1. How will private support help you and your team achieve your collective vision for the School of Architecture?

As part of a public institution, at the School of Architecture, we think about service as a key part of our mission. Our students, faculty, and staff have a strong desire to make a positive impact in the world, and to do so by living a life guided by service. Our students are introduced to some of the most pressing challenges we are dealing with today in our society—from environmental degradation to threats to our democratic institutions, from the lack of affordable housing to inequities in health. As future designers, planners, and historians, they are helping understand, design, and steward our built and natural environments—and to create communities that are thriving. This leads them to careers that are purpose-driven and varied—ranging from professional roles in the nonprofit sector to the corporate world and small- to medium-sized practices, as well as those led by community-based or grassroots organizations.

Private support ensures that we can help our students realize their goals in making a difference in society by allowing them to seek out careers of their choice, driven by their values, without being crippled by debt. The hidden costs of higher education are also challenging for many of our students—the cost of materials, software, and supplies that are necessary for innovation in our disciplines. Through private support, we are working to ensure that all students at the School of Architecture are able to succeed by helping support those with high financial need with these hidden costs.

2. In your discussions with Architecture School alumni, what are your impressions of the school’s community?

The A-School alumni are an extremely tight-knit community with shared values and a strong commitment to the public good. Our alumni are doing incredible work as leaders across so many areas, from environmental policy and sustainability to community-engaged design and land stewardship. A-School alumni are also inherently transdisciplinary because of the ways in which our departments and disciplines across architecture, architectural history, landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design, real estate, and historic preservation work closely together. In this way, our alumni are not singular in their practice—defined as only an architect or only a planner. Rather, they have the capacity to engage with wider disciplinary knowledges that comprise complex projects in the professional world, and to work with others with a sense of humility and understanding.

In part, the close A-School community is created because of the academic experience that is a core part of the teaching model—working collaboratively in studios and seminars with each other, traveling and studying abroad together. This is central to the educational experience. So much of the curriculum is based on experiential learning, and this helps build strong lasting relationships among peers, and with faculty and staff. Many of our alumni have shared a deep sense of gratitude with me about what the A-School has given to them: lifelong friends, a thirst for learning, and a solid preparation to take on the challenges and opportunities they go on to experience in a variety of professional settings.

3. Your expertise in urban health, community development, environmental justice, and climate resilience aligns with goals in President Ryan’s strategic plan. How are we making progress in these areas at UVA and the Architecture School?

At UVA, we are at the forefront of so many of these issues, in part because of the clearly defined focus laid out by President Ryan and the University leadership around the Grand Challenges, which are addressing big, complex societal problems that require transdisciplinary innovations and investment. At the School of Architecture, in particular, we have many faculty who are part of two areas of strategic research identified through the Grand Challenges Research Investments, namely Environmental Resilience and Sustainability, and Digital Technology and Society.

Our faculty are working with government agencies, nonprofits, the private sector, and community-based organizations to study the impacts of coastal sea-level rise on the Eastern seaboard, of flooding in rural Virginia, of changes to the permafrost ground layers in the Arctic, and of the energy costs of building materials and construction. All of this work investigates not only the scientific but also the cultural and the aesthetic. At the A-School, we address the issues of climate change by looking at the socio-cultural, historical, material, and economic conditions that are situated based on specific places, and the individuals that comprise those settings.

In the area of Digital Technology and Society, we have faculty developing research on autonomous vehicles, data equity and sovereignty, and much more. My own research is currently being directed through a $26 million grant in partnership with five universities, and funded by the National Science Foundation, to address the challenges that the nation’s urban areas are facing that threaten livability, safety, and inclusion. This work focuses on urban streetscapes, neighborhood streets, sidewalks, and public spaces that are at the center of public and commercial life.