ARCC President's Report - 1996

ARCC's past year has been characterized by gains in organizational reputation and continued membership diversification. In large part, these are the byproducts of ARCC' s ability to successfully execute major plans and initiatives which serve the membership and the design/planning disciplines and professions. We have been able to do this while maintaining our budget surplus which should permit flexibility for new ARCC service and outreach efforts in the coming year.

Our achievements are directly in support of ARCC's most fundamental goal, which is to "facilitate the development of an architectural research culture, including its infrastructure of researchers, facilities, equipment, research centers and educational programs." To that end, ARCC co-sponsored with the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE), a major international conference on "Doctorates in Design" at the University of Delft this past February. One result of that initial connection is the link with EAAE for future meetings and exchanges, including the jointly sponsored 1998 research conference at North Carolina State University, coordinated by ARCC Board member Martha Scotford (NCSU).

In March, ARCC Vice President Walter Grondzik (Florida A & M University) organized and conducted a panel session on "Research Resources on the Internet" at the ACSA's Boston meeting. A follow-up panel on the same subject is also being planned by Prof. Grondzik for ACSA's Spring 1997 meeting in Dallas. Also in March of this year, Past President Julia Robinson (University of Minnesota) compiled and published ARCC's 1996 Research Directory, which reports hundreds of architectural/planning research project descriptions from twenty-nine universities. That publication was distributed by mail to members and was also made available at ARCC's Spring Research Conference, held in April, at the University of Arizona and co-sponsored by Arizona State University.

Organized by Bob Hershberger (University of Arizona), Mary Kihl (Director of Arizona State University's Herberger Center for Design Excellence), and myself, the Arizona conference focused on "Applied Research in Architecture and Planning" and brought together scores of researchers from several nations. One result of that meeting was ARCC's first "Outstanding Paper Award" presented to M. Iver Wahl (University of Oklahoma) at ARCC's November panel symposium which celebrates our twentieth anniversary. Another award is the first "James Haecker Distinguished Leadership Award in Architectural Research" presented to David Haviland (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) as a tribute to Jim Haecker, ARCC;s first Executive Director who passed away in 1995. The award honors Prof. Haviland's long and distinguished contributions to ARCC and to the field of architectural research. That award was also presented at the November symposium. Both accolades mark the initiation this year of ARCC's research award program, which will continue and grow in the future.

ARCC's Newsletter, a vital component of our communications to the membership, received a major upgrade and facelift this year with the initiation of a new design and logo. That new design is carried through on all ARCC documents, including our new brochure and the recently published proceedings of the Spring Research Conference, Applied Research in Architecture and Planning. Those proceedings were assembled and edited by Mary Kihl and her staff at Arizona State University. A peer-reviewed publication, it was mailed to conference participants, ARCC member institutions and is also available by request. A second conference volume is at the printers and will be available soon.

As ARCC Treasurer Bob Johnson (Texas A & M University) has documented, membership continues to hold about steady in relation to last year at this point in time, with some notable changes in the level of internationalization. Thus, we welcome new members from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and from the University of New South Wales. We are also delighted to welcome as new members the University of Southwestern Louisiana and the Architecture Research Institute, Inc., and we welcome back Ball State University.

Finally, ARCC continues to have cordial and productive relationships with both ACSA (Association of Collegiate School of Architecture) and AIA (American Institute of Architects). As a participant and panel member at ACSA's Cranbrook Teacher's Conference this past summer I was able to discuss ARCC's goals and objectives and also to get a better sense of the issues which are of concern to a wide spectrum of architecture faculty. My hope is that we can continue to share perspectives with colleagues at both AIA and ACSA and cooperate on projects wherever feasible.

In sum, I believe we have had an extremely productive year and I wish to acknowledge the ARCC Executive Board for making that possible. Thank you.

Richard H. Schneider
President

Department of Urban & Regional Planning
College of Architecture
University of Florida