BESS, Philip

Philip BessPhilip Bess is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame. His courses include graduate urban design and theory, and his urban design studio in recent years has produced extensive proposals for Lewis University in Romeoville, IL (2006); Cooperstown, NY (2007); Northampton, MA (2008); and most recently Ventura, CA (2009). He continues to engage in professional work as a design consultant for municipalities, architects and community development corporations working through the office of Thursday Associates. From 1987-88 he was the director and principal designer of the Urban Baseball Park Design Project of the Society for American Baseball Research; and in Boston in August 2000 he directed and coordinated the ultimately successful "Save Fenway Park!" design charrette. Prof. Bess is the author of numerous articles, as well as three books: City Baseball Magic: Plain Talk and Uncommon Sense About Cities and Baseball Parks (1989); Inland Architecture: Subterranean Essays on Moral Order and Formal Order in Chicago (2000); and most recently Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Sacred (2007). Prof. Bess holds an M.Arch from the University of Virginia (1981), a Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.) from the Harvard Divinity School (1976), and a B.A. from Whittier College (1973).