Board of Directors

SPOTLIGHT...

Ruth Connell, AIA, was born in St. Louis while her father was a student at the Washington University School of Architecture. He was a World War II veteran studying on the GI Bill. Later, her family returned to New York City, and then moved to Corning, New York for most of Ruth’s childhood. Her father designed and had built for his family the first modern house in Corning, including a flat roof, panel construction, and spacious windows. With great interest as a five-year old child, Ruth enjoyed watching this house being built. Throughout her youth, she enjoyed drawing, painting, and sculpture.

Ruth graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in art history cum laude. However, while she was in school, she was deeply moved by the great destruction caused by Hurricane Agnes in her hometown and much of upstate New York in 1972. She decided she wanted a useful skill set, so upon graduation, Ruth entered the 3 ½ year M.Arch. program at the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded that degree in 1976. Her professional role models were clearly her father, Joseph A. Connell, AIA, and his employee, later business partner, Anne Hersh, AIA. Ruth fondly recalls her Dad teaching her how to draft while rolling and pulling, not pushing, the pencil. She attended her first AIA meeting when she was twelve!

Ruth had two internships in Philadelphia when she was recruited to teach at the University of Miami in Coral Gables in 1979. A year later, she began teaching at the University of Florida in Gainesville. During her six years there, Ruth taught architectural and urban design, the history of architecture, and the architecture of the Caribbean.

In 1986, Ruth returned to practice and teach in upstate New York. She moved her practice to Annapolis in 1989, where she has focused on residential design. Ruth began teaching a couple of years later at Morgan State University where she was a key person in building the core of the graduate program in architecture. Ruth developed design process education in the studios, and restructured the Built Environment History sequence. She has served nationally as an architecture school accreditation reviewer for NAAB (the National Architectural Accreditation Board), representing the ACSA (Associated Schools of Architecture).

During her tenure at Morgan, Ruth spent a year in Poland as a Senior Fulbright Scholar. She taught architecture and urban design at the Technical University of Gdansk, and lectured at the U.S. Consulate in Krakow and several schools of architecture throughout the country. Later, Ruth served for several years as a national juror for architecture students seeking student Fulbright scholarships.

Ruth was the author/editor of the most recent two NAAB accreditation reports for the Graduate Program in Architecture at Morgan, has served as the Chair for Accreditation and Strategic Planning since 2002, and became the Program Coordinator this year. She is currently interested in biomorphic design, integrated practice, and Building Information Modelling (BIM). She has written and published several papers on the architecture of security, the political significance of urban space, as well as culture and design.

She joined the AIA in 1986 in upstate New York, was active in the Chesapeake Bay Chapter, becoming its president in 2001, and was later active in AIAMaryland. From 2002-6, Ruth served as secretary of the AIA Mid-Atlantic Regional Council where she also reviewed and recommended long-overdue by-law revisions. She joined AIABaltimore in 2006 and became a member our Board of Directors this year where she will serve as Board Liaison of the Technology in Practice Committee.

Ruth is an active oil painter who has participated in several juried art exhibitions.