Archinect - News

Asphalt Art Initiative expands pedestrian safety program to these 25 North American Cities

2023-11-14T15:53:00-05:00

Another round of funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies' Asphalt Art Initiative has been announced in an effort to improve the pedestrian safety of 25 different cities in North America.

Grants of up to $25,000 were awarded also in Mexico and Canada for the first time in the program’s history. This fourth round will bring the total number of cities impacted by the program to 90. The initiative says they chose from a field of 200 applicants, and that each selected project will be installed by the end of 2024.

Mexico City, San Francisco, Calgary, and Portland are among the larger metros of the group, which also includes smaller American cities like Stamford, Connecticut, and Anderson, South Carolina.

A 2021 Asphalt Art Initiative installation in Pittsburgh, PA. Lead artists: Tim Englehardt and Randi Stewart. Image: Sean Carroll

The latest grantees, divided into three respective categories, are:

"Improve a challenging intersection using curb extensions and other tools"

United States: An...

NYC rolls out new mass timber construction grant program

2023-10-05T13:02:00-04:00

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) has announced the launch of the New York City Mass Timber Studio in an effort to join industry leaders who are elsewhere raising the bar for the use of sustainable materials in the built environment.

The Studio is operated with support from the Mayor’s Office for Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) and has begun applications for its first round of $25,000 grant funds. The money will be allocated to design teams looking to conduct design, technical, and economic feasibility assessments for mass timber products.

The U.S. Forest Service (which had already invested in a separate industry-facing program using mass timber) and Softwood Lumber Board are also aiding in its operation, with technical assistance from WoodWorks and advisory support from the American Institute of Architects New York and the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB).

Victoria Cerullo, the Acting Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Envir...

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...

The ASLA Fund announces two winners for its Inaugural National Competitive Research Grants

2023-07-19T15:32:00-04:00

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) fund has just announced a pair of winners of its inaugural national competitive grants, offering a total of $25,000 to researchers working towards solutions to both climate change and the ongoing biodiversity crises in the United States.

"We help communities adapt to climate-driven extreme weather and support biodiversity,” ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen explained at the announcement. “The infrastructure challenges in municipalities across the country are enormous —landscape architects bring transformative solutions.”

Learn about the grant winners and their research below.

The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve: A Showcase of Eluethera's History, Native Plans, and their Medicinal Uses. Eleuthera, The Bahamas. Raymond Jungles, Inc. Image courtesy of ASLA.

Landscape Architecture Solutions to Extreme Heat
By Dr. Daniella Hirschfeld, PhD

"Dr. Hirshfeld will explore landscape architecture- and nature-based solutions that are effective at redu...

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...

Several museum expansions and design research projects among National Endowment for the Humanities grant recipients

2023-04-25T13:34:00-04:00

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced the awarding of $35.63 million in grants for 258 humanities projects across the United States. As with previous years, the 2023 edition of the grants includes funding for several architecture-related projects, including buildings and research.

Architectural projects to be funded include the William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, which will undergo a schematic design process for an expansion and renovation to its Rockland, Maine center. Meanwhile, the Shelburne Museum in Vermont will use the funding to design and construct a new Perry Center for Native American Art on its campus.

The Shelburne Museum, Vermont. Image credit: Flickr user Tolka Rover licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has received funding for preparatory architectural works for the renovation of a new Research & Learning Center at the Eckley Miners’ Village Museum in Weatherly, Pennsylvania, while the National Orn...

The ASLA calls on members to support new congressional funding for heat mitigation effort nationwide

2022-10-24T16:06:00-04:00

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is now soliciting support for a new congressional effort aimed at bolstering heat mitigation strategies in vulnerable communities across the country.

The bill, formally titled H.R. 7534, was introduced by Democratic Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego and would enhance the ability of landscape professionals to design solutions that will mitigate the effects of heat on urban areas across through the establishment of a new grant program to be administered by HUD and the EPA.

Project types that will be eligible for funding after the establishment of the new act include pavement cooling, shade structures, cooling centers, green roofs, drought-tolerant vegetation planting, and other techniques.

Earlier on Archinect: Op-Ed: A Unique Moment for Landscape Architects

Further technical assistance will be provided to communities that meet the criteria outlined in the bill’s Environmental Justice rider, with each applicant required to produce doc...

University of Oregon's College of Design awarded more than $16 million in federal funds to bolster timber application in construction

2022-09-19T15:14:00-04:00

The University of Oregon has been awarded more than $16 million in federal funds as part of a grant to the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition from the Build Back Better Regional Challenge.

A total of $41.4 million was awarded to the coalition by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. $24.6 million is heading to the TallWood Design Institute, a collaboration between Oregon State University and the University of Oregon that aims to advance mass timber construction and other wood product building approaches. Oregon State University will receive $8 million.

Previously on Archinect: Mass timber, clean energy, biotech, and Indigenous communities are among the biggest winners of the $1 Billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge

At the University of Oregon, the funds will be split between two programs in the College of Design, with $14.6 million going toward the Oregon Acoustic Research Laboratory and $2 million for an affordable housing prototype using mass tim...

New $3.1 million Conserving Black Modernism grant program announced by the Getty Foundation and National Trust for Historic Preservation

2022-09-19T14:37:00-04:00

The Getty Foundation together with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has announced the commitment of $3.1 million in the form of institutional grants to individuals and organizations that are working to preserve the legacy of historic modern architecture designed by Black architects nationwide.

Under the title Conserving Black Modernism, the two-year grant program, part of a larger $80 million effort overseen by the Action Fund, will support the documentation of 16 overlooked sites across the country while providing useful preservation training and storytelling resources to their future stewards.

The Getty says they are remiss at not including any works by one of America’s many underappreciated Black designers in its otherwise successful Keeping It Modern initiative and will look to address this absence with a new program that helps enshrine their contributions to what became the most defining architectural movement of the ...

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...

Mass timber, clean energy, biotech, and Indigenous communities are among the biggest winners of the $1 Billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge

2022-09-02T17:17:00-04:00

The Biden Administration has announced 21 winners of its $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge funded through last year’s American Rescue Plan and administered by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA).

Five-year capital grants ranging between $25 million and $65 million were awarded to transformative projects in 24 different states with demonstrated potential to rebuild regional economies, promote inclusive and equitable recovery, and create jobs.

The Brookings Institution today commented that the funding “represents a critical test for key assumptions of the broader Biden administration economic framework” and said it will critically deliver infrastructure investments with a mind for integrating marginalized groups and communities into the post-pandemic economic recovery nationwide. A survey of the projects seems to signal an interest in things like clean energy, advanced and next-gen manufacturing, biotechnologies, and a host of others...

Beverly Willis Architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright foundations among National Endowment for the Humanities grant recipients

2022-08-24T17:18:00-04:00

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently announced a broad-ranging program of new grants that totaled $31.5 million and were awarded to 226 projects across the United States.

Included in the list are a few architectural organizations and historically significant institutions that were identified by the NEH as helping to “preserve, examine, and share the country’s rich and expansive history and culture.”

One of the biggest winners was the New York-based Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, which received a total of $100,000 outright for their exploratory podcast series titled “New Angle: Voice — Pioneering Women of American Architecture,” wherein the impact of five great women architects are explored by executive director Cynthia Phifer Kracauer in information-rich half-hour segments that garnered some 40,000 listeners by the end of the first season. The series is sponsored by Knoll and SOM and produced by award-winning director Brandi Howell. Their Media Projects ...

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...

Woodbury University's Interior Design program receives prestigious $75,000 Donghia Foundation grant

2022-08-17T11:45:00-04:00

The Interior Design program at Woodbury University's School of Architecture has been awarded a $75,000 grant from the Angelo Donghia Foundation.

The Angelo Donghia Foundation is part of the renowned home furnishings company Donghia Inc., founded by the late American interior designer Angelo Donghia. The award will be used over the course of three years for a Senior Studio program for Interior Design students and help fund "fieldwork study expenses," allowing students to gain hands-on experience during their final year of study.

Materiality of Things. Student work by Woodbury University Interior Design student Anna Grubinski Ossyra.

"One of the promises of fieldwork is the potential to expand learning beyond the academic environment, synthesizing many types and modalities of education, and providing an active relationship between knowledge acquisition and knowledge content," shared Professor Heather Peterson, who will lead the grant and was also the writer of the grant proposal.

The...

A look at the Inflation Reduction Act’s potential impacts on the Landscape Architecture community

2022-08-16T12:45:00-04:00

A new report from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has outlined the potential impacts and trade benefits of the provisions included in the Biden Administration’s recently passed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, that is set to be signed into law in the coming days.

The $369 billion bill includes many grants and other types of funding for a host of green GSA-owned properties, Federal Highway Administration projects, and affordable housing developments. Over on the ASLA’s The Dirt blog, Roxanne Blackwell and Caleb Raspler broke down what it might entail for the landscape architecture community in separate practice and client areas.

Among the relevant provisions included in the overall package are:

More than $4.5 billion to be directed toward water infrastructure (dams, water treatment facilities, etc.). This includes the $4 billion in drought relief funds, another $15 million to "provide technical assistance for climate change planning, mitigation, adaptation, and r...

Inflation Reduction Act is ready to make climate impact on building sector

2022-08-15T12:37:00-04:00

Industry groups are applauding lawmakers after the passage of the Biden Administration’s recently proposed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, pointing to its more than $5 billion in provisions they say are “critical” to enacting climate change-related policies and modernizing transportation infrastructure across the United States.

Once implemented, the bill, officially titled H.R. 5376, will help incentivize the use and development of low-carbon building materials in government buildings as well as provide grants and other forms of funding that will aid in the country’s effort to match CO2 emissions mandates outlined in the Paris Agreement from 2015.

In a statement, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) president Peter Templeton commented that “the Inflation Reduction Act would put in place the most critical and consequential climate policies we have ever seen, and it would do so while reducing energy costs for American families and businesses and shoring up our energy security with a ...

FAA releases $1 billion in grant funding for much-needed U.S. airport upgrades

2022-07-25T13:43:00-04:00

A first of five rounds of airport infrastructure funding has been released by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the form of grants totaling $1 billion and intended to support the modernization and maintenance of facilities across the country.

Grants for terminal expansion and sustainability upgrades were awarded to a group of 85 airports as part of the Biden Administration’s bipartisan infrastructure spending package that will invest a total of $2 trillion into similar upgrades nationwide before the decade’s end.

“Americans deserve modern airports that meet the needs of their families and growing passenger demand,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. Indeed, the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s most recent 20-year Passenger Forecast indicated that overall air travel numbers are expected to increase to within 111% of the pre-pandemic levels in the next...

HUD is committing $365 million to help prevent homeless encampments. Will it be enough?

2022-06-22T18:27:00-04:00

In an effort to halt the actions of different major cities to sweep away homeless encampments in recent years, the federal government is now taking direct action in the form of two expanded grant programs it says have become necessary in the face of rising inflation and untenable rental markets.

Bloomberg is reporting that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has earmarked some $365 million worth of funding aimed directly at the country’s unhoused population it says currently numbers more than 550,000.

The funding is going to be provided through an expansion of HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) grant program and a new round of housing choice vouchers which add up to $43 million. It represents the first time that the agency has dedicated monies to directly aid those who are without shelter, and will address the related issue of rural homelessness with a special earmark of $54.5 million.

Previously on Archinect: A homeless encampment is growing on Apple's future N...

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...

The Architectural League announces 2022 Independent Projects Partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts

2021-10-20T12:15:00-04:00

The Architectural League of New York has announced a new pilot partnership with New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) that will help extend the latter’s Architecture + Design Independent Projects program as we approach the new year.

The grantmaking partnership will create opportunities for independent designers based in New York to “creatively explore or research an issue or problem in design fields, including architecture, landscape architecture, historic preservation, community-centered design, fashion, graphic, industrial, and interior design.”

Eighteen grantees in total will be awarded through the League following an application process that selects applications demonstrating a unique ability to “advance the design disciplines and contribute to a broader understanding of design, with an emphasis on artistry and design excellence.”

The grants will provide $10,000 for each project. Applications are due by early 2022. More information about the NYSCA program, including eligibi...

Cooper Hewitt and MAK Center among 19 Getty Foundation grantees

2021-07-14T20:20:00-04:00

Two design museums are part of a $1.55 slate of grants from the Getty Foundation that was announced by the institution yesterday.

New York’s Cooper Hewitt and West Hollywood’s MAK Center for Art and Architecture were among the nineteen grant recipients on a list that included projects at museums across the world.

The grants were part of a Getty initiative called The Paper Project that focuses on elevating cultural institutions whose holdings in prints and drawings are integral parts of their permanent collection and public program. Other winners included an examination of German expressionist printmaking put on by the Rifkind Center at LACMA, a digital census of Italian woodcuts before 1550 at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, and an exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that will explore the global inspirations of Black Arts movement leader Betye Saar.

MASS Design Group's Jeffrey Mansfield receives $50,000 grant for study into architecture for the deaf

2020-12-02T11:04:00-05:00

This week, Mansfield, a design director for MASS Design Group, was named a Disability Futures Fellow by the Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He’s one of 20 artists around the country to receive the $50,000 grant, a new initiative and the only national, multidisciplinary prize for creators with disabilities.

Born deaf, Mansfield, according to The Boston Globe, "plans to use the award to further his Deaf Space Archive research into how the designs of 19th- and 20th-century schools for the deaf contributed to societal perceptions of deafness as a pathology — and what that did to deaf students. He travels the country, learning stories of deaf education."

Harvard GSD uses Student Emergency Fund grants to support students impacted by COVID-19

2020-07-30T17:36:00-04:00

As institutions continue to respond to the direct effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have sought to implement new strategies for supporting students during this time of social and political unrest. Harvard GSD has announced a new emergency fund for current GSD students and 2020 graduates. The Harvard GSD Student Emergency Fund (SEF) will provide grant funding for those who have lost employment or internship opportunities due to the pandemic.

"The GSD raised almost $700k to support 227 summer research grants spearheaded by current and recent GSD students," shares a member of the GSD's communications team. Funded projects are said to focus on topics and work addressing the pandemic and racial equality issues. "The individual grants allow recipients to explore new avenues for academic and professional enrichment as they continue to consider the role of design research and practice in a rapidly evolving world."

An article published on the GSD blog explains that SEF grants went to i...

Getty Foundation awards 400 artists and 80 arts organizations $2.7 million in COVID-19 relief grants

2020-06-18T12:59:00-04:00

400 artists and 80 arts organizations have received $2.7 million in total grants as part of a broad-based COVID-19 relief effort for the visual arts in the Los Angeles region, the J. Paul Getty Trust and the California Community Foundation announced this week.

"The arts are a source of expression, resistance, and healing,” said Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation in a statement. "But our creative artists and arts organizations, who do so much to advocate for social change, will not survive this pandemic and its economic fallout if we don’t take action now to support them."

Organizations that received aid include the A+D Architecture + Design Museum; the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los

Angeles; Inner City Arts; LAXART; the Los Angeles Conservancy; the Vincent Price Art Museum Foundation; and the Women's Center for Creative Work, among others

Many artists and arts organizations have struggled due to the economic impact of COVID-19. The more than $2 million in eme...

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...

Design Museum of Chicago announces Design Impact Grant Program

2019-11-22T13:30:00-05:00

The Design Museum of Chicago, Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), and NeoCon have unveiled a new Design Impact Grant Program targeted at "elevating the visibility of Chicago's design legacy, assets, talent, and community, and at supporting civic good through design."

The Design Museum of Chicago website states that the 2020 award will include a "large-scale commissioned design installation on Chicago's Riverwalk," as well as a separate grant award and the opportunity to engage in associated programming alongside the museum.

According to the website, between two and four grants of up to $25,000 each will be awarded each year for "individuals and organizations using design or design principles to directly address pressing issues in Chicago communities."

Nominations are open to anyone who lives or works in the City of Chicago. Nominations are due December 31st, 2019 at midnight with applications for pre-selected entrants to be submitted between Januar...

Pratt's School of Architecture awarded IDC foundation grant

2019-08-24T15:00:00-04:00

The IDC (Institute of Design and Construction) Foundation has awarded Pratt Institute's School of Architecture with a $130,000 grant. This will be second year that the IDC Foundation has awarded the department with funding. According to a Pratt press release, the IDC's gift "continues to support enhancing education in architectural design, engineering, and building construction through scholarships and fellowships, and student experiences such as study abroad programs for undergraduate and graduate students. Twenty-four Pratt students have already benefited from their first year of funding."

The Institute is the one of five organizations in New York City to receive the grant from the IDC Foundation this year. Schools that have received grants this year include: Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; New York Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Design; New York University Tandon School of Engineering; and the Cooper Union for...

AIA announces four recipients of the Upjohn Research Initiative

2019-05-15T13:27:00-04:00

Supporting applied research projects that 'enhance the value of design and professional practice knowledge', The AIA Upjohn Research Initiative funds up to six research grants of $15,000 to $30,000 annually for projects completed within an 18-month period.

This year's grants recipients are:

Nexus between Sustainable Buildings and Human Health: Quantifying EEG Responses to Virtual Environments to Inform Design

Principal Investigators: Ming Hu (University of Maryland), Madlen Simon, AIA (University of Maryland)
Collaborators: Justin Benjamin, Assoc. AIA (Perkins + Will), Tim Bakos, AIA (Perkins + Will), Edward Bernat, PhD (University of Maryland)

The goal of this research project is to develop, test, and validate a data-driven approach using virtual reality and electroencephalogram technology for understanding the potential physiological influences of sustainable design features. In collaboration with an architecture firm and a neuroscience laboratory, the researchers propose technolog...