Paul Brouard, M.Arch 1959: Celebrating his Life and Legacy

Constance Spencer M.Arch ‘82

I was part of the M.Arch Class of 1982 so in the summer of 1980 I participated in the First Year Building Project outside of Winsted, Connecticut to build the International Conference Center for the Boy Scouts of America. It was a small building with two cathedral ceiling sections connected by a bridge walkway. Wendy Westfall and Bill Sherman were a couple of the team whose design was selected. The site was in a remote camp with small cabins around a large central kitchen and dining building in a heavily wooded area off a lake. I arrived earlier than the most of the class and was assigned to digging footings by hand since heavy machinery could not get to the site. There were lots of mosquitoes and the work was difficult since the soil was heavy with moisture, but still rewarding. Paul was a great supervisor, kind but knowledgeable, explaining the scheduling and demonstrating the methods we needed to learn, so this was a good introduction to the project. I spent about a week at that before the rest of the class arrived and started the framing.

We were required to spend at least 2 weeks (weekdays only) at the construction site so we all helped cooked dinners in the big commercial kitchen and we stayed in the cabins. The majority of the class left on the weekends but I was from Canada so I stayed on site the whole time. I remember the group work being great fun—the picture below is myself and Michael Dodson setting support posts for the ridge beam. I discovered that for some reason I really enjoyed working on high scaffolding so I volunteered to sink the nails on all the ridge beams an help set the rafters onto it. There were wonderful rewards after work though, since Dan Brown baked us the most amazing apple strudel and deserts and we all drank beer from the keg each night on the porch in good camaraderie!

Paul was an amazing teacher of construction techniques and I loved learning everything from the correct nail sizes for framing the rafters, 16 penny, to the method of setting the rafters and studs. In fact, I enjoyed the entire process so much I requested to stay on the project for the entire summer and Paul hired me as a carpenter. The rest of the class went back home after the required two weeks but I had my own cabin near the water with a couple bunks and a sink, as I recall, and camped out in woods alone for months. I would work in the morning framing then at lunch I went fishing for rainbow trout which were stocked in the lake. A local watched me pitifully trying to catch the fish with worms then offered a corn niblet which was much more successful! Then I would go back to work the rest of the afternoon and retire at night to read or join the locals I had gotten to know!

I met Paul’s girlfriend Linda as well that summer and we got along really well. She was a beautiful intelligent woman who was tied into the environment more than anyone I had ever known before. Both Paul and Linda were soulful nature-oriented people, quite opposite of my upbringing, and I learned so much by seeing their lifestyle. They grew their own vegetables and were gentle on the land. At one point that summer they had decide to marry and Linda asked me to go with her to pick out her wedding dress. I enjoyed driving the winding country roads to visit quaint shops with home made white muslin gowns and other handcrafts. Linda and Paul also invited the whole class to their waterfront house at the end of the summer for a dinner at which they served pasta with a home made pesto sauce from their own basil plants. It was the first time I had tasted real farm to table!

I owe Paul so much for this experience and I regret not keeping in touch over the years. Because of his guidance I went on to become a design/build contractor in Vancouver right after getting my masters, as well as opening my architectural firms in both Canada and the US. I also built new houses or renovated investment properties in BC, Ontario, NC, SC, and Florida, and I have been able to gain a lot of sweat equity because of all the work I can do myself, due to Paul’s initial teachings!! I also live in a house out of recycled materials with solar panels, drive an electric car, just finished another masters from Harvard in Sustainability and I grow my own basil—I am following in their footsteps finally.

Richard W. Hayes M.Arch ‘86

I got to know Paul Brouard on two occasions. First was in the spring semester of 1983, during our class’s building project. We were asked to design a concert stage for the New Haven Green. The project was atypical in the program’s history for several reasons. First, the design was the work of a team of five women—Barbara Ball, Alison Friedman, Alison Noto, Marjorie Rothberg, and Christine Theodoropoulos. Second, it was primarily a steel structure, and Theodoropoulos, who had studied structural engineering at Princeton before coming to Yale, took the lead in devising the structure. Last, the project had to be demountable every year and reassembled the following year by employees of the New Haven Department of Parks, Recreation, and Trees. Consequently, issues of readily and repeatable buildability came to the fore. Once the design was selected, I remember the alacrity with which Paul addressed the challenge of transforming the students’ design into a real structure. This was unquestionably the most vivid foretaste of what the “real world” of architecture held in store for us once we would leave Yale. Little did I know then that the professionalism, confidence, and collegiality with which Paul guided us as we journeyed from design to constructed reality would rarely be encountered in the commercially driven world of practice.

I renewed my acquaintance with Paul twenty years later when Dean Robert A.M. Stern asked me to write the history of Yale’s decisively important First-Year Building Project for the pending fortieth anniversary of the program in 2007. I was in constant contact with Paul during the five years I worked on the book, and he was unfailingly helpful, reading and commenting on every project description. I could not have researched and prepared the book without his help.

Central to the book was a lengthy interview I conducted with Paul, who described in detail every aspect of the program as it unfolded once he started teaching in 1971. I also recall the enthusiasm he greeted each of my discoveries of the early years of the program, before Paul’s participation, for which the school had no archival documentation. Through the help of numerous alumni, I pieced together the history of the initial projects designed and built under the guidance of Charles W. Moore as chairman of Yale’s Department of Architecture. Beginning in 1967, students travelled from New Haven to rural Appalachia to build two community centers, a recreation project beside (and floating on) a lake in Kentucky, and a health clinic in West Virginia. Paul joked to me that I could always get a job as a detective if architectural history didn’t pan out. What I said in my introductory essay to the book remains true:

One of the principal reasons for [the program’s] longevity, continuity, and success has been the contribution of Paul B. Brouard, a member of the class of 1961 who joined the faculty in 1971 and has led the construction phase of the program ever since. Brouard’s commitment to the Building Project has been limitless, and his remarkable combination of building knowledge, educational skills, good humor, and spirit of fun has been a guiding light for Yale students for almost thirty-six years. Indeed, many graduates of the school attest that the First-Year Building Project was the most memorable, enjoyable, and valuable part of their architectural education at Yale.

I am grateful to Paul for what I learned from him.

Lindsay Suter M.Arch ‘91

My class, the class of 1990, was the last to have a non-house First Year Building Project. It was the community-center events space at the Smith-Harris House, in East Lyme, CT, better known as “the Barn”.

Aside from Matt Bucy’s film about the construction (“The Barn; A Film”), Mary Cerrone elaborately carving her name in the tie beam of one of the timber trusses, Andre DeBar’s comfort with heights (without scaffolding), and Dave Houston’s prowess as a builder, my strongest recollection from that wonderful field experience was learning from Paul. But not like you think. Sure, I learned some building techniques and important detailing, but his greatest gift to me was teaching me how to teach: leading by example, knowing when to back off & when to intervene, being well organized, letting errors & unexpected issues become learning moments, letting students discover for themselves. Lessons discovered (not told) are lessons best learned.

Before coming to the YSoA, I was living and working in Denmark. The Danes have a construction tradition of celebrating the structure reaching its full height (“topping out” party) by nailing an evergreen tree to the top structural member, and toasting the accomplishment with akvavit (a strong, enigmatic spirit). Not only did Paul indulge me the traditions, but he let me officiate (and he participated too, of course).

Though I cannot find any of my photos from that project (buried somewhere in the attic?), I still have two cherished things: the commemorative T shirt, and a box I made from an off-cut from the Douglas Fir truss material & a flitch from the Red Maple tree we had to cut down for the foundation pour:

Yeah, that’s me with the T-shirt & box.

Thanks for putting together a fitting tribute to Paul.
Yours,
Lindsay (M Arch ’91)

April Clark and Ioana Barac M.Arch ‘03

Looking back at our time at Yale, that spring semester, we remember coming together, not knowing each other well but forming teams, grinding teeth trying to cooperate and compete at the same time and then, rallied by Paul, swinging hammers on the job site, working, eating and learning together. Paul was up for everything, if we could dream it he would work with us to build it, nothing was too extreme for him. We remember him joking with irony and kindness, working with us with as much respect as leadership, with a smile he made everything a bit easier. He let us take chances and make mistakes but also helped us fix them. The building project is, for us, inescapably linked to Paul’s remarkable spirit and love of teaching.
—April Clark & Ioana Barac, BP 2001

I remember Paul actually saying that duct tape was an important tool on the construction site. I can honestly say that I learned more about our profession that semester than any other.
—April Clark, BP 2001

Paul and I were looking at the couple of feet drop between the yard and the driveway: a low rock wall and steps would make a good transition. “Sure, move them there”, Paul pointed to the rather large rocks nearby, with a hint of a smile in his eye. It took me a moment to realize that while he was casually inviting me to move the heavy stones, he was seriously asking me to decide that I could.
—Ioana Barac, BP 2001

My most vivid memory of working with Paul was not on the 2006 BP but after he had retired, when I was working at NHS (a few years later). We showed up to a BO house that had been completed more than several years prior, and Paul was up on a ladder fixing some eave tri. I knew Paul, but I was honestly surprised to see him up that ladder. To me, this simple moment exemplified his commitment to his craft and more importantly, to the community he knew he could help.
—Tim Applebee, BP 2006

Here are some pictures and a couple of memories we collected. The DSC photos are by our classmate Yat Ng '03.

Kristina Winegar Thomsen M.Arch ‘04

I chose to get my Master of Architecture at Yale because of the building project. I was and still am a practical person who likes to get my hands dirty in the physical aspects of architecture rather than the theoretical. When I arrived in New Haven in the fall of 2001 I felt like a fish out of water, coming from a small town and (gasp) a state school into the mighty halls of Yale but I met a kindred spirit in Paul and we forged a friendship that lasted 18 years beyond my graduation. Paul was so down to earth and someone I really connected with as did many other students over the years. That first summer of the building project, I was one of the 10 students that stayed on to finish the house and that was one of the best summers of my life. We made up silly dance routines on the scaffolding, joked about pretentious names for paint colors and had wonderful meals at Paul’s house in Guilford where he gifted us fancy safety glasses that I still have to this day to complement our dance routines and keep paint globs out of our eyes. I continued the next 2 years as a TA for Paul and helped again with construction the year that I graduated. That summer the television show This Old House came out to film the building project and I remember they were shooting a scene on the front porch and Paul and I were in the background and they wanted us to hammer in a bunch of screws for the front porch deck. Paul and I were laughing so hard at that we had tears in our eyes and kept saying, they really are going to think these Yalies have no idea what they are doing if they see that we are pounding in screws rather than nails. The last day before I left New Haven to start my “life” Paul gave me a ride home in his truck because my bike had been stolen earlier that summer. As I was getting out of the truck he gave me the biggest hug and said to me “You will do great things, I have no doubt of that.” Paul was my greatest mentor and I will miss him dearly. I only hope I can do him proud, I am on my way.

Kristina Winegar Thomsen, AIA
Class of 2004

Naomi Darling M.Arch ‘06

I feel lucky, as I reflect back on my memories of Paul, to know that while he was first my teacher, in the end what I remember most is that Paul and Linda were, and are, dear friends to both me and my husband, Darrell Petit.

Like almost everyone in our extended Yale Architecture School community, I came to know Paul through the Building Project. In the summer of 2006, right after I graduated, I was one of the summer TAs. Paul at that time must have been close to eighty and yet still seemed spry in his work jeans and blue work shirt. He was a man of few words but taught through action, doing things together, and allowing students to make mistakes. Sometimes this meant that things would have to be undone and redone, but once you undo something, you definitely don’t make that mistake again!

I remember distinctly a few vignettes from that summer. The first is a handful of us up on the roof, quite high on a hot clear day. The task—to install the standing seam metal roof. What I remember distinctly was how easy it was. For some reason, I thought that it was going to be tricky with specialized skills. Paul patiently showed us how to install the metal drip edge, how to cut and crimp the metal panels, and then we were off! There was no question that even though none of us had done this before that we’d be able to do it. And this was the case for everything—Paul believed in each of us to be able to learn all of the skills needed. This belief was especially empowering for those students who, prior to building project, had no construction experience at all.

Another aspect of the summer that I remember fondly was our lunch breaks, sitting at or on the picnic table under the tree, and talking with Paul and Linda’s daughter Beata who at the time was a high school student. Beata was an old hand on the job site and very comfortable not only with all of the work that needed to be accomplished but also with interacting with all of the grad students on the job site. She was a very poised, competent and confident young woman!

Finally, I remember the end of summer party at Paul and Linda’s house with the summer crew. What stands out distinctly was our game of limbo—the laughter, music, and I recall, Paul was quite limber!

I had gotten married the summer before the third year of my MArch and a couple years after graduation we bought our first house – a fixer-upper in down town Branford. We were doing most of the work ourselves and when it came to the HVAC system, I called Paul. During the summer when I worked as a TA, I had worked with Paul to install some of the ducting in the house and so had a pretty good idea of what we needed to do but still had a few questions. Paul said he’d stop by on his way home and over the next few days, Paul helped us run the ducting in our home. The favor was returned with Darrell helping Paul with a stone project in their yard and we were now neighbors and friends lending a helping hand.

Our first son was born in 2009 and that is when I learned that Paul was not only a great builder and teacher but also a great gardener with a bountiful harvest. He was often inviting us over to say hello and after a visit, we would inevitably leave with some beautiful tomatoes and perhaps some basil and zucchini. There are of course more stories to tell – of Italy and dinners—but I will stop here.

The final thing I will mention is that I am currently engaged in starting a new Design Build program at UMass Amherst and the Five Colleges. This feels to me like an extension of Paul’s legacy at Yale, continued now by Adam Hopfner. I know that there are other alums who like me, loved the Yale Building Project, and have gone on to start and contribute to other design build programs in other architecture schools around the country and world—a testament to Paul’s continuing and expanding legacy in architectural education.

Generations of Yale School of Architecture consider Paul Brouard a friend, a mentor, and a role model. Paul led the the First Year Building Project (now known as the Jim Vlock First Year Building Project since 2008) for 40 years, teaching students through hands-on learning in this acclaimed design-build project.

As Director of the Building Project Paul worked with over 2,000 students in the studio and the field to service the community by building housing, camp structures, clinics, and town gathering spaces. His demeanor and commitment to the pedagogy of design-build allowed students to learn by doing, thus fostering discovery, growth, and compassion.

Paul was a gentle man who had an aesthetic approach to life. He was rugged, down to earth, most at home in nature, and committed to the task at hand. Whether he was on a job site or in a classroom, he met each project with energy, humor, patience, and a reservoir of creativity. In addition to teaching at Yale, Paul was a practicing architect and lived near Yale in Guilford, CT.

Alumni have come together to preserve Paul Brouard’s legacy at Yale. They want to collect memories—remembrances, images, and stories of his impact on their lives—as well as funds to create a fellowship in Paul’s name to support a summer Building Project intern.

Alumni can submit written statements and images to Janna King, Program Coordinator, at janna.king@yale.edu.

Gifts can be made online to the Paul Brouard Fund, or mail to Paul Brouard Memorial, Yale School of Architecture, PO Box 208242, New Haven, CT 06520.

For more information contact:

Jill Siegel, Director of Development and Alumni Relations
jill.siegel@yale.edu / 203.432.5846