B.S. Engineering, B.Arch., Kansas State University; M.Arch., University of Southern California
Victor Regnier is a teacher, researcher and architect who has focused his academic and professional life on the design of housing and community settings for older people. He holds a joint professorship between the USC School of Architecture and the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, which is the only joint appointment of this type in the US. He is also the only person to have achieved fellowship status in both the American Institute of Architects and the Gerontological Society of America. From 1992 until 1996 he served as the Dean of the School of Architecture for an interim term.
He has published 6 books as well as 60 articles and book chapters dealing with various aspects of housing and community planning for the elderly. He has received awards for his scholarship from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Planning Association and Phi Kappa Phi, as well as two Progressive Architecture Research Awards. He has also received a traveling Fulbright Research Award and the Thord-Grey Award from the American-Scandinavian Foundation.
Victor’s interest in balancing theory with practice has led to many different and distinct honors. For example, he is the only architect to receive the Gerontological Society of America’s, national M. Powell Lawton award for applied research. On the practice side he was named by the National Association of Home Builders as an "Icon of the Industry" for his educational and teaching activities in senior housing. USC Architecture named him as their “2007 Distinguished Alumnus” and Kansas State University College of Architecture named him as their 2001 Alumni Fellow (undergraduate). In 2008 in recognition of his teaching and research, the American Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) named him one of three Distinguished Professors that year. (Since its inception in 1985, only 100 professors have been given this designation from the 125 schools of Architecture in North America).
As an academic he has directed over 20 research projects dealing with diverse topics such as the behavioral impact of the environment on people with dementia, children’s museums and homeless shelters. His design research findings have been presented at over 160 professional and scientific conferences as well as more than 60 university lectures and symposia. He has served on the editorial or advisory board of 9 journals or professional magazines.
As a teacher Professor Regnier is the only architecture faculty member at USC to have won university-wide teaching recognition—being named a USC Mortar Board Professor in 1995. He is well known as a mentor, as well as a stimulating and knowledgeable teacher. For the last 15 summers he has taught professional development coursework for practicing architects at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
As a designer/practicing architect he has provided consultation advice during the last 30 years on over 300 building projects in 38 states, Canada, Germany and England. Projects on which he has consulted have won over 40 state and national design awards in the last decade. Professor Regnier is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on housing for the elderly.