Tuskegee University's Department of Architecture has received a gift of $100,000 from the Cooper Carry Charitable Foundation, Inc. to increase access to the architecture profession for African American students. The foundation is the charitable arm of the Cooper Carry architectural firm.
According to a press release, $80,000 of the gift will be used to establish new need-based scholarships for undergraduate students. $20,000 of the gift is designated for a student technology scholarship that will allow students to receive technology assistance by providing laptops and/or architecture design software – as Tuskegee has transitioned to remote instruction.
"We knew Tuskegee University would be the place to develop a new and meaningful partnership – and we believe it’s important to be part of actively developing diverse voices in design and architecture," said Cooper Carry President and CEO Kevin Cantley. "We have great respect for Tuskegee University and have hired several recent Tuskegee alumni on our team of professionals."
5 Comments
Excellent. I lectured at Tuskegee's architecture program several years ago. Love it and the campus is an excellent place to learn about building.
Thank you Donna. I call it a Living Lab for the RR Taylor School. I sent Kevin a personal thank you note, we have known each other since he had a pony taik and I wore my Afro.
Sure, every drop in the bucket is a good thing. It's a small amount of money with some PR muscle and hopefully it will be well used to build up a foundation for an endowment or an institute type of sustained program.
I visited another minority attended school, PVAMU, a while back to see the building by my friends Roto Architects and talked to a few of the students which sounded like a strong program they were happy to be part of and they had ambitious future plans which I liked. The program is ran by Dr. Ikhlas Sabouni, herself a multile areas minority scholar from Middle East.
If anyone has a better insight to the school I'd be curious to hear.
Great news for Tuskegee University! The institution has a rich architectural history. Over a decade ago, I worked on a Getty Foundation funded grant which resulted in a Campus Heritage Report on the Tuskegee National Historical Site. I worked with then dean of the Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Services, Richard Dozier, FAIA. Now, Carla Bell is the dean. Several years ago, I collaborated with Roderick Fluker, AIA, a faculty member in the Taylor School of Architecture to produce an in-depth study on the Tuskegee University Chapel, shown in the picture. Robert Taylor designed the first chapel at Tuskegee which burned in 1957. The second chapel was designed by Paul Rudolph, a native of Alabama, and with Fry and Welch, Inc. who served as the executive architect. The second chapel opened to major acclaim in 1969. Both John A. Welch, FAIA, and Louis E. Fry, FAIA, had served as architecture faculty at Tuskegee and designed other buildings on campus during the 1950s and 1960s. But the teaming of Rudolph/Fry & Welch proved to be an unusual collaboration, despite the Civil Rights strife in Alabama, that resulted in one of the distinctive, modernist chapels built on a college or university campus in the country during the 1960s. Arthur J. Clement
wow! http://encyclopediaofalabama.o...
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.