By Gwen Willems

St. Anthony Park resident Tom Fisher has been on the architecture faculty at the University of Minnesota for 29 years.

And now he is gaining lifetime honors for his work in his field, with no plans to stop anytime soon.

“I have taught courses on architectural ethics and theory, and now mainly teach urban and system design,” Fisher said. “While students have changed over the years—attention spans have shortened, reading habits shifted—I continually learn from my students and constantly learn new things to teach. I find it all stimulating and gratifying.”

After a lengthy career, Fisher is receiving two acknowledgments of his contributions to and standing in the field.

He went to New Orleans in March for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s (ACSA) annual meeting, where he received the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education and gave a keynote address.

Fisher will be honored again at the American Institute of Architects (AIA)’s annual meeting in Boston in June.

According to the AIA/ACSA, this prestigious award “recognizes outstanding individual contributions in architectural education.”

Fisher added, “The Topaz Medallion is the top honor a U.S. architecture educator can receive, often at the end of one’s career. I choose, however, to see it as a mid-career award, since I am still working fulltime, teaching and directing the Minnesota Design Center, and I plan to keep doing so for as long as I can.”

Fisher is also honored to be incoming chancellor for the College of Distinguished Professors. Founded in 2010, the group is composed of ACSA members who receive the ACSA Distinguished Professor Award or the ACSA/AIA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education.

As chancellor, Fisher plans to “focus on establishing a mentoring program that will link the experienced members of the college to younger faculty in institutions other than their own. Most universities have mentors in departments for younger faculty members, but the latter rarely have the opportunity to have mentors outside of their institutions, with colleagues who will not decide on their tenure or promotion.”

During his time at the university, Fisher has been a teacher, director of the Minnesota Design Center (since 2015), dean of the College of Design (1996 to 2015), and author of 12 books, more than 80 book chapters and 640 articles.

Fisher’s experiences have made him a big believer in the value of mentoring. “In college,” he said, “I was lucky to have the historian and New Yorker writer, Lewis Mumford, as a mentor and he encouraged me to pursue a career like his, as a public intellectual.

“I aspired to that role as the editorial director of one of the major journals in my field, Progressive Architecture; as the dean of what is now the College of Design; as a teacher and director of a public-facing research center; and as a frequent writer addressing a general readership. While I may not have achieved the renown of Mumford, I have enjoyed all of these roles.”

The Fisher family moved to the Twin Cities from New Haven, Connecticut, in 1996. He and his wife are grateful to have their children and grandchildren living close by: one daughter, Ann, and her family live in the house behind them, and their other daughter, Ellen, and her family live in Golden Valley.

Fisher put on his public intellectual hat for a final comment:

“I think strong communities like St. Anthony Park are going to be increasingly important as our national government becomes increasingly undependable and outright hostile to state and local governments,” he said. “Much of the work that we do in my center is asset-based community development with small and underserved neighborhoods and municipalities across the state. A lot of that work involves helping communities become more resilient and self-reliant.

“St. Anthony Park has several groups doing that important civic work and we are a model of what many communities will need to do in the future.” 

Gwen Willems lives in Falcon Heights and is a Bugle freelance writer.

Photo: Tom Fisher. Photo courtesy of EXPO2031.