It was Because of Michigan
Robin and Gordon Carrier, B.S. Arch ’79, M.Arch ’81, pay it forward with $1M gift to Taubman College.
After 35 years co-leading one of San Diego’s top architecture firms, Gordon Carrier, B.S. Arch ’79, M.Arch ’81, still credits his success to tools he first picked up studying architecture at the University of Michigan, a school that felt out of reach to him as a high school student. Gordon grew up in a small town outside Flint, Michigan. He worked hard in school but still felt behind at graduation. “I always saw Michigan as a place I would aspire to, but likely never actually be able to go,” he says.
Things changed when he started building theater sets at Hope College, sparking his love for design and construction. He transferred to U-M to study architecture. There, he met his longtime mentor and “professional father” Gunnar Birkerts. The two stayed close and collaborated often after graduation. “He taught me what design is really about,” Gordon says. “I carry it with me to this day, and it was because of Michigan.”
That sense of gratitude has inspired Gordon and his wife, Robin, an interior designer running her own successful firm, to give to Taubman College and U-M over the years, including gifts to Michigan Solar House and the Rocky Mountain/Western States Scholarship Fund.
In 2022, they founded the Gordon R. Carrier and Robin Wilson Carrier Scholarship Fund at Taubman College. This year, they strengthened that fund with a planned gift of $1 million, opening opportunities for students for years to come. “It’s such a worthy cause to give back and invest in the future of design and provide for students in their education, because they’re our future,” Robin says.
Birkerts, who passed away in 2017, was an international architect who worked with Eero Saarinen. Taubman College’s commitment to recruiting top professors is another motivation for the Carriers’ giving. “Somebody needs to meet their own Gunnar,” Gordon says.
“We’re hopeful this gift can help them afford that.”
The Carriers also appreciate recent efforts by the college to connect with alumni, led by Dean Jonathan Massey. Gordon has served on the Dean’s Advisory Board since 2019, and the couple have hosted gatherings in San Diego to build community amongst alumni there.
Gordon’s firm, Carrier Johnson + Culture, has also hired Taubman College interns and graduates. He’s impressed by the interdisciplinary opportunities uniquely available to architecture students at U-M today, as well as the critical thinking skills they leave with.“It’s about teaching people how to think,” he says. “Some do it well, some don’t. Michigan does it well.”
— Eric Gallippo
