TSA Alumni Newsletter 2-26-09

News from TSA    

We have completed another Mardi Gras season in New Orleans.  My wife and I were given all sorts of advice on what not to miss – by students, faculty, and friends from the community.  We had a great time with this unique and truly bizarre experience.  The highlight for us was a party at the office of Zande+Newman on Magazine Street.  Adam Newman (TSA ‘90) and his firm do our graphic design work for the school.  They recently expanded their second story space and it now includes a balcony right on Magazine.  The party served as an “opening”, and it was a great place to view the parade (with a few other TSA faculty there as well, including John Klingman and Marilyn Feldmeier (TSA ‘91).  

The school has somehow found a way to return to work after several days of surreal events!

I have a range of items to announce, working in reverse chronological order, (for the most part).

TSA Alumni Reception
AIA Convention in San Francisco
Thursday, April 30 5:30 – 7:30 PM
The City Club of San Francisco, Library Room
155 Sansome Street
San Francisco, California

You may download an invitation to this event from our TSA website, and we would ask that you rsvp to Wendy Sack by April 15 (so we can get a good feel for the numbers in advance – wdsack@tulane.edu).  This should be a fantastic event in a historic downtown club, hosted and sponsored by TSA alumni Kathy and Graham Green (TSA ’78 & ’79) and Laura and John Williams (TSA ’79).  As with all of the TSA alumni receptions I have attended, we owe a debt of gratitude for the generosity of our alumni sponsors, and their spirit of wanting to help in bringing alumni together.

Recent thanks go to José Marchand (TSA ’79) who hosted our alumni event in San Juan on February 12, and Bob Hale (TSA ’77) who hosted the event in Los Angeles on February 4.  We had wonderful receptions in both cities, with a broad range of alumni age groups represented (including a father-daughter alumni pair in San Juan!)  I would also like to thank Javier Mirandes who helped to arrange a number of student recruitment meetings that I attended at several prestigious high schools in San Juan.  There are very strong historical connections between Puerto Rico and Tulane University, and with his help, I took the opportunity to encourage students to consider applying to TSA, as so many current and distinguished Puerto Rican architects have done in the past.

Application Numbers

We recently received news that Tulane admissions have reached another record high.  Last year the number of admissions doubled to 34,000, and this year we have nearly 40,000 for a total of 1,400 freshman places.  

http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/013009_applications_soar.cfm

Since I know you will all be curious about numbers for architecture – we’re dramatically up as well.  Through February 1, we have received 1014 applications for a little less than 100 entering students.  In talking with many prospective students and their parents, my sense is that our attraction relates to several key factors including:

-    strong design reputation

-    dedicated teachers and engaged students

-    sense of community “spirit” at TSA

-    New Orleans!

-    public service as a distinguishing aspect of the Tulane and TSA mission

Public Service

Tulane’s Center for Public Service is indeed an important part of the university’s identity, and we have received much-deserved national acclaim for this.  The School of Architecture is involved with this mission in several ways, ranging from work in the second year design studios (and many others) based in the community, and the work of the Preservation program, the Tulane Regional and Urban Design Center, and the Tulane City Center.  A great article appeared earlier this month on the stature of our university’s programs which are now being emulated by other universities across the United States and indeed the world:

http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/021109_honor_roll.cfm

Preservation Matters Symposium

The symposium was held on January 31, and it was a tremendous success.  More than 300 people attended the day-long event.  I arranged to have it filmed, and you may now access it in a series of “chapters” off the Tulane YouTube site.  We’re already up to 93 views as of this morning!

My thanks go to the entire panel, to Gene Cizek as our commentator, and especially to Bob Ivy (TSA ‘76) who delivered the keynote address and served as a gracious and thoughtful moderator throughout the event.  We learned a great deal from six distinguished panelists, and we will begin working on what these lessons mean to us as we think about the future of preservation education for Tulane University and the School of Architecture.  TSA Board of Advisors member and Newcomb alumna Mary Lou Christovich hosted a wonderful reception at her beautiful home in the Garden District following the reception.  She and I both wanted to honor Gene Cizek for his many contributions to preservation over the years – and I was able to host a dinner with a number of his close friends and our panelists the night before the symposium as well.

New Orleans TSA Alumni

Finally a special note to New Orleans area alumni.  I will be hosting a reception for all of our local alumni on Friday, April 17.  President and Mrs. Cowen have graciously allowed me to hold this reception at their beautiful home - #2 Audubon.  Invitations will be mailed out fairly soon, and I hope that all of our local alumni will attend.  Along with me, this event is being co-hosted by the TSA Board of Advisors who will be gathering for their spring meeting that day.  This promises to be a wonderful party, and it is happening through the TSA Board's generous financial support – and their support for my desire to actively reach out to alumni.

Kenneth Schwartz, FAIA
Dean