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AIA releases study on student debt and its impact on demographic groups within the industry

2022-12-07T12:30:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has released a new study examining the impact of student debt across different demographic groups in the architecture industry.

The organization used the research company Ipsos to conduct an interview survey of over 700 members who provided insights on how everything from employment to life choices was affected by the repayment of educational loans.

AIA EVP and CEO Lakisha Ann Woods said: "This data provides critical insight into how student debt is harming the profession. Through a better understanding of how debt impacts different demographic groups among our membership, this data will help us break barriers to the profession that disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Our goal is to propel all architects to new professional heights."

Among other data, the survey found:

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of all AIA membe...

New national study reveals post-Covid campus facility trends

2021-08-03T17:52:00-04:00

In a new national study conducted by the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) and Buro Happold’s higher education consulting group, brightspot, a series of notable findings reveal the major impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on how universities and colleges are planning for new facilities.

Called the Campus Facilities Inventory (CFI), the survey is used to provide facilities benchmarking data to colleges and universities in order to better inform their planning efforts. It asks institutions to provide space data as categorized by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Facilities Inventory and Classification Manual (FICM). It was last undertaken in 2007. In the 2021 edition, a group survey of 88 higher-education institutions across the U.S. was conducted, gathering data on their buildings, as well as recent and planned changes to their facilities. The research also details changes over the last year and plans for the next three years.

Map of institu...

Yazdani Studio designs sustainability research center built with mass timber for Caltech

2021-06-03T17:36:00-04:00

In September 2019, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, owners of LA-based The Wonderful Company, donated $750 million to Caltech to support further environmental sustainability research. This enabled plans to construct a new 80,000-square-foot facility called the Resnick Sustainability Resource Center. Yazdani Studio, the experimental arm of CannonDesign, is behind the building’s design.

The Resnick Sustainability Resource Center will be home to critical research in solar science, climate science, energy, biofuels, decomposable plastics, water and environmental resources, ecology and biosphere engineering, and more. Key spaces within the building include a biosphere engineering facility, a solar science and catalysis center, a remote sensing center, a translational science facility, teaching labs, and lecture and interactive learning spaces.

The facility is designed to be the greenest building on the campus, built with materials that reduce its carbon footprint. The building’s facade takes...

Seneca College's Centre for Innovation facilitates storytelling with Indigenous cultural elements and inspiration

2020-03-11T11:58:00-04:00

As part of Seneca’s commitment to furthering Indigenous education, Perkins and Will has unveiled the Centre for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CITE) on the Newnham Campus. Perkins and Will worked in collaboration with the First Peoples@Seneca Office to ensure that the Indigenous communities the building represents would be conveyed in the design and artwork throughout the structure.

A highly visible atrium runs along the building’s southern edge and connects CITE with Newnham Campus on multiple levels. Bleacher stairs allow students to showcase their work and adaptable, modular interiors provide flexible classrooms and breakout spaces.

"We developed a very fulsome consultation process to ensure that Seneca’s Indigenous communities took pride and saw themselves reflected in the building," said Mark Solomon, Dean of Students and Indigenous Education at Seneca in a statement. "CITE is about ingrained knowledge that has been part of the land for generations...We needed to ...

As Historically Black Colleges and Universities shutter, America loses its history

2019-07-03T09:48:00-04:00

For nearly 200 years, since the opening of Pennsylvania’s Cheyney University in 1837, H.B.C.U.s have educated thousands of students, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Justice Thurgood Marshall, Toni Morrison, Representative Elijah Cummings and Senator Kamala Harris. But from a high of 120 such schools to about 101 in 2019, many have faced an uncertain future. In the last 20 years, six have closed, and several others remain open in name only after losing accreditation.

A recent New York Times report chronicles the increasing pace of financial woes and accreditation hurdles facing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the United States.

The report states that in the last 20 years, six HBCUs have shuttered, leaving only 101 of these culturally and historically significant institutions in operation.

At their height, at least 120 HBCUs were in operation across the United States, providing a vital source of educational opportunity for Black Americans, including in architecture.

According to The New York Times, a variety of leading political and cultural figures graduated from HBCUs, including Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, author Toni Morrison, Representative Elijah Cummings, and Senator Kamala Harris, among many others.

The remnants of Morristown College, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and shuttered in 1994. Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Bravidos.

At leas...

Steven Holl Architects breaks ground on new Winter Visual Arts Center at Franklin & Marshall College

2018-03-28T15:16:00-04:00

Yesterday, Steven Holl Architects broke ground on Franklin & Marshall College's new $29 million, four level, 35,000 square foot Visual Arts Building. The Susan & Benjamin Winter Visual Arts Center, named for the trustees who helped fund the project, will bring a wide range of teaching studios, galleries managed by the Phillips Museum of Art, classrooms, student and faculty work spaces, space for digital and analog film production and editing, and an 84-seat cinema that doubles as lecture hall and performance space.

Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects.

Described by Holl as a "pavillion on the park," the design was heavily influenced by the numerous hundred-year-old-plus trees that populate the campus. "Raised kite-like into the trees, the building’s light profile is a concave response to the large diameters of the campus’ trees," describes the firm. Another prominent feature is a glass-enclosed forum in the center of the ground floor that will allow p...

New York becomes the first state to make college tuition-free

2017-04-11T12:16:00-04:00

In a historic move, New York has become the first state to make tuition free at four-year public colleges. A measure introduced by Governor Cuomo in January, the legislation was approved by lawmakers this weekend. Middle-class families could save up to $25,880 for a four-year degree at a State University or City University of New York.

The scholarship, dubbed the Excelsior Scholarship, is available for undergraduates enrolled at a SUNY or CUNY school whose families earn less than $100,000 per year. Each year until 2019, the income cap will lift until it reaches $125,000.

The scholarship covers the full cost of tuition, currently $6,470 per year at four-year schools and $4,350 at community colleges. It doesn’t cover fees and other expenses, like the costs of books or room and board. That being said, the budget for the bill includes $8 million to help students gain access to educational resources like e-books.

In order to stay on the scholarship, students have to maintain the GPA necess...

Steven Holl designs "concave response" lighting for new visual arts building

2016-05-11T13:01:00-04:00

"We don't have a single 'style,'" Steven Holl explained in reference to his firm's new four level, 35,000 square foot Visual Arts Building commissioned for the Franklin & Marshall College. "We always try to shape a unique experience, and our approach is the same with this project. We look to create something of this place, to inspire future students."

Influenced heavily by the numerous hundred-year-old-plus trees that occupy the site, the Visual Arts Building is conceived as rising like a kite into the arboreal canopy and features a glass-enclosed forum on the ground floor that allows a clear view from the building's campus side of Buchanan Park.

A variety of faculty and advanced student studios, as well as a lecture hall/film screening auditorium and dedicated film labs, will compliment the project's classroom space.

In addition to geothermal heating and cooling, the project features an inventive, noteworthy take on lighting. In this case, the "building’s light profile is a concave r...

Steven Holl working on master plan study for Williams College

2016-04-07T14:08:00-04:00

Who better to master plan the campus of the The Williams College Department of Art and Museum of Art than daily watercolorist (and architect) Steven Holl? In addition to expanding William College's art presence in the region, the study's goals include shaping the campus space to connect interior to exterior as well as making "architecture in complementary relation to the picturesque campus" according to a press release.

Steven Holl Architects has interviewed museum staff, students, and faculty members to get an idea of how they interact with the current campus, and what they'd like to see in a new plan. The stakeholder-intensive process has already apparently inspired notions for possible new building sites on the college's 223-year-old grounds. Holl is no stranger to academic design, having already completed projects for Columbia University, MIT, and the Glasgow School of Art (pictured below in its 19th-century setting), among others.

As Steven Holl noted, "Historically one of the mo...