Henry Fernandez

Henry Dietrich Fernandez (1950-2009) was a Senior Lecturer in the Departments of Architecture and Interior Architecture for the Rhode Island School of Design. Fernandez received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973, and nine years later his M.Arch from Harvard University in 1982 and 21 years later his Ph.D. from University of Cambridge in 2003. He served as faculty at Tufts University, University of Cambridge, Harvard's GSD, and the Warburg Institute in London and joined the RISD Architecture faculty in 1992 and Interior Architecture faculty in 1998. After that time he taught a variety of architectural history courses. An inveterate traveler, Dr. Fernandez led several Wintersession travel courses and served as coordinator of 2008 RISD's Summer Studio in Denmark. He was the recipient of numerous grants and awards including a Samuel Kress Research and Teaching Fellowship, RISD Professional Development Fund grant, and a Getty Foundation Grant. He received a Scott Opler Foundation grant in 2003 for his “Reconstructing Renaissance Rome” project in which he and a team of RISD alumni used 3-d computer modeling and animation to recreate pre-Renaissance structures adjacent to the Vatican which had been leveled during the course of a 1930s Fascist urban renewal project. Although an ebullient expert on Vatican politics and its influence on design history, Fernandez researched and taught subjects ranging from Derrida to Alvar Aalto. Dr. Fernandez died on September 2, 2009. He is survived by his wife Dr. Caroline P. Murphy.