Terry Shook ’76
Distinguished Alumnus Award
As one of the nation’s top experts in placemaking, Charles (Terry) Shook, FAIA, is focused upon the creation of new communities in both the suburbs and within urban cores that reflect timeless patterns of building, while responding to modern aspirations for a better life.
As the founding partner and principal of Shook Kelly, he has been recognized as a vanguard in the movement to return meaning to the urban environment by the Clinton Library & School of Public Service. Two of his most notable projects include Birkdale Village in Huntersville, NC and Charlotte’s Historic South End District.
Shook has co-lead Harvard University Graduate School of Design’s Executive Education program, ‘Urban Retail,’ since its inception 20 years ago. “Through Terry’s leadership and dedication, we have seen the program extend its reach outside of the US to include a global audience,” states Jennifer Gala, associate director of the program. As one participant stated in the evaluation: “Terry is a great person, a man who wants to make a difference in the world.”
His professional career began with the design of one of North Carolina’s most important initiatives in education: the master planning of the campus and subsequent design of the chemistry and biology labs for the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham in the 1980s. Since that time, Shook and his team have designed individual laboratories in secondary schools, the Centers of Discovery for Irwin Avenue Elementary School and prototype laboratories for Charlotte-Mecklenburg high schools.
Shook’s most recent STEM initiative is in Haiti, where he has designed and facilitated, through donations, the construction of an aquaponic garden within the emerging new village of Mahanaim. The project is a collaboration with Joseph’s Exchange, 100 Gardens, Johnson C. Smith University and the Duke Endowment.
Shook earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture from UNC Charlotte in 1976. He started the first ever local firm endowment at the University, the Shook Kelly Architectural Scholarship and influenced other local firms and emerging architects to join him in creating an alumni endowment that continues to grow.
“Terry has never left the roots he established when the UNC Charlotte campus had an old barn, a promising architectural program and opportunity larger than the expansive grounds of the campus,” says Mark Colone ‘ 83, major gift officer for the College of Arts + Architecture. “Terry has influenced students, faculty, civic leaders, developers and storytellers since taking chances to turn urban into cool.”