Planned Gift Honors Former CAPLA Dean

David Moore ’82 wants to help future generations of architecture students access education at the University of Arizona, particularly first-generation undergraduate students and graduate students interested in the environment and human health.

Moore and his wife Lauren decided to achieve these goals through a planned gift. The Moores established three endowed scholarships named for Chuck Albanese, who was formerly dean of the University of Arizona College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, or CAPLA.

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As a CAPLA professor, Albanese gave Moore the encouragement he needed to launch his career as an architect.

“Chuck helped to build my confidence in the most positive, reassuring manner. He encouraged me to trust my instincts through clear analysis and good decisions. And that’s still there. I still hear his voice in the background. The scholarship is the best way to thank Chuck and CAPLA for what I gained from my CAPLA experience many years ago,” Moore said.

Moore always wanted to be an architect, but college was a financial struggle. He became the first college graduate in his family by taking out student loans, working summers for architects, and working as a sorority house hasher for lunches and dinners. He wants to make it easier for future CAPLA students.

Moore and Albanese recently re-established contact. They have plans to meet when Moore and his wife next visit Tucson.

“I’m moved and honored to be remembered in this way,” said Albanese. “David has been very successful and for some reason credits me for some of that, but I reminded him that all his success is due to him,” he said.

Looking Back

Moore returned to California after graduating from Arizona and has focused his career on designing buildings in the Bay Area.

“I’m a Californian, but one of my best decisions was to go to Tucson and Arizona. The different experience was important for my growth, and the University of Arizona is a great institution,” he said.

He recalls studio practice, during which Albanese and other professors, including Doug MacNeil and Jim Larson, spent a lot of time helping him learn a design process. “Doug Macneil taught us to ask ourselves, ‘What am I doing and why?’ I still carry that thought every day, 40 years later,” Moore said.

Giving for a Better Future

In addition to helping students, the Moores want their gift to promote disciplines that work with architecture to protect the environment and help people live healthier lives. Moore discovered that CAPLA collaborates with the university’s Institute of the Environment and the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. For example, the Weil Center is a partner in CAPLA’s Master of Science in Architecture (Health and the Built Environment focus), which is intended to give graduates the knowledge and skills to capitalize on design principles that impact people’s physical, mental and social well-being.

One of the scholarships is for architecture undergraduates who demonstrate financial need, with a preference for those whose parents didn’t attend or complete college. The other two are intended for CAPLA graduate students conducting research at Institute of the Environment and Center for Integrative Medicine.

“The interdisciplinary element is something I really believe in. We have complex needs, and we have to blend expertise for solutions to big world problems,” Moore said.

CAPLA’s curriculum continues to evolve to better integrate complementary disciplines, to respond to the ways students process information, and to teach the efficient use of materials, said Albanese.

“Most importantly, it’s recognizing the necessity to design to meet environmental challenges. So the curriculum is very clear in how it’s approaching the design process to be responsive and responsible,” he said.

Albanese is confident that CAPLA’s programs will continue to respond to changing needs and new technologies. And he’s glad to know students will benefit from the Moores’ gift in perpetuity.

“I’m overwhelmed by the generosity. It’s going to absolutely touch lives. My name being attached to it is a gift to me, but the real legacy is theirs,” he said.

CAPLA’s current dean, Nancy Pollock-Ellwand, is also grateful to the Moores.

“We are so appreciative of this significant gift to CAPLA. These resources will have a tremendous impact on our students and David’s inspiration behind this gift will be a lasting testament to his interest in architecture, sustainability and well-being,” she said.

If you would like more information on planned giving or supporting CAPLA, please contact Angie K. Smith, director of development, at 520-621-2608 or angiesmith@email.arizona.edu.

 
Top photo: Chuck and Claire Albanese with a friend at a recent CAPLA scholarship reception.