Anne Parker Taylor ’55 will also be honored as a recipient of the 2005 Wells College Alumnae Award.  Anne has worked for over 40 years in the combined fields of education, design, architecture and planning.  Her work has been seminal in understanding the effects of the physical environment on learning, and continues to be influential and innovative in the design of architectural education and learning environments for children. 

While at Wells, Anne was active in clubs, and a dedicated and enthusiastic student.  She had difficulty selecting a major, though, because she was interested in so many subjects and their interrelationships.  She settled on American Studies which blended American Literature, History, Art, Architecture and Humanities.  This integrative theme would prove a hallmark of her career.

Anne received her Masters in Art Education from Arizona State University in 1966 and her Ph.D. in 1971 from the same institution in Art Education.   Her interdisciplinary dissertation was on the effects of the physical environment on learning and behavior of young children.   In her early studies, Anne found that the conventional American school operated as a series of empty boxes into which school furniture was placed, students sat in straight rows facing front, learning from textbooks.  Square footage and predetermined classroom configurations were the design criteria.   There was little opportunity for self-expression and a sense of ownership or involvement.  Anne set out to change this.

She began to design classrooms that were based not on predetermined square footage, but used as design criteria the developmental needs (rights) of children and subject matter concepts of geometry, math, arts, social studies and eco-literacy. The newly designed environments were more like studios with zoned spaces for applied learning.  The outdoor playground became a “learning landscape”.  Children are encouraged to touch, interact and come to understand life systems and become stewards of the earth.     In Anne’s words, the point is “to involve children, not tell them.”  And in the words of others, her classrooms became “spectacular progressive learning environments” and “three-dimensional textbooks” where architecture is designed to act as a learning tool. 

From her initial focus on the classroom, Anne’s endeavors have increased to maximize the educational, ecological and aesthetic benefits of entire communities.  In her projects, students participate with teachers in classroom design and families and residents plan their own community spaces.  Over the course of her career, Anne has worked with countless students, 4,000 teachers and professionals in a variety of fields.  Her influence has spread throughout the United States to Japan, Europe, Canada and Mexico, and her research and architectural curriculum is published in Japanese.  Her strengths as a consensus builder have enabled her to bring together engineers, architects, administrators, teachers, parents and volunteers, students, community leaders and business owners.

Her honors, awards, and publications are manifold.  Among others, she has served on task forces for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and New Mexico Correctional Education, and she has been advisor to and a member of the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.  She was named one of 10 distinguished women in New Mexico in 1975 and was listed in Who’s Who in American Women from 1978-1984.  In 1997, she received a life-long honorary membership in the American Institute of Architects, and in 1998, she received the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professor Award.

Currently, Anne is an ACSA Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Planning, and Founder and Director of the Institute for Environmental Education at the University of New Mexico.  For several years she was a visiting professor at the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Seattle.   Additionally, she is President of School Zone Institute, Albuquerque, a non-profit organization which conducts research on the built environment for children.

Anne has been called “one of this country’s most important researchers and activists in relation to the education of children in the areas of architecture and the environment…. Her ability to work with diverse people and encourage them to bring their talent and experiences to a common forum and then incorporate their talent into her vision of a better place for children to learn and grow is amazing.” 

- Nell Mohn ’80, Award Committee Chair

Click here to read Anne's Acceptance Address.