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The following articles were taken from the Summer/Fall 2004 College Newsletter. For past articles, check our Alumni News Archives.

Crumpton to Join AICP’s College of Fellows

The American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) recently announced the induction of Charles Crumpton (MCP, 1968), of Columbus, Georgia, into the elite membership of AICP’s College of Fellows. Crumpton was named a fellow on the basis of individual achievement in the field of urban and rural planning at a ceremony held in conjunction with the American Planning Association’s (APA) National Planning Conference in Washington, D.C. last spring.

“The members of the AICP College of Fellows represent the most outstanding contributors to the planning profession,” said Barbara Lukermann, FAICP, co-chair of the Fellows of AICP selection committee. “The fellows devote their careers to excellence in planning, and they set the highest standards for professional planners today.” Election to the fellowship may be granted to planners who have been long-time members of AICP and have demonstrated excellence in professional practice, teaching and mentoring, research, community service, leadership, and communication. Altogether, 46 planners from 25 states were inducted into the AICP College of Fellows this year.

“One of the founding fathers of the Florida Chapter of APA, Charlie Crumpton is a leader who, throughout his career, has fought and won many tough battles in support of planning. His work in 1979 defeating a bill in the Florida Legislature that would have only permitted registered architects, engineers, landscape architects, or land surveyors to qualify as planners is an example of this crusade,” said Daniel Lauber, president of AICP.

Smith Appointed to Board of Architects and Interior Designers

Governor Perdue recently appointed Anne K. Smith, AIA (B.S. 1985, Architecture) to the Georgia State Board of Architects and Interior Designers.

The Georgia State Board of Architects and Interior Designers is comprised of nine members appointed by the governor. Six members are registered architects, two members are registered interior designers, and one member is appointed from the public at large. All members are appointed for terms of five years and serve to protect the public health, safety, and welfare by regulating the activities of persons engaged in the architectural profession. The board has the authority to adopt rules, set standards for licensure, adopt mandatory standards of professional conduct, and investigate and discipline unauthorized, negligent, or incompetent practice.

Smith is currently a principal in Lominack Kolman Smith Architects in Savannah and has served as the state director of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). She is a member of the Architect’s Foundation of Georgia, past Chairman of the Women in Architecture in Savannah, and a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Smith was awarded the Bronze Medal by the AIA and received the Woman of Achievement Award from the Oglethorpe Business and Professional Women.

Kenzari Receives Outstanding Article of the Year Award

Mohamed Bechir Kenzari (D.R. 1991 Architecture), won the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ASCA) Award for the Outstanding Article of the Year in 2003. His article, co-authored with Yasser Elsheshtawy, appeared in the Journal of Architectural Education and was entitled “The Ambiguous Veil: On Transparency, the Mashrabiy’ya, and Architecture.” Kenzari currently teaches in the Department of Architectural Engineering at the United Arab Emirates University.

“The article tries to present transparency without a glazed medium,” says Kenzari. “This aspect of transparency can be found in the Middle Eastern device of the mashrabiy’ya, the wooden lattice window. Promoted by Orientalism as a typical motif of the East, it has slowly become a mark of subjugation and confinement. But the logic of the mashrabiy’ya permits other interpretations.”

The article suggests that transparency in architecture possibly found its beginnings not through the use of glass but in weaving. “Following Semper’s classical thesis that the beginning of building coincides with the beginning of textiles, it was possible to argue that the first architectural applications of transparency must have first emerged in the crude intertwining of tree branches for fences and pens which evolved into the art of weaving with bast and wicker, and later with woven threads,” Kenzari said. “With the need for warmer, more solid, or more durable walls behind, the textile hanging became a ‘dressing’ and subsequently it was replaced by other ‘surrogate dressings,’ such as stucco, wood and metal plaques, terra cotta facings, and alabaster and granite paneling. Of these, wood became the ideal material to fabricate mashrabiy’yas.”

The article appears in the May 2003 issue of the Journal of Architectural Education (Volume 56, Issue 4, pp. 17-25).

College Invites Alumni to Help Mentor Students

Because there is a wealth of experience among our alumni, the College of Architecture’s Alumni Committee established a network of people willing to mentor and advise current students who are preparing to enter the workforce.

“We still have a need for more alumni of all disciplines within the College to participate in this project to help these students transition from school to work,” said Rick Hunt, vice president/presidentelect of the College’s Alumni Committee. “A wealth of diverse types of experience exists among our alumni,” said Rick Standard, Alumni Committee member. “For an investment of little time and no money, our alumni can have a positive and lasting impact on the life of a young Tech graduate by offering advice on gaining employment including interviewing tips, information on types of firms and their idiosyncrasies, advantages of different sized firms, salary expectations, career advice after employment, juggling personal life and career, alternative career paths, and career planning. Please join this network so you too can help improve the lives of young Georgia Tech men and women as they transition from school to work.”

The committee would also like to recommend that alumni classes adopt the senior class and second- year graduate classes during their major reunion years, such as the fifth, tenth, and 25th reunion years.

The mentor sign up process is easy.

• Visit the College’s web site at http://www.arch.gatech.edu

• Select “Alumni, the COA alumni network”

• Select “add your information.” Enter your personal profile which includes name, degree(s), discipline, graduation year, business address, firm type and size, types of projects worked on, etc.

This profile will be included in a database of alumni mentor volunteers. Students will be allowed to scroll through the database in order to select those who seem best suited to address their areas of interest. It will be up to the students to select the alumni they wish to contact and to initiate the contact. Mentoring sessions may be personal meetings, meals, e-mails, letters, phone calls, or any venue of choice between alumni and students. Please consider becoming involved in this nationwide network designed to insure our graduates a competitive edge.

Meskinyar Founds JAHAN to Help Women and Children in Afghanistan

After graduating from Georgia Tech, Hawa Meskinyar (BC Arch 1995, M.CP 1998) returned to Afghanistan and founded JAHAN, a nonprofit, nonpolitical, humanitarian organization committed to helping women and children inside Afghanistan find their way toward independence. JAHAN, which means “world or universe” in Dari, stands for Join and Help Afghanistan Now.

JAHAN's mission is to provide immediate assistance to widows and orphans, including the purchase and distribution of food and other necessities. The organization’s long-term goal is to provide a quality education for Afghan children that will prepare them for self-sustaining work.

“There were so many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Afghanistan, and I really didn’t want to start another one,” Meskinyar explains, “but I was unable to find an NGO that transferred 100 percent of its donations to those in need.”

JAHAN recently established a sewing center for women who live in tents. All income from sales of their handiwork will be used to pay salaries and expand the program. For more information on JAHAN, visit www.jahan.org.

Since August 2003, Meskinyar has been employed by the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission (IARCSC) in Afghanistan, where she manages the team that collects and enters human resource data for the entire civil service, including the central government and provinces.

The IARCSC, chaired by Vice President H. A. Arsala, is responsible for implementing public administration reform in all of the government’s ministries and agencies.

“Georgia Tech’s City and Regional Planning Program provided me with a strong basis for effective management and skills to interpret and then expedite information with presentations targeted to various government ministers,” says Meskinyar.

A native of Afghanistan, Meskinyar and her family escaped in December 1979 after the Russian invasion. Under the cover of darkness, they fled to Pakistan. When she was a fifth-grader, they settled in the United States, in Georgia.