Affordable Housing Initiative Fund

Wooden structures created by freshman architecture students as part of a yearlong design-build studio are on display at Artpark in Lewiston.

Provide support for designing and building affordable housing prototypes through this fund.

Although the City of Buffalo has experienced a resurgence, it has inadequate high-quality housing that is affordable to a significant portion of its population. Like many cities, affordable housing in Buffalo has been heavily dependent on the availability of investments through low-income housing tax credits, the future availability of which is uncertain.

The Affordable Housing Initiative is designed to address an issue that has reached crisis proportions in Buffalo and cities like it across the U.S., and advance the national conversation on quality, affordable housing.

This fund provides operational or research support and enhancements for the initiative.

For decades, the School of Architecture and Planning has made practical work in, with and for communities in Buffalo and the upstate region a central experience in the education of our students. Through coursework, research and other opportunities, students and faculty will plan, design and ultimately build single-family or multi-family housing prototypes for underserved neighborhoods in Buffalo. These prototypes will be replicable both for Buffalo and cities like it across the U.S.

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Other Architecture and Planning Funds

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Help create the next generation of technologies, processes and education by supporting this fund.
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With a long track record of success in public policy and urban planning, the UB Regional Institute receives key support through this fund.
Affordable Housing Initiative Fund
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Provide support for designing and building affordable housing prototypes through this fund.
Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access Fund
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The pioneering IDEA Center receives crucial operational and research support and enhancements through this fund.
Department of Urban and Regional Planning Fund
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Center for Urban Studies Fund
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Help transform vulnerable, underdeveloped and distressed neighborhoods into communities of opportunity by supporting this fund.
RED Support Fund
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Our Real Estate Development program receives financial support through this fund.
School of Architecture and Planning Student Emergency Fund
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Help students who are facing a critical financial emergency by supporting this fund.
Center for Architecture and Situated Technologies Fund
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Provide support for investigating the evolving relationship between emerging technologies and the built environment with this fund.
UB Fund for the School of Architecture and Planning
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Support school-wide scholarships, learning opportunities and more through this fund.
Architecture and Planning General Scholarship Fund
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This fund helps attract and retain top students by offering scholarships throughout the School of Architecture and Planning.
Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab Fund
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Support healthier, more resilient communities in Buffalo and around the world through this fund.
Global Health Equity Community of Excellence Fund
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Help address global health inequity—one of the defining issues of the 21st century—through this fund.
Department of Architecture Fund
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Support research and operational needs and enhancements throughout the Department of Architecture with this fund.
Sydney Gross Memorial Fund
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In memory of a former School of Architecture and Planning student, this fund supports an annual lecture and other projects that enrich the student experience.

News from the School of Architecture and Planning

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UB School of Architecture and Planning selected as partner for Remain’s fourth envision resilience challenge
5/8/24
PORTLAND, Maine May 8, 2024 —The Envision Resilience Challenge, a multi-university design studio and community engagement initiative developed by Remain, announced today that its fourth year of programming will take place in Maine. The School of Architecture and Planning has been selected as one of eight university partners to participate in this year’s challenge.
Urban planning doctoral student reveals citizen-driven disaster response in analysis of the 2022 Buffalo Blizzard
8/5/24
Newly minted urban planning doctorate Fuzhen Yin is carving out new territory in the field of urban informatics through research that links social media, machine learning and spatial analysis to generate insights on disaster response in cities.
The jungle gym mindset and the power the discipline of planning holds—Shawntera Hardy (MUP ’04)
11/19/24
Shawntera Hardy (MUP ’04) winner of UB’s 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award, shares her career achievements and thoughts on the power the discipline of planning holds.
Changing the narrative on women in architecture
10/28/24
For the first time in the School of Architecture and Planning’s 50-year history, the first-year architecture studio has more women than men.
Two UB architects elevated to AIA’s College of Fellows
3/14/24
Joyce Hwang and Edward Steinfeld are among 98 architects the American Institute of Architects recognized this year.
Editor of Intersight 27 highlights journey of discovery in call for student work
10/21/24
For graduate architecture student Sriya Radhakrishnan, her selection as 2024-25 Brunkow Fellow and editor of Intersight 27 – this year’s journal of student work – comes as a full circle moment in her journey to UB.
Honoring a pioneer with equitable action
10/24/24
An event at UB aims to strengthen Buffalo’s support for equitable urban agriculture policy.
Training WNY’s new sustainability workforce
9/13/24
The inaugural class goes through the Community Climate Leadership program offered through a partnership between UB and PUSH Buffalo. Resilient Building Lab researchers Nick Rajkovich, associate professor in the Department of Architecture, and Laura Lubniewski, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Architecture developed the curriculum.
Happier, more connected neighborhoods start right in the front yard
7/2/24
A salve for America’s loneliness epidemic could exist right in front of its homes.
Untangling the roots of spatial inequalities
1/22/24
Joining the faculty of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning this year is Alissa Ujie Diamond, a multi-disciplinary scholar who pursues research and teaching through the lense of entangled landscapes.
A Culture of Making With Julia Hunt
9/23/24
Meet Julia Hunt (BS '17), director of digital fabrication and clinical assistant professor, who fosters a culture of making in our school’s fabrication workshop.
Big Projects Studio—A Catalyst for Conversation
10/22/24
A distinguished panel of architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and environmental designers joined Dean Julia Czerniak at the School of Architecture and Planning for “FAUNA: Designing for More Than Human Worlds.”
Memorializing Hayes Hall’s past
10/10/24
A graduate design studio last spring produced two memorials that pay respect to the hallowed grounds on which the home of the architecture school rests.
UB continues to rank among the top public universities
9/24/24
The university is No. 36 among public universities in U.S. News & World Report's latest rankings of the top universities in the nation.
(Un)Defining Korean Architecture: Modernity, Stories, and Transformation
11/12/24
In October 2024, The University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning was pleased to host, in partnership with the Asia Research Institute, the third annual Koren Studies Symposium—“(Un)Defining Korean Architecture: Modernity, Stories, and Transformation.”
UB faculty and M.Arch student receive Best Paper Award
8/6/24
The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) hosted its 55 annual conference in Portland this past June. Shreya Jaiswal, 2023 alumna of UB’s Master of Architecture program, along with professors Martha Bohm, Korydon Smith, and Edward Steinfeld, received this year’s Best Paper Award. The paper, “Sensory Engagement and Spatial Harmony: Unveiling the Role of Fire in Multisensory Design,” was a culmination of Jaiswal’s thesis research with Bohm, Smith, and Steinfeld and selected out of 380 presenting authors.
Gresham lecturer talks universal design
11/1/24
UB faculty member Edward Steinfeld explained the difference between accessibility and universal design during the annual lecture.
FAUNA: Designing for More Than Human Worlds
10/4/24
A distinguished panel of architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and environmental designers joined Dean Julia Czerniak at the School of Architecture and Planning for “FAUNA: Designing for More Than Human Worlds.”
Meet Alissa Ujie Diamond
4/23/24
The new urban planning professor centers her work on justice and equity.
UB architecture students finetune fabrication skills in summer furniture-making studio
7/18/24
Architecture students at the University at Buffalo took a deep dive into digital technologies this summer through a 16-day micro studio applying the School of Architecture and Planning’s advanced fabrication tools to the art of furniture construction.
UB Faculty and Planning Students Receive Great Places Award
10/15/24
The University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning is pleased to share students in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Ehler Htoo; Rishabh Chopra; Julia Hayden; Leah Smolen; Sakshi Surawar; Leslie General; Madhumitha Kodimyala; Ale Andrzejewski; Jaden Keech; Satya Swaroopini Gangupati; Ian McCully; and Frankie Zhou; along with Kelly Gregg, assistant professor, have received the 2024 Great Places Award from the American Planning Association, New York Upstate Chapter.
UB Faculty Announced as Conserving Black Modernism Initiative Grant Recipient
8/14/24
Albert Chao, adjunct instructor for the Department of Architecture, and Scott Ruff, adjunct associate professor at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture, were recently awarded a grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Fund (a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation) and the Getty Foundation’s Conserving Black Modernism program for their work supporting the Buffalo house and studio of architect Robert T. Coles.
Architecture installation creates multi-species "lounge" for people and pollinators
10/17/24
Coming soon to the wildflower meadow on UB’s South Campus is “Pollinator Lounge,” a multi-species design installation that invites us to sit among the unsung heroes of urban biodiversity at work in our own backyard.
UB faculty, student architecture design nominated for award
5/8/24
The design of the Larkinville location of Blue Table Chocolates has earned a nomination for an Architizer A+ Teamwork award.
Hedgework installation opening
5/15/24
Found at Building 77 in Brooklyn NY, Hedgework emerges as an urban landscape intervention, embodying the essence of a sentient hedgerow. This installation was crafted by a collective of public artists, architects, and urban planners, including Associate Professor of Architecture and Director of CAST, Mark Shepard. The project moves past conventional boundaries to foster deeper connections between humans and the natural world.
Serweta Peck awarded BAF'S 2024 Pro Bono Award in distinguished service
4/11/24
UB architecture faculty members Maia Peck and Gregory Serweta, AIA (BS Arch ‘06) of Serweta Peck have been awarded the 2024 Pro-Bono Award in Distinguished Service by the Board of the Buffalo Architecture Foundation.
UB architect's design chosen for 5/14 memorial
5/21/24
Design holds significant power to inspire hope, healing, and remembrance. UB architect Jin Young Song, alongside partner Douglass Alligood, hopes their memorial concept "Seeing Us" will provide this for Buffalo. The design was chosen by the 5/14 Memorial Commission to honor the victims of the racially motivated mass shooting on May 14, 2022, at a Tops grocery store, which resulted in the deaths of 10 Black individuals and injuries to three others.
2024-25 Banham Fellow Tiffany Xu explores construction through lens of contemporary fiction
10/30/24
2024-25 Banham Fellow Tiffany Xu comes to UB with an expansive spirit of experimentation and a proposal to explore construction systems through the dimensions of materiality and the surprising context of contemporary fiction.

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