does not coddle them in the classroom. “I’m not really the indulgent type,” Alofsin said. “I don’t make things easy, I probably make things hard, but they’re doable.”  His style is suitable for a professor with 10 years of graduate education: a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and both a master’s degree in philosphy and a doctoral degree in art history from Columbia University.

Alofsin also owns an Austin architecture firm that was founded in 1990. Every year, he works on only two or three houses so he can spend plenty of time personally interacting with the residents to learn their style. As for his style, Alofsin said he has always been interested in a rational system that uses modules and proportions. He also strives to integrate landscape with all of his buildings and takes a complete analysis of the site before starting a project. “Everything is a function of the land itself and where it’s [the building] located — the breezes, the sun, the shade and all of those things,” he said. “When I think about the physical object, I’m also thinking about all of the ground around it and how people relate to the landscape.”

Alofsin designed and built his own house, which was featured in “Architecture, “Better Homes and Gardens Building Ideas” and “Professional Builder,” around a courtyard with a pond full of water lilies. The project, which is a mixture of typical Texas, Pompeian and Japanese architectural styles, took slightly more than a year to complete, from design to execution. Alofsin chose one of Austin’s highest points for the location with the idea that it would be a tranquil and meditative place where he could nurture his other passions, gardening and writing. He was thrilled to build on a virgin piece of land that had never been built on. “Maybe the Indians camped on it, but maybe not,” he said.

He said such an opportunity would be impossible in Europe, among other places, where every square inch of ground has been covered.  America is one of the few places left with land untapped, so he made sure to keep a lot of native trees on his property.

Alofsin has published numerous books on architecture and has also recently dabbled in writing a fictitious memoir called “Halflife” about a 35-year-old man searching for the meaning of life through the reflection of the people and places he has known.

Also a voracious reader, he is currently reading a series of Swedish mystery novels and the works of a young Japanese novelist who writes dark, violent stories about Japanese teenagers.

In 2007, Alofsin was a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire where he spent five weeks in the company of painters, filmmakers, poets, composers and other writers. At Macdowell he stayed in a studio within a stone chapel built in 1916 where he slept on a cot and had his lunch delivered in picnic baskets. “I loved the atmosphere,” he said. “It was a very primal experience.”

When asked about his creative process, Alofsin said that sometimes writers just have to go for it and get started on a project. “You can’t wait for all the research and everything, you just have to leap in because there are all these psychological issues in creative work that everyone creative has to deal with,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how many books you’ve written you can always face the risk of writer’s block.”

In his desire to live a simple life, Alofsin spends a lot of time thinking about what he is doing and what he intends to do. He is contemplating two new books. One is on the “McMansion” look and how that architecture works. He said the book would explore why people become absorbed by the marketing mechanisms of the housing industry and end up purchasing houses without understanding what they mean to them. The other is a fictional and semi-autobiographical book about what it was like growing up in Memphis “in the old days.”