Board Room, AIA National Headquarters Courtesy of the American Institute of Architects
And back again to Washington D.C. Now sixty-seven and with his return to our Nation’s Capital, Eberhard’s next career transpired with the American Architectural Foundation (AAF), a notfor-profit affiliate of the AIA at the time. Norman Koonce, FAIA, then serving as the President of the Foundation and with a nudge from Syl Damianos, FAIA, the former President of the AIA, was able to lure John out of retirement and persuade him to bring his talent to the AAF. In this new part-time capacity John, with decades of research and management directed toward achieving enhanced building and practice, was given the title “Director of Discovery.” Diverging from his previous positions of responsibility, John’s initial assignment: “Determine how the power of design could evoke a broader public understanding and appreciation of Architecture.” Enter the Latrobe Prize: Jonas Salk on Architecture Jonas Salk, founder of the Salk institute, had related his personal experiences in trying to find a cure for polio 22
in the 1950s. “Stuck intellectually,” Salk had retreated for several weeks to the Abbey at Assisi in Italy. Salk credited this architectural setting with providing the essential stimulation to his imagination and critical thinking such that he was able to create the concept for the Salk vaccine as well as the technique necessary to produce it. Believing that the human brain reacted continuously to the man-built environment, Dr. Salk proposed that the AAF consider a research effort to better understand how architectural settings influence human experience. Eberhard had long been intrigued with how the human brain worked to explain his own architectural experiences. With a history of asking hard questions and seeking answers with well-constructed hypotheses and in keeping with the broader mission of the AAF, Dr. Salk’s assertion rekindled John’s protracted intrigue with the mystery of how the physical environment was able to engender emotional responses within himself. During a visit with Salk’s colleagues at the Salk Institute
