Hideo Sasaki a long-time friend and consultant to the University of Colorado died last week from cancer at the age of 80.
Sasaki, a resident of Lafayette, Calif., was a member of CU聮s four-member design review board for 33 years. His affiliation with the university began in July of 1960 when his firm, Sasaki Associates Inc., was retained as landscape architecture consultants.
Sasaki Associates developed the campus master plan of 1962, according to John Prosser, chair of the University Design Review Board. The plan was the first implemented on the CU campus since before WWII and it has continued to be a benchmark for all architectural projects done on the campus, Prosser said.
While he was working on the campus plan, the design review board was founded and Sasaki was made the head board member, Prosser said. The University of Colorado聮s design review board is the second oldest in the country and one of the only boards that looks at the architectural integrity and continuity of the university wide system.
Sasaki was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, when World War II began and the federal government forced him into internment in 1942, Prosser said. It was during his internment that he was sent to a camp in Arizona. Due to a shortage of farm workers in Colorado, he volunteered to work as a farm hand and was sent to Sterling.
For a short time after the war, Sasaki lived in what is now known as Denver聮s "LoDo" district. While in Colorado he met and later married his wife, Kisa, a graduate of the University of Colorado.
"Hideo聮s point of view was that Colorado was very important to him. When given the opportunity to work on the campus he readily accepted the commission, which quickly garnered widespread recognition and extensive awards," Prosser said. "His whole life from 1943-44 has been connected to Colorado and he consulted with us until his death."
A world-renowned landscape architect, Sasaki graduated from the University of Illinois in 1946 with a bachelor of arts in fine arts and landscape architecture, for which he was awarded high honors. He then went on to attend Harvard University聮s Graduate School of Design where he received the degree of master of landscape architecture in 1948.
He was an instructor and assistant professor at the University of Illinois from 1948-50. He was professor and chairman of the department of landscape architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design from 1950-68. In 1953, while teaching at Harvard, he founded Sasaki Associates Inc. and was chairman and president of the board from 1954 to 1980.
In the region, Sasaki was the lead planning and urban design consultant for the Boulder Pearl Street Mall, the Denver Skyline Urban Renewal Project, the Auraria Higher Education Center, Western Wyoming College, Pueblo Community College and Fort Lewis College, among others.
Sasaki was a member of numerous advisory committees and review boards. President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the United States Commission of Fine Arts in 1961. He was reappointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 and remained on the board until 1971. He was a juror for the Vietnam Memorial Competition in 1981, the Astronaut Memorial Competition in 1988 and the Peace Garden Competition in 1989.
In April, during the 100th anniversary celebration of Harvard聮s landscape architecture department, Sasaki was awarded the Centennial Medal for his impact on landscape architecture at the Harvard Design School.
In 1984 Sasaki was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Colorado for his outstanding achievements and for his guidance on CU聮s design review board.
He resigned as a member of the design review board in 1994. In his honor the university established the Hideo Sasaki Scholarship in Interdisciplinary Design for ethnic and economically disadvantaged minority students studying interdisciplinary design and planning.
"He was an extraordinary man and I can聮t even express how much Colorado meant to him," Prosser said. "He said that the last 15 years of his service here at CU were the most rewarding of his professional career."