Caudill, William W(ayne) (b Hobart, OK, 25 March 1914; dHouston, TX, 25 June 1983). American architect. Educated at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater (19337), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (1937-9), he began his career as a design teacher at Texas A & M. University, College Station, in 1939. By the time he founded the firm of Caudill, Rowlett and Scott in Houston in 1947 he had already established strong interests in the design of buildings for educational institutions and in a team approach to the design process that would inspire and distinguish the work of that firm and its successors, CRS Inc. and CRS Sirrine. Caudill described himself as a ‘professor/architect involved in theory and practice’ and made a significant contribution as a researcher, philosopher and manager in addition to being a talented designer. His early research on elementary schools in Texas, first published in 1941, took an analytical, problem-solving approach to both functional and technological aspects of school design. Its pragmatic, common-sense arguments were influential in convincing communities to build modern schools in the 1950s and 1960s. Caudill’s own firm designed many such schools, first in Texas and later throughout the USA.

The firm, based in Houston, eventually grew to an international practice with over 1000 employees under Caudill’s leadership. Its innovative design methodology, rooted in reliance on interdisciplinary teams of architects, engineers, environmental specialists and user groups, became a pattern for many large architectural practices in the 1970s. The firm also developed techniques for group dynamics management and post-occupancy evaluation which were broadly influential. ‘

WRITINGS

Space for Teaching (College Station, TIC, 1942)

Architecture by Team (New York, 1971)