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Among the 1,974 former students and faculty members featured on our Gies College of Business-powered UI at 150 & Beyond website: two-degree alumna, Champaign architect and Parkland professor BRIDGETT WAKEFIELD.

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This Illini memory is dedicated to the late, great James Warfield, who saw the world with different eyes and invited his students into that world, says one of those students, Bridgett Wakefield.

The view of architecture that he professed was people-centric, and his methods were intimately effective, adds the Parkland College professor and Reifsteck Reid & Company architect, who earned her UI bachelors degree in 1996 and her masters two years later.

Professor Warfield was the advisor for my thesis, Through the Eyes of a Child: Building Environments that Work. The first six months flew by as my research easily flowed into place. I combined psychology, education theories and physiology of children to determine what their ideal environment would be at each elementary grade level.

However, since I had so much great research, I found myself stumbling when trying to translate it into the design. I will never forget the day that Professor Warfield raided my desk removing all of the drawing utensils and paper.

He handed me a large sumi-e brush, a well of black ink and a pad of thick paper. Only draw with this for a week.

I thought he was insane. But of course, I did as he requested. The result was an award-winning design.

Professor Warfield has since passed away, but his memory will definitely live on through the students he guided.

Excerpt from:
UI at 150 & Beyond: 'His memory will definitely live on' - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette