Tech Square Wins Urban Land Institute Award
Rhodes Scholar
Jeremy Farris strives to understand how the world works
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For Jeremy Farris, going to college wasn’t about getting good grades and a job. College was about the experience of education and the opportunity to expand the mind.
"The purpose of an education is to change you, to make you sufficiently human," says Farris, who in November was named one of 32 Rhodes Scholars for 2005.
In December, Farris received a bachelor’s degree in international affairs at Tech. He plans to spend the summer as associate professor Kirk Bowman’s teaching assistant in the Argentina study abroad program and begin a two-year master’s of philosophy program in political theory at Oxford University in England next October.
"The thing about Jeremy that is really amazing is his desire to understand how the world works," says Bowman, an associate professor of international affairs and director of Tech’s study abroad programs in Latin America. "He studies international affairs, but he feels the need to know science and philosophy so he can understand how the pieces fit together."
Farris credits Bowman and two other Ivan Allen College professors, Jon Johnston and Ken Knoespel, with changing his life.
"Bowman introduced me to democratization. Knoespel and Johnston really stimulated the life of the mind for me," Farris says.
Farris is the third Georgia Tech alumnus to win a Rhodes Scholarship. The first was S. Alton Brown, who won the honor in 1951. The second was Will Roper in 2002. The Rhodes Scholarships pay for two or three years of study at Oxford.
Tech Square Wins Urban Land Institute Award
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Technology Square received a 2004 Award for Excellence from the Urban Land Institute — the land use industry’s most prestigious recognition. The award citation describes Technology Square as a "formerly blighted and vacant three-block area of Midtown Atlanta where security was a constant concern and pedestrian activity was nonexistent."
"The Georgia Institute of Technology has overcome physical and psychological barriers to reconnect the university with the Midtown neighborhood by developing a vibrant 24/7 urban campus," the citation says.
Tech President Wayne Clough says, "This project allowed Georgia Tech to reconnect to Midtown by bridging the divide created by the construction of the I-75/85 freeway. Technology Square is important not only because of its symbolic value, but also because its role as an anchor has energized others to participate in the Midtown renaissance, creating a visible technology corridor for Atlanta."
Established in 1979 the award recognizes the full development of a project, not just architecture or design. Projects are evaluated on the basis of financial viability, resourceful use of land, design, relevance to contemporary issues and sensitivity to the community and environment.
©2005 Georgia Tech Alumni Association
