Live at 6 | Retiring Architecture Professor’s Message to Students

Greg Bradbury Syracuse, N.Y. (CitrusTV) – A Syracuse University Architecture Professor is giving students one last gift before he retires after 41 years of teaching. Professor Randall Korman is teaching a six part lecture series on his biggest area of study: facades.

Korman joined the School of Architecture staff back in 1977 and over his time has served many positions including Dean and Foreign Studies Department Chair. The dean at the time convinced him to join the staff of one of the worst architecture programs in the country.

Professor Korman left his established practice, his girlfriend, and his home to move to Syracuse and teach. The dean at the time said their goal was to take that program and make it one of the best in the country.  

“I don’t know why I believed him, but sure enough I did and here we are,” Korman said.

Korman was able to achieve this goal by bringing in strong staff members and giving students the opportunity to go abroad. He introduced the student abroad program in Florence and London. It was designed to be built into the curriculum so that students would not have to worry about falling behind on credits. He believes that this makes students more employable.

“It is almost impossible to find a student who comes back and says they did not benefit from one of the programs,” he said.

He will be going to Florence towards the end of the semester for the final studio critiques that will take place across the pond.

It was this type of work that kept him involved with the school for so long. He has continued to help not just the program grow, but enhance the students’ experience as well.

Korman is continuing to do that once final time by sharing his knowledge. He decided to put together a six part lecture series that would serve as a final goodbye from him. This lecture series is covering the subject of facades; one of Professor Korman’s main areas of study.

The lecture series started last Tuesday with Professor Korman himself kicking it off. Over the next two months, several renowned architects will be coming to Syracuse to help students dive deeper into the study of facades in architecture.

For the full schedule of lecture series you can visit the Syracuse School of Architecture’s website.

With the coming free time that Professor korman will be having, he is looking forward to fishing and building a house that is over fifteen years in the making.