University of Virginia Library

Jefferson Foundation To Award Labatut
Architecture Medal On Founder's Day

By LYNN STERN

Architecture Prof. Jean
Labatut will receive the
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
Foundation Medal in
Architecture during Founder's
Day ceremonies Friday.

The Foundation, which
oversees the operation of
Monticello, presents the $5000
prize and medal annually to
recognize persons who have
distinguished themselves in
architecture.

Princeton Professor

Mr. Labatut, currently
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
Foundation Scholar-in-Residence
in Architecture,
retired from Princeton
University in 1968 where he
was hired as a full professor in
1928.

"For 40 years at Princeton
I never gave a lecture," he said.

Mr. Labatut claimed he
believes in concentrating on
teaching the individual student
rather than lecturing to large
groups, and he asks each
student to develop his own
project, rather than assigning
one design to the entire class.

Private Discussions

Finding many students at
the University initially
reserved, Mr. Labatut meets
with each student privately to
discuss architecture. "They
must ask questions, and when
we meet alone, they are
wonderful," he said recently.

"If a student does not
respond when you talk with
him, you are not sure that he
understands. There must be a
quick communication, quick
exchange," Mr. Labatut added.

Mr. Labatut believes that
the role of the teacher should
be defined by the concepts of
the French philosopher, Taine.
Quoting Taine, he stated "I
know only two principles to

develop successfully. To be
born a genius:that is the
business of your parents, not
mine. Second is to work very
hard, and that too is your job,
not mine."

Central to Mr. Labatut's
philosophy of educating
professional architects is his
belief that the individual must
develop in his own way.

"There are two types of
education, one good, one bad.
One permits the individual to
develop, or one can dictate,"
he said. "Frank Lloyd Wright is
an example of the dictator
teacher.

'Mental Slave'

"This tends to make the
student a mental slave, always
thinking later what his teacher
would do if the teacher were
given the same commission. It
restricts the imagination. The
teacher, then, will always be
there, looking over the
student's shoulder–even when
he is no longer a student," Mr.
Labatut declared.