Greetings from Vol Walker Hall … I happily correspond from the school’s interior, after the last 16 months of remote, hybrid and online teaching and learning. We are planning for our return to campus this summer and preparing for in-person, on-campus education this coming academic year. This issue of ReView reflects the past year, and any view in that direction is conditioned literally and figuratively by the face shield shown on the cover, and the implicit presence of face masks, social distancing measures, and more recently, by the university’s ordered and comprehensive approach to health care and vaccinations. As a school, we responded to the pandemic with care for our students, faculty, staff and alumni, and with tangible community outreach. Our fabrication workshops staff produced hundreds of face shields and collaborated with others on campus to produce ventilator boxes. While we reorganized studios and classrooms for socially distanced teaching and learning, our faculty and staff also pivoted swiftly to remote work modes, retooled their digital delivery skills, and worked tirelessly to support our students, attempting to transcend the limitations of Zoom and Teams meetings. We also reconceived our entire approach to Design Camp, converting the in-person experience to 25 YouTube episodes. Even while in remote or hybrid modes, the school continued its growth and demonstrations of quality in education. We began fall 2020 with an alltime enrollment high of 740 students, with all three departments experiencing record growth. Our Master of Design Studies graduate program has 15 students enrolled for fall. We celebrated what would have been Fay Jones’ 100th birthday in January, with a virtual event of real poignancy, and held a John Williams Fellowship “toast” online to celebrate the school’s founding leader. As well, our faculty and students continued to excel in their work and be recognized for their accomplishments, service and advocacy. This issue of ReView provides insight into these aspects of the school’s life. As we navigated the public health crisis in this last year, we also worked to address both the immediate and long-term issues of social and racial justice so tragically demonstrated by events across the country. A dedicated working group of faculty and staff quickly formed last summer and brought forward an all-school “design for diversity and equity plan,” intensifying efforts in our recruitment of students and faculty of color, in acknowledging Indigenous peoples and racial justice issues in our culture and outlook, and in the school’s long-term commitment to building more diverse, equitable and inclusive architecture and design practices. Emerging from the confluence of both focus
Wesley Hitt
DEAN’S VIEW
areas, our lecture series shifted to virtual delivery with a declared emphasis on presenting speakers giving voice to questions of diversity and equity in practice and in education. We know that there is much more work to be done in these regards, and that it will never be sufficient, but we have made a strong beginning and continue with commitment. These emphases in the school’s culture derive from the ethos that architecture and design, in their highest conception, are concerned not only with ideals of beauty, but ideals of the greater good for society. Increasingly, our students request from their education a deeper, more meaningful presentation and understanding of their potentials in architecture and design, in a world of multiple, complex challenges. In this, the ideal of “design excellence” must be a laminate of aesthetics and ethics, of advocacy and service, of citizenship and professionalism. We look ahead to the coming year, with this compass for guidance. The upcoming 75th celebratory year of architecture and design programs at the university will provide us many opportunities for reflections back and outlooks forward. We anticipate breaking ground in January 2022 on the Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation, now finishing schematic design by the Grafton Architects/Modus Studio design team. We will be announcing both virtual and in-person celebratory events, and will hope to greet all of you in the spirit of a glad return and an optimistic forecast. Thank you all for your continuing commitment to the school and to our mission. Sincerely,
Peter MacKeith, dean and professor Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design
ReView: Spring 2021
