Glen Gutterson/The Chronicle
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Brodhead
The University announced today that former president Bill Clinton will be a guest speaker at “A Celebration of the Lives of John Hope and Aurelia Whittington Franklin,” next Thursday, June 11 at the Duke Chapel. The event will begin at 11 a.m. and honors the late historian John Hope Franklin and his late wife Aurelia, who passed away in 1999.
Other speakers include Vernon Jordan, an attorney and civil rights leader and Franklin’s long-time friend, Duke President Richard Brodhead, Franklin’s niece Cynthia Gibbs Wilson and trustee emerita Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans.
“Because of the life John Hope Franklin lived, the public service he rendered, and the scholarship that was the mark of his distinguished career, we all have a richer understanding of who we are as Americans and our journey as a people,” President Barack Obama said in a statement in March. “Dr. Franklin will be deeply missed, but his legacy is one that will surely endure. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to his loved ones, as our nation mourns his loss.”
Franklin was a noted figure in the field of African-American studies and the Civil Rights movement. He and his wife were married on June 11, 1940 - next week’s event would mark the couple’s 69th anniversary.
The James B. Duke professor of history passed away March 25 of congestive heart failure at the age of 94. As per Franklin’s request, neither a funeral nor a memorial service has been held since his death.
For more information on the event, please visit http://www.duke.edu/johnhopefranklin/event.html.
The program will also be aired live on UNC-NC and a live webcast can be viewed at www.ustream.tv/dukeuniversity.
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Renzo Piano, a world-renowned architect who designed the recently opened modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, is considered a “person of interest” for future construction projects at Duke, President Richard Brodhead said Wednesday night at an alumni event in Chicago.
“We’ve certainly been in contact with [Piano],” said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. He added that he could not comment on the extent of the discussions with the architect.
In addition to designing the Art Institute’s modern wing, which was praised by The New York Times as “a work of genuinely good architecture that is also kind to art,” Piano has designed skyscrapers, bridges, parks and museums.
He won the prestigious Pritzker Prize for his work in 1997 and has been called “the world’s finest architect” by The Independent, a British newspaper.
Although Duke froze construction projects earlier this year due to the budget constraints caused by the economic downturn, construction plans for major projects such as the development of New Campus are still being fleshed out, Schoenfeld said.
“We’re continuing to plan for a number of projects, even though we have a temporary halt in construction activity,” he said. “We are conducting aggressive planning on New Campus… and certainly Renzo Piano is one of the architects we would be eager to engage in the development of that project.”
Schoenfeld added that “a number of leading architects” are also under consideration by Duke to spearhead future construction efforts, but did not provide any names.
The University’s interest in the architect may stem from the fact that several of Piano’s projects have been recognized for their environmental friendliness. The Art Institute’s new wing is expected to be considered for a silver rating in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Chicago Tribune reported. Another Piano project, the California Academy of Sciences, has a platinum LEED rating.
Duke’s Smart Home program was awarded a platinum LEED rating last summer, and a new parking garage slated to open this January is expected to be considered for LEED certification.
Be sure to check out the Thursday, May 28 issue of The Chronicle for more coverage.
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