Tuesday evening, the fifth lecture in the Savage Lecture series, “Cities in War, Struggle, and Peace: The Architecture of Memory and Life – Rebuilding Cities after War and Disaster,” was cut short when the lecturer, Azhar Tyabji, collapsed just 30 minutes into his presentation.
Tyabji regained consciousness a few minutes before medical help arrived but was taken by ambulance to Sacred Heart Medical Center as a precaution. Further information on his condition was unavailable. On Wednesday, a representative from the hospital could not confirm whether Tyabji had been a patient at all but said there was no current patient by that name.
Tyabji was speaking about efforts to historically preserve the city of Bhuj, India as part of the large-scale restoration that began after the 2001 Gujarati earthquake. The title of his lecture was “History and the Future Community in the Post-Earthquake Bhuj.”
Tyabji is an architectural historian and planner. He has been working on the reconstruction of Bhuj for the past six years.
Professor Howard Davis, the organizer of the event, said that he hopes to one day have Tyabji back again to speak at the University, but doesn’t know when that day might come.
The final lecture in the series will be held Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in 177 Lawrence. Professor Kenneth Calhoon will be delivering his lecture, “Refiguring the Aftermath: On the Reconstruction of Dresden.”