The Tulane School of Architecture has received an anonymous $2.91 million gift to help establish a new Center on Climate Change and Urbanism. 

The cornerstone donation will be put towards supporting five years of research initiatives as well as new faculty and fellowship positions for an emerging cohort of climate-focused scholars housed within the School of Architecture community. 

Dean Iñaki Alday says it will concurrently "provide our students with hands-on learning opportunities that prepare them not only to excel as architects and design professionals but also to grapple with a crisis that will increasingly dominate the 21st century."

Tulane reiterates that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will continue to be the main focus of the school’s climate-related activities. The university's Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research will also play a role as part of ancillary projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Design studios created to test new models for climate adaptation and mitigation complete the final part of the equation. 

Earlier this year, the school also launched a new graduate dual Landscape Architecture and Engineering program.