Changing the View from the Ivory Tower
may 2015 | announcements | education
When the America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools report, published by DesignIntelligence each year, changes its ranking criteria after 15 years, professional schools take notice.
In the past, to compile the rankings, the DesignIntelligence survey conducted on behalf of the Design Futures Council (DFC) asked leading architects and firms one question:
In your firm’s hiring experience in the past five years, which schools are best preparing students for success in the profession?
In 2015, the survey question will read:
From your hiring experience in the past five years, which schools are best preparing students for the future of the profession and designing a sustainable future?
For professional architecture programs and schools this has profound implications for how they prepare their students. Rankings are important for a number of reasons:
- as a marketing tool used to recruit top students,
- to place graduates in top firms,
- to attract leading professionals as lecturers and teachers,
- as an indicator of comparative standing among educational institutions,
- to help steer valuable resources in the direction of the most promising departments and schools.
The first survey featuring the new wording will be issued over the summer, with the results published in the November/December 2015 issue of “America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools”.
“The view from the Ivory Tower has changed. Sustainable design is now a hallmark of excellence in architecture education.”
Architecture 2030
