Architect, researcher, and architectural theorist Anthony Vidler passed away last night, on October 20, 2023, at the age of 82, according to Princeton University School of Architecture. Vidler had a distinguished career at the prestigious institution, where he served as the inaugural director of the Doctoral Program in History and Theory. His passion for architecture, nurtured in Essex, England, led him to earn both an undergraduate and a master's degree in architecture at the University of Cambridge. Later, he obtained a doctorate in Architectural History and Theory from Delft University of Technology. His influential career spanned over 50 years, leaving a profound impact on architectural research and education.
In addition to his time at Princeton, Vidler held roles as the Dean of the College of Art, Architecture, and Planning at Cornell University, Chair of the Department of Art History at UCLA, and later as the Dean of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union until 2013. He continued to teach as a visiting professor at Cooper Union and Princeton.
“Tony Vidler is in the DNA of Princeton. He arrived to teach in the school of architecture in 1965 at the age of 24, soon followed by Kenneth Frampton and Alan Colquhoun. Like the British invasion in pop music, it was a revolution. Architectural history became cool and Princeton the place to be. [...] After 30 years he moved to other schools but in a deeper sense he never left.” — Beatriz Colomina, the Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture at Princeton
Vidler was a prolific author, known for works such as "The Writing of the Walls: Architectural Theory in the Late Enlightenment" (1987), "The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely" (1992), and "Warped Space: Architecture and Anxiety in Modern Culture" (2000). His contributions also extended to the curation of exhibitions, including the permanent display of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux's work in France and "Ledoux et les Lumières" during the European Year of Enlightenment. He also played a significant role in the retrospective exhibition "James Stirling, Architect and Teacher," presented at the Tate, the Staatsgalerie, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA).
Throughout his career, Vidler received recognition from prestigious institutions, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and fellowships at institutions such as the CCA and the Getty.