The modest hemlines and neatly trimmed haircuts of the class of 1960 reflect the continued influence of the Eisenhower era.
In 1968, as tensions mounted over creative control of the curriculum, students turned against Albert Christ-Janer, longtime dean of the Art School, and Olindo Grossi, dean of the School of Architecture, complaining that teaching methods were “too conservative.”
“ O u r t i m e at P r at t wa s a m a z i n g . O u r p e e r s , t h e fa c u lt y, t h e c o m p e t i t i o n a n d t h e e s s e n c e o f t h e ‘ c i t y. ’ I t wa s a m a g i c a l , i n t e n s e , c r e at i v e , a n d d y n a m i c t i m e . A t r u e g i f t.” — Pa m e l a K r e n t, A d v e r t i s i n g D e s i g n a n d V i s u a l C o m m u n i c at i o n s ’ 6 6
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Pratt Institute celebrated its 75th anniversary in the fall of 1962 and received a congratulatory telegram from President John F. Kennedy.
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As one of the early faculty members of Pratt’s School of Architecture, historian Sibyl Moholy-Nagy introduced the formative ideas of modern architecture to Pratt’s curriculum. An actress and playwright during her youth in Weimar Germany, Moholy-Nagy began her academic career after publishing a biography, Experiment in Totality, of her late husband, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, the Constructivist artist, Bauhaus teacher, and founder of Chicago’s Institute of Design. Students were required to take three years of architectural history with Moholy-Nagy, who included the study of cultural history, urban history, non-Western architecture, and philosophy as part of her course work. In the classroom and at the lectern, she addressed crucial issues in provocative terms, whether commenting on the “boredom of the skyscraper box,” or—long before it became fashionable—warning of the hazards of technology to the natural environment. The celebrated architect Paul Rudolph wrote of Moholy-Nagy: “Her students loved her, partially because she demanded their best." Shortly after her retirement from Pratt in 1971, the American Institute of Architects awarded Moholy-Nagy a Critic’s Medal. The citation lauded her as “a writer of immense integrity with a world-encompassing view of architecture,” a perspective that has been her legacy to the Institute that nurtured and supported her ideas.