Robert Y.C. Hsiung studied visual arts throughout his childhood in China—learning Chinese calligraphy from his father and then watercolor painting from an artist in Hong Kong, where he attended a Jesuit school. In 1952 he won a scholarship to Wisconsin’s St. Norbert College, where he continued watercolor as a hobby. After a family friend suggested that he major in architecture, Hsiung transferred to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and found his calling.
“Design involved everything I had,” he says. “My mind, feelings, hands, eyes, gut. It was creative, open-ended, involved problem solving.” After graduation, he studied architecture for nine months in Europe, which fueled his passion for the discipline but left no energy for painting.
In 1960, he began graduate studies at MIT, where he focused on large-scale urban design. With classmates, he entered a competition to design Boston’s City Hall. Their design, one of five finalists, marked the first of many MIT collaborations. First he worked 10 years with his thesis advisor, Herbert Beckwith ’26, MArch ’27, a partner in the firm Anderson Beckwith & Haible, ultimately becoming lead designer. Then Pietro Belluschi, former dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, brought Hsiung to Jung/Brannen Associates, a firm cofounded by Hsiung’s classmate Yu Sing Jung, MArch ’62. Until he retired in 2004, he was design principal; he set the firm’s aesthetic standard and taught young architects.
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