-By Barry Svigals, FAIA

As a student in Paris, I used to draw the faces carved into stone above the windows and doorways. The Gothic cathedrals offered a parade of figures, large and small, in all manner of poses and expression, their ancient narratives enduring and inseparable from their place in the architecture.

With the advent of modern architecture, the tradition of incorporating this age-old art form into architectural design has lain dormant since the mid-20th century. Figurative and ornamental work has not found a comfortable place in the architecture, which has become sleek and spare. With the tradition of sculptural craft disappearing, this long-standing marriage of art and architecture has all but vanished. But it is not dead.

Our physical and psychological relationship to representations of the human form are too deeply embedded. As Patrick L. Pinnell, AIA, has observed, humans subconsciously view buildings as a metaphor for the physical body. Façades become faces. Windows become eyes. Doors become mouths. We are consequently predisposed to feel a visceral connection to architecture. Furthermore, figurative art of the human form, when incorporated in the architecture, has an even greater impact.

As an architect and sculptor, this seemed an obvious avenue to explore when founding our firm Svigals+Partners in 1983. We were pleased to find institutional, commercial, and individual clients who saw the potential to express their vision in new ways, to effectively communicate a message of who they are and what they aspire to be.

The means of expression has taken many forms—from floor inlays to bronze statues—that are part of the structure. For a bank in a shoreline town, it was a "school" of copper fish that floated above the check desk. For Boston College, it was sculptures of the heads of the apostles who preceded St. Ignatius. All were handcrafted, original designs, specific to a particular client, message, and place in the architecture.

At the Center for Information Technology at Norwalk Community College, in Norwalk, Conn., art and architecture are integrated in an academic setting to reflect a mission, share knowledge, and engage the imagination. Trusses spanning the central atrium were necessary for structural support. To conceal the steel truss, a tracery design recalls the classical pediment with figures set in motion to express a new academic spirit of exploration, breaking the bounds of traditional education.

The sculpture "5000 Years of Information Technology: A Dialogue Across Time and Space" surrounds the atrium. A series of 10 relief portraits of contributors to the history of communication—from Demosthenes to Alan Turing—create panels where their faces merge with their words to offer a metaphorical conversation among those who have contributed to the evolution of the computer. The reliefs are assembled in varying "conversational" groups, where words flow from panel to panel forming a dialogue across space and time.

Thus, sculpture and art need not be isolated elements, but integrated into an intimate relationship with the architecture. Much like one color amplifies other colors around it, so too can art evoke a resonant feeling in architecture by being part of it. Most importantly, it touches us as it has for thousands of years in ways that transcend form and color, bringing renewed sense of meaning to our built environments.

Barry Svigals, FAIA, is founder and managing partner at architectural firm Svigals+Partners in New Haven, Conn., and a faculty member at the Yale School of Architecture.