When sleepy-eyed students file into Wilson Hall for morning classes, they may not pay much attention to the architectural features of the classrooms in which they sit. They've also probably never heard of Robert Hill P'79, whom they have to thank for many of these classrooms' more modern features.
Hill, who died in December at 89, was a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a prominent professor in RISD's architecture department. The modern sensibilities that Hill brought to renovations of Wilson and Arnold Laboratory in the 1960's were cultivated over decades of teaching and designing residences and commercial buildings across Providence.
Born in Providence in 1918, Hill attended Hope High School and received a B.S. in architecture at RISD. He also served in World War II as part of the Army Air Corps. Hill designed the renovations for the interior of Wilson in 1966, shortly after he left RISD to go into private practice.
The changes made to Wilson were intended to create "a more aesthetically pleasing study and classroom environment," said Chad Cavanaugh, a Facilities Management computer-aided design technician. Originally completed in 1891, Wilson is described by the Encyclopedia Brunoniana as "a Romanesque style building of random ashlar sandstone." After its first occupant, the Department of Physics, moved to the then-new Barus and Holley building in 1965, Hill was called upon to reconstruct the building to provide classrooms and meeting rooms.
Hill's cosmetic changes, such as new ceiling tiles, new plaster, repairs of exposed brick walls, replaced doorways and a new entrance, while not significantly altering the building's structure, endowed Wilson with the "clean simplicity and functionality" that Hill brought to many of his buildings, his son-in-law, Steve Cohen '75, said. Cohen recalled Wilson as "one of the cooler buildings in which to take classes," thanks in part to the "juxtaposition of very spare, clean styling" that Hill added with the "really old, classically designed building." Many new features were also essential to classroom convenience and safety, such as lighting over chalkboards and a new sprinkler system.
Dan Hill '79, one of Hill's sons, said that his father "took a contemporary approach" to renovating building interiors with modern details and cost-effective materials. But Hill added that his father did so "always in a way that was very respectful of the period of the building itself," integrating details like glass walls and metal framing and preserving preexisting conditions such as exposed brick walls in Wilson and local residences such as 89 Angell St., a 19th-century building next to Corliss-Brackett House, which houses the Office of Admission.
Around the same time he redesigned Wilson, Hill also renovated Arnold Lab, his family said.
Although Hill was commissioned to redesign two of the more traditional buildings on Brown's campus, marked by arches, brick and stone, Dan Hill said that his father would have been supportive of the more modernist buildings that the University was beginning to erect in the same period. The simple concrete exteriors of the Sciences Library and List Art Building, which were completed in 1971, reflect the Brutalist style Le Corbusier inspired in the 1960s.
Dan Hill noted that his father was highly interested in "the economy of means"; like Le Corbusier, he saw little value for the client or society in extravagant materials and often used concrete in the bank buildings he designed, such as the People's Savings Bank in downtown Providence. Friedrich St. Florian, who began teaching at RISD during Hill's tenure there, described him as "very much a modernist," recalling conversations they shared over modern architects they both admired such as Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier.
Hill applied his affinity with another modern architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, to the homes he designed in Providence - including his own residence on Barn Street - which are often strongly distinct from the traditional New England Victorian-influenced houses surrounding them.
In a home he designed on Halsey Street, Hill incorporated the "very conscious interplay of the public and private" that Dan Hill said his father admired in Wright's work, providing privacy through an obscured entrance and a facade with only a small strip of windows at the street side, but opening up to the more private backyard with a large glass wall.
As he lived and worked in Providence, Hill maintained close ties with many at Brown, working on the house of former Director of Admission James Rodgers and earning the respect of William Jordy, a longtime art history professor at the University. Hill was also modernization coordinator for the Providence Housing Authority from 1977 until 2003.
The University continues to commission modern buildings like the Creative Arts Center - to be designed by Diller, Scofidio and Renfro - alongside old brick stalwarts like University Hall. Dan Hill said that his father would have been excited to see the ever-evolving architectural creations the University continues to spring upon College Hill. The firm's sleek works, such as the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, are designed with their surroundings in mind, "which is something (my father) always loved," Hill said. "I think he would have been happy."
