University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

UB architecture Dean Brian Carter works with students at the Architecture and Design Academy. Photo: COURTESY OF BUFFALO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

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• “The academy is really a vehicle to prepare students in Buffalo for a university education. The focus is on helping students reach college, and to attend architecture school.”

  Kelly Hayes McAlonie

  Board Member, Architecture and Design Academy

By CHARLOTTE HSU

Published: October 21, 2010

Staff and faculty members from the School of Architecture and Planning celebrated the grand opening last week of a high school academy they helped develop to expose urban students to architecture, a career path the teenagers might not have previously considered.

The Architecture and Design Academy at the International Preparatory School at Grover on Buffalo’s West Side aims to prepare students for college. Through the academy, students in grades 9-12 will receive a liberal arts education while developing skills in fine and graphic arts that include drawing from observation and modeling. The innovative program, which launched this semester with a 9th grade class of 20 students, is an integral new part of Buffalo’s P-16 pipeline.

The academy is a product of a unique collaboration between private industry, the American Institute of Architects Buffalo/Western New York chapter, and K-12 and higher education. The program was born of an observation that the Buffalo Public Schools (BPS) made while embarking on its $1.45 billion renovation program: The pool of architects in professional practice available to work on the project was lacking in minorities and women.

To address the issue, BPS convened a task force comprising representatives from the district, UB, the general public and local private practices, including LPCiminelli, the construction firm managing the renovation program.

UB’s membership on the board included Despina Stratigakos, assistant professor of architecture; Shannon Phillips, coordinator of administration for the departments of Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning; and Kelly Hayes McAlonie, associate director of UB’s Capital Planning Group. (Hayes McAlonie, who has been with UB since May 2010, was in private practice when she joined the task force. She also is vice president for public advocacy for the American Institute of Architects New York State.)

In its investigations into why the architecture profession lacked diversity, the task force discovered that many Buffalo high school students did not know much about architecture. They neither understood the role of an architect nor had the skills required to succeed in a college-level architecture program, Hayes McAlonie said.

The new Architecture and Design Academy will help eliminate this knowledge gap, using architecture as a vehicle to teach a rigorous core curriculum.

“The academy is really a vehicle to prepare students in Buffalo for a university education. The focus is on helping students reach college, and to attend architecture school,” Hayes McAlonie said. “The creative thinking that architecture and design require makes a person more nimble, more flexible, more able to think critically. These are skills that will prepare them well for the workplace, whether they become architects or not.”

The academy’s public unveiling took place at the International Preparatory School at Grover, with remarks by speakers including BPS Superintendent James A. Williams and Brian Carter, dean of the UB School of Architecture and Planning. LPCiminelli Executive Vice President Gene Partridge stepped to the microphone to announce “Discover Design,” a new program the firm created to provide scholarships, mentoring and internships for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as curriculum-enrichment programs for middle and high school students who want to learn more about architecture.

Otis Barker, director of youth services for the city of Buffalo, kicked off the event by reading a proclamation by Mayor Byron Brown declaring Oct. 11-17 “Architecture Week” in Buffalo. From Oct. 14-16, the city hosted the joint 2010 convention of the American Institute of Architects New York State and the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Other architecture activities last week included a lecture at UB by a principal of Pugh + Scarpa Architects, the recipient of the American Institute of Architects 2010 Architecture Firm Award.