SU Architecture’s Robbins receives top educator award

Friday, September 26, 2008, By News Staff

SU Architecture’s Robbins receives top educator awardSeptember 26, 2008Mary Kate O’Brienmcobrien@syr.edu

Mark Robbins, dean of the Syracuse University School of Architecture, has received the 2008 Educator Award from the American Institute of Architects, New York State (AIANYS). Robbins was recognized for his contributions over 20 years as an educator and for developing innovative programs that heighten the public awareness of the value of design and have often resulted in the commissioning of built projects. The award was presented during the AIANYS convention on Sept. 25.

“Mark’s level of commitment to the education of our student architects is truly exemplary,” says Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor. “He clearly understands the critical issues of contemporary practice, as well as the theoretical underpinnings that architectural training reveals in buildings, cities and urban design. Under Mark’s leadership, the school is a center not just of action but of ideas.”

Robbins also serves as the University’s senior advisor for architecture and urban initiatives, a position created by Cantor in spring 2008. This new role underscores the importance of architecture, landscape architecture and planning on campus, as well as the engagement of SU in the revitalization efforts within the City of Syracuse and the region.

“Mark is one of the most influential and effective educators in the country,” says Toshiko Mori, principal of Toshiko Mori Architect and professor in practice at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. “He has demonstrated that a university does play a critical role in the life of its community, while students learn from the unique attributes of the city in which they study.”

Robbins became the ninth dean of the School of Architecture in 2004. Previously, he was the director of design at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., where he developed an aggressive program to strengthen the presence of innovative design in the public realm through national initiatives such as the Mayors Institute on City Design and New Public Works, a program that sponsored numerous design competitions across the United States. Robbins also was the curator of architecture at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, and an associate professor in the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University, as well as a visiting critic at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, the University of Virginia, and Sci-Arc.

His creative work has received support from the NEA, NYSCA, NYFA, OAC and the Graham Foundation and he is a recipient of a Rome Prize from the American Academy and a fellowship in the visual arts from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard.

For more information, contact Mary Kate O’Brien, director of communications at the School of Architecture, at (315) 443-2388 or mcobrien@syr.edu.