David Glasser Resigns As Director Of Community Design Center

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - David Glasser, director of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center (UACDC) since 1995 and the first Steven L. Anderson Chair in Architecture and Urban Studies, has submitted his resignation to Dean Jeff Shannon of the School of Architecture, effective June 30.

Glasser will be moving with his wife, Sevinç Yavuz, to the historic town of Datça, Turkey, where they are currently building a home. Yavuz grew up in Ankara and has also taught at the community design center since 1995.

Glasser says this historic town embodies a sense of community to which he has devoted his life's work, a sense of community to which the UACDC is also committed.

As the School of Architecture's only outreach, UACDC has evolved into an interdisciplinary design center vital to the survival of the state, says Glasser. The center has assisted over 30 cities and towns with economic planning and design, while at the same time, offers students real-world experience and opportunities for social service.

In 1997, for example, Glasser and his staff traveled to Arkadelphia to develop a recovery plan after the downtown was nearly wiped out by a tornado. They have proposed a lifelong learning center at the University of Arkansas at Hope and suggested downtown revitalization in Gentry and Mena as well. Summer workshops for students are sponsored to assist towns like Marianna, Piggott, Prescott and Warren - to name a few - and the center's commitment to Northwest Arkansas has included their documentation of the Arkansas Research and Technology Park, master plans in Bentonville and Pea Ridge and a proposal for a housing and land preserve in Tonitown.

When the center realized the scope of its work was limited in underprivileged areas of the state, the UACDC Delta Research & Design Center was opened in Clarendon. This new office added an interdisciplinary element, allowing graduate students in law, public policy and economics to assist in broader community planning in both offices. To solidify this commitment, the UACDC united with the Sam M. Walton College of Business Center for Business and Economic Research and hired a graduate student to provide on-site economic planning.

"I was honored to have such a wonderful and unique opportunity to direct the UACDC and work with such an outstanding and diverse staff," Glasser says. "I hope this outreach will become a permanent and sustained effort at the University and within the state."

Glasser came to the U of A from Temple University, where he chaired the department of architecture. He has been honored three times as a Fulbright Scholar in Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica and was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1989. He earned his bachelor's in architecture from Columbia University and his master's in architecture from University of Pennsylvania.

He says he would especially like to thank Bernice Jones and Joel Carver of the Harvey and Bernice Jones Foundation, State Senator Percy Malone, Steven L. Anderson and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and Sybil Hampton and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation - all of whom have shown tremendous support to UACDC.

A national search for a new director is scheduled to begin on January 15, says Dean Shannon.

He says he hopes to find a director to continue to make this outreach center successful in serving both communities of Arkansas and University students.

"If we've been helpful in influencing our students to think about the importance of the role of architecture and community design, then we've made a positive contribution," says Glasser.