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Ground broken at Prairie View for new school of architecture
By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Prairie View A&M University broke ground Friday on a $26 million School of Architecture building predicted to bring more minorities to the mostly white profession.
The 105,000-square-foot facility, designed by a prominent Los Angeles architect known for his playful style, is scheduled to open in spring 2005. Architecture classes are now taught in the College of Engineering building.
"There are very few registered black architects in Texas," said Ikhlas Sabouni, dean of Prairie View's School of Architecture. "This building should attract more to the field."
Of the state's 9,942 registered architects, only 70, or less than 1 percent, are black. Sixteen of those graduated from Prairie View A&M.
It dates to the 1940s, but has experienced its greatest growth after it gained accreditation in 1992. Then enrolling 90 students, it now boasts more than 200. The school projects that the School of Architecture, which also includes construction science and community development degrees, eventually to grow to 450 to 500 students.
The new facility will also house the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture, and the Community, Urban and Rural Enhancement Service, the research and service arm of the architecture and community development program.
The building was designed by Michael Rotondi, a recipient of the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize.
His innovative style is exemplified by one restaurant the Los Angeles Times compared to "an architectural Faberge egg" because it is inserted into the curtain-wall skeleton of an old savings and loan and by another restaurant dominated by a bronze column that stops short of directly supporting the ceiling.
By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Prairie View A&M University broke ground Friday on a $26 million School of Architecture building predicted to bring more minorities to the mostly white profession.
The 105,000-square-foot facility, designed by a prominent Los Angeles architect known for his playful style, is scheduled to open in spring 2005. Architecture classes are now taught in the College of Engineering building.
"There are very few registered black architects in Texas," said Ikhlas Sabouni, dean of Prairie View's School of Architecture. "This building should attract more to the field."
Of the state's 9,942 registered architects, only 70, or less than 1 percent, are black. Sixteen of those graduated from Prairie View A&M.
It dates to the 1940s, but has experienced its greatest growth after it gained accreditation in 1992. Then enrolling 90 students, it now boasts more than 200. The school projects that the School of Architecture, which also includes construction science and community development degrees, eventually to grow to 450 to 500 students.
The new facility will also house the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture, and the Community, Urban and Rural Enhancement Service, the research and service arm of the architecture and community development program.
The building was designed by Michael Rotondi, a recipient of the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize.
His innovative style is exemplified by one restaurant the Los Angeles Times compared to "an architectural Faberge egg" because it is inserted into the curtain-wall skeleton of an old savings and loan and by another restaurant dominated by a bronze column that stops short of directly supporting the ceiling.
