School Notes: School of Architecture
May/June 2012

Alumni recognized by Academy

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has honored Elizabeth Gray ’82, ’87MArch, and Alan Organschi ’88MArch, principals of Gray Organschi Architecture, with a 2012 Architecture Award. Gray Organschi Architecture, based in New Haven, has earned recognition at the local, regional, and national level for innovative and environmentally sensitive projects that range from the adaptive reuse of damaged buildings to the creation of low-impact structures for ecologically delicate sites. Alan Organschi is on the faculty of the School of Architecture.

Summer seminar in Rome

This summer 30 architecture students will travel abroad for the annual Rome Drawing Seminar, led by Alec Purves ’58, ’65MArch, professor emeritus of architecture; Stephen Harby ’76, ’80MArch, lecturer in the School of Architecture; and Bimal Mendis ’98, ’02MArch, critic, assistant dean, and director of undergraduate studies. The seminar provides students the opportunity to develop skills in freehand drawing and sketching as a way of critically observing and learning about the layers of Rome’s historical and architectural development. Students visit and record key monuments spanning Rome’s history, from the ancient Forum to the Renaissance and Baroque Basilica of St. Peter, to the new contemporary art museum designed by Zaha Hadid, all in the company of faculty and local experts and scholars. The seminar is made possible through the generosity of Frannie and Gordon Burns ’75 and Edward P. Bass ’68, ’72ArtA.

Building a house in New Haven

Since 1967, the Yale School of Architecture has offered its first-year students the chance to design and build a structure as part of their graduate education. This year’s Vlock Building Project, a collaboration between the school and Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven, will be a single-family house at 132–136 Newhall Street in New Haven. Working on the project from start to finish gives students the experience of interacting with a client and responding to the challenges of affordable housing and urban infill, while improving their skills in design and introducing them to social issues, group collaboration, budgeting, work documentation, and actual construction.