Gil Schafer '80
“My fellow students at Millbrook would have said I was something of a nerd, and the adults would have said I was 16 going on 45.”
This is how Gil Schafer III ’80, describes his teenage self. And yet, Gil graduated Millbrook as student council president, editor-in-chief of The Silo, and all-school prefect. At his graduation, he became the second recipient of the Class of 1978 Award. If pressed, he adds humbly: “I guess something happened while I was in high school. This was before being a nerd was cool.”
Today, Gil Schafer is one of the top classical architects in the country. He has held a spot in Architectural Digest’s AD 100 for the last ten years and counting, and his architectural work—new homes as well as renovations and restorations—spans eighteen U.S. states as well as Canada, the Caribbean, and Central America. Gil’s awards include a Millbrook Medal for extraordinary service as a member of Millbrook School’s Board of Trustees and the Institute for Classical Architecture and Art’s Arthur Ross Award for lifetime achievement. He is a graduate of Haverford College and the Yale School of Architecture where he won the H. I. Feldman Prize, Yale’s highest honor for studio work.
It seems that many architects emphasize math and art classes in their origin stories, but Gil admits that math wasn’t his strong suit in high school. He always liked art and especially loved drawing on his own. At Millbrook, he was one of three students to take a mechanical drawing class in the basement of Abbott Hall. There, inspired by his grandfather’s career as an architect, he had his first lessons in drafting in a course led by Mr. Palmer.
Outside of classes and athletic requirements, Gil spent time doing what he loved: working on the school’s newspaper, The Silo. He used the New York Times as inspiration for changes to the paper’s nameplate and agitated for glossy paper stock, all efforts to make The Silo look more serious. He also organized a whimsical fashion photo shoot for the paper with the “wonderfully stylish” E. Ashley Carter (now Crytz) ’81. Together they gathered a group of classmates in trendy garb and used the dish room as an ironic backdrop. The love of storytelling that Gil cultivated while working for The Silo evolved into a lifelong interest. In fact, Gil suspects that if he hadn’t become an architect, he would have pursued a career in magazines.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPETE ARTICLE ABOUT GIL PUBLISHED IN THE SUMMER 2022 MILLBROOK MAGAZINE
CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPETE ARTICLE ABOUT GIL PUBLISHED IN THE SUMMER 2022 MILLBROOK MAGAZINE
