In mid-March the architecture program of Tuskegee University—the historically black university founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881—earned accreditation for the period January 2008 through 2011. The decision comes after the National Architectural Accrediting Board revoked Tuskegee’s accreditation in 2006, the first such occurrence in NAAB’s 69-year history. NAAB executive director Andrea S. Rutledge says that, in general, revocation is contingent upon “a perfect storm of problems in some combination of physical resources, financial resources, human resources, and information resources, from which you often see corresponding problems in students’ ability to achieve the prescribed level in the student performance criterion.”
Architects in Nevada are placing their bets on a campaign aimed at steering much-needed stimulus package money toward design work in the state. The Nevada chapter recently launched an initiative to convince state lawmakers to substitute shovel-ready projects with “pencil-ready” ones. Chapter leaders have so far met twice with state legislators in Carson City, educating them about the long-term effects of focusing on short-term projects, says Sean Coulter, AIA, principal at Las Vegas-basd Pugsley Simpson Coulter Architects. In Las Vegas, where Coulter is chapter president, he says unemployment rates for architects are topping 50 percent as the commercial market slows
When Mark Baker started his small Albuquerque, New Mexico, firm, Baker Architecture + Design, in 2002, he focused on small-scale projects: home additions, kitchen remodels, garages, and the like. In more recent years, Baker’s work has grown to include restaurants, spas, high-end custom homes, and elementary schools for Albuquerque’s public school system. Then the recession hit. “We had three big projects canceled at the same time,” Baker says. “February was horrible. We didn’t have any jobs that month.” Image courtesy RNL Design RNL Design has found a 'safe haven' in government work. One of the firm's current projects is a
The ideas competition, featured in a January 21 story in RECORD, drew 75 entries from around the world. The brief, which asked entrants to “rethink the relationship between transit systems, public space, and urban redevelopment,” was inspired by both the federal stimulus program and Measure R—a half-cent sales tax increase in Los Angeles County that promises to provide $40 billion for transit-related projects in the next 30 years.
The AIA’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) has announced its Top Ten Green Projects for 2009. Among them are a nature center, a k-12 school, and the headquarters for an animal-advocacy group.
The U.S. General Services Administration recently announced the recipients of its 2008 Design Awards, a biennial program intended to showcase the best examples of federal government architecture.
A public architecture school that for decades struggled with a chronic lack of funding has walked away with a historically large gift. On April 2, the School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape at the City College of New York received a $25 million donation from Bernard Spitzer, a well-known city real-estate developer. Spitzer, who graduated from City College in 1943 with an engineering degree, also is the father of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned last year in the wake of a prostitution scandal. Photo courtesy City College The School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape at
The Architectural Billings Index (ABI) rose to 43.7 in March, up from 35.3 in February. It’s the first time the score has landed above 40 since last September. The inquiries score, which in February was 49.5, climbed to 56.6. Graph courtesy AIA The index, one of the profession’s leading economic indicators, reflects a nine- to 12-month lag time between architectural billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects produces the index based on surveys sent to architecture firms. A score above 50 indicates an increase in billings, and below 50, a decrease. In January, the billings score dipped to
On April 14 Lonnie Bunch, director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (AAHC), announced the selection of Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup to design the museum’s freestanding building on the National Mall, in Washington, D.C. The winning team, comprising The Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates, Davis Brody Bond, and SmithGroup, was part of shortlist of six teams announced on January 29. The finalists’ proposals for the museum design were unveiled at the Smithsonian Institution Building, also known in Washington as the Castle, on March 27. Images courtesy Smithsonian / Imaging Atelier A team comprising The Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates,
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