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Kent Architecture College Receives $5M Gift from Alum
KENT, Ohio -- Kent State University's College of Architecture and Environmental Design has received a $5 million gift from John and Fonda Elliot through the family’s foundation. It is the largest single gift ever made to the college.
The funds will be used to create the “Elliot Studios for Design” at the new building planned for the College and will fund endowments for the Elliot Program for Healthcare Design, Elliot Scholars and Elliot Professorship in Healthcare Design.
The new home for the architecture program at Kent State will encompass 122,000 square feet and cost $40 million. The building is being designed by New York-based design firm Weiss/Manfredi, which teamed with Cleveland-based Richard L. Bowen & Associates. It will be located along the south side of the new Kent State University Esplanade extension near downtown Kent. Construction is anticipated to begin in spring 2014 with the goal of occupancy in December 2015.
“If it was not for Kent State, and the school of architecture, I would not have had the foundation to develop my architectural practice and a health-care company that employs more than 1,000 dedicated health-care professionals," said John Elliot. "We would encourage other Kent State graduates to participate and foster the vision that Kent State has for the future.”
The Elliot Scholars gift will fund 10 scholarships for full-time architecture students in any graduate degree program of Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. Awards will be designated for both Kent State domestic scholarships and Kent State global study opportunities.
The Elliot Professorship in Healthcare Design will be used to provide competitive compensation and research support for especially promising faculty members holding the rank of assistant professor, associate professor or professor in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Kent State. The program will support a new program in health-care design. Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design currently has a certificate in health-care facilities and soon will offer a master’s degree in health-care design.
The gift "will not only serve to enhance our new facility, but it will provide ongoing support to the students through scholarships, the addition of faculty expertise and the establishment of a new program in health care design,” said Douglas Steidl, dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design.
John Elliot, who earned his bachelor of architecture degree in 1970 from Kent State, started John Elliot Associates, Architects and Planners in 1972 and began focusing on building nursing homes in 1976. Today, he and his wife, Fonda, a retired nurse, own and operate AMFM LLC, an 11-facility nursing home business in West Virginia. The Elliot Foundation, a family foundation, supports the Elliot Family Foundation Architectural Scholarship at Kent State, where John Elliot serves on the board of directors for the Kent State University Foundation.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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