Nearly 300 Master’s and PhD graduates and their family and friends gathered against a backdrop of bright blue skies on May 16 to exhilarate in the School of Design’s Commencement. In his address, Pritzker Prize-winner Thom Mayne (Practice Professor of Architecture and Paul Philippe Cret Professor in the Associated Faculty at PennDesign) counseled the newly-minted planners, architects, landscape architects, preservationists and artists on navigating life’s twists-and-turns.
Dean Marilyn Jordan Taylor lauded the “amazing, extraordinary, inventive, and wonderful class of 2016”— a diverse student body of 293 (about half of which hailed from 21 countries other than the U.S.) who had earned 286 master’s (including 16 with dual degrees) and seven new doctorates (three in architecture and four in planning).
This is a “class of makers, of doers,” she said. “You will be agents of change.” Before introducing Professor Mayne, the Dean essayed a smattering of hip hop in tribute to Broadway wunderkind and University Commencement speaker Lin-Manuel Miranda.
With a pair of high-top Nikes peeking out from under his gown, Mayne might have been inspired by Miranda’s presence also. After praising Dean Taylor and noting that this would be her last Penn Design commencement, he addressed the graduates directly, observing that the professions they were about to enter weren’t easy ones but were nonetheless “insanely gratifying.”
Using the design process as a metaphor for life, he pointed out that it wasn't linear but “labyrinthian,” subject to a cycle of repeated feelings of being “shipwrecked,” followed by the formulation of ideas (leading to “theory”) and, at last, the emergence of a plan (“praxis”).
The balancing act between private and public, and right and left brain, has been the “most difficult part in my becoming an architect,” he continued.
“It feels like when you’re out there working in the world doing battle every day, you’ll hear innumerable times what cannot be done.” Instead of succumbing to complacency, he said, “it’s your job to innovate.... Only if we set tasks that no one dares to do will we continue to produce relevant work.” Though loath to give advice, Mayne finished with suggestions on rising to the challenge. They included: maintain control of your work, develop at your own pace, take risks, trust the difficult, remember optimism is a choice, and continue to fight.
“Fantastic,” Dean Taylor said. “Remember all of that, especially that optimism is a choice you make.”
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