Eduard Franz Sekler (30 September 1920 – 1 May 2017) was an architectural historian and Osgood Hooker Professor of Visual Art Emeritus and professor of architecture emeritus at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.
Biography
A native of Vienna, Eduard Sekler earned his professional degree with distinction in architecture from its
Vienna University of Technology
TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...
, before studying under Rudolf Wittkower at the School of Planning and Regional Research in London, and receiving his PhD in the history of art at
London University
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...
's Warburg Institute. Sekler came to Harvard in 1960, at the invitation of
Josep Lluis Sert Josep is a Catalan masculine given name equivalent to Joseph (Spanish ''José'').
People named Josep include:
* Josep Bargalló (born 1958), Catalan philologist and former politician
* Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), Catalan painter, cartoonist and ...
, later co-founding (along with
Albert Szabo
Albert Szabo (1925-2003) was an American architect, educator and artist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 7, 1925, to Benjamin Szabo of Felso Viso, Hungary (1885–1964) and Jeanette Szabo (née Margolies) of New York, New York ( ...
) the university's Visual and Environmental Studies department in 1968.
Outside of his explicit professorial duties, Sekler was active in efforts to preserve the cultural and architectural heritage of Nepal's
Kathmandu Valley
The Kathmandu Valley ( ne, काठमाडौं उपत्यका; also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley ( ne, नेपाः उपत्यका, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः)), ...
. After first visiting in 1962, he made multiple return trips to the valley in association with
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
and led the production of plans to safeguard the valley's heritage from development and population pressures. In 1990 he founded the
Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust
The Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT) is an independent organization working to safeguard the historic architecture of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. KVPT was founded in 1991 by architectural historian Eduard Sekler, then team leader of ...
(KVPT), and later served as an honorary member of its board of directors.
Sekler died on 1 May 2017 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Selected writings
*
See also
*
References
External links
*
Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sekler, Eduard F.
American architecture writers
American male non-fiction writers
American architectural historians
Harvard University faculty
Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
2017 deaths
1920 births
Austrian emigrants to the United States