Archinect - News

National Endowment for the Humanities awards $190,000 grant to the ASLA for educator workshop

2024-09-04T15:28:00-04:00

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced that it has awarded a $190,000 competitive grant to the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Fund.

The grant comes in the form of the Landmarks of American History and Culture award, which aims to support a series of workshops for 72 K-12 educators to study environmental humanities and place-making through the lens of landscape architecture in Washington, D.C. Expert instructors will guide lesson plans on green building, climate resiliency, design sustainability, and diversity-equity-inclusion-justice. The workshop will also include guided site visits to culturally significant landscapes in the Washington D.C. region.

“The more people we invite into the profession of landscape architecture the stronger our communities will become,” said ASLA CEO, Torey Carter-Conneen. “Landscape architecture is a unique blend of art and science. Workshops like this are how we provide a path for students who likely have no idea this ...

$600,000 Mellon grant will help public programs for the Paul Revere Williams Architecture Archive at USC

2024-08-07T12:27:00-04:00

A $600,000 Humanities in Place grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will help bolster Paul Revere Williams’ archive at his alma mater, the University of Southern California. The trove of important documents that had for a long time mired unattended in storage in Los Angeles was since recovered thanks to the efforts of USC faculty members (incl. former School of Architecture Dean Milton S.F. Curry) and Williams’ granddaughter.

Curry will join fellow USC faculty Valéry Augustin and Amy L. Murphy in leading the administration of the public-facing grant. Activities to be funded reportedly include future exhibitions at the USC Fisher Museum, two faculty research fellowships, a biennial publication, an annual memorial lecture series, a symposium, and other community events.

Now housed at the Getty Center, the archive, which was jointly acquired by USC and the Getty Research Institute in 2020, includes: "Over 37,000 plans, including 10,000 drawings, blueprints, project diazo types, ...

Department of Transportation commits $5B to repair significant large bridges across the U.S.

2024-07-25T19:53:00-04:00

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that more than $5 billion in grant awards will be used to repair or replace nationally significant large bridges across the United States.

The money is being delivered via Large Bridge Project awards through the Federal Highway Administration’s Bridge Investment Program, which was established by the Biden Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The program has set out to invest $40 billion over four years towards the reinforcement of the country’s bridges.

The grants will support the reconstruction, repair, and restoration of 13 bridges, which are viewed as being critical economic drivers, in 16 states. The projects will also address important safety issues, making the bridges more resilient to extreme weather conditions.

Previously on Archinect: 36% of all U.S. bridges are structurally deficient, study finds

The grants were available to bridges with total eligible project costs over $100 million, with minimum grant awards bein...

Mellon Foundation bestows $1.5 million to Storefront for Art and Architecture

2024-03-20T14:18:00-04:00

A new grant worth a total of $1.5 million has been awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to New York’s Storefront for Art and Architecture. The 42-year-old space in Manhattan's Nolita district will use the funding to expand its programming over three years while supporting the organization's pursuit of new hires.

Speaking in a press release, Storefront's Chief Curator José Esparza Chong Cuy stated: "Storefront has been devoted to public life and to chronicling the changes in diverse built environments through critical artistic practice for over forty years, and this funding will enable us to expand its grassroots legacy by creating even more opportunities for engagement and collaboration on many scales."

Esparza Chong Cuy has been serving in the role since the departure of Eva Franch i Gilabert in October 2018.

Storefront has recently unveiled Swamplands, a three-artist exhibition and research series focused on the politics of water use and the Gulf of Mexico. The premiere exh...

CCNY’s Spitzer School of Architecture receives $1.5 million Mellon Foundation grant for new center

2023-08-25T12:38:00-04:00

The City College of New York has been awarded a three-year $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. The funding will be used to support the new multidisciplinary Place, Memory and Culture Incubator (PMCI) to be housed within the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture.

The new center will focus on community-based partnerships and projects in Harlem that engage with the design of the built environment alongside attention to the humanities through a social justice lens. CCNY also sees the center as providing a space for the college community to “engage with one another in the production of more representative and authentic histories.”

Archinect Feature: "Decolonization Is a Gift"—CCNY's Lesley Lokko on Questioning Architecture's Inherited Futures

“This latest project recognizes the historic positioning of the Spitzer School of Architecture in the Harlem community as well as our commitment, in the architectural field and elsewhere in the college, to acknowledging, preservi...

Frankenthaler Climate Initiative announces $2.7 million worth of clean energy funding to 48 arts institutions

2023-08-10T16:56:00-04:00

The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation has just announced the third cycle of its Frankenthaler Climate Initiative (FCI), representing a total of $2.7 million in funding to 48 different visual arts organizations across the country for 2023.

Along with the announcement of this year’s awardees, the FCI is also now expanding its footprint to $15 million and extending itself to additional 2024 and 2025 cycles. The Foundation shares it has now conferred more than $10.8 million worth of funding since the program was first initiated in 2021.

The list of organizations receiving funding this year includes Maine’s expanding Portland Museum of Art; The Noguchi Museum and Pratt Institute in New York City; SITE Santa Fe; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others in the cultural and education realms.

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African History in Detroit. Photo: Charles H. Wright Museum of African History

"2023 saw the largest number and most sophisticated project proposals to date, ...

BIG-designed National Juneteenth Museum receives $1 million grant

2023-08-09T13:45:00-04:00

Bank of America has awarded a $1 million grant towards the development of the National Juneteenth Museum, designed by BIG. The money will contribute to the project’s estimated $70 million price tag. Located in Fort Worth’s Historic Southside neighborhood, the museum will serve as an epicenter for awareness and preservation of Juneteenth’s history. It also aims to revitalize the surrounding area by acting as an economic catalyst.

The 50,000-square-foot museum takes on a handcrafted design, utilizing materials such as heavy timber. It also draws on the local architecture of gabled rooftops. The structure’s undulating roof results in a series of peaks and valleys that combine to form a star-shaped courtyard in the middle of the museum. In addition, the building will feature 10,000 square feet of exhibit galleries, a 250-seat theater to host lectures, a speaker series, performances, and more, a black box, a business incubator for local entrepreneurs, and a food hall featuring local vend...

AIA announces $20 billion in grant funding made available for adaptive reuse and decarbonization projects

2023-08-01T11:22:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects has announced that nearly $20 billion of the $27 billion allocated by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) under the Inflation Reduction Act has been released by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA has introduced two funding opportunities: the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) and the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA), targeted at decarbonization projects and adaptive reuse projects.

Described by AIA as a “pivotal sustainability strategy,” the grant funding is available for nonprofits that meet the recipient criteria noted in Section 134(c)(1) of the Clean Air Act, with an application submission deadline of October 12, 2023.

"It is essential that we prioritize investments in existing buildings that will reduce emissions while also creating jobs, promoting health equity and supporting vulner...

Syracuse School of Architecture, SUNY-ESF researchers receive $100,000 grant to study the racial wealth gap in the United States

2023-07-27T15:13:00-04:00

A trio of researchers from the Syracuse University School of Architecture and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) have been awarded a new $100,000 competitive grant for their examination of root causes laden in the built environment that are underpinning the growing racial wealth gap in the United States.

Syracuse’s Associate Dean for Research, Eliana Abu-Hamdi, Associate Professor Iman Fayyad, and SUNY-ESF landscape architecture assistant professor Daniel Cronan were recently awarded the grant for their project “Closing the Racial Wealth Gap through Environmental Justice and Participatory Design.”

The funding was made possible through the Lender Center for Social Justice. Researchers say it will help them achieve their project’s aim of identifying a list of positive changes that can be enacted in the most heavily-impacted communities. The research is being conducted in three phases and will result in BIM-supported participatory planning that demonstra...

LMN Architects' Seattle Aquarium expansion receives $1M Murdock Trust grant

2023-07-17T16:59:00-04:00

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust gave the Seattle Aquarium a $1 million grant toward the construction of the new Ocean Pavilion, the Trust announced Tuesday.

The grant will support the completion of the Seattle Aquarium’s new $160 million Ocean Pavilion, which was designed by LMN Architects. The expansion will add 50,000 square feet of exhibits, theatrical spaces, and support areas. It will integrate a series of public pathways that provide vertical connections between multiple levels of plazas. The pavilion sits adjacent to the Seattle Aquarium’s current location on the Seattle waterfront. Construction on the project began in 2020 and is currently in Phase 4, which entails the creation of the interior habitats and spaces, the public rooftop, the elevator and stairs, and the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and animal life support systems.

Previously on Archinect: LMN Architects’ 'sweeping' Seattle Aquarium expansion sees significant construction progress

The Ocean Pavilion forms part of a $750 million project by Seattle to redevelop the city’s waterfront, which includes the creation of public parks and cultural spaces. The pavilion has...

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund announces $3.8 million in 2023 grants to preserve 40 historic sites

2023-06-13T17:43:00-04:00

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has announced $3.8 million in 2023 grant funding to protect and preserve 40 sites representing African American history. Established in 2017, the Action Fund, which has raised more than $95 million, is the largest U.S. fund dedicated to preserving historic African American sites.

Since its inception, the Action Fund has received a total of 5,638 funding proposals requesting $655 million. The program has been able to support 242 grantee projects through its investment of $20 million.

2023 grant site: Morgan State University’s Jenkins Hall in Baltimore, Maryland. Photo: Troy Pumphrey Jr., image courtesy National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“The Action Fund’s investment in and celebration of 40 historic African American places illustrates our belief that historic preservation plays an important role in American society,” said Brent Leggs, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund exe...

A new grant will support Indigenous students and curriculum development at the University of Calgary's design school

2023-03-31T15:55:00-04:00

A new grant meant to encourage Indigenous students’ participation in the architectural field has been announced by the University of Calgary.

The $120,000 CAD ($88,600 USD) grant is being funded by the Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) and will help the university’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) further develop its existing Indigenous Pathways Program while integrating Indigenous knowledge and subject matter into the brand-new Bachelor of Design in City Innovation (BDCI) degree.

The school shares that the BDCI is also its first-ever undergraduate degree offering. Sessional instructors and staff from the Indigenous community will also be recruited as a result of the funding, which helps to underscore the central mission and principles of the institution. Currently, the SAPL is the province’s only accredited architectural degree program.

“This project elevates real estate leadership in our province through inclusion, representation, and professional standa...

Florida International University to develop virtual reality games for training future AEC workers thanks to NSF grant

2023-03-27T12:06:00-04:00

Florida International University (FIU) has been awarded a grant to develop games that can train individuals for roles in architecture, engineering, and construction. The funding, awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), will support FIU’s exploration into how institutions can train skilled workers at a time when robotics and autonomous systems are increasingly being deployed in the AEC sector.

As part of the project, faculty from the institution’s School of Architecture and School of Computing and Information Services will work together to develop a platform that will use virtual reality games to train workers through a personalized learning program. The learning tool is expected to focus on operational industrial robots, with learning delivery tailored for "differences in ability, experience, and sociocultural backgrounds."

The tool will see users asked to explain their decisions ...

Chicago unveils Climate Infrastructure Fund for nonprofits and small businesses

2022-12-28T17:31:00-05:00

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has announced a new grant program that aims to spur climate action across the city through nonprofit organizations and small businesses.

Designed in partnership with the Department of Planning and Development’s Chicago Recovery Plan Initiative, the Climate Infrastructure Fund will back renewable energy and energy-efficiency improvements in buildings, support the purchase of electric vehicles and installation of charging stations, and develop green infrastructure solutions to capture stormwater and reduce flooding. Applications for the grant will be evaluated based on climate mitigation and resilience factors, equity impact, and project readiness.

The $5 million Fund is part of a series of climate and environmental initiatives under the Chicago Recovery Plan, which was formed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The City of Chicago was granted $1.887 billion in federal funds to invest in the well-being of people and communities and drive economic recove...

UNC Charlotte’s architecture school to be renamed following alumnus donation

2022-11-28T13:11:00-05:00

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s School of Architecture is to be renamed the David R. Ravin School of Architecture following a donation from the school’s alumnus David Ravin. The donation, whose amount has not been disclosed, will be used to support students, pay for international studies, and finance university initiatives.

Ravin graduated from the school in 1994 with a BA in Architecture before attending the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today, he is the president and CEO of Northwood Ravin, a development, construction, and property management firm.

The new David R. Ravin School of Architecture sign. Image © Jacob Scannell/Courtesy of UNC and David R. Ravin School of Architecture.

David Ravin photographed during the Ravin School of Architecture Announcement Ceremony (2022). Image © Jacob Scannell/Courtesy of UNC and David R. Ravin School of Architecture.

"There is no right answer in architecture,” Ravin remarked at a ceremony ...

Getty Trust releases $1 million to help Ukraine's fight to preserve its cultural heritage

2022-11-09T16:50:00-05:00

A new $1 million grant from the J. Paul Getty Trust is being advanced to the International alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH) to ensure the protection of vulnerable cultural sites across Ukraine that have come under fire since the Russian Federation’s illegal invasion began in February.

The new round of funding helps support the existing Ukrainian Action Plan, which has so far allocated some $3 million towards similar projects in the country under threat from the war and impending winter chill.

UNESCO has thus far identified some 204 cultural sites (up from June’s figure of 139) that have suffered some amount of damage due to conflict. The monies will therefore be spent towards implementing climate-controlled storage methods and improving security measures at museums and other cultural institutions, deployment of “preventive conservation methods”, and preparation of stabilization methods for sites that could come under fire in the future.

Related on A...

Graham Foundation announces $338,000 in grants to organizations furthering architecture and design ideas

2022-09-13T13:42:00-04:00

The Graham Foundation has announced its annual list of organizational grants featuring a total of 36 recipients from around the world whose work furthers institutional goals to support the development and exchange of ideas about architecture and design.

This year's class included projects from a variety of organizations located in Buenos Aires, Colombo, London, New York, St. Louis, Toronto, Chicago, and elsewhere. Podcasts from the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation and the Society of Architectural Historians’ Race and Architectural History Affiliate Group were awarded alongside public presentations, exhibitions, and publications like Lucy Sante’s engrossing Nineteen Reservoirs and the forthcoming Cornelia Hahn Oberlander on Pedagogical Playgrounds from Concordia University Press.

New organizations such as Lesley Lokko’s African Futures Institute (the publishers of FOLIO), The Lower East Side’s a83 gallery, and the Buenos Aires-based Disponible were also included in a total all...

Tuskegee University's School of Architecture and Construction Science receives new annual $70,000 HBCU grant from Turner Construction Company

2022-09-09T12:36:00-04:00

Tuskegee University has announced the establishment of an HBCU grant program by Turner Construction Company to provide the school’s architecture, construction science and management, and engineering programs with $70,000 annually starting this fall.

The money will be used towards student tuition assistance, internships, financial support for travel, software, and equipment to benefit learning objectives and reciprocal teaching to support an interdisciplinary capstone project at The School of Architecture and Construction Science and Management (TSACS). Tuskegee University is one of eight HBCUs to receive professional development and training led by Turner through the company’s diversity manager and talent acquisition team.

“Turner's presence on campus will allow us to forge a lasting relationship that contributes to curriculum development and engage in real-world dialogues to accelerate our institution's growth efforts,” said Tuskegee University President Dr. Charlotte P. Morris. ...

49 arts institutions will receive much-needed clean energy grants through the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative

2022-08-22T09:00:00-04:00

A group of 49 arts institutions has been awarded a total of $3 million in clean energy grants as part of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s Frankenthaler Climate Initiative (FCI), now in its second year.

The Initiative is part of a larger $10 million effort being developed along with RMI and claims to be the largest grant-making program of its kind in the country.

“The first round of FCI’s funding helped museums actualize climate neutrality commitments, prepare for and respond to climate-driven disasters, and create avenues to achieve long-term operational sustainability, among other key goals,” the Foundation's Lise Motherwell explained. “This second phase expands our reach and impact by advancing current projects in development and providing a new roster of visual art institutions with the support needed to meet their climate goals.”

Among the greater New York area institutions awarded, the Storm King Art Center will receive $100,000 for photovoltaic panels and a building enve...

UT Austin's Materials Lab awarded $60,000 grant to reframe collection with focus on sustainable materials

2022-08-12T17:30:00-04:00

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture's Materials Lab and Interior Design Program have been awarded a $60,000 grant from the Angelo Donghia Foundation. The money will be used to reimagine how students learn about materials by reframing the Materials Lab’s existing collection to better highlight sustainable products.

Beginning this fall, two graduate students and one undergraduate interior design student will work closely with Jen Wong, Lecturer and Director of the Materials Lab, to restructure the initiative’s circulating library and digital databases. They will be tasked with employing industry-standard sustainability criteria and certifications from resources, including the Mindful Materials database, the International Living Future Institute, and Building Green, to develop a new classification system for the collection. It will highlight materials relating to circularity, embodied carbon, health and toxicity, and social equity.

“For the Interior Design Progra...

Graham Foundation announces $507,500 in grants to individuals working to advance the global discourse on architecture

2022-05-24T14:47:00-04:00

The annual round of Graham Foundation individual grants has been announced today in Chicago.

A total of $507,500 was given to 56 different projects, publications, exhibitions, films, and other intellectual endeavors from around the world that expand contemporary understandings of architecture, according to the Foundation.

This year’s projects offered a range of different voices utilizing a variety of new media. Catalina Mejía Moreno and Huda Tayob’s podcast “Architectures of the South: Bruising, Remembering, Repairing” was included along with publications like Lee Bey and Blair Kamin’s excellent new title Who Is the City For? Architecture, Equity, and the Public Realm in Chicago, and Marina Otero Verzier’s Evanescent Institutions: On the Politics of Temporary Architecture, among others.

Albert Brenchat-Aguilar’s exhibition “'As Hardly Found' in the Art of Tropical Architecture” for the Architectural Association in London was one of seven to receive recognition for their incisive an...

AIA awards research grants to five climate initiatives, from biodegradable structures to microgrids

2022-03-03T11:56:00-05:00

The AIA has announced the winners of the 2022 Upjohn Research Initiative, an annual grant which awards funding to research projects advancing sustainability in architecture. The 2022 edition sees up to $30,000 awarded to five research projects, with topics ranging from biodegradable structures to pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.

Each year, the grant recipients are chosen by a seven-member jury comprised of members from the AIA College of Fellows and AIA Board Knowledge Committee. Previous editions have seen projects focusing on envelope retrofit guides, 3D-printed formworks, embodied carbon calculators, and compressed earth blocks.

This year’s five recipients continue the theme of advancing the design profession’s knowledge and practice.

The first project, titled Architects and Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEBs): The Role of the Professio...

Graham Foundation announces 2021 Organization Grant recipients

2021-08-26T13:24:00-04:00

The Graham Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2021 grants to organizations. $471,500 was awarded to organizations around the world that are “producing projects that encourage new conversations and explorations across architecture and design,” as stated by the foundation.

45 projects, including exhibitions, publications, digital initiatives, and public presentations led by organizations based in cities such as Atlanta, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Chicago were recognized. The diverse array of projects includes exhibitions by the likes of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), along with public programming from Harvard GSD’s African American Student Union. Editorial projects and student-led publications like one’s from the Urban Design Forum and the Architectural League of New York and Rice University’s student-led publication, PLAT, were also included.

“Together, these organizations support the work of emine...

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund: More than $3 million in grants to sites and organizations announced

2021-08-24T19:29:00-04:00

On July 15, 2021, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced more than $3 million in grants to 40 sites and organizations through its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Over the past four years, the National Trust has funded 105 historic places connected to Black history and invested more than $7.3 million to help preserve landscapes and buildings imbued with Black life, humanity, and cultural heritage.

Grants were awarded across four categories: capacity building, project planning, capital, and programming and interpretation. Grantees include the Oakland Public Library, City of Sacramento, Indiana Landmarks, African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard, Save Harlem Now!, and Huston-Tillotson University.

Since the inception of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund in 2016, the effort has accumulated $50 million in funding, making it the largest preservation effort ever undertaken to support African American historic sites. This year’s announcement marks the largest single disbursement in the fund’s four-year history, made possible by a $20 million grant to the Action Fund by philanthropists MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett.

The full list of African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund grantees can be seen here.

Previously on Archinect: African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund receives $20 million grant from MacKenzie Scott as part of a $2.7 billion over...

The Judd Foundation's 101 Spring Street building is among the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation's first Climate Initiative grant recipients

2021-08-04T13:10:00-04:00

The Judd Foundation is getting a boost thanks to a first-of-its-kind grant from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s new Climate Initiative that will help the 25-year-old institution achieve its ambitious sustainable conservation goals over the next decade.

The foundation, located in the historic 101 Spring Street building, will put the grant money toward commissioning a study of its New York office’s energy use and mechanical systems. The Judd Foundation has been committed to maintaining both it and the organization’s Marfa campus at a great cost since the artist’s death in 1994 at age 65.

Donald Judd moved to the cast-iron building in 1968 as a budding minimalist sculptor and helped marshall in the image of SoHo as an arts district comparable to Montmartre or London’s Square Mile. Judd eventually came to disdain the commercialism created in the neighborhood created by the influx of the professionalized art world, which had begun its second wave transformation into a shopping cent...

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund receives $20 million grant from MacKenzie Scott as part of a $2.7 billion overall gift

2021-06-21T17:25:00-04:00

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has been awarded a $20 million grant from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott in an unprecedented move that will nearly double the amount of funding the organization has received since its inception in 2017.

Scott’s grant was announced in a Medium post she authored, which outlines some of her motivations for supporting causes with a progressive social agenda.

The donation is part of a larger $2.7 billion gift Scott and husband Dan Jewett gave to a variety of arts organizations with a focus on African diasporic cultural concerns, including the Souls Grow Deep Foundation and the Studio Museum in Harlem, which is currently undergoing a radical transformation at the hands of Adjaye Associates.

Holmes Hall at Morgan State University. Image courtesy Baltimore Heritage.

The money will allow the fund to pursue its stated goals of promoting a “national identity that reflects the nation’s true diversity...

Lever Architecture among recipients of the USDA's Wood Innovations Grant for material innovation and exploration

2021-05-14T12:50:00-04:00

Portland-based LEVER Architecture is known for its work with material innovation, specifically cross-laminated timber (CLT) and mass timber construction. Founded by Thomas Robinson in 2009, the practice has received much notoriety and was recognized as one of the Architectural League of New York's Emerging Voices in 2017. Since then, the practice has developed impressive mass timber projects and restorations such as the Oregon Conservation Center, Redfox Commons, and Albina Yard, their first US building made from domestically produced CLT.

Funding from the grant will aid the firm in its collaborative project Forest to Frame: An Architecture of Resilient Forestry. In partnership with Sustainable Northwest and Ecotrust, the project will be a web-based platform for "researching and tracking regional wood products that will meet the building industry's changing needs, as well as a tool to better understand the forestry practices associated with these products," shares the firm.

Redfox C...

Cocoon-shaped lamp made from plastic bags wins Pratt Institute School of Design 2020 Material Lab Prize

2020-08-26T20:00:00-04:00

The inaugural Material Lab Prize is an initiative that aims to foster the study of materials and material reuse. A $1k grant is given to the student that best exemplifies innovative ways to reuse and redesign waste. According to Pratt, "the prize seeks to celebrate and exhibit student work that re-envisions the design process and considers waste streams as a springboard for new design thinking."

"Cocoon" by Sophia Yimeng Sun. Image courtesy of Pratt Institute's Material Lab

This year's grand prize winner was awarded to Sophia Yimeng Sun (MID ’21) and her project "Cocoon." Sun used HDPE plastic bags to create pleated lampshades. She shares with Material Lab that the project, "reuses waste plastic bags, and provokes minds to contemplate how we deal with waste. I named this project COCOON, not only because it visually compliments a cocoon, but also the project is an homage to 'rebirth.'"

(L) "Homeware Using N...

MBB Architects offer employees travel grants to broaden cultural perspectives

2020-02-17T12:36:00-05:00

In an effort to expand cultural competency, Murphy Burnham & Buttrick (MBB) Architects has instituted its own private travel grant. Established in 2016, the Harold Buttrick Travel Grant offers one employee five days of paid leave and paid travel-related expenses to "[broaden] his or her understanding of architecture through a research project."

In a field so influenced by culture, it's not uncommon for students of architecture to take advantage of their institutional travel opportunities. Be it a study abroad program or even a fellowship opportunity for a recent graduate, these trips undoubtedly inform the cultural compass of the travelers who set out on them. Yet, when one enters the workforce, these opportunities become less of a reality.

"Offering this grant helps MBB expand our perspective and professionalism in ways that can only be achieved through experiencing architecture as it’s practiced in worlds other than our own. The research is brought back to the firm and shared wit...

MacArthur Foundation doubles high-stakes open call for $100 million proposals

2019-02-28T16:11:00-05:00

In June 2016, the MacArthur Foundation launched a high-stakes contest for an incredibly large grant. The big bet competition, called 100&Change, promised $100 million to whatever group could come up with the boldest idea for tackling one of the world's most pressing challenges.

The winning project saw Sesame Workshop teaming up with the International Rescue Committee in order to create mass media and direct services for refugee children that addresses their unique educational and emotional needs. Picked from over 1,900 applications, other proposals sought to tackle issues such as neonatal health, river blindness, malnutrition, the millions of uninsured Americans, and much more.

Proposals submitted by architects include Architects for Society's project for a rapidly deployable, dignified shelter for disaster relief; Gensler's and Skid Row Housing Trust's work on using prefabrication to deliver effective, streamlined solutions to homelessness; and Miller Design Group's approach to ...