John Paul Eberhard

John Paul Eberhard FAIA (January 29, 1927 – May 2, 2020) was an American research architect and academic. He was the 2003 recipient of the Latrobe Prize.

Early life and education Eberhard was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1927. He was drafted into the U.S. Marines in 1945 and served as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy. He graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1952. In 1957, he was awarded a Sloan Fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Career After getting his undergraduate degree, Eberhard started Creative Buildings, LLC (1952–1958). In 1956, he earned a design patent (#178,116) for a prefabricated chapel based on some of the work Creative Buildings had been getting from Lutheran congregations in the Midwest. From 1968 to 1973, Eberhard was the first dean of the School of Architecture and Environmental Design at the University at Buffalo, From 1981 to 1988, Eberhard served as Executive Director of the Building Research Board at the National Academy of Sciences, now the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Published works during his tenure include Technological Alternatives for Urban Infrastructure: Five Papers Associated With a Workshop Held at Lake Morey Inn, Fairlee, Vermont on August 12–16, 1984, Building Diagnostics: A Conceptual Framework, and Infrastructure for the 21st Century: Framework for a Research Agenda. In 1989, Eberhard was appointed to the position of Head of the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1995, Eberhard became the Director of Discovery at the American Architectural Foundation (1995–99). In 2003, Eberhard became the founder of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture and its first president. "...took shape in 2002 as a Legacy Project to the national American Institute of Architects (AIA) Convention." Eberhard was introduced to possibilities of how neuroscience might influence humans' interactions with space and design through his work at the American Architectural Foundation at the American Institute of Architects. Eberhard explained, "By 2003, when the San Diego Chapter began their efforts to create an AIA Convention Legacy Project, I was pretty much up the curve in terms of understanding neuroscience; probably the only architect at that time who was." In June 2003, Eberhard was awarded the AIA College of Fellows Latrobe Prize

ANFA has established the John Paul Eberhard Fellowship to "promote and advance knowledge that links neuroscience research to a growing understanding of human responses to the built environment."

Personal life Eberhard died from complications of COVID-19 and congestive heart failure in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on May 2, 2020. He was 93.