Architects describe Theodore Seligson as a legend in the field, and the Temple B’nai Jehudah member still shapes architecture, planning and design in Kansas City.
Seligson’s friends and colleagues created the Seligson Fund for Architecture Urban Planning + Design to ensure that Seligson’s legacy will continue for years to come. The fund will provide guest lecturers on architecture, urban planning and design for students and community members at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Seligson earned an international reputation when he worked for Kivett & Myers, the architectural firm that designed Temple B’nai Jehudah’s sanctuary at 69th and Holmes Streets. The sanctuary was dedicated in 1967 and demolished in 2003 to make way for the University Academy. This sanctuary was displayed at an exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
For more than 40 years, he served as principal at his Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm, which is known as one of the most innovative design practices in the Midwest. Before opening his firm, Seligson worked as head of design for Kivett & Myers, a well-known Kansas City architectural firm. Kivett & Myers also designed Katz Hall, which now houses AUP+D at 5005 Rockhill Road.
The idea for the fund came about approximately six months before Seligson’s 80th birthday, said David Sosland, one of the fund’s founders.
“We wanted to do something special for him to recognize his 80th birthday,” Sosland said.
Sosland’s parents are friends with Seligson.
“I have known Ted my entire life,” Sosland said. “I grew up with Ted and have really been very fortunate to not only have him as a friend but also like a family member.”
When Sosland went into real estate development he said Seligson became a professional mentor to him.
Sosland represents one of many people Seligson has mentored throughout his career. Seligson currently serves as a guest professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has received more than 25 national, regional and local awards for his projects.
Joy Swallow, department chair for the university’s Architecture, Urban Planning + Design program, said the fund will honor Seligson and facilitate the type of dialog he continues to encourage.
“Ted’s the kind of person that looks forward to the next idea,” Swallow said.
Sustainability, urban revitalization and innovative designs are among topics Swallow said could be discussed in the lecture series. She said Seligson’s name will draw the best speakers in the field and she anticipates that the members of the community at large will attend.
“It’s going beyond the boundaries of the profession,” Swallow said.
Seligson said he feels honored to have the fund in his name.
“That was a total surprise,” he said.
Seligson studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. He taught at Washington University from 1975 to 1993. During that time Seligson continued to work and live in Kansas City. He commuted to St. Louis for his teaching assignments.
“I was in two cities in a way,” he said. “I had my office here and we were doing a lot of things at the time.”
Seligson said he enjoys his current work with the UMKC’s Architecture Urban Planning + Design program.
The program offers an architecture degree in partnership with Kansas State University. The partnership allows students to study architecture at UMKC for two years and then transfer to K-State to complete a graduate architecture program. The partnership started in 1987 to fill a void in Missouri’s state universities.
“The state of Missouri does not have a state architecture school like Kansas has,” Seligson said.
Missouri residents who want to study architecture in state have to attend a private university such as Washington University.
Through UMKC’s program with K-State, Missouri architecture students can spend their first two years at UMKC and then pay K-State’s in-state fees when they transfer to finish their graduate course work.
In 2002 UMKC expanded its program to include a Bachelor of Arts degree in urban planning and design. Swallow said this degree has helped graduates gain admittance into graduate schools and begin careers across the nation.
“Many of our students have done quite well,” she said. “We have planners employed all the way up to Alaska.”
Seligson said he hopes the fund in his name draws attention to UMKC’s Architecture, Urban Planning + Design program. Seligson helped the university start the program.
“We decided that urban planning and design should be married with architecture,” Seligson said. “The combination of putting planners and designers and architects together is something new.”
Even though UMKC has offered the Bachelor of Arts degree in urban planning and design for nine years, Seligson said many people still do not realize the program exists in Kansas City.
“Very few people realize that we offer this degree,” he said. “These guys that graduate with this degree have the abilities and capabilities of many of these students who graduate with master’s degrees.”
Students in the program helped make plans to rebuild part of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and have consulted with the Kansas City Missouri School board about how to utilize the 39 school buildings the board closed last year, Swallow said.
“There are a lot of community-based projects that we’ve been involved with,” she said.
Richard Ahsmuhs, chairman for the Architecture, Urban Planning + Design Advisory Board, said Seligson is the perfect person to dedicate this fund to and help promote UMKC’s Architecture, Urban Planning + Design program.
“Ted Seligson is quite a name in the architecture field,” Ahsmuhs said. “It’s named after him because it fulfills his goals in making sure people are aware of how important architecture and urban planning is.”
The committee does not have a firm date for when the lecture series will start but Ahsmuhs said he anticipates a large turnout.
“It will appeal to a broad range of people who care about Kansas City,” he said.