Like the buildings Barry Svigals '71, '76MArch designs, the offices of Svigals Associates in New Haven are aesthetically pleasing and thoroughly functional. Photographs and artwork chronicling the creation of structures as diverse as an elementary school, an FBI headquarters, and commercial laboratories fill the walls. Gargoyles and sculptures add to the mix. A graduate of both Yale College and the School of Architecture, Svigals also studied sculpture at the Ecole Nationale Sup rieure des Beaux Arts in Paris. As a society, we are starved from a lack of beauty in our lives.
Spaces can be functional as well as beautiful.
Things are not just as they look, but as they are. Svigals recently gathered with classmates at the book signing hosted by another Yale roommate, Scotty McLennan, author of Finding Your Religion. In 1983, Svigals opened his own firm and began to develop a unique style that combines his dual passions for architecture and art. Even when working on a design, the feeling is more important than the idea. You need to rely on your intuition as much as your head.