“Professor Emeritus Charles Eastman was one of our most distinguished and respected faculty members,” said Scott Marble, the William H. Harrison Chair of the School of Architecture. “Chuck was a beloved colleague who had a lasting impact on our faculty, staff, and students over his 20-year career at the Georgia Tech School of Architecture.
Eastman joined Georgia Tech in 1996 and was a professor in the Schools of Architecture and Interactive Computing until he retired in 2018. He began his teaching career at the University of Wisconsin (1966 – 1974), then taught at Carnegie-Mellon University (1974 – 1982), and UCLA (1987 – 1995).
Eastman was also a founding member of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), serving as the international network’s first president in 1981. In 1982, Eastman founded Formtek, a CAD company, which was sold to Lockheed Martin in 1987. Formtek is now a leading metal forming and fabrication solutions company.
Eastman was an architect through educational background and a computer engineer by trade. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons he found a home at Georgia Tech, Marble said. “Chuck’s work had a broad following that included communities from architectural design, computer science, building construction, design and building technology, among others.”
While at Georgia Tech, Eastman taught topics including design cognition, BIM, solid and parametric modeling, engineering databases, product models, and interoperability (understanding interfaces in information technology and systems engineering.)
He directed the Ph.D. in Architecture program from 2000 – 2008, which Marble sees as one of Eastman’s greatest legacies.
“Even with the magnitude of his research accomplishments and international reputation, Chuck was a modest and caring person who was deeply dedicated to the people he worked with, especially his students,” Marble said.
“These students were consistently the most sought-after hires in both industry and academia. Many have gone on to reach distinguished positions and are a lasting legacy of Chuck’s life.” The hundreds of students Eastman mentored are now leaders in the industry and at universities around the world, Marble said.