Millard Fillmore Hearn, Jr. (born 18 August 1938) is an American architectural and art historian. He holds the title of Professor Emeritus at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

. He has published extensively on architectural history and theory in the antique, medieval and modern periods. His most recent work is a book ''Ideas That Shaped Buildings'' (2003), notable for its accessibility and breadth of history covered.

Education and academic career

Hearn received his BA in history from Auburn University in 1960. He received an MA in history in 1964, and MA in art history in 1966, both from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. * Indiana Univers ...

. In 1969, Hearn completed his Doctorate in Art History from Indiana University. In 1965 and 1966, he undertook course work for his PhD at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He completed another year of his Doctorate in absentia the following year at the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist col ...

in London. His doctoral thesis was titled ''The Architectural History of Romsey Abbey''. He was a scholar at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

in Washington, DC in 1992. In 2010, Hearn founded the Fil Hearn Study Abroad Award at the

to commemorate his dedication to the university's Semester-at-Sea programme. This award gives undergraduate students of Architectural Studies the opportunity to study abroad and expand their understanding of their chosen subject. Having studied abroad extensively himself, Hearn encourages his students to learn from different cultures. Hearn became Professor of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh in 1967. Between 1974 and 1978, he was Chairman of the History of Art and Architecture Department. In 1981, Hearn became Director of Architectural Studies, a post he held until his retirement in 2006.

Expertise

Hearn's book ''Ideas That Shaped Buildings'' won the Silver Award for Architecture in the 2003 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards. The book was praised for how it brought together analysis of

architectural theory Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

and writing about buildings. It was subsequently published in Spanish, Mandarin, and Russian.

Inclusion in textbooks

Hearn's article "Truth to the medium: Using materials", first published in 1996, is included as a critical text in the reader ''Introducing Architectural Theory: Debating a Discipline,'' edited by Korydon Smith and Miguel Guitart, and published by Routledge in 2013. In it, Hearn discusses architectural theories and ideals developed by Ruskin, Viollet-le-Duc, Le Corbusier, and the

Brutalism Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the ...

movement. Students are encouraged to compare Hearn's philosophy of architecture with the authors and designers he discusses.

Selected publications

Books

*''Romanesque Sculpture: The Revival of Monumental Stone Sculpture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries'', 1981, Cornell University Press and Phaidon. *''Ripon Minster: The Beginning of the Gothic Style in Northern England'', 1983, American Philosophical Society. *Editor, ''The Architectural Theory of Viollet-le-Duc: Readings and Commentary'', 1990, MIT Press. *''Ideas that Shaped Buildings'', 2003, MIT Press.

Journal articles

*"A Note on the Chronology of Romsey Abbey", 1969, ''Journal of the British Archaeological Association'' XXXII. *"The Rectangular Ambulatory in English Mediaeval Architecture", 1971, ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'', volume 30, no. 3. *"Romsey Abbey: A Progenitor of the English National Traditional in Architecture", 1975, ''Gesta'', volume 14, no. 1. *"Postscript: On the Original Nave of Ripon Cathedral", 1976, ''Journal of the British Archaeological Association'', 3rd ser. XXXIX. *"A Japanese Inspiration for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rigid-Core High-Rise Structures", 1991, ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'', volume 50, no. 1. *"Conferences Celebrating the Nine Hundredth Anniversary of the Beginning of Durham Cathedral: 'Engineering a Cathedral' and 'Anglo-Norman Durham, 1093–1993'", 1994, ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'', vol. 53, no. 4. *"Canterbury Cathedral and the Cult of Becket", 1994, ''The Art Bulletin'', volume 76, no. 1. *"Early Wooden Ribbed Vaults in Medieval Britain", 1997, ''Journal of the British Archaeological Association.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hearn, Fil Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art American architectural historians Auburn University alumni Indiana University alumni People from Talladega County, Alabama University of Pittsburgh faculty 1938 births Living people