The School of Architecture will honor outstanding alumni at its sixth annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner Friday, May 7, in Holmes Lounge. Carol Rusche Bentel, AIA, FAAR; Bernard Bortnick, FAIA; Theodore Christner, AIA; King Graf, AIA; and Andrew Metter, FAIA, will receive Distinguished Alumni awards. Bernard Deffet will receive the Young Alumni Award, honoring a graduate from the last 15 years, and Jerome J. Sincoff, FAIA, will be awarded the 1999 Dean's Medal for service to the school.
Bentel is a partner in the New York-based firm Bentel & Bentel Architects. She has taught and lectured in the United States and abroad and won numerous competitions, including first place with her husband, Paul Bentel, in an arts competition for Times Square. She received a bachelor of arts degree with a major in architecture in 1979 from Washington University and a master of architecture degree in 1981 from North Carolina State University. Bentel also studied architecture in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar and a Fellow of the American Academy of Rome. She currently is completing her doctoral dissertation in history, theory and criticism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Bortnick is design principal and senior vice president for HDR Architecture Inc. in Dallas, where he has designed award-winning projects in the United States and abroad, most notably in Mexico.
After studying at the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design, Bortnick enrolled in the Washington University School of Architecture, where he received a bachelor of architecture degree in 1960.
While here, Bortnick studied with the late celebrated Dutch architect Jacob Bakema and later worked in the offices of VandenBroek and Bakema in Rotterdam, Holland. He also practiced in Israel; worked as a designer for Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK) in St. Louis; and taught at the School of Architecture.
Christner is chairman of Christner Inc, an award-winning St. Louis-based design firm he founded in 1963. His work in the St. Louis region includes the Butterfly House at Faust Park, MetroLink station and Interfaith Chapel at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and the Shoenberg Temperate House at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
He has served as chair of the school's Annual Fund and the 40th Reunion Committee and as a member of the Commission for the Future. Christner also is chair of the school's Eliot Society Membership Committee and a member of both the Alumni Advisory Council and the National Council. He received a bachelor of architecture degree in 1957.
Graf is retired vice-chairman of HOK, where he worked from 1956-1995. He was instrumental in launching the firm's regional office in Dallas in 1974 and has worked throughout North and South America, the Middle East, Europe and the Asia/Pacific region. After receiving a bachelor of architecture degree in 1953, Graf spent three years serving in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific fleet. Having been chair of the school's effort in the Alliance Campaign and on the National Council, he currently is co-chair of the Major Gifts Committee in the Campaign for Washington University.
Metter is vice president of architectural design at the Chicago-based firm A. Epstein and Sons International Inc., which he joined in 1991. Metter has served as a design critic and lecturer at several architectural institutions, and his award-winning work has been widely published and exhibited, including in the Chicago Historical Society's permanent collection. A recipient of numerous distinguished building awards from the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Metter also received the AIA Young Architect Award, AIA Honor Awards and the AIA Divine Detail Award. He received a master of architecture degree in 1976.
Deffet founded the Dison, Belgium-based firm DEFFET Architectes et Partenaires in 1990, which encompasses private, public, institutional and residential design work. His firm is active in the field of social housing -- a major issue in the economically depressed Wallonia Region of Belgium. He received a bachelor of arts degree with a major in architecture in 1985 from Washington University and a master of architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989.
Sincoff is president and chief executive officer of HOK. During his 37 years at the award-winning international firm, Sincoff has held a full spectrum of positions: draftsman, design and production architect, vice president, office managing principal and corporate vice chairman. He provided leadership in project development for the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and in preservation and renovation of the St. Louis Union Station. He has served on the school's Advisory Board and is currently chair of the National Council. At the University level, he was executive chair of the 1956 40th Reunion and is chairman of the Alumni Board of Governors and a member of the Board of Trustees. He received a bachelor of architecture degree in 1956.
