AIA awarded the 1997 Whitney Young Award to Texas architect Alan Y. Taniguchi, FAIA—a dedicated educator, committed social activist, and ardent advocate for diversity in architecture.

 

“As Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas, Alan Taniguchi was one of the first to respond to Whitney Young’s keynote address to the AIA in 1968,” his nomination stated. “He immediately joined the initial AIA Task Force on Equal Opportunity and Social Responsibility that grew out of Young’s address.”

 

Spanning almost five decades, Taniguchi’s career promoted a broad concept of social responsibility in architectural education, private practice, and a variety of professional posts. As a member of the National Architectural Accrediting Board, he assisted architecture schools at historically black colleges and universities in securing accreditation. As an architect, he worked to create more humane and environmentally-sensitive cities, which manifest itself in Fort Ringgold Campus Recycle Project—a historic Texas fort reimagined as a community school with the work of 100 unemployed local farmers.