From Renaissance to Counter-Reformation

John Alexander received a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from the University of Detroit in 1986. After working with Frye Gillan Molinaro Architects (Chicago), he began his graduate studies in architectural history at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville) in 1989. In 1994, he was awarded a Kress Institutional Grant to the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Rome), which permitted him to conduct his doctoral research in Italy. As he was bringing his dissertation to conclusion, he began a teaching career that has affiliated him with a number of different American universities: the University of Notre Dame (Rome Studies Program, 1997-1999), the American University of Rome (Dept. of Arts and Sciences, 1999-2000), Texas A & M University (Dept. of Architecture, 2000-2006). Dr. Alexander joined the faculty of the Department of Architecture at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2006. Dr. Alexander’s doctoral research focused on the Collegio Borromeo in Pavia. His dissertation, The Collegio Borromeo: a study of Borromeo’s early patronage and Tibaldi’s early architecture (University of Virginia, 2001) included a year-by-year history of the building’s construction, based upon the documents preserved in the archives of the Collegio. Since completing his dissertation, he has published articles on the Collegio, including Shaping sacred space in the sixteenth century: design criteria for the Collegio Borromeo’s chapel («Journal of the Society of architectural historians», LXIII, 2004, pp. 164-179), Federico Borromeo at the Collegio in Pavia. Student and Patron («Studia Borromaica», XVIII, 2004, pp. 165-191), and The Collegio Borromeo: patronage and design («Arte Lombarda», CXLIV, 2005, 2, pp. 38-48). In the future, Dr. Alexander will investigate the impact of Borromeo’s patronage upon the architecture of the Spanish colonies in the New World.