G.Z. Charlie Brown, FAIA (1942-2020)

G.Z. "Charlie" Brown, FAIA (photo from the ESBL website)

G.Z. “Charlie” Brown, FAIA passed away on February 15 at the age of 77. Charlie was ailing—he lived for many years with and was progressively weakened by Parkinson’s Disease—so word of his death wasn’t entirely surprising. Nevertheless, it’s always sad to hear such news. This is especially true when we lose someone who contributed so much to the advancement of the architectural profession as Charlie did.

Charlie joined the faculty at the University of Oregon in 1977, and by the time I arrived as a student in 1980 he already enjoyed a strong reputation as an accomplished educator and researcher on matters related to the built environment’s impact upon energy and resource utilization. Unfortunately, I did not take any of Charlie’s classes or studios because I had fulfilled the B.Arch degree requirements associated with Environmental Control Systems (ECS) prior to my studies at the university. 

Charlie achieved acclaim for authoring Sun, Wind, and Light: Architectural Design Strategies, first published in 1985. Many today regard the book as a seminal text about the fundamental principles of passive design, with a depth of content and analytical rigor that has stood the test of time.

Notably, Charlie served as an advisor on the Global Warming project for the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress in 1991, and in 1988 he collaborated on a study investigating the impacts of climate change on the energy performance of buildings.

He founded the UO Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory (ESBL), serving as its director between 1985 and 2015. ESBL posted a heartfelt tribute to Charlie on its website, which additionally details his many achievements, the most notable of which may have been his ability to envision transformational ideas and also build a capable team dedicated to implementing them. As the ESBL post eulogized, Charlie “lived fearlessly, transformed lives, forever transforming architecture.” I did enjoy the good fortune to work with Charlie and ESBL on two of my firm’s projects: the Eugene Public Library main branch and the Lane Community College Downtown Campus. There’s no doubt the involvement of Charlie and his staff at ESBL added significantly to the success of both designs.

I don’t have information about when a memorial service for Charlie will take place and whether it will be entirely open to the public. AIA Oregon did say his family and the University of Oregon are putting together a remembrance in his honor and promised to keep us all informed. I’ll update this post when that information is available.