Contact
regnier@usc.edu
Associate Member
ACSA DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR
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 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 USC’s Dean of the School of Architecture.
He has published 10 books/monographs as well as 60 articles and book chapters dealing with various aspects of housing and community planning for the elderly. His newest book published in Fall (2018) is entitled Housing for an Increasingly Older Population: Redefining Assisted Living for the Mentally and Physically Frail. Currently a translation of this book in Chinese is being readied. It is scheduled to be released in fall 2019. 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 two Fulbright research awards (northern Europe (1992) and Portugal (2014)) 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, M. Powell Lawton award for applied research. USC Architecture named him as their “2007 Distinguished Alumnus”. In 2008 in recognition of his teaching and research, the American Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) named him as an ACSA Distinguished Professor.
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 200 professional and scientific conferences as well as more than 100 university lectures and symposia. He has served on the editorial or advisory board of 9 journals or professional magazines.
As a teacher, Professor Regnier was named a USC Mortar Board Professor. He is well known as a mentor and an enthusiastic, knowledgeable instructor.
As a designer/practicing architect he has provided consultation advice during the last 40 years on over 400 building projects in 38 states, Canada, Germany and England. Projects on which he has consulted have won over 50 state and national design awards. Professor Regnier is considered one of the world’s major thought leaders on the topic of housing and services for older people.