Gordon Wittenberg is 94. He's a bit, a bit, younger than the historic Little Rock architecture firm that bears his name.
"In three years Wittenberg Delony Davidson will be 100 and I'll only be 97, so let's meet right back here then," he told the capacity crowd inside the small lecture hall at the Arkansas Arts Center on Feb. 23.
His remarks closed The Wittenberg Heritage, a retrospective presentation of the city's second oldest architecture firm (Cromwell Architects Engineers dates to 1885) from the vantage point of the son of co-founder George Wittenberg, at the second meeting of the year for the Architecture and Design Network.
The slide show and narrative, delivered by firm Chief Executive Officer Richard Alderman and vice presidents Wally Sprick and Chad Young, detailed the biographies of the elder Wittenberg and co-founder Lawson Delony, who grew up playing football on the same high school team and went off to room together and pursue architecture degrees at the same school, the University of Illinois.
The two designed what is today a national monument, Central High School, and was at the time the most expensive high school in the country, at $1.5 million (just $14 a square-foot). They also designed Robinson Auditorium (on which Gordon Wittenberg labored as a carpenter's apprentice), several buildings at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (including the chemistry building), the state Department of Correction's Tucker Unit, the State Hospital (for which it won its first Progressive Architecture award), and the First National Bank building (now Regions).
Perhaps just as impressive a legacy is the vim and vigor of Gordon Wittenberg himself. Though he carried a cane, his posture and his humor put a smile on the faces of family and friends, architects and fans of the lecture series.
"You don't ever want to sit an old guy in a low seat for 30, 40 minutes, [because] he'll have a helluva time getting up," he said in a hale speaking voice.
And, "I guess I was just born to be an architect. Cut me with a knife, I'd bleed nothing but India ink -- and for you young people, India ink is what you used to use to make lines."
High Profile on 03/13/2016