Coral Gables and Rome: the Drawings of Thomas A. Spain

Thomas A. Spain, architect, recently retired from the University of Miami School of Architecture, where he’d been a faculty member since 1966. His enormous talent and unwavering devotion to teaching design and drawing have left an indelible impact on the students he taught over the past two generations. Especially known on campus for his drawings of Rome, through his almost yearly visits from 1991 to 2014 with his students, Spain’s extensive and brilliant collection of work focuses on memorable locations, revisited and redrawn over the years. The work demonstrates how time and acute observation lead to new ways of seeing, while revealing the circumstantial relationship between author, subject and medium.