Architecture Dean Will Wittig

Greetings from the Dean’s Office. As I think many of you know, I have had the pleasure of serving the School as our dean since Steve Vogel began a well-earned sabbatical in May. Steve will be returning to the classroom again next year. As you might imagine, after teaching in the program for 10 years, my new position comes with moments of excitement, many challenges, lessons to learn, and new ideas to test. Most importantly, the School continues to excel in many areas, which gives me great pride through my association with this great program. Although the Tigers didn’t quite make it to the World Series, we have adopted a theme this fall of “We’re #1.” I think you will see why based on this impressive list of recent accomplishments that demonstrate the success of the program in a variety of ways:

• Our chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students won the National Chapter Honor Award for 2011.  (Basically we were recognized as the best AIAS chapter in the country.) Read more.

• SOA students were awarded close to $15,000 in additional scholarships for this year from our endowed scholarship program and from supporting organizations such as the Michigan Architectural Foundation.  Many of you have contributed to these scholarships, so again, thank you for your ongoing support of our students.

• A student from the Warsaw Polytechnic, sponsored by Professor Tony Martinico won 1^st place in the ACSA / AISC 11^th Annual Steel Design Competition.

• The Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) has been granted a staff position through the Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship program. The Rose Fellow has been selected and will begin work with the DCdc for three years beginning in January.

• The DCDC also secured the largest grant in their history ($1,500,000) this July from the Ford Foundation to work with the City of Detroit and many area community development leaders to facilitate community engagement as the city works to develop long range land use and development strategies.

• We successfully completed a partial renovation of the second floor this summer, which included 14 brand new faculty offices, and renovations in one studio space.  Several alumni made significant contributions that allowed us to complete this important project (on time and on budget.)

• The Volterra-Detroit Foundation was one of three organizations that were beneficiaries of a concert at the Fox Theatre in October featuring “Italy’s new Singing Sensation: Il Vollo.”  Total funds and pledges raised to date for the Volterra Residential College project are approximately $215,000.  Thanks to all of you who have donated or pledged to this important project. Read more.

• For the last two years, our graduates have had the best passing rates on the Architect Registration Exam in the state of Michigan.

• Plus, for the 11th consecutive year, UDM is ranked in the Top Tier of Midwest Regional Universities by U.S.News and World Report.  With 146 schools ranked in the Top Tier, UDM ranks #23 - one of the highest-ranking Michigan universities to make the list.

I think it is clear that “Great Things” are really happening around the UDM School of Architecture. Tag lines don’t always ring true, but these days, I think we can all take pride in a really phenomenal list of accomplishments from the students, faculty, and alumni who make up the UDM SOA community.   

Sincerely,  

Will Wittig, AIA, LEED® AP
Dean