The $12,000 Highlands Fellowship is awarded biennially to an alum of the Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture. Download this year's application.
Lecture Series Kicks Off with José Oubrerie
Madeline Gannon Humanizes Digital Fabrication
HACLab Pittsburgh: Imagining the Modern
Designed by SoA's Rami el Samahy and his colleagues at over,under, a new exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art considers Pittsburgh's ambitious postwar revitalization.
Rami el Samahy in the New York Times on Urban Renewal...and Putting Students to Work
In a landscape of architecture retrospectives, HAC Lab Pittsburgh, opening this weekend and featuring SoA's Rami el Samahy and Martin Aurand, stands out. Learn how in this week's New York Times.
Fall 2015 Lecture Series Kicks off September 21
The School of Architecture's Lecture Series brings the world's eminent and emerging thinkers, designers and practitioners to Pittsburgh. See the fall lineup.
Young Architects Come for UDream—and Stay for Pittsburgh
A program of the Remaking Cities Institute, UDream provides recent graduates of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and urban planning programs the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of urban design in a summer and fall immersion experience.
Jacob Douenias's Photosynthetic Furniture On View at Mattress Factory
Recent graduate Jacob Douenias and his partner, School of Design alum Ethan Frier, outshone 500 applicants from 27 countries in a bid to exhibit their room-sized installation, Living Things, at Pittsburgh's Mattress Factory contemporary art museum.
Mary-Lou Arscott and Latham Street Commons Bring Community Development to Life
Vivian Loftness Discusses Energy Dashboards
Hear Professor Vivian Loftness discuss SoA's work on energy dashboards and the internet of things on the Peggy Smedley Show.
MOVEMENT: SoA Retrospective 2015
AIA Pennsylvania Dedicates ARE Grant to Alumna Paula Maynes
Congratulations, Class of 2015!
UDream Program Receives AIA National Diversity
This past March, UDream was recognized by the AIA at its Grassroots Leadership and Legislative Conference. Pictured (l-r) are: Elizabeth Chu Richter, AIA president; Valecia Wilson, UDream Class of 2011, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission; Erica Cochran, CMU UDream Program Director; Robert Ivy, AIA CEO; and Torrey Stanley Carleton, Hon. AIA.
The Carnegie Mellon University UDream program in the School of Architecture was honored as a Diversity Recognition Program by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Saturday, May 16, at the AIA National Convention in Atlanta.
William J. Bates, a member of the AIA and the National Organization of Minority Architects, and an adjunct faculty member in the School of Architecture, received the award on behalf of CMU. Bates, who also serves as AIA National Board vice president, is vice president of Real Estate for Eat ‘n Park Restaurants in Pittsburgh.
UDream (Urban Design Regional Employment Action for Minorities) was first recognized in March by the AIA at its 2015 Grassroots Leadership and Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., for its innovative methods to diversify Pittsburgh’s urban design workforce. Professor Erica Cochran, UDream program director, accepted the national award during a ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Washington Capitol Hill accompanied by six past UDream participants.
The Carnegie Mellon University UDream program in the School of Architecture was honored as a Diversity Recognition Program by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Saturday, May 16, at the AIA National Convention in Atlanta.
William J. Bates, a member of the AIA and the National Organization of Minority Architects, and an adjunct faculty member in the School of Architecture, received the award on behalf of CMU. Bates, who also serves as AIA National Board vice president, is vice president of Real Estate for Eat ‘n Park Restaurants in Pittsburgh.
UDream (Urban Design Regional Employment Action for Minorities) was first recognized in March by the AIA at its 2015 Grassroots Leadership and Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., for its innovative methods to diversify Pittsburgh’s urban design workforce. Professor Erica Cochran, UDream program director, accepted the national award during a ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Washington Capitol Hill accompanied by six past UDream participants.
UDream is an 18-week program that provides recent minority college graduates of architecture, urban design, urban planning and landscape architecture with an opportunity to further their knowledge of urban design while working in Pittsburgh. The program begins with a five-week academic focus at CMU and features a high school mentoring component called Architecture Building Communities, a summer camp in which high school students work on an urban design project in the city. The concluding phase of the program is a 12-week paid internship with a local architecture firm, nonprofit community organization or public agency. The intern placement process is rigorous and includes a series of interviews with representatives from the host firms.
“The interview process is crucial, because it pairs UDream participants with firms that will help them develop and, ultimately, succeed,” Cochran said.
The UDream program originated in a discussion between representatives from CMU’s School of Architecture and Remaking Cities Institute, and The Heinz Endowments, the latter of which funds the program. Each wanted to recruit recent minority college graduates to come to Pittsburgh with the goal of finding permanent employment at the end of the 18-week program. Funding also is provided by the School of Architecture and various regional architecture/urban design firms.
UDream's Don Carter On Racial Diversity in Architecture
The director of the innovative education and employment program at Carnegie Mellon University discusses its potential to change the profession's demographics.
By WANDA LAU
Donald Carter
The minority educational and career placement program UDream (Urban Design Regional Employment Action for Minorities), in Pittsburgh, has been honored with a 2015 AIA Diversity Recognition Program. Since UDream’s founding in 2009, 58 fellows—mostly recent B.Arch. graduates—have completed the 18-week program, which includes an academic boot camp and a paid internship at a local firm or nonprofit. Moreover, 25 fellows have stayed in the Pittsburgh area, a number that more than tripled the population of minority designers there and led to the re-establishment of a local National Organization of Minority Architects chapter. ARCHITECT spoke with Donald Carter, FAIA, director of the Remaking Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture, which runs UDream. For the full interview please click on the title.