A book encouraging better design of adult and dementia day care centers written by an architecture professor at Kansas University and two colleagues has won a national prize.

Keith Diaz Moore, associate professor and chairman of architecture, and his co-authors, Lyn Geboy and Gerald Weisman of Milwaukee, have won the 2007 Joel Polsky Prize granted by the American Society of Interior Design educational foundation.

Their book, “Designing a Better Day: Guidelines for Adult and Dementia Day Services Centers,” was published in 2006 by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

The Polsky prize, which recognizes the most significant contribution to design research and literature, will be presented at the March 2008 ASID Conference on Design in New Orleans.

Diaz Moore is internationally recognized for his expertise in the design of environments for the elderly.

He also has received research grants from the Alzheimer’s Association and the Helen Bader Foundation, among others, for his work focused on the elderly.

He is past chairman of the Environmental Design Research Association and a former trustee of the National Adult Day Services Association Foundation. Diaz Moore joined KU’s faculty in fall 2006.