Ball State University's Indianapolis Center is a hub for architecture partnerships in Indiana, and the American Institute of Architecture is recognizing Ball State President Jo Ann Gora for assisting with these partnerships.
Gora received the Walter S. Blackburn Award from the AIA on Thursday for her work in promoting the Indianapolis Center and creating professional partnerships with its College of Architecture, said Scott Truex, director of Ball State's Indianapolis Center College of Architecture and Planning.
Gora was traveling and unable to comment on the award.
Although the College of Architecture has been in Indianapolis since 2001, Truex said moving its downtown location because of the Indianapolis Center's opening in 2006 has provided many opportunities. AIA rents space in the Indianapolis Center for its headquarters and bookstore, making it easier to work with the college, Truex said.
"The new facility allows us to advance the partnerships and program we have," he said. "We wanted to do the new partnership and the president has made us able to knock it up to the level we want to be at."
AIA is not the only partnership with which Gora is being recognized for assisting. The American Society of Landscape Architects is moving its state headquarters into the Indianapolis Center, Truex said. The Indiana Planning Association is also working to gain space in the building.
These partnerships make it easier for alumni to work with students, which helps the graduates teach the students and each other, he said.
"This facility has endless opportunities to partner with organizations statewide," Truex said. "The award was really an acknowledgment of her leadership and the president being willing to step up and work with organizations."
Joseph Bilello, dean of the College of Architecture and Planning at the Ball State campus attended Gora's recognition ceremony. Awards like this enhance the university's reputation as one of the strongest architecture programs in the country, he said.
"It's a great window of recruiting for us," Bilello said, "for people who are down in Indy and don't know anything about us and they can see what kind of message we put out about us in a high-profile location. It's a very high-tech message."
Architecture occupies the first four floors of the Indianapolis Center, and the ground floor is full of computers so visitors can learn about the center, Ball State and architecture alumni. Professional architects are always coming into the building to visit the AIA bookstore or take continuing education classes. Bilello said this creates opportunities for architects from all around the state to discuss issues and popular topics.
"It's really important to elevate the conversation about the importance of good quality design in people's lives," Bilello said.
The Walter S. Blackburn Award is given annually to one person who is not in the architecture field but has made a significant contribution to the profession in Indiana, according to the AIA Web site. Blackburn was an adjunct professor at Ball State, and the award was created after his death in 2000.
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