Architecture for Education

We ended the year on a high note with a tremendously informative Community Schools Workshop on October 14, 2022! Thanks to Bruce Levine, Clinical Professor, Drexel University School of Education and Sean O’Donnell, K-12 Practice Leader at Perkins Eastman, and their colleagues, for sharing their ongoing research on Community Schools with us through this facilitated panel discussion. Community school partnerships with a variety of organizations (health, food access and nutrition, and social emotional learning/support) in both rural and urban contexts were discussed and we came away with many valuable insights on school design in general. 

Our July committee meeting was joined by Jared Giles, Director of Workforce Development Initiatives BNYDC and Kayon Pryce Founding Principal Brooklyn STEAM Center to discuss the Brooklyn STEAM Center located within the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Dr. Christopher Emdin shared his forthcoming project with the Lincoln Center Collider Project, an interdisciplinary R&D lab in the performing arts. The pilot class includes ten phenomenal fellows who are “colliding” and collaborating on work which spans opera, DEI, artificial intelligence, and beyond. Dr. Christopher Emdin is in the process of designing a virtual and in-person intervention for classroom spaces in K-12 settings.

More information on Dr. Emdin’s work here.

Parke Rhoads, Principal of Vantage Technology Consulting Group led our committee meeting discussion on the topic of  “Technology, Futurism, and the Learning Experience in 2030”

The two articles (links below) synthesize both the broad over-arching (e.g. institution-wide) and “in-the-trenches” classroom (e.g. instructor and learner specific) perspectives for how our experience with technology during the pandemic may transform the design of the learning environment in the future. The two articles we shared in advance of our meeting and guided the discussion around the following themes:

• The Disruption-Adaptation Model (React, Survive, Innovate): Case studies into stories from the frontlines of academic technology
• Futurism: The themes and forces will factor into the next horizons, and how these factors may forecast the learning experience of 2030
• Experience Design: What new tools and stakeholders are coming to the rescue, and how the professional designer could leverage these to lead the innovation

How Can the Historic Sense of an Agora Be Captured in Virtual Learning Spaces?
Learning Spaces Collaborative, November 2020
https://www.pkallsc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/LSC-Zoom-Roundtables_Agora-Essay.pdf

Hot Trends and Topics in Higher Ed Technology
High Profile Magazine, September 2020
https://www.high-profile.com/hot-trends-and-topics-in-higher-ed-technology/

Event Recording –> Tokyo – NYC Design Share: Reflections on School Design Beyond COVID-19

Carlos Talero led our committee meeting discussion on the topic of  “Negotiating Historic Preservation Reviews with the Demands of a K12 School Program”. In many cities, historic preservation or landmarks review boards have become an important tool for neighborhoods to help preserve their character and important historic buildings. However, this process is often opaque. Carlos Talero discussed a case study of navigating this process, and how architect’s can help K12 clients achieve their design and programmatic goals while selling K12 projects as an asset to the neighborhood.

The Architecture for Education Committee closed out 2020 with a cheers and hope for a brighter 2021. While we typically meet in person for this event, all committee meetings remain virtual at this time. If you are interested in learning spaces from K-12 thru Higher Education, please join us! We are continuously adding new voices to the conversation.

For many NYC school children, lunch in their public school cafeteria may be the only nutritious, hot meal they receive each day. The importance of this meal on mental wellbeing has been reinforced, as schools closed due to COVID-19 restrictions but continued to deliver meals to students in need. At odds with the essential nature of this issue is the fact that providing a hot meal through a commercial kitchen has been identified as a barrier for designers to drastically reduce energy consumption in school facilities.

This panel discussed the delivery of school lunches and how designers can balance the need for energy consumption reductions in schools while supporting nutrition and mental health for students through programming, policy, and design.

Event Recording –> Reducing Energy Consumption in School Cafeterias While Supporting NYC Students

Speakers:
Karen Karp, President, Karen Karp & Partners
Jeffery Rios, PE, LEED AP, Partner, AKF
Elizabeth Liu, MPA
Dina Sorensen, Assoc AIA, LEED AP BD + C, Co-Chair, AIA Committee on Architecture for Education, Research Subcommittee

Since March, our committee has shifted to a virtual environment, focusing our efforts on sharing resources and facilitating structured conversation on the pandemic’s impact on our local NYC education ecosystem. The COVID-19 pandemic has acutely exposed inequities in access to education in our local NYC communities and we are committed to shining a spotlight on these topics and creating a forum in which we as designers come together to seek solutions to our built environment.

The following is a review of our recent committee meetings:

• April 01, 2020–Roundtable -“COVID-19 current state”
• May06, 2020–Roundtable -“How do we move forward -Sept 2020?”
• June03, 2020–Roundtable -“Impact to school design going forward?”
• July 01, 2020–Roundtable –“Equity and Access to Education for Underserved Communities”
• July 29, 2020–Panel Talk–“Helping NYC Return to the Classroom”

We plan to continue this series in September and October to examine lessons learned from initial school openings, necessary shifts in protocols, and further design implications. Our meetings are open to all and we welcome new voices and perspectives to these important conversations.

Please reach out to us if you’d like to join our monthly meetings!

The Architecture for Education committee convened for a special meeting in July. This panel included presentations and a discussion on how architects are assisting NYC schools return to the classroom. Three architects presented recently developed case studies and discuss the challenges and opportunities for implementation.

Panelists:
Lubrano Ciavarra Architects, Anne Marie Lubrano and Lea Ciavarra
MBB Architects, Sara Grant and Jean Li
Mitchell Giurgola Architects, Paul Broches

Content from this presentation and other committee efforts related to COVID-19 school resources can be shared upon request. Please reach out to us to join the conversation!

Mounting research shows that older adults and adolescents benefit from intergenerational educational activities. Older adults are the fastest growing age group in New York City, and children 18 and under account for 25% of the city’s population.

This panel was a collaboration between the AIANY Design for Aging Committee and our Architecture for Education Committee. We brought together professionals who presented their work in the field of intergenerational education, with an emphasis on the role of architectural design in fostering these activities. The diverse panelists have worked on projects including public libraries, intergenerational communities, university-level research, and programs helping adults learn technologies to live better in the digital age in an intergenerational setting.

Panelists:
Arthur Chang, AIA, Senior Project Architect, NADAAA
Matthew Kaplan, PhD, Professor, Intergenerational Programs and Aging, Penn State University
Margaret Sullivan, Principal, Margaret Sullivan Studio
Joyce Weil, PhD, Curriculum Manager, Older Adults Technology Center (OATS)

Moderator:
Miriam Sitz, Senior News & Web Editor, Architectural Record

Thank you for everyone who was able to join the AIANY Architecture for Education Committee for a roundtable discussion on the evolution of student housing in New York City.

The program presented three project examples: a recently completed new building at Pratt Institute, a series of phased renovations at New York University, and a project currently in design at Columbia University. The conversation focused on each institution’s specific student profile and how the programming and planning of the project responded to student needs within the context/constraints of New York City living.

Roundtable Participants:

Kimberlae Saul, AIA, Director of Planning, Design & Construction Pratt Institute
Carisima Koenig, AIA, Principal, Perkins Eastman; Co-chair, AIANY Professional Practice Committee
Kate Baier, EdD, Executive Director – Residential Life, New York University
Juan C. Matiz, AIA, LEED AP, Principal, Matiz Architecture and Design
Gwendolyn Conners, AIA, Principal, 1100 Architect
Michael Fierle, AIA, Associate, 1100 Architect
Joyce Jackson, Former Executive Director of Undergraduate Housing, Columbia University

Moderator:
Frances Fox, AIA, Associate Vice President, CannonDesign; Co-chair, AIANY Architecture for Education Committee

Each December, the Architecture for Education Committee gathers to celebrate and reflect on a year of good work. We look forward to 2020 – conversation, design ideas, and advocacy in education. Join us!

The Pre-kindergarten through Grade 12 (P-12) Schools Initiative – Benchmarking Program is available to provide up to three years of free energy benchmarking services to eligible schools. Benchmarking is a mechanism to measure, track and assess a building’s utility, greenhouse gas, cost, and energy metrics over time or compare to other similar buildings. Benchmarking will help schools better understand their energy use, identify inefficiencies, maximize energy performance, and support financial planning and budgeting.

Participating schools will receive ongoing assistance from the Program’s Benchmarking Consultants and will have their utility data entered in the Program’s Benchmarking Tool every six months to determine trends specific to energy usage, water usage, greenhouse gas emissions, and utility costs. Schools will receive benchmarking reports outlining these trends through metrics, visuals, and graphics to help them understand how their building performs over time. An optional Operational Assessment is available for eligible schools interested in receiving building-specific energy and cost-saving recommendations.

To submit an application, schools are required to meet general eligibility requirements. See more information about the Benchmarking Program and upcoming webinars here.

Each July, the Architecture for Education Committee hosts a tour of a recently opened project in NYC. This year we toured the NYU Special Collections library located within Philip Johnson’s Bobst Library. The tour was led by the CannonDesign team and included the newly renovated 2nd floor of the library with dedicated classrooms, gallery, reading room, and offices for the NYU Special Collections.

If you have a project that you’d like to share, please reach out to committee co-chairs to coordinate a presentation or a tour.

The AIA announces initiatives to address school violence. For more information visit the links below:

Architect Magazine 

Where we stand: School Design and Student Safety 

AIA Press Release 

Sign the “Power of Design” petition here, and spread the word.

Architecture for Education Committee Meeting, June 6th.

Thanks to everyone who was able to attend the Committee’s  last meeting. If  you were not able to attend, or if you would like a copy of the presentation; you can download a copy by clicking here: HERA_AIA NY Presentation

AIA Knowledge Net, Committee on Architecture for Education: https://network.aia.org/committeeonarchitectureforeducation/home

Are you interested in helping with tours for the AIA conference? Please contact Cathy Lang Ho at a_18@aiany.org.

School Safety Discussion National CAE:
https://network.aia.org/committeeonarchitectureforeducation/ourdiscussiongroup

NYSAIS: https://www.nysais.org

NAIS: https://www.nais.org

SCUP: https://www.scup.org