So what did you do on Saturday night? Perhaps not your usual weekend evening activity, on 11.16.13, a formidable group of academics, administrators, and education enthusiasts assembled at the Center for Architecture to discuss, debate, and possibly provoke the state of architectural education at this moment in time.
Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, AIANY 2014 President, set the stage by welcoming attendees to the 9th annual Deans’ Roundtable. He took the time to set a backdrop of local and world events that have transpired in the last decade. He recalled the first of these roundtables when, in 2004, architecture was “brightly illuminated by post-9/11” issues: we were preparing for the new Bloomberg Administration; developments like Via Verde in the Bronx and Hudson Yards were only distant dreams; and the full impact of climate change and its potential for our profession had not yet been exposed – as it now has, post-Sandy. Finally, at that time the world was not yet 50% urbanized, an observation which precipitated the opportunity to announce his upcoming AIANY 2014 Presidential Theme: Civic Spirit, Civic Vision. Continue reading “Saturday Night Deans”