EUGENE–Award-winning filmmaker James Ivory will receive the 1999 Ellis F. Lawrence Medal from the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts (AAA).

Robert Z. Melnick, AAA dean and fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, will present the medal to Ivory at the school’s commencement ceremony at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 12. The ceremony will take place on the East Lawn of the Erb Memorial Union on campus, 1222 E. 13th Ave. (RAIN: McArthur Court, 1601 University St.).

"Jim Ivory’s career reflects the depth and breadth of his early education in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon. His films are a wonderful testament to his deep concern for history, architecture and the sense of place," says Melnick.

Ivory’s films have won awards from critics, film festivals and the movie industries in the United States, England and France. His partnership with producer Ismail Merchant and novelist-screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala earned 30 Academy Award nominations. "A Room with a View" (1987) and "Howard’s End" (1992) each won three Academy Awards.

Ivory’s early ambition while growing up in Klamath Falls, Ore., was to design movie sets. This desire led him to the University of Oregon, where he enrolled in 1946 as an architecture major. He later switched to fine and applied arts and credits UO art history professor Marion Ross and painting teacher Jack Wilkinson with training his eye for visual images.

Ivory earned his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Oregon in 1951 and a master’s degree in cinema from the University of Southern California in 1957. In 1993, he received the UO’s prestigious Pioneer Award.

The Lawrence Medal is awarded by the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts to an alumnus or alumna whose professional and personal achievements embody the integrity, educational philosophy and commitment to his or her chosen field as exemplified by Ellis F. Lawrence. Lawrence was founder of the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts, a Portland architect and an educator. Lawrence served as dean of the school from 1914 until his death in 1946.

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