Circum Spice no.60 p.3


CircumSpice	Spring 2000	p.3

Design Donation Enriches Our College Community

After a four-decade-plus career spanning the fields of advertising, design, publishing, and education, Alberto Paolo Gavasci approached a well-deserved retirement with—what else?—an ongoing work ethic. Following his 1995 retirement from Interior Design magazine where he spent the major part of his career as creative director, he and his wife Rachele have spent a number of golden years organizing his extensive collection of fine arts, architectural, and graphic design books along with his many slides and transparencies covering national and international interiors and product designs that he photographed and directed. With the organization accomplished, the next task was to look for a new home for these treasures. Mr. Gavasci has selected the Fashion Institute of Technology and the City College of New York as repositories.

CCNY Connection

City College attracted his attention in August 1999 when an article in the New York Times caught his eye—a long-time friend, George Ranalli, would be the new Dean of the School of Architecture. Contacting the dean, Mr. Gavasci described the potential donation of hundreds of design books and visual resource items, which would benefit both the college's library and the school's slide collection. Enthusiastic about the gift, Dean Ranalli invited the Gavascis to visit the school, and to re-establish old friendships.

Born in Manhattan, Mr. Gavasci has traveled the world, much of it with Rachele, the wife he's been in love with "since the sixth grade." He holds a BFA from Pratt Institute and an MFA Diploma Belle Arte from the University of Rome. His extended connection to the publishing world spans the early years when he developed trade publications and catalogs and formed his own advertising and marketing consultant firm, APG Associates, to his career at Whitney Communications where he art directed such magazines as Interior Design, Art in America, and Corporate Design. In 1993 he was named a special honoree in Interior Design's Hall of Fame issue, which noted that, "our cheerful maestro has guided not only the artistic quality of Interior Design for four decades, but also, through his aesthetic and technical requirements for superior photography, the standards of the entire profession."

In the academic world, Mr. Gavasci has served as adjunct professor at Cooper Union, the Fashion Institute of Technology, the School of Visual Arts, and the Art Career School of New York.

Courtly and charming, Alberto Gavasci speaks Italian fluently, often punctuating his exuberant conversation with an apt Italian phrase or two. Among his many other professional awards, "honors too extensive to chronicle" according to the Hall of Fame citation, he values highly his honorary citizenship in the Italian city of Udine, the "chair-making capital of the world." Udine's annual International Chair Fair featured his striking 1989 poster (pictured right).

This lover of art and design is eager to share his legacy with City College's students and faculty. The bookplate Mr. Gavasci designed for his donation speaks to the desire to inspire those starting off in the field. The design includes the words, "Please enjoy this volume as much as I have ... Good luck to you throughout your life and career. Fondly, Alberto." These beautiful books will surely bring enjoyment to our college community, as most will circulate. Only the rare and more fragile volumes will be limited to on-site use in the library's special collections area. The School of Architecture's slide collection in Shepard Hall will house the over three thousand unique slides and transparencies available for individual and class use.

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