NAAB Architecture Program Report (APR) 2013 - Tulane School of ...

Tulane UniversityArchitecture Program ReportSeptember 2013Over the course of five years, this helped in guiding and explaining our direction during a time ofsignificant change within the School of Architecture. The current update involves a re-assessment ofwhere we are heading as an institution and addresses the question of where we want to be in fouryears and beyond.The Next Four Years – Dean’s Vision StatementI envision a School that will be recognized among the top ten programs in architecture, real estatedevelopment and preservation, and a national leader in social innovation and social entrepreneurship.We will accomplish this through a series of strategic steps that leverage our current strengths andfurther distinguish our programs at both graduate and undergraduate levels. By focusing on theessential role of “design thinking” and innovation while expanding our students’ range of consideration,the School will continue to be widely recognized as a leader in community engagement and as aprogram that increasingly exemplifies the extraordinary power of social entrepreneurship to create abetter and more engaged community. Key to this agenda is the way the School will continue toembrace excellence through diversity. We aim to have an intellectually, ethnically, racially, andgeographically diverse faculty with increasing diversity, including economic diversity among the studentbody as well. Issues of diversity connect directly to our relevance to contemporary society, in whicharchitects, preservationists, and real estate developers contribute their professional expertise.As a framework, we will uphold three primary concepts in our academic mission and in the values weinstill in our students:1. Educating students in the abiding cultural and social roles of architecture, preservation, andreal estate development by providing a well-rounded, humanities-based education withdiscipline-specific coursework;2. Preparing future professionals through continually assessed and updated coursework indesign, building technology, and professional concerns, with an emphasis on critical thinking;3. Instilling a sense of responsibility and ethical conduct through civic engagement.By upholding these three concepts, student work will be more fully recognized for its excellence, bothnationally and internationally. Faculty productivity and measurable influence will increase dramaticallyin various forms, including traditional academic scholarship, excellence in design and creative work,teaching, and locally-based community engagement and public service. The narratives describing thisprocess will be compelling tools in raising awareness and in attracting students to Tulane. New Orleanswill continue to be a major laboratory for the School’s work both in terms of pedagogical focus andtangible community engagement, and there will be increasing opportunities to explore issues beyondNew Orleans as well.In four years, the School will see a major expansion in resources to support the ambitions of studentsand faculty more vigorously. This will be the result of robust and sustained “development” efforts,including a Capital Campaign for Innovation and Tulane Sustainable Strategies totaling $30 million ormore. It is hoped that the Richardson Memorial Hall renovation and addition will be completed by 2018.This project will become an exemplar for our students and faculty as a learning laboratory that willinclude traditional functions of an architecture school and an added role as the symbolic center forinnovation and entrepreneurship under the rubric of Tulane Empowers. The project will also serve asroad map for other historic projects on Tulane’s campus and beyond, demonstrating ways to buildprogressively with ambitious, sustainable goals and with deep respect for a structure’s physical, historicand cultural significance.“Every time a student walks past a really urgent, expressive piece of architecture that belongs to hiscollege, it can help reassure him that he does have that mind, does have that soul.”Louis Kahn10