Architecture looks to create new ties to U.Va. community

In her three years as dean, Karen Van Lengen has sensed that the Architecture School “is an underutilized and highly significant resource” for U.Va.
It will take some years before the new arts precinct plan reconfigures that part of the Grounds and makes visible the Architecture School’s physical connection to the University.

Historically, the Architecture School has compared itself and related more to its professional peers than to the University community, but Van Lengen and the faculty are working to change that.

“This Envision meeting, we hope, will begin a process to repair that relationship — one that is vital in a university community so tied to its own history through architecture,” she said. “We look forward to partnering with the many University-wide initiatives to begin this process.”

The Architecture School has already embraced the emphasis on ethics seen elsewhere on Grounds and is working with the Institute for Practical Ethics on a second annual symposium on ethics in architecture April 5 and 6.

See ‘Envision’ sessions bring goals into focus

See Arts & Sciences planner looks forward to more esprit de corps