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K-State Today

September 17, 2018

De Noble and Rolley selected as Most Admired Educators

Submitted by Thomas E. Jackson

Tim de Noble, professor and dean of the College of Architecture, Planning & Design, or APDesgn, and Stephanie Rolley,  professor and department head of landscape architecture and regional & community planning, have again been selected and recognized by DesignIntelligence as among the Top 25 Most Admired Educators in Architecture, Interiors, and Landscape Architecture for 2019.

As stated by DesignIntelligence, "Each year for the past 19 years, DesignIntelligence has conducted the same survey across the design industry regarding architecture school rankings. The number of valid responses from hiring managers of architecture and design-professional firms typically range between 2,600 and 3,200, year over year. But this year was markedly different: with more than 4,500 valid responses, which may reflect the urgency of improving architectural education."

"The college is exceptionally blessed to have two multiyear DesignIntelligence award winners," said Victor Regnier, distinguished professor and associate dean of research at the University of Southern California School of Architecture. "These are based on the outstanding reputations of faculty and the full spectrum of design programs housed in APDesign. To have a dean and department chair receive this award also is clear testament to the high regard APDesign has toward teaching quality and general excellence."

De Noble has served as dean of the College of Architecture, Planning & Design since 2009. Before arriving at K-State, de Noble served as head of the Department of Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas and previously taught at Syracuse University. In addition to teaching studio and technology courses, de Noble has extensive teaching experience in Italy and Mexico.

He was recently named an "Icon of Education" by Ingram's magazine, received the chapter artist award from the K-State chapter of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, was cited as one of the 25 Most Admired Educators for 2016-17 by DesignIntelligence, and was named 2016 Architecture Advocate of the Year by the American Institute of Architects Kansas City Chapter. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects.

De Noble received a Master of Architecture from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Science in architecture from the University of Texas at Arlington. In private practice throughout his teaching career, he founded deMX Architecture in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1999, building an award-winning practice focusing on housing combining the socially liberating potency of modernism with the intuitive rationality of vernacular building to generate regionally specific responses to built-form and site. Outside of practice, his primary research interest focuses on the typologies and morphologies of towns and cities.

Rolley joined the university in 1987 as an assistant professor of landscape architecture, becoming a full professor in 2003 and department head in 2009. She also led the development of the department's nonbaccalaureate master's degree tracks in landscape architecture and regional and community planning, which are among the best in the nation. Rolley also has shaped K-State's role in the innovative online Master of Science in Community Development offered by the Great Plains IDEA consortium. 

Rolley's commitment to enhancing professional planning and design education includes service on the Landscape Architecture Magazine Editorial Committee and leadership of the American Society of Landscape Architecture Council on Education and the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board. She received the national American Society of Landscape Architecture's Outstanding Service Award in 2015. Rolley is a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architecture, American Institute of Certified Planners and of the Council of Educators of Landscape Architecture. She has been honored with the K-State Presidential Award for Outstanding Department Head and the Council of Educators of Landscape Architecture's Outstanding Administrator Award. Named one of the 25 Most Admired Educators for 2016-17 by DesignIntelligence, she currently serves as president-elect of the Landscape Architecture Foundation board of directors.

Rolley earned a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from K-State and a master's degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also completed the Management Development Program offered through Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.

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