Leonard J. Currie slide collection, University Libraries, Virginia Tech, with selections in JStor public collections.
The Center was designed by Peruvian-American Architect Bruce Graham of SOM.
Photo probably taken by Belaúnde with Currie’s camera.
Overview
Leonard James Currie (1913-1996) was an architect, administrator, and educator. He studied architecture at Harvard with Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer during their first year of teaching together at Harvard. In 1941 he participated in the reconstruction of the Mayan ruins at Copán in Honduras and remained engaged with Latin America for the rest of his life. In 1951 he accepted a position as founding director of the Inter-American Housing Center (CINVA) in Bogotá, Colombia, an Organization of American States program to alleviate the housing crisis for the working poor in Latin America after World War II.
From 1956 to 1962, Currie served as head of Architecture at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. He built several houses in Blacksburg, including the award-winning Currie House for his own family. In 1962 he moved to Chicago to become founding dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) College of Architecture and Art. At the time, UIC was transitioning from a two-year campus on Navy Pier to a four-year university at the new Chicago Circle campus.
Currie retired from UIC in 1981. He returned to Blacksburg, where he set up an architectural practice to design houses, churches, and business buildings. He served architectural needs of the poor through Habitat for Humanity and his pro-bono architecture clinic.
Currie carried a camera throughout his career, from excavations at Copán and his first house at Six Moon Hill to snow scenes of his home in Blacksburg in January of the year he died. The photos in the collection are from his personal collection of 35mm slides, most of them on Kodachrome film. Currie carefully noted the location, date, and subject on the slide mounts, providing invaluable information about his projects and the places he traveled.
This site shows Currie’s career with highlights from the collection. For more photos please visit the Leonard J. Currie Slide Collection in Virginia Tech’s public collections in JSTOR.
Currie’s photographs © Estate of Leonard J. Currie. Photographs are by Currie unless otherwise stated.
For biographies see:
Vernon Mays, “William C. Noland Medal, Leonard J. Currie, FAIA.” Inform, 1994 special issue, pp. 34-5.
Humberto Rodríguez-Camilloni, “Currie, Leonard James.” Dictionary of Virginia Biography: Caperton-Daniels, Library of Virginia, 2006, vol. 3, pp. 608-610.
Special thanks to Barbara Joe, Leonard and Virginia Currie’s daughter, for donating the slides to Virginia Tech Libraries on behalf of the family. And to the student assistants who have helped to scan, research, and catalog the images. Steve Tatum, Digital Collections Curator, University Libraries, Virginia Tech. Blacksburg, Virginia.
Site updated 2024-04-10