MU campus master planning consultant honored

Perry Chapman, Sasaki Associates, Boston, Mass.

University of Missouri master plan consultant Perry Chapman recently received the 2008 Society for College and University Planning's Founders' (Casey) Award for Distinguished Achievement in Higher Education Planning.

Named for K.C. Parsons, a charter member and the first president of SCUP, the Founders' (Casey) Award recognizes exceptional achievement in higher education planning.

Chapman has served as the university's master plan consultant since 1999 and is the second MU master plan consultant to receive this prestigious award. Chapman's mentor and former MU master plan consultant, Jack Robinson, received the Founders' (Casey) Award in 1996. Robinson served the university as a consultant from 1981 to 1997. Of interesting note, Hideo Sasaki, founder of Sasaki Associates, received the award in 1994.

Over the span of his 43-year career, Chapman has worked with 85 colleges, universities and other educational institutions in 33 states and three foreign countries during several cycles of change in campus development.

According to SCUP, "Chapman has raised the standard of planning theory through his research and analysis of the relationship between the campus as a place and its impact on the learning experience in cultivating and disseminating knowledge to the campus communities through writing and speaking…Chapman was one of the first to write about the impact of universities as sponsors of real estate development; to chronicle social forces affecting campus design in post World War II decades; and to talk about the importance of place and community in the campus learning experience."