MacDonald & Mack Architects’ Robert Mack, FAIA, is honored with the 2016 AIA Minnesota Gold Medal for his long and influential career in historic preservation BY LINDA MACK
Now working half time at the firm he and partner Stuart MacDonald, AIA, founded 40 years ago, Mack still loves figuring out how old buildings were put together. This past fall, AIA Minnesota recognized his sterling career in historic preservation by awarding him the Gold Medal, the organization’s highest award given to an individual. “Bob’s humility and quiet personality stand in contrast to the magnitude of his impact— as an architect, firm principal, educator, and community leader,” wrote the Gold Medal jury. “It is time for Bob to be recognized for all he has done to mentor this profession, to grow our industry’s expertise in preservation and sustainability, and to ensure that our nation’s historic structures are enjoyed for generations to come.” “Bob was one of the founders of historic preservation in Minnesota,” says Chuck Liddy, FAIA, a principal at Miller Dunwiddie Architecture, another Minnesota firm known for preservation. MacDonald agrees: “His impact on preservation is incalculable.”
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His meticulous research and sensitive eye have enhanced the state’s historic landscape, from the Governor’s Residence in St. Paul to Minneapolis City Hall, from Split Rock Lighthouse to Redeemer Missionary Baptist Church. The restoration of that church—a Prairie School landmark in South Minneapolis—was a seminal moment in Minnesota preservation: It garnered Minnesota’s first Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. But Mack’s impact extends beyond Minnesota. His career began with an assignment at the National Park Service researching and writing The Secretary of the Interior’s Guidelines for Rehabilitation, one of the precursors to The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. Mack explains: “In 1974, Congress passed a law for tax breaks for people restoring buildings as long as they conformed to standards set by the Secretary of the Interior. But there weren’t any.” The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards are still the litmus test for preservation nationwide. Mack also cowrote Preservation Briefs #1 and #2, providing technical advice to architects; these documents grew his reputation as a masonry expert. Two summers ago, he was asked to advise on masonry issues plaguing the Goingto-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park in Montana. “The engineer wanted to reline the
CHAD HOLDER
GROWING UP IN PENNSYLVANIA, ROBERT MACK LOVED TO PLAY IN HIS FAMILY’S OLD BARN—and try to figure out how it was put together. For his birthdays, he wanted to go to historic sites, not amusement parks.
1966 Robert Mack meets Stuart MacDonald at the University of Minnesota