Clyde Dorsett papers, 1940-1991, bulk 1952-1982

Clyde H. Dorsett was born in Burlington, North Carolina in 1925. While still in his teens, he took part in the Allied Invasion of Normandy in 1944 receiving the Bronze Star Medal.[1] Clyde Dorsett's first experience in medical design began soon after his return, in 1946: an apprentice at the offices of Louis Jallade in New York City where he worked on a 200-bed hospital project. Dorsett went on to receive his bachelor's degree in architecture from the School of Design, North Carolina State University in 1953, part of which time he studied under Buckminster Fuller. He was noted for his unusual skill in mastering detail design both in terms of construction and program – later put to good use in his diagnostic work at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from 1965. Between this period he co-established the short-lived partnership Dorsett & Smyre Architects. Though working on a number of project types, Dorsett again found himself engaged in hospital design and construction, this time for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington D.C., when he began to realize that there were growing design opportunities in the field.[2]

He studied at Columbia University from 1962-63 where he completed his master's degree in architecture majoring in hospital and public health facilities planning and design. The timing could not have been more fortunate. Following the passing of the Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC) Act of 1963, the NIMH suddenly found itself responsible for overseeing the wholesale transformation of the nation's medical health built infrastructure. To achieve this, Dorsett was brought in to establish its architectural consultation section of which he became chief. He would go on to develop most of the regulations, policies and programs related to architectural aspects of the Act. The new section was staffed by architects with backgrounds as diverse as anthropology, psychology, management, programming, mental health, and general hospital planning, while Dorsett foresaw this expanding into other related expertise such as in corrective services, children's programs and total health services.

During his time at the NIMH Dorsett also worked closely with a team of medical experts, believing that the medical program and the actual facility should be inseparable, that "they are the same thing."[3] Together they helped develop national policy and provided project-by-project consultation across each state for the relevant health care bodies and their private architects – with each project given a unique code comprising of state, project type and number. Site visits across the country were frequent, regional workshops not infrequent, with a constant stream of planning drawings and written advice flowing through the NIMH offices.[4] Dorsett's overriding belief was that good healthcare design should provide a humane, welcoming environment as opposed to the institutional character that normally felt with such building types. To this aim he sponsored a large body of research in environmental psychology. Among his early collaborators were Sim Van der Ryn and Christopher Alexander, the latter for whom he contributed some sections to his "pattern language." By 1978 Dorsett was finally able to take his theories to their ultimate conclusion – the total breaking down of monolithic institutional design and the re-empowering of patients in the healing process – with his consultation work for the Hawaii State Hospital. Here the "village system" approach was adopted: clustered buildings broken down into discreet housing units in a semi-urban setting. This and others like it at the time, reflected new ideas of the needs of patients and of medical support staff to be cognizant of their interactions and social relations across various scales: from the individual to the group, to the multiple, to the neighborhood or village – a direct influence of Alexander's thinking.

Dorsett often fussed over both the details and the wider aims of a project, yet was described as having a "smooth, low key approach."[5] Indeed so well-known was his technical support in linking facilities to programs that the process was once dubbed as "Dorsetting."[6] His frequent travel across the various states and the personal sacrifices this entailed also earned him the praise of his director, Dr. Frank M. Ochberg, who described him as "my ambassador-at-large."[7]

Dorsett took early retirement from the institute in 1982, possibly as a consequence of cutbacks in consultation services by the NIMH that Dorsett was beginning to forewarn his clients of as early as 1979.[8] He was now working in a partnership with Constantine Karalis, as senior partner to the practice Dorsett and Karalis, Associates. Dorsett's old projects continued to be utilized by him as pattern touchstones for his new and existing clients right up until the 1990s. His expertise now earned him a wider international audience, consulting for health authorities in the West Indies, and advising the World Health Organization and the State Department. He died at his home at Queenstown, Maryland, in 2007.

Sources:

1. Adam Bernstein, Clyde H. Dorsett; Architectural Consultant, The Washington Post, Aug. 11, 2007.

2. Sam A. Kimble [Department of Health, Education and Welfare] to Dorsett, March 23, 1962.

3. "Community Mental Health Centers Team: Everyone's in a Different Game," Phs World, May 1966, p.25.

4. Clyde H. Dorsett, "Broader Goals for the Architect and Government in Community Planning," AIA Governmental Affairs Review (undated, c. 1970).

5. Thomas W. Carey (Department of Health & Human Services) to Dorsett, Nov. 7, 1980.

6. Jack A. Bartleson (ADAMH Branch) to Steven Sharfstein, M.D. (DMHSB), July 27, 1976.

7. Frank M. Ochberg [Division of Mental Health Services Program, NIMH] to Dorsett, May 30, 1975.

8. Ian Osborn [Pennsylvania State Hospital] to Dorsett, Oct. 24, 1979.