In a small town east of Rome, a Fulbright scholar architect presents a city landscape drawing to a local woman. He pauses, waits. She studies it, then explodes, “Well, this place just doesn’t exist!” The reaction surprises him; the drawing is of her community—but with one significant building removed.

The architect is Ray Gindroz (A’63, ’65) during his time abroad in 1966, when he began his career of understanding how people perceive their cities and how to utilize that information to rebuild and renew communities. The reaction to the absent Italian building, for example, taught him that this structure was a vital element. Today, he remarks, “That’s just like the process we have continued to do.”

The “we” is Urban Design Associates, a Pittsburgh-based company where Gindroz is Principal Emeritus. Through UDA, he has reconstructed cities by correcting fundamental social problems with a design that fosters community appreciation. Simply put, his goal has always been to design places of lasting value. Gindroz also spearheads numerous pattern books (architectural development guidelines); and, with his wife, Marilyn Miltenberger Gindroz (A’73), has established a foundation that supports study-abroad programs in architecture, urbanism, and music.

His achievements have recently been recognized with Traditional Building’s Clem Labine Award, named after the longtime publisher, author, and traditionalist. It honors a professional for “fostering humane values in the built environment” and describes Gindroz as a “humane urbanist, educator, and philanthropist.”
Courtney Kochuba (DC’07)