William Whifler, along with Paul Zimmerman, established in 1967 the Department of Architecture at the College of San Mateo in San Mateo, California. Whifler and Zimmerman were close colleagues, who often jointly conducted design studios and critiqued students’ projects together. According to Zimmerman, the design philosophy that Whifler brought to the studio and classroom was “total architecture”, i.e., structure, color, materials, and building things. At the core of Whifler’s teaching was his “box -anti box” theory. Whifler’s sketches used to illustrate this lesson in aesthetics is presented below.
c 1974
Professor William A Whifler teaching architecture at The College of San Mateo c. 1978.
Many of his students went on to become architects, some practicing in the same San Francisco Mid-Peninsula that Whifler called home.
A structure stress demolition derby, or engineering made practical.
On my dad’s boat cruising along the California Delta, Bill Whifler right, Paul Zimmerman left.