1. Kansas State University
  2. »Division of Communications and Marketing
  3. »K-State Today
  4. »APDesign professors receive inaugural Susan and Paul Kissinger Award

K-State Today

Division of Communications and Marketing
Kansas State University
128 Dole Hall
1525 Mid-Campus Drive North
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-2535
vpcm@k-state.edu

September 8, 2021

APDesign professors receive inaugural Susan and Paul Kissinger Award

Submitted by Thom Jackson

For the inaugural year of the Susan and Paul Kissinger Award, two awards were given to professors in the landscape architecture and regional & community planning department in the College of Architecture, Planning & Design.

Proposals were submitted and final selections were based on the potential impact of the proposed experiences. One award was shared by associate professor Lee Skabelund, associate professor Howard Hahn and assistant professor Shakil Kashem. A second award was given to assistant professor Kirby Barrett.

The vision of the Susan and Paul Kissinger Awards is to connect landscape architecture and planning students to leading professional firms during the 2021-2022 academic year. The award provides special opportunities for the landscape architecture and regional & community planning department to bridge the gap between professional industry and the learning environment. The competitive annual award advances the preparation of landscape architecture and planning students, ensuring their future success in professional practice.

Paul Kissinger, 1989 K-State Master of Landscape Architecture graduate, established the Susan and Paul Kissinger Excellence Fund to honor his late spouse, Susan, and out of appreciation for the impact of his K-State education on his career. A fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Kissinger was a principal at EDSA, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is now planning and design director/shareholder for New World Developments Ltd. and CEO of Kissinger Design Inc.

"Paul Kissinger's passion for connecting students and faculty with professional practitioners has guided his interactions with our department for more than three decades," said Stephanie Rolley, head of the landscape architecture and regional & community planning department. "Paul put Susan and his values into action with the Susan and Paul Kissinger Award. These inaugural awards provide catalysts for the type of learning opportunities that set graduates of the landscape architecture and planning programs apart."

Skabelund, Hahn and Kashem will use their award to create opportunities for students to interact with design and engineering professionals from Environmental Consulting & Technology, or ECT, to learn about sustainable community planning and design and stormwater management.

Tom Price, senior manager of water resources engineering at ECT, and Patrick Judd, senior manager, landscape architect/green infrastructure at ECT, will work with students on Wildcat Creek flood management, land planning, green infrastructure design, best management practices for implementation, and related planning and design issues.

Both Price and Judd will present "Creating Resilient Cities and Landscape Systems Using Ecological Planning, Design & Engineering" at 5:15 p.m. on Sept. 13 in the Regnier Forum, Regnier Hall on the K-State Manhattan campus.

Barrett will use his award to support collaboration between students and professionals from Studio Outside, Dallas. Students will travel to Dallas to visit project sites and interact with professionals in the firm. Students in Barrett's Site Design Implementation class will engage in a design charette with Studio Outside landscape architects, creating site designs that will serve as the foundation for their semester's work. Studio Outside professionals will travel to Manhattan to review the students' final projects at the end of the semester.