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Alumni Awards List

Many people have contributed to transforming the dream of forging vibrant partnerships for the College of Architecture and Design in the metropolitan Kansas City region into an operating reality. No one has played a more vital role than Eleanor Brantley Schwartz, Interim Chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Innovative collaborations between UMKC and KSU, now benefiting students, faculty, design professionals and the larger community, are the consequence of her extraordinary leadership. Quickly perceiving the power and the potential of the concept, she has from the start generously offered wise and enthusiastic counsel, been a skillful and steadfast advocate of institutional interaction, found and committed resources in an era of diminishing means, and inspired others to emulate her example.

The strength of the new UMKC Architecture and Environmental Design program derives not only from its close academic ties to the KSU College of Architecture and Design, but also from decisions to site it at the historic Epperson House, to hire extraordinarily well qualified faculty, and to offer its students full access to scholarship and other financial aid.

Since its inception, the KSU Fifth Year Kansas City Academic Program has enjoyed the hospitality of UMKC. Each year, our students benefit enormously from access to UMKC courses complementing those offered by our own faculty. Opportunities to share faculty and facilities at Epperson House with the Architecture and Environmental Design Program have hastened development of a lively academic community for all involved.

The presence at Epperson House of students and faculty from the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Design, despite early and recurring impediments, is testimony to the patience, flexibility and acumen of Dr. Schwartz and her colleagues.

Magnificent Oak Hall in Epperson House has an established reputation as being among the most popular venues for environmental design dialogue in Kansas City. Academics, professionals and members of the community regularly gather there to review architectural and urban design proposals, attend public lectures and panel discussions, and to meet with distinguished visitors to the city and the university.

With the encouragement of Dr. Schwartz, UMKC joined the College of Architecture and Design and the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City in 1989 to establish the Lapping Lectures in Planning and Development. The annual series brings leading scholars and practitioners to Kansas City and Manhattan to address critical issues confronting the region.

Eleanor Brantley Schwartz and her counterparts at KSU and KU are now actively supporting exploration of plans to give life to new, far more encompassing initiatives serving higher environmental design education, research and service in metropolitan Kansas City. Her remarkable leadership has been central in all that has been accomplished. She is certain to continue to inspire those with the good fortune to work with her in the years ahead.