Shelly Kappe Recognized by Worldwide Who's Who for Excellence in Architectural Education

    PACIFIC PALISADES, CA, February 20, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Shelly Kappe, Professor Emeritus of Architectural History and a member of the Founding Faculty of the Southern California Institute of Architecture SCI-ARC, has been recognized by Worldwide Who's Who for showing dedication, leadership and excellence in architectural education.

Motivated by her great enthusiasm for teaching, sharing information and writing about architecture, Professor Kappe celebrates a successful career in education that has spanned four decades. In that time, she has educated countless students, conducted valuable research in the field of architecture, penned numerous publications, contributed to multiple projects and traveled worldwide. However, Professor Kappe considers the highlight of her career to be as a co-founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture in 1972. Commonly known as SCI-ARC, the school now approaches its 40th anniversary and has graduated more than 4,000 alumni who are working, practicing, writing and teaching all over the world.

Ms. Kappe's contribution to developing SCI-ARC into an internationally acclaimed school of architecture was pivotal to its success. As Professor of World Architectural History and Southern California Architectural History, she lectured both in Los Angeles and in Switzerland, at SCI-ARC's European campus. She often led architectural field trips both in Southern California and in Europe, to give her students the opportunity to experience the great architecture of the world. To further expose her students to architecture at a global level, she has traveled to more than 20 countries to photographically document the most important architecture and create SCI-ARC's original colored slide collection, soon to be digitized, for use in the classroom. In addition to teaching, Ms. Kappe inaugurated SCI-ARC's popular and well attended Design Forum Public Lecture Programs, which featured prominent members of the national & international design community, which she coordinated for fifteen years. She also coordinated the Evening Program classes, and the SCI-ARC Architecture Gallery. When SCI-ARC began its European Studies Program, in Vico Morcote (Lugano), Switzerland in 1978, she was one of the Founders. Ms. Kappe also handled Public Relations for SCI-ARC from it's inception untill 1987.

With the Kappe's personal architectural book collection, she founded SCI-ARC's library, and developed it with new acquisitions for fifteen years. She continues to work for the library, now known as the Kappe Library, by coordinating architectural book collection donations. Ms. Kappe also works to raise funds for the school's student scholarship programs, continuing the work she began in the 1970s.

In 1996, Professor Kappe was a featured speaker on Los Angeles architecture, at the AIA Monterey, California Design Conference, as well as at international architectural conferences in Milan and Rome, Italy, in 1999. Previous to being a Founder of SCI-ARC, Ms. Kappe was an Environmental Education Consultant for 16 years to teacher's conferences for the Los Angeles Board of Education, UCLA Extension, and Cal Poly Pomona. From 1968-2006, she was also a planner and coordinator of Home Tours for UCLA Extension, the National and Los Angeles American Institutes of Architects, SCI-ARC and the A+ D Museum. Another highlight of her professional history was handling public relations for her husband, Ray Kappe, an architect. The couple has three children, two of whom are also architects, Ron Kappe, in San Rafael, California, and Finn Kappe, in Santa Monica, California. Their daughter, Karen Kappe, is a psychologist.

Professor Kappe, who has been published in various newspapers, architectural journals and books, is currently working on a book entitled "The Evolution of the Modern House in Los Angeles." She received a grant from the Los Angeles Cultural Arts Foundation in support of her work on this project. It is the fifth grant that Ms. Kappe has received since 1976 toward research and projects, speakers programs and exhibits that she has completed throughout her career.

Ms. Kappe has also been recognized with a number of formal acknowledgments for her efforts, including receiving honorary membership in the National American Institute of Architects in 1999, the California Council AIA, in 1995, and the Los Angeles AIA, along with Buckmonister Fuller, in 1983. Additional honors she has received include a certificate of appreciation and presidential citation for her work with the L.A.1994 National AIA Convention Tours; a certificate of appreciation for her service on the Board of the "Architecture California" journal, from AIA's California Council, in 1985; a letter of appreciation from the NEA for having maximized their grant for "Modern Architecture: Mexico," initially, a Public Lecture series, then expanded to include an exhibit which traveled the U.S. and Canada, as well as an exhibition catalogue publication; additionally, she received a letter of congratulations from the Mexican Consulate, and a commendation from the City of Los Angeles for her having been the coordinator of "Modern Architecture, Mexico," which was part of the Los Angeles Bicentennial Celebration, in 1981.

Ms. Kappe earned a master's degree in Architectural History from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. She completed her undergraduate studies in Design at the University of California, Los Angeles. Ms. Kappe remains current in her field through her research and through affiliation with the Society of Architectural Historians, Association of Women in Architecture, Women's Architectural League, ADPSR and AIA.

For more information about Southern California Institute of Architecture SCI-ARC, visit http://www.sciarc.edu.

About Worldwide Who's Who
With over 500,000 members representing every major industry, Worldwide Who's Who is a powerful networking resource that enables professionals to outshine their competition, in part through effective branding and marketing. Worldwide Who's Who employs similar public relations techniques to those utilized by Fortune 500 companies, making them cost-effective for members who seek to take advantage of its career enhancement and business advancement services.

Worldwide Who's Who membership provides individuals with a valuable third-party endorsement of their accomplishments, and gives them the tools needed to brand themselves and their businesses effectively. In addition to publishing biographies in print and electronic form, it offers an online networking platform where members can establish new professional relationships.

For more information, please visit http://www.worldwidewhoswho.com.

Contact:
Ellen Campbell
Director, Media Relations
[email protected]

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