MUNCIE, Ind. -- Two nationally renowned architects are working with Ball State University's architecture students and faculty this semester as John R. Emens Distinguished Visiting Professors.

Frances Halsband, a partner in R.M. Kliment and Frances Halsband Architects of New York, and Raj Barr-Kumar, president of Barr-Kumar Architects Engineers in Washington, D.C., share the prestigious professorship named for a former Ball State president.

The architects' graduate design studio at Ball State will participate in projects involving visitors centers for the White House and the FDR Home in Hyde Park, N.Y., and hypothetical visitors centers for Muncie and Columbus, Ind.

Students will also take part in a design workshop being organized by Halsband as part of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Committee on Design, which she chairs and which will meet in Cincinnati in early April.

The visiting architects' elective course is focusing on the issues, processes and products of sustainable communities.

Both guests will also present public lectures in Muncie and Indianapolis. Barr-Kumar speaks at 8 p.m. Feb. 16 and Halsband at 8 p.m. Feb. 23 in Ball State's College of Architecture and Planning Auditorium (Architecture Building Room 100). The talks are part of the CAP Guest Lecture Series; Barr-Kumar's presentation is this year's Charles M. Sappenfield Lecture.

The architects' work will be showcased in the college's first-floor exhibition gallery from Feb. 15 through March 11.

"Our students are very fortunate to be exposed to two practitioners who have distinguished themselves through their practice, teaching and service to the architectural profession," said Tony Costello, Ball State's Irving Distinguished Professor of Architecture, who is coordinating the architects' team-taught design studio and lecture course.

"Both of their courses will provide participating students with unique learning opportunities that can only come from professionals with the breadth and quality of practice and teaching experiences represented by Frances and Raj," Costello said.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information about this story, contact Tony Costello at (765) 285-5868 or e-mail: tcostell@bsu.edu.)