Sustainable building practices will gain a new foundation in northeast Pennsylvania next year when Marywood University opens the region’s first School of Architecture.
Promising a commitment to environmental stewardship and principles of “green building” design, University President Sister Anne Munley said that students can enter the new school’s program next August in time for the 2009-2010 academic year.
Marywood, a private, coeducational, Catholic university of 3,400 full- and part-time students, located in Scranton, will house the School of Architecture in the campus’ former health and physical education building. The renovated space will offer student architects a spacious, state-of-the-art facility, said President Munley, who has served as the university’s 11th chief executive since January 2007.
A member of the U.S. Green Building Council, the university will orient its architectural program toward advanced knowledge and skills in sustainable design. As part of the program, students will be prepared for LEED Professional Accreditation. “Our goal is to produce a new generation of architects – environmental stewards – who will assume major responsibility for creating, building, and rebuilding sustainable structural environments for the region, nation, and world,” she said.
Gregory K. Hunt, FAIA, will head the program, which will offer students two paths of study — a pre-professional, 4 -year track, as a Bachelor of Environmental Design in Architecture and a professional track that includes a 5-year, Bachelor of Architecture and a 6-year Master of Architecture. Hunt was formerly Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at Catholic University of America, full professor at Virginia Tech University’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies, and vice chairman and director of design for Leo A. Daly, an international firm specializing in all aspects of building planning and design.
Source: Marywood University
Writer: Joseph Plummer
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