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Charles H. Burnette, 89, Philadelphia, innovative architect and designer, professor emeritus at the University of the Arts, former dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, and author, died in March Died on Sunday the 3rd. Stroke at Penn Hospital.
Regarded as an expert on design thinking by colleagues around the world, Dr. Burnett said in his online profile: “I am interested in how the mind works during purposeful thinking and design thinking processes, and in building theories that enable multidisciplinary collaboration. . ”
So he built a 66-year career helping designers discover what people want, formulate ideas to meet those needs, and test theories to see what works. Many of his projects were groundbreaking.
He coordinated the Philadelphia Solar Project in the early 1980s, the first long-term study of solar energy in a major U.S. city; established the Designing with Children program in the early 1990s to provide school teachers with improved tools to enhancing their curricula; and introducing design concepts that revolutionized education, business and research practices.
He designed many of the “sunspaces” used in solar research programs and, with perfect foresight, told The Inquirer in 1980: “The solar industry will create jobs, it will curb inflation, and the money will stay local. economy.” He pioneered the use of early computers in design and architecture and incorporated previously ignored personal, social and ecological factors into his projects.
Old friends and colleagues described him as “an original mind” and “a truly innovative thinker and an inspiration to all who met him.” In a tribute, his family called him “a deep thinker, a big dreamer and a continuous learner”, adding: “His goal was to creatively apply design thinking to improve the human experience.”
Dr. Burnett was a professor of industrial design at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) from the 1980s to 2000, and was the founding director of the college’s graduate program. In 2019, he was named professor emeritus in the School of Art, and a group of alumni established the Charles Hamilton Burnett Award for outstanding graduates in 2020.
From 1973 to 1976, he served as professor and dean of the University of Texas, where he improved the quality and scope of the school’s curriculum and expanded its faculty. In an online tribute, a former colleague from Texas said Dr. Burnett was “full of energy and big ideas.”
In the late 1970s, he founded his own architecture and design firm, Charles Burnette & Associates, in Philadelphia and worked as a research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania and as an industrial designer in New York. He also serves as executive director of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and founding director of the Philadelphia Center for Planning, Design and Construction.
Dr. Burnett has served on boards and committees, consulted on numerous projects, chaired workshops and conferences, and lectured at design schools in Canada, Europe and elsewhere around the world. He is active on the boards of the Society of Industrial Designers of America and the International Society of Industrial Designers, and served for ten years on the International Advisory Board of the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland.
He has authored and edited dozens of papers and book chapters on design, American Industrial Design Directory Published in 1992. He never stopped writing, and his final publication came out in February.
He received bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded a Pew Arts Fellowship in 1993. “He was always reading, always writing, always thinking,” said his daughter Allegra.
Charles Hamilton Burnette was born on November 5, 1934 in Greenville, South Carolina. He went to the University of Pennsylvania to study architecture and received his bachelor’s degree in 1958, his master’s degree in 1963, and his doctorate in 1969.
In New York he met Margot Muldoon, who thought he was “the funniest person I know.” They married in 1962, had daughters Arianne and Allegra, and purchased a historic house in Society Hill.
In 1976 and ’77, he took his family on a six-month tour of Europe in an open camper van and marveled at “the quality of the light, the architectural space and the poetry of it all,” his family said. ” He continues to take great satisfaction in restoring their Society Hill home.
Dr. Burnett served in the Army Reserves, was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity, and attended graduate school at the Art Institute with his son-in-law, Bill Schaaf. “He was always very charming,” his wife said. “He was cheerful, open and friendly.”
“He was a dreamer, a poet and a thinker,” said a former colleague.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Dr. Burnett is survived by two grandchildren and other relatives. A sister died earlier.
An event to commemorate his life will be held at a later date.
Donations in his name may be made to the Charles Hamilton Burnett Design Award at the University of the Arts, 320 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19102.
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