The University serves Virginia, the nation, and the world by preparing responsible citizen-leaders; advancing, preserving, and disseminating knowledge; and providing world-class patient care.
All gifts of any kind help secure the University’s place as a premier institution of learning and make it possible for our students, faculty, and researchers to shape a brighter future.
You can give to all 12 schools across Grounds. The possibilities are endless for supporting our students, faculty, and programs. Together, we will find the way forward.
You can join the growing number of alumni and friends who invest now in the University’s future by including UVA as a beneficiary of their wills, charitable trusts, and retirement plans. Gifts like these can offer you and your family significant tax benefits as well as greater financial flexibility in meeting your personal and philanthropic goals.
The Honor the Future campaign, the largest in University history, concluded in 2025, thanks to thousands of loyal supporters. Its impact on students, faculty, facilities, and research reaches across Charlottesville, Wise County, and Northern Virginia as it continues to advance the school in its third century of service to the commonwealth, nation, and world.
We are driven to make the world a better place through design excellence and research that addresses the complex issues of our day and creates a positive future for all.
With your help we’ve raised
0 from 0 donors
+
The School of Architecture surpassed its $65 million campaign goal, raising over $77 million through the generosity of over 4,800 distinct donors. The campaign’s success has led to significant philanthropic impact to support the school’s mission across academics, research and service. Notably, over two dozen named funds were created for student aid, including new undergraduate scholarships, travel awards for independent research, and graduate-level fellowships. The first named professorship in real estate was established: the H. Louis Salomonsky Professorship in Real Estate.
Building on the legacy of the Vicenza and Venice programs, the first education abroad programs established at the University of Virginia nearly 50 years ago, the campaign has helped to significantly enhance international education offerings in Veneto, including establishing a faculty director, solidifying partnerships across the region, and supporting students through dedicated study abroad scholarships.
Donor support has amplified the capacity for the school’s faculty to develop significant scholarship and research, notably in the areas of cultural landscapes, preservation, nature-based infrastructure, community-engaged design, environmental resilience, sustainable materials and advanced fabrication. This transformational impact underscores the unwavering commitment of the School of Architecture’s community to shaping the future of design education at UVA and beyond.
Planning for Climate Resilience
Nishat Tasnim Maria brings global insight and local focus to community planning, supported by two awards that advance her work on climate adaptation and indigenous knowledge in coastal Bangladesh.
Nishat Tasnim Maria (Arch ’25) Audrey Spencer-Horsley Scholar, recipient of the Fanzone Travel Award
As a self-described “urban research enthusiast,” Nishat Tasnim Maria joined the Master of Urban and Environmental Planning (MUEP) program to further her knowledge in community planning, sustainability, and equity. After completing a Bachelor in Urban and Rural Planning from Khulna University in Bangladesh, Nishat was selected to be part of the GCRF Centre for Sustainable, Healthy, and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC) project at Khulna University as an early career researcher. Like alumna Audrey Spencer-Horsley, the namesake of the scholarship she was awarded, Nishat’s focus is on neighborhood development and community planning. In support of her goals, Nishat also received the Fanzone Travel Award, established to support research travel to perform a summer independent study with a focus on the use of indigenous materials, local construction and fabrication practices. Her research investigates the impact of climate-induced challenges on coastal communities in Koyra, Bangladesh, focusing on social infrastructure and indigenous knowledge.
Navigating Design
“Creating elements to better the lives [of those with disabilities] should be the central theme of the design, as opposed to an afterthought.”
Nola Timmins (Arch ’26) Access Fellow for Universal Design +
Nola Timmins joined the Master of Architecture program at UVA in fall 2024 and received the Access for Universal Design Fellowship. As an undergraduate, she completed a research project focused on universal design that explores ways to incorporate senses other than vision into the design process. She plans to continue her research in this area, and eventually focus on designing homes for individuals with disabilities without sacrificing spatial and experiential quality. She explained, “Creating elements to better the lives [of those with disabilities] should be the central theme of the design, as opposed to an afterthought…” At the TEDx Youth Conference (2020) she presented “Finding Light in the Dark,” sharing her experiences as a legally blind student navigating a design program and elaborating on the role vision plays in architecture. She is one of only three legally blind students pursuing an architecture degree in the United States.
Tradition and Transformation
“Our programs in Venice and Vicenza exemplify the school’s core values, exploring the challenges of the future through the design, research, and analysis of these contemporary and historical landscapes, cities, and buildings.”
William Sherman Mario di Valmarana Professor in Architecture; Director of the Valmarana Center for Studies in Venice and Vicenza
An architect and educator, William (Bill) Sherman examines dynamic cultural and environmental processes in architectural design, ranging in scale from human physiology to global energy flows. His work explores the intersection of these processes with the cultural frameworks that inform the design of buildings and cities, with a particular focus on emerging spaces for creative engagement and institutional transformation. He is currently the Director of the Valmarana Center for Studies in Venice and Vicenza. In this role, and as the named Mario di Valmarana Professor, Sherman had led recent teaching and research associated with the school’s historical Veneto programs, established nearly 50 years ago. This effort includes a focus on Venice’s unique position as a water city, a model for innovative urban design and planning across the globe.
In his former role of Associate Vice President for Research in Design, Arts and Humanities, Sherman founded OpenGrounds, a network of places and programs at UVA that inspire creative research at the confluence of technology, science, the arts and humanities. He designed both the spaces and programs of OpenGrounds to serve as catalysts for cross-disciplinary research collaborations and new institutional partnerships that inspire the conception, development and implementation of transformational ideas.
Changing the Future of History
“History is vulnerable. People holding it in their heads are dying, and we’re losing the stories and meanings behind a place.”
Andrea Roberts Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning; Faculty Director of the Center for Cultural Landscapes +
Dr. Andrea Roberts is a planning historian, theorist, public humanities scholar, place preservationist and educator. She is also the founder of The Texas Freedom Colonies Project, a research & social justice initiative documenting placemaking history and grassroots preservation practices in the African Diaspora and currently serves as Principal Investigator on the Mellon-funded Out(sider) Preservation project. This 3-year, $3M initiative supports descendent-led projects that preserve Black placemaking, freedom-seeking, migration, and placekeeping heritage through creative storytelling. Roberts trains future planners and preservationists to move marginalized communities’ histories, ontologies of place, methods, and agendas from the edge to the center of practice and policymaking. Her “place preservation” framework creates applied research solutions which address access, visibility, and systemic and structural barriers to inclusion within preservation planning through engaged research. Transdisciplinary in nature, Roberts works with critical theories of development, planning, human geography, gender and diaspora studies to help bridge grassroots and formal planning. Her engaged research raises awareness of the entrenched racial biases impeding documentation, recognition, and preservation of historic Black settlements’ cultural assets. Roberts is also Director of UVA’s Center for Cultural Landscapes, an interdisciplinary center that produces research on and creates new models of innovative cultural landscape stewardship and critical perspectives on placemaking.
Whether or not we acknowledge it, design is an integral part of our daily lives.
The Marsh Family Blue Ridge Scholarship will broaden opportunities for students to pursue a degree in the School of...
Bill Ryall (Arch ’77) recalled the summer he spent in the Veneto region with fellow graduate students from the...
The goal of The RAFT project is to help Virginia’s coastal localities improve resilience to flooding and other coastal...
Five Questions with Malo Hutson, Dean and Edward E. Elson Professor at the UVA School of Architecture
Student-led design research results in an innovative wood sustainability project of beautiful proportions.
