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Professor and Dean Emeritus Kelbaugh Appointed 2017 Emil Lorch Collegiate Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning

Professor and Dean Emeritus Kelbaugh Appointed 2017 Emil Lorch Collegiate Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning

Announced by Dean Robert Fishman on July 25, 2017, Professor and Dean Emeritus Douglas Kelbaugh has been appointed as the Emil Lorch Collegiate Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning from September 1, 2017 through August 31, 2020.

In 1906, architecture was established as a program in the Department of Engineering, and Emil Lorch was appointed as the chair. Throughout this 34-year career at Michigan, Professor Lorch developed a nationally recognized program known for innovation, design and technology. The Emil Lorch Collegiate Professorship in Architecture and Urban Planning was established by the Regents in August 1977 to honor the founder of this college.

Professor Kelbaugh received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Architecture from Princeton University in 1968 and 1972, respectively. He joined Taubman College as dean and professor of architecture and urban planning in 1998 and served as dean until 2008.

An award-winning architect and national leader in sustainable design, Kelbaugh was chosen in 2016 for the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, North America’s highest honor in the field, awarded jointly by the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. He was cited “for doing as much as anyone of his generation to bridge architecture, urbanism, and sustainability.” He is the first faculty member in the college to win this prestigious award.

Kelbaugh’s impact as a teacher has been significant in large part because he brings four decades of experience and leadership to the field. His contributions have been recognized by over two dozen design awards and competition prizes as well as countless invitations to speak at conferences and contribute chapters to more than a dozen books. His lifelong solar design work was recently added to the Canadian Center for Architecture’s archive, the first solar buildings to be included in this world famous architectural archive.

Kelbaugh’s teaching achievements are also exemplified by his pathbreaking design charrettes, exercises that involve students and citizens in an attempt to re-envision a community. He has organized and participated as a team leader in over thirty of these three- to five-day design workshops in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. In the series of ten annual Detroit Charrettes Doug led while dean of the college, these events brought design students, civic leaders, and leading urban designers together from all over the country and world in an atmosphere of hope and constructive engagement on sites ranging from downtown to the Detroit Riverwalk to revitalizing neighborhoods.

As dean of Taubman College, Kelbaugh also started the urban design program, a real estate development program, and a community design center in Detroit. He oversaw the recruitment of 40 new faculty members, and served on many university, state, and national boards and committees. In 2007, he was selected as one of the top seven Architecture Educators of the Year.

Doug Kelbaugh is a designer and planner of international scope; an academic leader and teacher in architecture, urban design, and community planning; an energy and sustainability expert; a prolific writer; frequent guest commentator in the print and electronic media; popular conference and public speaker; and civic activist. The Lorch professorship is one way for the college to recognize Kelbaugh for his significant leadership and and ongoing contributions.

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