The 2024 Fitch Colloquium, “Repairing Architecture Schools,” is a collaboration between the GSAPP Historic Preservation Program and Places Journal. It is co-organized by Jorge Otero-Pailos, Professor and Director of the Historic Preservation Program at GSAPP, and Nancy Levinson and Frances Richard of Places Journal.
Architecture, preservation and the professions of the built environment are undergoing a profound sea change in their collective ethos and practices the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Industrial Revolution. Yet most schools have not adjusted to the new reality. Professions once centered on new construction are now focusing on the care and repair of existing buildings. In the United States, 49.3% of all income earned by architects now comes from renovations, restorations, additions, and preservation work—a higher percentage than the global average of 37%. The U.S. construction industry estimates that these percentages will continue to increase, as 40% of the country’s building stock is 50 years or older and built with poor materials. Climate change is also driving the industry to pay more attention to existing buildings, which constitute 40% of all carbon emissions. New laws and regulations are requiring the mass-scale renovation of existing buildings to meet new climate standards. Taken together these facts suggest that there is growing demand for professionals with the knowledge and skills to creatively reimagine the existing building stock.
Yet, architecture schools in the U.S. are either unwilling or unable to acknowledge the changing professional marketplace, and equally importantly, the new reality of our human condition. The majority continue to teach students as if their future professional activity will mainly be new construction. How can we accelerate academia’s adaptation to the new exigencies of society—and the planet? What would architecture schools look like if many more courses focused on existing buildings? What ideal of the professional architect would schools present to aspiring students? How can change in architecture schools be spurred by journals and other institutions that recognize and celebrate professional excellence?
Inspired by the eponymous article on Places, this year’s colloquium will explore the pedagogical imagination, and consider what it would take to rebalance the relative importance of preserving existing buildings in the pedagogy of architecture schools. While focusing on architecture and preservation, the symposium will also explore the impact of such pedagogical innovations in all the professions of the built environment, including urban planning, real estate development, urban design, engineering and others.
