In 1980, the dean of Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture & Urban Studies in Blacksburg, Virginia, launched the Washington Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC), to give students in Blacksburg a semester or year of urban experience. Now, 45 years later, the WAAC is both a degree-granting and a study-away venue. WAAC’s student body represents a variety of degrees and experiences, including Master of Architecture (M Arch), Master of Science in Architecture (M Sci Arch), with concentrations in Urban Design and History/Theory, PhD, and a rotating cohort of ‘study-away’ undergraduates from our main campus and the National Student Exchange, which opens opportunities for WAAC semesters to 25 member schools with architecture programs, including Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs).

As a tiny campus in a major metropolitan area, WAAC uses the city as a classroom to engage directly with the problematics of public and private space, spatial equity, sustainability, and resilience. Located in one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the US, the centre sits between the competing poles of historic preservation and development. Those tensions are fundamental to the WAAC: it occupies a 110-year-old building, yet no students (except for PhDs) stay longer than 2 years, some as little as a semester. Yet, the WAAC has a persistent and identifiable culture which rests on a foundation of pedagogical principles: each student sets their own path; learning requires doing; we have freedom and responsibility; the city is our classroom; and, finally, place matters. This interview session features the current director of WAAC, who will go into depth about the WAAC’s mission and current activities, as well as answer questions and share practical insights regarding the importance of academic outreach through community engagement.

Biographies

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Susan Piedmont-Palladino is an architect, professor of architecture, and the director of the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC), the urban extension of the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design at Virginia Tech, United States.

Professor Anne Boddington is Executive Vice-President and Provost of IAFOR, and oversees the academic programs, research and policies of the forum.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Friday Schedule

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