Archinect - Features

‘We Have To Get Much Better at Speaking To Wider and Wider Audiences:’ A Conversation With USC Architecture Dean Brett Steele

2024-10-09T12:03:00-04:00

In February 2024, Brett Steele took up the position of Dean of the University of Southern California School of Architecture. Since then, Steele has been busy capitalizing on the opportunities and responsibilities that come with leading a Los Angeles design school in a city known globally for its creativity; a landscape Steele also experienced in his past roles at fellow Los Angeles school UCLA and at the AA in London.

Steele's mission at USC centers not only on preparing students for unpredictable futures but also on "speaking to wider and wider audiences." In that spirit, USC architecture students forge links with their peers in landscape, building science, and beyond, led by a faculty of diverse practitioners. "This isn't a place to just show up for courses; you've got to want to absorb everything around you," Steele notes.

In September 2024, Archinect's Niall Patrick Walsh caught up with Steele as part of our Deans List series to gain an insight into USC Architecture's approach t...

Breaking Down Architectural Techniques With USC School of Architecture’s Foundational Graduate Studio

2023-01-13T08:30:00-05:00

Kicking off 2023, we've connected with USC School of Architecture to learn more about one of its graduate studios taught by instructors Ryan Tyler Martinez of Studio Ryan Tyler Martinez and Jimenez Lai of BUREAU SPECTACULAR.

For our latest installment of Archinect Studio Pin-Ups, we explore Graduate Studio 1: Form, Order, and Representation. This foundational studio focused on giving students with no previous architecture backgrounds an opportunity to gain "experience to foundational design concepts, disciplinary knowledge, and techniques for thinking about and developing fundamental architectural principles." Comprised of three studio projects and a field trip to Chicago, first-year graduate students could learn, explore, and apply these foundational design principles as they continue their studies.

Milton S. F. Curry, USC Architecture Dean: Observations on Draft White House Executive Order, “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again”

2020-03-05T11:30:00-05:00

Milton S. F. Curry, Dean of the University of Southern California School of Architecture, shares his perspective on the recently proposed "Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again" draft executive order.

Deans List: Qingyun Ma of the University of Southern California

2017-03-21T12:08:00-04:00

Qingyun Ma, Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California, cares more about preserving what’s right with the school, now celebrating its 100th year, than his own signature.

At USC's 'Homeless Studio', Students Work Towards Real Solutions to the City's Homeless Crisis

2016-11-30T12:21:00-05:00

Just a few miles from the University of Southern California campus, Skid Row contains a significant portion of the homeless population of Los Angeles, a city in the midst of a declared state of emergency with nearly 47,000 people in total living in shelters and on the street. For R. Scott Mitchell and Sofia Borges, two instructors at the USC School of Architecture, this city-wide crisis demands an architectural response. “The homeless are always thinking about architecture. It's time we started thinking about them,” they wrote in the syllabus for their course, Homeless Studio.