STUDIO OVERVIEW
Campuses throughout the US are in the process of transformation. Once inward-facing cloistered compounds, they are increasingly outward-facing and porous to the cities that host them. Fueled by the desire for expanded facilities, and new programs, research institutes and universities are discovering the benefits of symbiotic relations with private enterprises interested in applying research. Academic programs include more entrepreneurship education and technology transfer opportunities. Some emblematic examples include the Kendall Square/MIT development and the Silicon Valley/UC Berkely/Stanford/UCSF region where academic buildings are interwoven with commercial structures and student housing to strengthen cross fertilization in Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Biotechnology research. Campuses are developing at their peripheries in areas that are often former industrial sites, setting up challenges for healing sites with more sustainable development. Campus expansion is often adjacent to underserved residential communities, posing challenges that require thoughtful interaction, strategies for access, and programming that is welcoming to the larger community.
Georgia Tech has already begun this transformation. Once contained to the historic core north of the center of Atlanta, the campus has grown dramatically to the north and west. New developments at Tech Square and the in- construction Science Square, among others, support both academic research and commercial enterprise at the edges of the core campus. Reaching into Midtown, Tech Square is well-integrated into the campus, and effectively served by public transport.
PORTMAN VISITING CRITIC
In order to enrich and accelerate the process of the integrated building design studio, the semester is guided by a Portman Visiting Critic. Each year, a distinguished practicing architect / educator is invited to participate during the full arc of the semester’s work, establishing a research agenda, giving a lecture prior to the start of the semester, visiting multiple times during the semester, convening specialists to supplement the educational dialogue, and guiding the full student cohort through the process of the work. This year’s Portman Prize Critic is Andrea Leers.
Principal and co-founder of Leers Weinzapfel Associates in Boston MA, Andrea Leers is an internationally recognized leader in urban, campus and civic design. A pioneer in mass timber design for academic settings, her practice is honored with over 100 international, national, and regional design awards, including the 2007 AIA National Firm Award. A monograph on the firm’s work “Made to Measure: The Work of Leers Weinzapfel Associates” was published in 2011 by Princeton Architectural Press.
Andrea Leers is the former Director of the Master in Urban Design Program and Adjunct Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and has taught at Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. She was Chaire des Amériques at the University of Paris, Sorbonne, Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, and NEA Japan-US Friendship Commission Fellow in Tokyo. Her recent book “Welcoming the West; Japan’s Grand Resort Hotels” was published in 2017 by JOVIS Verlag Berlin.