Alpha Rho Chi
| Alpha Rho Chi | |
|---|---|
| ΑΡΧ | |
 |
|
| Founded | April 11, 1914 Hotel Sherman, Chicago, Illinois |
| Type | Professional |
| Scope | National, Architecture and the Allied Arts |
| Motto | Fidelitas, Amor et Artes – Latin: "Fidelity and Love of the Arts" |
| Colors | Azure and Sanguine |
| Flower | White Rose |
| Chapters | 29 |
| Nickname | Archi |
| Homepage | alpharhochi.org |
Alpha Rho Chi (ΑΡΧ) is a professional co-educational college fraternity for students studying architecture and related professions. The fraternity's name is derived from the first three letters of the Greek word for architecture, αρχιτεκτονική.
APX was founded on April 11, 1914, with the joining of Sigma Upsilon at the University of Michigan and the Arcus Society at the University of Illinois to form a national fraternity for Architecture and the allied arts.
Sigma Upsilon was founded four years prior by eight architecture students at Michigan, with the intent of eventually forming a national architecture fraternity, and had drafted their constitution and laws to reflect that. Two years after they were founded in 1912 they were recognized by their school as a fraternity and started negotiation with other schools to open up more chapters.
In 1911 the Arcus Society was formed by 15 architecture students, at first secret and then becoming public a year later. After their recognition by their school, they started correspondence with several other schools in an effort to expand as well. One of those schools was the University of Michigan, which was the start of the collaboration of the two founding brothers of APX, Leo M. Bauer of the Arcus Society and Chandler C. Cohagen of Sigma Upsilon.
According to fraternity history books, the University of Illinois chapter claims to be the first chapter of the new fraternity, by an attempt to set the meeting during a time in which Illinois was off on break, and Michigan's chapter would still be in classes, leading to the Anthemios chapter being the first chapter of the fraternity. Iktinos (Michigan) instead claims the first chapter out of pure virtue of their precursor organization existing before the one at Illinois. Both the Iktinos and Anthemios chapters are considered the founding chapters, and as such, share the same cadency mark.
The two founding brothers met on April 11, 1914 at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago, where they selected the new name of the combined organization, the new constitution and by-laws, and the coat of arms. The brothers decided to keep the colors of the Arcus Society, azure and sanguine, and the white rose, a symbol of Sigma Upsilon to represent both organizations. They also selected the names of the new chapters from a list of prominent Greek, Roman (and later on Egyptian) architects. Illinois selected Anthemios as their name and Michigan, Iktinos.
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