St. Thomas’ art history department held a panel and reception April 17 to officially open the Voorsanger Architects Archive exhibit that has been in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center since mid-February.

The panel consisted of Victoria Young, the art history department chair, New York City-based architect Bart Voorsanger and architectural historian Dell Upton, who teaches at University of California, Los Angeles.

“I’m just excited to be on the stage with these guys and let people see the things that we’ve done,” Young said.

Young said a panel benefited the exhibit because it could include multiple voices in the discussion of Voorsanger’s work, rather than Young presenting it alone.

Voorsanger expressed similar feelings of excitement and commended the effort taken by all people involved in making the exhibit a reality.

“It’s been a labor of love for many parties, both our firm and Victoria and the university here. So we’re very excited to see this thing being launched,” Voorsanger said.

Upton said the university and all the people who attended the panel will benefit from this experience.

“It’s wonderful for St. Thomas to get his archives,” Upton said. “He’s kind of at the peak of his powers, so I think it will be very illuminating for the audience.”

Voorsanger said the most interesting part about architecture for him is to move forward with new designs and ideas and to try to push the frontier back with each new project.

“You engage people because architecture is a public event,” Voorsanger said.“That is profoundly important, and most architects don’t realize that.”

Voorsanger draws inspiration from a wide range of eras and places: Thomas Jefferson is one, for his idiosyncrasy; Le Corbusier is another, for his inventiveness; and even landscape architects and urban designers.

“It’s a whole range of design forces and people and implements of ideas that really move you,” Voorsanger said.

Voorsanger said his architectural philosophy is to do no damage and to move people to a different emotional level as they move through his spaces. The most important aspect of this exhibit is the preservation of an architect’s work for the future.

“It will make lives richer, it will make our culture richer,” Voorsanger said. “It’s an element in our environment that’s profoundly important.”

Ignacio Garcia can be reached at garc3913@stthomas.edu