Walter Netsch Memorial Service

Comments by Duane Boyle,
Chief of Program Development, United States Air Force Academy

July 7, 2008

I would like to say a few words about how Walter and I came to know each other from our experiences at the Air Force Academy, albeit at different times.

First, however, I want to recognize Colonel Paul Ackerman, Vice Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy.  Colonel Ackerman is here representing Lieutenant General John F. Regni, Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy.

The Academy is about people.  It’s about developing leaders of character that will go on to lead the defense of our nation.  Every Cadet that graduates from the Academy was in one way or many ways influenced by what Walter planned and designed.  General Regni wrote a letter for this memorial in which he talked about the meaning of the campus to the men and women who attended the Academy.  It is located in the next room and I hope you will get a chance to read it.

It is strange that I am on the staff at the Academy, since the Academy is what pushed me to become an architect.  Walter significantly influenced my life early on, even though I could not have realized it.

I attended Air Academy High School.  Those of us in athletic programs used the Cadet Gym.  I remember walking out of the Cadet Gym and looking up at the Cadet Area.  It is the same view that earlier architectural journals would note in calling the Academy the ‘Air Age Acropolis’.  I remember thinking many times how powerful the design was, even though I did not know anything about architecture. I’d use the Cadet Library and I’d also use that opportunity to explore the Cadet Area.  I did not understand it, but it seemed perfect to me.

After college I was offered an internship at SOM and I heard a lot about Walter, the influential partner that helped form SOM’s early reputation and image.  To an intern, he seemed of mythical proportion.  I remember wondering if I would meet him--maybe he might be interested in talking, since I did know a little about the Academy.  People were quick to tell me that he would not have time for that.

When SOM was asked to complete a new master plan for the Air Force Academy I continued to wonder about how the Academy was designed: What about the 7’ grid? What about the chapel? What was the architectural reason for the Air Gardens? Beautiful, but no one knew.

It seemed almost too logical to call Walter and talk to him. Or, a bigger question, would he even talk to me? I always heard that he was brash and that he would probably not want to discuss the Academy with me at my level.

I decided to call him anyway. Nothing lost, but a lot to gain.  I was surprised that the person who answered wasn’t brash and seemed happy to talk about his design---although with some curiosity as to who I was.

I decided to go to Chicago and meet him, the person who designed the place I was now tasked to master plan for the future. Walter offered to pick me up at the airport.

I’m reminded of a story that Marilyn Taylor, from SOM-New York, once told me about the time she worked for Walter:

Everyone knows Walter’s love of art.  He would take his design teams to the museum or to art shows during the day which, of course, meant that Walter and his team would need to work well into the night on their projects. Then they heard that he had met Dawn and that they were getting married, everyone was excited for Walter, but also excited since it meant that Walter would have to go home earlier. Then Dawn was elected to the State legislature, which put her in Springfield, and Walter back in the office at night.

When Walter picked me up at the airport that day, I thought he would drive me to the hotel. He took me to an art show instead. Things were starting to make sense...

I vividly remember one phone conversation that I had with Walter after I got to know him better. We would talk about many things, not only the Air Force Academy. At the end of that phone conversation Walter signed off by saying, “Goodbye, my friend."

I was stunned that someone of Walter’s fame and accomplishment would call me his friend.  After all, he had accomplished so much more than I.  I will never forget.

On 1 April, 2004, exactly 50 years after President Eisenhower signed the Bill Creating the Academy, the Department of the Interior designated our Cadet Area as a National Historic Landmark District, the nation’s highest historic designation. That was important since it proved that Walter’s design had indeed become part of our Nation’s heritage at the highest level. But I also thought about how ironic that actually was.  Walter turned away from traditional or historic design and looked to a future where design and technology would integrate to shape our lives.

Walter helped me understand what design of a building or even a renovation at the Academy meant.

I learned that the 7’ module was the organizing element which geometrically defined the spatial relationships of the buildings and the spaces in between. Who could have thought that the module used to design everything at the Academy, even the chapel, was the result of Walter not being able to sleep on a Japanese Tatami mat?

Most people see the Cadet Area as an assembly of buildings. Walter saw it as one building with many parts. AMAZING!

And how could Walter make ¼ mile long buildings with 6 miles of corridor seem right at the pedestrian level? He did it, for when the Cadet Wing is in formation, the human element matches the scale of the buildings.

Why the red, yellow and blue Murano glass mosaics? Was it just the Bauhaus?  No it was Walter’s way of symbolizing the built environment integrated into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Red for the sun, blue for the sky and yellow for the grasses on the vast prairie to the east.

But there is one thing that strikes me most.  Before there was ever a chapel design, and before there was a single building designed, there had to be a larger perspective on how our campus would be developed. 

  1. Who could have anticipated Colorado Springs' explosive growth and then plan the campus to avoid impacts from adjacent development 40 or 50 years later?
  2. Who could have master-planned 18,500 acres into distinct component so that the interaction of people and nature was a daily event?
  3. Who could have envisioned a ‘sustainable’ campus so long before sustainability became so important?

Walter, of course.

I remember the Chapel winning the American Institute of Architects' 25-Year Award.  Walter was at the National Building Museum that night to receive the award.  How amazing is it that the architect of a project receiving such an honor would be there to receive it?  Walter stood tall on stage, and we felt proud.

I want to end with something that is very important to me.  I have one child.  My wife and I went through the normal naming dilemma. But it was clear that there were two parameters. One was that our son have a name that lent itself to a nickname. So his first name is Andrew. The second parameter is that Andy would be named after Walter. So Andy’s middle name is Walter.

I did not tell Walter until Andy was born. When I did, Walter seemed stunned for something I had not consciously recognized: Walter’s middle name is Andrew.  A positive omen?  I think so!

I’m old enough to know that I should be careful what I hope for. But I do hope for one thing--that Andrew Walter Boyle will go on to contribute as meaningfully to his profession and to society as Walter Andrew Netsch.

So, Walter, I think I’ll stop now. Until we meet again, "Goodbye, my friend."

 

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