The Fall 2019 semester is well underway, mid-reviews are just around the corner, and application season for the 2020 school year is in full-swing. 

What could be better than taking some time off to take in provocative architecture and maybe rekindle your inspiration? To help set this mood, we have collected a handful of recently-opened architectural exhibitions taking place on university campuses across America. From archival drawings to digital images and the architecture of plants, there is a bit of something for everyone on display this semester at American schools of architecture. Take a look!

Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)

In California, SCI-Arc is showcasing Claude Parent: Visionary Architect in the school's Kappe Library. According to the SCI-Arc website, the exhibition highlights the work of iconic French "supermodernist" architect Claude Parent via "a full-scale ramp installation based on the architect's own oblique apartment interior." The exhibition also includes a series of never before seen original drawings, sketches, and photos of Parent's projects. The exhibition is designed by Laszlo Parent and Sara Benrahmoun and features items from the Claude Parent Archives.

The exhibition is presented in conjunction with the launch of a book by the same name highlighting this inventive legacy.

The exhibition is on view through February 23, 2020.

Princeton University

On the East Coast, Princeton University professor Sylvia Lavin has created a thought-provoking exhibition in the school's North Gallery that highlights trees in architectural drawings. The exhibition, titled Architecture Arboretum, focuses on how architects have interpolated trees into drawings as "linguistic signs, used them as objects of scientific observation, and eventually seized upon them as things to be designed." 

The exhibition text states: "The once unthinkable notion that trees are beings with interests of their own that process data about the world through distinct forms of representation has radicalized contemporary understandings of the environment. Architecture has more to learn from plant thinking than most disciplines, not only because architecture and trees share important features—the capacity to define space, produce climates, and shape the visual field—but also because trees perform architectural tasks in ways that care for the earth’s surface better than most buildings." 

The exhibition features curatorial design by Sylvia Lavin, exhibition design by Erin Besler, and graphic design by Ian Besler. 

The exhibition runs until January 21, 2020.

Washington University in St. Louis 

In the Mid-West, Washington University in St. Louis assistant professor Constance Vale has created an exhibition titled Decoys & Deceptions: Images of the Digital centered around the idea that "in the contemporary world, nothing we produce as architects is what it seems at face value," an observation that is explored through the myriad forms of digital representation present in architectural practice today. 

By examining complimentary concepts of "decoys" and "deceptions"—objects that share characteristics with images, and images that have the qualities of objects, respectively—Vale seeks to interrogate the ways in which architects translate information between images, object, spaces, and processes. The exhibition gathers a wide range of work from a variety of practitioners, each exploring the tension embodied by this translative process in their own unique way. Assembled works include projects by WOJR, NADAAA, FreelandBuck, P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S, Derek Hoeferlin Design, MILLIØNS, and Emiliano López Mónica Rivera Arquitectos, among many others. 

The exhibition is on view through November 16, 2019.

Harvard University

In New England, Harvard University Graduate School of Design architecture lecturer Malkit Shoshan has created Love in a Mist: The Politics of Fertility, a provocative exhibition that brings together "evolving narratives on the spaces and politics of fertility." The exhibition, according to the GSD website, was "triggered by the 'heartbeat bill,' which recently passed into law in states such as Mississippi, Kentucky, and Georgia to criminalize abortions from as early as six weeks into pregnancy," and in turn, seeks to explore "society’s quest to control women and nature, and the resulting environmental degradation."

Tying together the historical use of synthetic hormones in women's bodies, industrial efforts to artificially "super-size" livestock, and methods for enhancing fertility, the exhibition explores the spatial and environmental consequences of these efforts by examining abortion clinics, artificial wombs, court rooms, farmed landscapes, and swamps. 

The exhibition is curated and designed by Shoshan, founder of the practice Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory (FAST), and includes the work of a series of participating artists, activists, and designers, including: Atelier van Lieshout, Yael Bartana, Lori Brown, Desirée Dolron, Rebecca Gomperts, Bernie Krause, Tabita Rezaire, Women on Waves, Women on Web, Diana Whitten. 

Love in a Mist is on view through December 20, 2019.

University of Washington

In the Pacific Northwest, the University of Washington Department of Architecture is showcasing Sculpture on a Grand Scale: The Work of John V. “Jack” Christiansen. The exhibition highlights the career of the innovative structural designer who helped to bring some of the Pacific Northwest's greatest Modernist architecture buildings to life. 

Christiansen was a pioneer of thin shell concrete structures and helped to develop innovative, reusable formwork systems that helped make these structures a physical reality. Not only that, but Christiansen's research helped to push the limits of these technologies, increasing the spanning capabilities possible by thin shell concrete systems, an effort that culminated with the creation of Seattle's Kingdome, which spanned 660-feet and was built as the largest concrete dome span of its time. 

The exhibition is sponsored by the UW Department of Architecture, Docomomo WEWA, Structural Engineers Foundation of Washington, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, and 4Culture. It is on view through December 6, 2019.