ARCC President's Report - 1998

1997-98 was an exciting and productive year for the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC). Much of this year's success is clearly attributable to plans put into action under the leadership of Past-President Richard Schneider and previous ARCC Boards. Their foresight and efforts are thankfully acknowledged. Likewise, the efforts and insight of the current ARCC Board and officers should be equally acknowledged. My thanks go to Bruce Haglund (Vice-President), Martha Scotford (Secretary), Alison Kwok (Treasurer), Carolyn Dry (Board), Mary Kihl (Board), Michael O'Brien (Board), Brian Sinclair (Board), and Richard Schneider (Board and Past-President).

This year effectively began at the November 1997 Annual Meeting, also held in Washington, DC. That meeting was exceptionally open to exchange and brainstorming, and a number of initiatives were discussed and launched under the guidance of task groups. It is likely that the energy level experienced during the 1997 Annual Meeting was a result of the previous day's Research Symposium featuring presentations by a range of federal agency representatives and officers of other organizations with an interest in architectural research. Based upon the success of last year's meetings--and the availability of Washington, DC as a venue--ARCC will be closing this year with a similar symposium prior to the 1998 Annual Meeting.

The character of this year's activities may perhaps be best captured in the word "cooperation." ARCC has continued its active participation in the Initiative for Architectural Research (IAR)--in conjunction with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Richard Schneider has ably served as the ARCC representative to IAR. The decision to join IAR was not made without some concern for the autonomy of ARCC, but the collaboration of ARCC with ACSA and AIA has proven beneficial to ARCC and has had no negative impact on ARCC's mission, programs, or independence. I look forward to continuing ARCC's affiliation with IAR and to helping advance its objectives and improve the climate for architectural research.

On the international front, ARCC collaborated with the European Association of Architectural Educators (EAAE) to co-sponsor the 1998 Spring Research Conference under the theme "Research in Design Education." The Conference, held in April, was hosted in outstanding fashion by the School of Design, North Carolina State University, Raleigh. Martha Scotford played a key coordinating role; Dean Marvin Malecha was a most gracious host. By all accounts the conference was a success and provided a valuable opportunity to interact and exchange with European colleagues as well as researchers from related disciplines. The EAAE was apparently also quite pleased with the conference and is actively encouraging a second joint conference for the year 2000.

Two presentations from the Spring Research Conference were recognized as outstanding and received the ARCC Best Paper Award for 1998. Generally, one paper is selected for this award on the basis of quality of written materials and the presentation at the conference. The breadth and diversity of this year's papers made selecting 2 papers a logical choice. Thus, Best Paper Awards were accorded to: Stéphane Hanrot for "Enseignement de projet et initiation à la recherche: quelle relation?" and to Guillermo Vásquez de Velasco and Nancy Holland for "Reciprocal Distance Education in International Design and Construction Studios." Other ARCC awards are being reviewed and evaluated under the guidance of Brian Sinclair and substantial changes are proposed (primarily to awards that have received little interest or been very difficult to select). Announcement of an exciting new student research medal awards program is expected to be made at the Annual Meeting.

ARCC has been especially fortunate to have Mary Kihl serve as publications coordinator for the past several years. Prof. Kihl has infused energy and a new style into the publications that are a mainstay of ARCC's communications with its members. The ARCC Newsletter is published three times a year, along with proceedings of the Spring Research Conference, occasional special publications, and an updated ARCC brochure. Proceedings from the Raleigh EAAE/ARCC conference have just been delivered to members and presenters. These proceedings represented a major undertaking, as the number of papers was greatly increased by the inclusion of the EAAE presentations. A substantial acknowledgment is due the Herberger Center at Arizona State University for continued support of ARCC through its donation of staff time and facilities for preparation of ARCC publications. Audrey Morris' editorship of the conference proceedings is also to be acknowledged.

ARCC's World Wide Web site has been consolidated and expanded this year. Resources and pointers to resources have been added. A monthly "bulletin" has been added to the site to provide increased and timely access to information for members. The WWW site has been particulary useful in communicating with the international community and as a means of augmenting the capabilities of ARCC's print publications. Papers for the Spring Research Conference were reviewed using the Internet and the WWW site. The support of Florida A&M; University in maintaining ARCC's Web presence is appreciated.

Membership in ARCC has been stable the last few years and continues to hold at around 45 members. We are pleased to welcome several new members who responded to a recent mailing to all ACSA member schools and have targeted a membership of 50 as a goal for the coming year. An outreach effort to solicit member institutions from the ranks of Landscape Architecture programs will be undertaken before January. Experience from the Raleigh conference suggests that such programs would be a natural compliment to the historic architecture base of ARCC.

Continuing with the theme of cooperation, the 1999 ARCC Spring Research Conference will be held in conjunction with the ACSA Science and Technology Conference in Montreal in June. Although holding the research conference in conjunction with another conference is a departure from the pattern of past years, this venue should provide members all the opportunities of a stand-alone ARCC conference as well as the benefits of a broader audience and cosmopolitan setting. As noted above, plans to hold the 2000 Spring Research Conference in France with EAAE serving as co-sponsor and host are currently under development. Both of these cooperative ventures should provide rich opportunities for ARCC to expand its influence and horizons, while remaining focused on its core interests.

Further cooperation with ACSA was evidenced in a Special Focus Session that ARCC sponsored at the ACSA Annual Meeting in Cleveland. Entitled "The Impact of Architectural Research on Architectural Education" this session featured presentations by Alison Kwok, Michael O'Brien, Sandy Stannard (with input from Jonathan Reich), and outgoing ACSA President John McRea. The 1998 ARCC Annual Meeting and Research Symposium are being held in collaboration with ACSA and the ACSA Administrator's Conference. We believe this collaboration should provide an opportunity for broadening the interest base of both groups.

As in the past, ARCC this year could function only to the extent permitted by generous contributions of time and creativity from its membership. You are encouraged to continue--or to begin--adding to the success of ARCC through your involvement. The ARCC WWW site includes an extensive list of initiatives-in-waiting that came out of last year's Annual Meeting; likely more good ideas will come from this year's meeting. Please consider volunteering for one of these initiatives that may strike your fancy and/or encouraging faculty at your institution to volunteer. The networking opportunities can be valuable for both up-and-coming and established researchers.

Walter Grondzik President

School of Architecture
Florida A&M; University
Tallahassee, FL