Pritzker-Prize laureate and Yale School of Architecture alumnus Norman Foster and his family have donated $3 million to Yale School of Architecture to fund a visiting professorship in his name, Yale University President Richard C. Levin has announced.
This permanent endowment will support a visiting professorship program each year, allowing students at Yale to be taught by some of the leading international practitioners in the field of architecture from all over the world.
"With this generous gift one of the School's most distinguished graduates, Norman Foster, is allowing us to use his name to attract to the Yale faculty the most prominent architects of their times for generations to come," said Levin.
Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, reiterated the importance of the gift to the School, "It is a tremendous honor for our School to have the Lord Norman R. Foster Visiting Professorship in Architecture, and it will be an equally significant honor for the individuals selected to fill the chair.
Lord Foster is, and has always been, an outstanding role model for excellence in our profession."
"My time at Yale and the people I was exposed to there, in particular Paul Rudolph, Serge Chermayeff and Vincent Scully, had an incredible impact on me.
Rudolph created a studio atmosphere which was highly creative, competitive and fueled by a succession of visiting luminaries," said Lord Foster.
"That same 'can-do' approach has influenced and inspired my practice for more than 40 years - and continues to do so. I hope this gift will similarly inspire future generations of students.
It is also a recognition of my personal gratitude to the United States and my commitment to Yale and education."