In the days since protests seeking justice for Black and African Americans who have died at the hands of police broke out around the country, a growing number of architecture schools have issued statements in support of this ascendant political and social movement. 

These statements come as professional and cultural architecture and design organizations, including the American Institute of Architects, National Organization for Minority Architects, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, also announce their support for these protests. 

Archinect recently published a stand-alone letter from Milton S.F. Curry, Dean of the University of Southern California School of Architecture, as well.

Additionally, Archinect has issued its own statement in support of these protest movements. 

Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning (GSAPP)

GSAPP Dean Amale Andraos published a letter to the school community highlighting the protest movement that includes the following passage:

"The recent tragic killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police, of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and far too many others, come on the heels of a pandemic that has devastated communities of color in disproportionate numbers—laying bare the enduring inequities that shape the built world, and life and death in it. Both crises have revealed how the right to breathe is determined unevenly according to race, and how cities, across the US and the world, are at the front lines of these struggles—for justice and accessible housing, for climate action and clean water, for mobility and resilient infrastructures. As architects, planners, preservationists, designers, developers, and educators—dedicated to imagining more livable, more supportive, more equal, more sustainable environments—this is a reminder that we must be persistent in eradicating the prejudice and intolerance that cuts across access to these environments in cities around the world."

The full statement can be read here.

The Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture

Chanin School of Architecture Director Nader Tehrani has penned a lengthy and personal message touching on his upbringing in Apartheid-era South Africa, Iran, and in America. 

A short section from the letter reads:

As we come to terms with the world with which we are confronted today, and what we have inherited after almost four years of the current U.S. administration, we are forced to face not only some of the more immediate ramifications of the daily toil it has unleashed, but how this moment is, in fact, connected to the many layers of history that inform it, and the many possible trajectories that await us as a result. 

Tehrani's full statement can be read here. 

Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning

Cornell AAP Dean Meejin Yoon issued a letter highlighting that "rather than 'seeking' a more just or fairer world — we need to work together to make a just and fair world (without any qualifiers)."

In part, the statement reads:

George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis is a painful reminder that the roots of racism remain deeply embedded in our society and systems. Police brutality and mass incarceration; the disproportionate number of deaths due to COVID-19 among communities of color; and unequal access to services and opportunities, are among the smoldering conditions that ignite and perpetuate what Coretta Scott King has called the "cycle of anger, fear, and violence." The American history we know and share is haunted by racism, and it comes in many forms—from slavery to Reconstruction-era discrimination; lynching, terror, and white supremacist fear tactics; residual and new forms of segregation; implicit and explicit bias in our systems; and the ongoing perpetration of hate-fueled brutality. Over the past few days, we have seen both peaceful protests call for justice, and cities burn with a message that the cycle of anger, fear, and violence is still with us. The legacy of racial violence and discrimination in all its forms must be called out and come to an end. Here and now.

The full message from Dean can be read here. 

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Harvard GSD Dean Sarah M. Whiting issued a statement asking students to "consider how the work we do as designers impacts how we live together." 

Whiting writes: 

The death of a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis has resurfaced a national conversation about race in America. His murder, coupled with other racially charged occurrences this week, has reminded us that race textures the American experience. As a community of shared values, the GSD strives to recognize diverse perspectives and experiences, and to create spaces for them and their stories; this is an integral part of our mission as a design school. I asked our graduates yesterday to go out and lead the conversations that unite us as global citizens. This conversation happening right now across the country is one that needs all of our voices, and needs it now.

Dean Whiting's full statement can be found here.

NewSchool of Architecture & Design

Denise Dezoltz, PHD, Interim President & CAO of the New School of Architecture & Design in San Diego, published a brief statement regarding the ongoing protests and police killings that reads:

"As a community that is human-centered by design, our commitment is to ensure that everyone feels safe, respected, and welcome – that they know they belong and matter. We support the dignity and respect of all people, and our diversity is our greatest strength"

For the full text, see here.

Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)

SCI-Arc Director Hernan Diaz Alonso issued the following statement via Twitter: 

It is an impossibility to capture the pain of this moment alone. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and countless others must never be forgotten, and justice for their unjust deaths served. We are not teachers today, but students. We must listen to learn; to confront our shortcomings; to reflect and grow—ultimately it is our responsibility to translate that knowledge into action toward real, systemic change in this world. We are listening, we hear you, and we pledge to do better.

Tulane University School of Architecture

Tulane University School of Architecture Dean Iñaki Alday published a statement commenting on the protests, as well. 

The statement includes the following passage:

We, at Tulane School of Architecture, demand justice and accountability, urgently now. And we demand long-term justice and equal opportunities for black and other underserved communities. We demand healthcare and do not accept that black Americans bear double the mortality rate from COVID-19 than their white neighbors. We demand the end to racially assigned poverty and unfair incarceration. Systems rooted in racism and oppression are the source of these injustices, and each one of us has the power – in both large and small ways – to rectify these systems through our words and actions.

Dean Alday's full statement can be found here.

University of Detroit - Mercy

University of Detroit - Mercy School of Architecture Dean Dan Pitera published a statement on the school's website that reads in part:

The names George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor may be new, but we have unfortunately seen this before. This is what drives my fear, because I am fairly certain that things will “go back to normal,” and the majority of our society will view it as an exception, while remaining blind to the systems that remain unchanged, which caused these violent acts in the first place. This “normal” that some people want to return to is a normal where our black and brown neighbors live in perpetual fear of violent actions against them or their families. They live with daily injustices that continue to reduce, marginalize and oppress. We at the School of Architecture must not just stand together, we must work together; Not only now, but always.

The full statement can be read here.