+ Manuel León Ponce passed away on January 9, 2001, after a two-year battle with brain cancer.

A memorial fund in the name of Manuel León Ponce has been established with the Florida State University Foundation, Inc. For information on making a charitable tax-deductible contribution in his name to benefit the study of interior design at Florida State University, please contact the Florida State University Foundation, Inc.

- Mr. Ponce was born in pre-Castro Cuba and immigrated to the United States with his family after the revolution in 1961. After graduation from high school in Miami he studied history and architecture at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Next he completed the master’s program in Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University in Tallahassee. With his MA in hand he worked as an Urban Designer with the National Capital Planning Commission in Washington. It was there he got his first taste of teaching by lecturing in the evenings at Trinity College on the subject of Urban Design. After a brief period in the Nation’s capital he returned to Florida and for the next several years worked in Florida government and became a specialist in historic preservation. During these years he embarked on an individual study of interior design, architecture, furniture, and the royalty of Europe, especially France and the Louis’s and completed all the course hours for a Masters of Art History.

After a decade in the tedium of state government, he moved to Brooklyn, New York where he studied design at Pratt Institute of Design. Then he returned to Tallahassee and completed his Masters of Interior Design at Florida State University while working full time as a Statewide Coordinator for Historic Preservation Projects with the Florida Secretary of State’s office. He earned his masters in 1984 and began teaching Historic Preservation classes in the evening at Florida State University. Four years later he received an appointment as Assistant Professor. In the summers of 1990 and 1991 he was a guest lecturer at the Preservation Institute: Nantucket. His lecture topics were Historic Details and Ornamentation and Greek Revival Interior Detailing. Numerous interior design consulting projects also came his way, worthy of mention being a restoration plan for the historic interiors of the Burroughs Home Museum in Fort Myers, Florida; review of the historical accuracy of the interior moldings drawings for an 18th century home for Miles Collier, of the eponymous county in southwest Florida; and, restoration of a London flat in Bryanston Square, not far from the famed Marble Arch at the corner of Hyde Park.

Soon after starting Design Arts Seminars, Mr. Ponce was introduced to Stanley Barrows, professor emeritus of Parsons School of Design, New York who had taught such luminaries in the design world as Mario Buatta, Thomas Britt, Ronald Bricke, Albert Hadley and Angelo Donghia at Parsons. Those making the introduction were struck by the similarities between Manuel Ponce and Stanley Barrows in expressions, teaching style, passion, knowledge, and in many other ways. The two professors met in New York and it was an instant match–the two became very close friends. Manuel made many trips to New York where the professors poured over Stanley’s book collection, walked the sidewalks in search of bargain art books, drank champagne, dined at favorite restaurants and explored each others minds about their passions for art, architecture and interior design. Professor Barrows was overheard to remark that “Manny (as he was known to his friends) has it”–meaning that special collection of attributes that makes one a star. Stanley Barrows was a star and he had conferred on Manuel Ponce the title of “star.” Professor Barrows was a guest lecturer at one of Manuel Ponce’s seminars in Naples, Florida. Unfortunately this promising collaboration of artistic minds was cut short by the death of Professor Barrows in 1995.

As early as 1990, Manuel Ponce dreamed of conducting a study tour for interior designers and architects using Paris as the classroom–a “classroom without walls,” as he was fond of referring to the concept. He began an intensive reading and learning period, making numerous trips to Paris over the next few years, taking thousands of photographs to aid in the development of his course, and securing a 17th century apartment on the Ile St. Louis overlooking the river Seine. By 1995 he was ready to offer his “Understanding French Design” course to licensed interior designers and architects, which was a sell-out success with about 360 persons attending during the first summer it was offered. He offered the course in subsequent years, the last time in 1999. “Classical Design in Italy,” a study course that began in Venice, moved through the Veneto (countryside) for an examination of five Palladio villas, and concluded in Florence, after a stop in Asolo at the beautiful hotel Villa Cipriani, debuted in May 1998 and continued for 14 weeklong sessions. It was another resounding hit judging by the comments and evaluations of the 460 licensed interior designers and architects who attended over that summer. He also developed and conducted many other highly acclaimed CEU courses for interior designers and architects. (See an article on his Italy seminars published in Volume 5, No. 3 issue of Florida Design magazine, and on his Paris seminars in Volume 8, No. 3 issue of the same magazine). One of his projects, his own apartment in Paris, also appeared in the March/April 1998 issue of Southern Accents magazine.

Manuel León Ponce passed away on January 9, 2001, after a two-year battle with brain cancer.

A memorial fund in the name of Manuel León Ponce has been established with the Florida State University Foundation, Inc. For information on making a charitable tax-deductible contribution in his name to benefit the study of interior design at Florida State University, please contact the Florida State University Foundation, Inc.