Rate My Professor Henry Kamphoefner

Henry Leveke Kamphoefner, known professionally as Henry L. Kamphoefner, was a pioneering architect and educator renowned for his leadership in modernist design within Architecture and Design. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Illinois in 1930 and a Master of Science in Architecture from Columbia University in 1931. Early in his career, he engaged in private practice in Sioux City, Iowa, from 1932 to 1936, specializing in outdoor music pavilions, including the Grandview Music Pavilion and Outdoor Theatre, which the Royal Institute of British Architects selected in 1937 as one of America's outstanding post-World War I buildings. From 1937 to 1948, he served as Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma, also acting as architect for the United States Navy during summers in 1938, 1939, and 1941.

In 1948, Kamphoefner was appointed founding Dean of the School of Design at North Carolina State University, serving until 1973 and continuing to teach architecture as professor until 1979. He transformed the school into a national leader, recruiting top faculty such as George Matsumoto, Matthew Nowicki, Eduardo Catalano, James Fitzgibbons, and Edward Waugh. He established a distinguished visitors program hosting Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Buckminster Fuller, and Lewis Mumford. Key initiatives included the Department of Product Design in 1958 and the graduate program in 1968. The school achieved accreditation, ranked among the top ten nationally by the late 1950s, and its faculty and students won three Guggenheim Fellowships, nineteen Fulbright Scholarships, five Paris Prizes, and six fellowships to the American Academy in Rome. Kamphoefner advocated for organic and indigenous architecture suited to the southern region. His designs include the Mabel and Henry L. Kamphoefner House (1950, Raleigh) and Lillian and Rowland McElvare House (1953, Southern Pines). He was elected President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture in 1963, received its special "dean of deans" award in 1972, honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Morningside College (1967), honorary Doctor of Laws from Ball State University (1972), Joint Achievement Award for Architectural Education (1977), and North Carolina Award for Fine Arts (1978).