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June 2004

Oklahoma State University Wins $25,000 NCARB Prize

Washington, DC—The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards has named Oklahoma State University as the grand prize winner of the 2004 NCARB Prize competition. With this honor, Oklahoma State's School of Architecture will receive $25,000. NCARB President Robert A. Boynton, FAIA, announced this year's Prize winners at the AIA national convention in Chicago late last week.

In its entry, "Integrated/ Interactive/ Innovative: The Comprehensive Semester," Oklahoma State unites the theories of design, technology, and professional practice over the course of a semester. More specifically, the comprehensive semester integrates the design studio with structural design, issues of environmental performance and controls, and project management, leading to a unified and tightly orchestrated whole. Twenty-nine students worked with five faculty members and 50 practitioners, among them architects, mechanical engineers, structural engineers, and code officials.

Joining Oklahoma State as winners in the 2004 competition, which is formally known as the NCARB Prize for the Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy, are five additional programs. Each will receive a $7,500 award.

• The California College of the Arts—"Collaborative Teaching With Professional Mentorship"
  This entry describes the partnership among students, architectural mentors, and a consulting engineering firm, which has led to a collaborative teaching and learning environment, with an emphasis on professional practice issues.
  
  
• Rice University—"BW + RH (Rice Building Workshop + Project Row Houses)"
  Linking school, community, and practice, the Rice Building Workshop takes students out of the classroom and leads them into neighborhood revitalization project, where they are involved in all aspects of the architectural process.
  
  
• University of Kentucky—"The Comprehensive Project: A Practice-based Studio"
  Creating design integration, or synergy, is the key objective of this accelerated learning environment that has evolved from the traditional studio format. In this entry, students engage in community-based projects from programming to schematic design and design development.
  
  
• University of Miami—"Interdisciplinary Community Building: Strengthening a Neighborhood"
  Students and faculty members from a number of departments work on research, education, and outreach for a distressed neighborhood located near the university. More than 270 students and 40 faculty members have taken part in this initiative.
  
  
• University of Washington—"Urban Acupuncture/HSW Neighborhood Design-Build Studio"
  Working with the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods since 1988, this studio is based on two key ideas: society as a universal client and community outreach as a key component of education. Students learn by doing while being exposed to real-world design and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Entries from Clemson University ("The Borough Project") and from the University of Kentucky ("Breaking Ground: Partnership & Process as Design Strategy") received honorable mentions.

As envisioned by Peter Steffian, FAIA, who served as Council president in 2001, the NCARB Prize recognizes excellence and innovation when bringing together architectural education and practice. Architecture schools with NAAB accredited degree programs were invited to submit established projects, completed or in progress by the end of the fall 2003 semester, that demonstrated creative initiatives that integrate the academy and the profession within a studio curriculum.

Thirty entries, representing 26 different colleges and universities, were juried for the 2004 NCARB Prize competition. Speaking on behalf of the NCARB Prize jury, Steffian noted, "The third year of the NCARB Prize competition has brought yet another amazing group of diverse, thought-provoking projects. Once again, we are very pleased with the high quality of the winning programs. Oklahoma State's remarkable entry maintains the high standards of our previous grand prize-winning submissions from the University of Detroit Mercy and the University of Kansas."

The 2004 NCARB Prize jury comprises the members of the Council's Practice Education Task Force and six deans (or department heads or chairs) of NAAB-accredited architectural programs chosen by NCARB's regional leadership. Task force members are

Janet White, FAIA, jury chair (Maryland)
Alan W. T. Baldwin Jr., FAIA (North Carolina)
C. Robert Campbell, FAIA (New Mexico) NCARB's 2002 President
Barbara Sestak, AIA (Oregon)
Peter Steffian, FAIA (Massachusetts) NCARB's 2001 President
Michiel M. Bourdrez, AIA, staff liaison

The academy is represented by

Dr. Daniel Doz, Head, Architecture and Art Department
Norwich University (Vermont)
Bradford C. Grant, AIA, Chair, Department of Architecture
Hampton University (Virginia)
Marleen Kay Davis, AIA, Dean, College of Architecture and Design
University of Tennessee
Donna V. Robertson, AIA, Dean, College of Architecture
Illinois Institute of Technology
Clark E. Llewellyn, AIA, Director, School of Architecture
Montana State University
Roger Schluntz, FAIA, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning
University of New Mexico

The NCARB Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy was first initiated in the fall of 2001. The Prize is inspired by the 1996 Carnegie Foundation report, Building Community: A New Future for Architectural Education and Practice, written by Lee D. Mitgang and the late Ernest L. Boyer.

For more information about the 2004 NCARB Prize winners, please contact Michiel M. Bourdrez, AIA (202/879-0528).

About NCARB
NCARB comprises the architectural registration boards of all 50 states as well as those of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. NCARB assists its member state registration boards in carrying out their duties and provides a certification program for individual architects.

The mission of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards is to work together as a council of member boards to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public and to assist member boards in carrying out their duties. In order to achieve these goals, the Council develops and recommends standards to be required of an applicant for architectural registration; develops and recommends standards regulating the practice of architecture; provides to member boards a process for certifying the qualifications of an architect for registration; and represents the interests of member boards before public and private agencies. With the Committee of Canadian Architectural Councils (CCAC), NCARB has also established guidelines for the reciprocal registration of U.S. and Canadian architects.