A Virginia Tech team has been awarded the NCARB Prize (National Council of Architectural Registration Boards) for the Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy.

This unique set of courses was developed by Kathryn Clarke Albright, AIA, associate professor and foundation program chair in Virginia’s Tech’s architecture program in the School of Architecture + Design. Thirty-three entries, representing 26 colleges and universities, were juried for the 2005 NCARB Prize.

Virginia Tech’s winning entry “Chicago Studio,” a set of architecture classes, provided an alternate model for a traditional upper-level design studio. The studio is built around a series of integrated, collaborative courses that introduce daily professional practice activities in an urban setting. Student teams create a collective master plan for one of three sites along the Chicago River; each student then designs a building for that master plan.

The NCARB Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy recognizes excellence and innovation when bringing together architectural education and practice. Architecture schools with NAAB-accredited (National Architectural Accrediting Board) degree programs were invited to submit established projects, completed or in progress by the end of the fall 2004 semester, that demonstrated creative initiatives that integrate the academy and the profession within a studio curriculum. The NCARB Prize was first initiated in the fall of 2001.

Other winners include Miami University, University of Arkansas, University of Florida, University of Illinois at Chicago and grand prize winner University at Buffalo/The State University of New York (SUNY).

Virginia Tech’s Architecture Program in the School of Architecture + Design is one of the 113 NAAB-accredited programs in the United States. With more than 750 students, the Architecture Program is the largest of three programs offered in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The School of Architecture + Design, part of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, offers a Bachelor of Architecture (NAAB-accredited), Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design (NASAD-accredited), and Bachelor of Science in Interior Design (FIDER-accredited), as well as Master of Architecture, Master of Science in Architecture, and Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning.

The College of Architecture and Urban Studies is one of the largest of its type in the nation. CAUS is composed of two schools and the departments of landscape architecture, building construction, and art and art history. The School of Architecture + Design includes programs in architecture, industrial design and interior design. The School of Public and International Affairs includes programs in urban affairs and planning, public administration and policy, and government and international affairs. The college enrolls more than 2,200 students offering 22 degrees programs taught by 130 faculty members.

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