On July 30th, at 7pm EDT, the Review and the Architectural League are gathering student and alumni letter writers demanding reforms to address racism and encourage inclusivity from their schools to compare experiences, discuss next steps, and take questions from the public. Sanjive Vaidya, Chair of Architectural Technology at City Tech, will be moderating. The Architectural League is co-sponsoring.
Please join us: nyra.nyc/rsvp
For our July issue, No. 13 (mailing this week - subscribe to secure a copy), we assembled a basic chronology of the letters for the SKYLINE column:
6/8
Statement on Racism sent by NOMAS at VT to VIRGINIA TECH.
6/8
Following a 6/1 town hall attended by 70, students and alumni submit COLLECTIVE STUDENT RESPONSE TO FOSTERING AN ACTIVELY ANTI-RACIST INSTITUTION to the COOPER UNION, signed by 451. President LAURA SPARKS replied on 6/12, Dean NADER TEHRANI issued a 'Letter from the Deans' on 6/16 and there have been a series of town halls and working meetings held.
6/10
AFRICA GSD and the GSD AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENT UNION submit NOTES ON CREDIBILITY to the HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN, with 1,449 signatures. Dean SARAH WHITING responded on 6/12.
6/11
Students and alumni submit OPEN LETTER TO THE YSoA IN SUPPORT OF BLM to the YALE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, with 8 organizers and 725 signatures. The school responded the same day.
6/12
NOMAS at UVA submits A SCHOOL CALL TO ACTION to the UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. Dean ILA BERMAN and the faculty responded on 6/16.
6/16
AVSSU, GALDSU, and FGSA submit A LETTER TO DFALD to the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO’S JOHN H. DANIELS FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, & DESIGN (DFALD), with 13 organizers and 736 signatures. Dean RICHARD SOMMER replied on 6/23.
6/17
INCLUSION IN DESIGN submits 'RESPONSE TO THE DEAN' to the UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA'S SCHOOL OF DESIGN, signed by 7, co-signed by 184. The school replied by putting the letter on their website, accompanying a list of actions taken by their Diversity/Equity/Inclusion Committee since 2016.
6/19
Students and alumni submit a CALL TO ACTION letter, signed by 376, to the RICE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE. The Dean and faculty replied on 7/6.
6/22
Students, student organizations, and alumni submit DESIGN JUSTICE ACTIONS to TAUBMAN COLLEGE, penned by 6, co-signed by 185. The students expect a formal response from the school at the beginning of July, and a schedule and accountability matrix by the end of July.
6/29
The BLACK STUDENT ALLIANCE submits their letter, ON THE FUTILITY OF LISTENING, to COLUMBIA'S GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING, AND PRESERVATION (GSAPP). Soon thereafter the Black Faculty at GSAPP submitted their letter, UNLEARNING WHITENESS. Both letters followed a letter by the Dean AMALE ANDRAOS, on 6/18, "GSAPP’s Commitment to Addressing Anti-Blackness and Racial Injustice", that began by emphasizing the need to both listen and demand.
7/1
Students and alumni at the PRINCETON SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE submit OPEN LETTER ON ANTI-RACISM, signed by 84 current students, 188 alumni, and 200 in solidarity.
7/6
Organizers at the UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA submit a CALL TO ACTION, signed by 278.
7/10
Eight organizers submit GSAPP UP ACTION to COLUMBIA’S URBAN PLANNING PROGRAM at GSAPP, signed by 63. A linked ‘Accountability Tracking’ google spreadsheet creates columns following each action: “Student Sourced Solution,” “Precedents,” “GSAPP Response,” “Owner,” “Stakeholders,” “Timeline,” “Priority,” “Upcoming Action,” “Status,” and finally, “Accomplished?” So far, this last column is a whole lot of No.
Date not found: CALL FOR ACTION submitted to OHIO STATE KNOWLTON SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE.
Further Resources: The bit.ly list of letters / GSAPP mini-site collating letters
The column SKYLINE this month represents a partial chronological record of the student and alumni efforts to reform design education. It is not a complete record.
If you are part of a campaign that is not listed here and would like to participate in the 7-30 discussion, or send us your letter for inclusion in this list, please contact the Review: editor@nyra.nyc
Events.
On Monday (7/20)…
Segregation and Resistance in America’s Urban Landscapes (hosted by Dumbarton Oaks)
On Wednesday (7/22)…
League Prize, Night 3, with Garrett Ricciardi and Julian Rose of Formlessfinder and Isaac Michan Daniel of Michan Architecture.
Tell us if you plan to attend and would like to review either events: editor@nyra.nyc
Articles.
Kate Wagner reviews Air-Conditioning (h/t Common Edge):
Despite my environmentalist and leftist bona fides, I unquestionably submitted to central air, that ultra-conservative symbol of American stability, prosperity, and the pursuit of comfort. Clearly, air conditioning conditions. Indeed, it’s how it managed to dominate and supersede (with planetary consequences) a wide variety of interesting and sustainable architectural alternatives devised during a then-maturing modernism in the 1930s through the end of the 1950s. This is the subject of Daniel Barber’s Modern Architecture and Climate: Design before Air Conditioning (Princeton University Press).
(Related: History of Air-Conditioning and a Case for the Open-Air School)
Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow explain that mass transit is not a COVID mass-spreader:
It’s difficult for nuances like these to break through when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells American employers to encourage employees to avoid transit and to drive alone to work in offices, if possible. This message, which bewildered transit agencies scrambling to recover, fails to recognize the transportation realities of millions of Americans for whom owning and maintaining a car is simply unaffordable and impractical.
The CDC guidance also fails as a matter of transportation and environmental policy: Shifting transit commuters to single-occupancy vehicles would asphyxiate cities with congestion and pollution, and reinforce the deadly outcomes of a century of car-focused urban planning that cities have been trying to escape. Every year, 1.3 million people die in traffic crashes worldwide—about 37,000 annually in the U.S.—and another 4.2 million die globally from the health impacts of air pollution, which is exacerbated by vehicle emissions.
Thank you for reading! This week’s ‘next week in New York Architecture’ was assembled by me, Nicolas Kemper.
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