June 10, 2021
2021 APDesign graduate wins ARCC/King Student Medal for Excellence
Each year, one outstanding graduating student from the Kansas State University College of Architecture, Planning & Design receives the ARCC King Medal. The 2021 recipient is Abbey Hebbert, Liberal, graduate in regional & community planning.
The Architectural Research Centers Consortium, or ARCC, offers this award in honor of the late Johnathan King, a co-founder and first president of the organization; each member college is privileged to give this award annually to a student in recognition of research excellence in architecture and environmental design.
Graduating students may be nominated by their major professors and each department follows its own process for selecting nominees. In addition to Hebbert, three graduating students were nominated:
- Robyn Fritze, Andover, graduate student in interior architecture & industrial design, for her work, "An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Mentally Restorative Higher Education Environments."
- Julie Kappelman, Olathe, graduate student in landscape architecture, for her work, "Start now, activate places: a guide to transforming public space with community-led event programs."
- Alexandra Mesias, Lee's Summit, Missouri, graduate student in architecture, for her work "Assessing architecture students' 'in the moment creativity' and emotive response during design tasks."
The nominees' research materials were evaluated by a jury of researchers from across the university.
In describing Hebbert's research on "Renewed Purpose: Exploring adaptive reuse for quality, affordable housing in Kansas City, Kansas," her major professor, Susmita Rishi notes, "Through this work, Hebbert makes important, original contributions to the scholarship on quality and affordable housing and highlights the opportunities that adaptive reuse of existing buildings provides for the same."
The jury included the following comments: "Hebbert's project has a clear goal, an appropriate research design to answer the research questions, and keeps a clear focus throughout." Jurors also noted the high quality of all nominee's projects, "They all addressed important societal issues in innovative ways."
More information about the King Medal is available at arcc-arch.org/king-student-medal/.