At the start of the current semester, SmithGroup entered into a five-year partnership with three Historically Black Universities—Florida A&M University, Hampton University, and Howard University—through which the design firm is providing financial support for programming needs, an internship program, and academic mentorship.
African-American students currently account for a minuscule number of architectural degrees awarded each year. The seven Black colleges and universities that offer National Architectural Accrediting Board-approved programs award nearly one-third of the architecture degrees earned by Black students in the United States, according to the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. The intent of SmithGroup’s partnership program is to increase these numbers and, in turn, further diversify the industry’s talent pipeline.
Initiating this partnership program was Taft Cleveland, Assoc. AIA, Assoc. APA, LEED GA, NOMA, an alumnus of Florida A&M’s School of Architecture and Engineering Technology, who works as a design architect for SmithGroup’s healthcare practice in Chicago. Cleveland also earned an M.Arch degree from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
Through this partnership, select SmithGroup architectural and engineering staff are lecturing at each university, giving students an understanding of how architects collaborate with other design disciplines, how successful businesses operate, and what collaboration skills are needed to be successful.
SmithGroup employees also participate in biweekly virtual desk crits providing feedback and mentorship as students advance through their coursework. Staff will serve as jurors for the program’s midterm and/or final projects.
FUND RAISING AND TUITION ASSISTANCE
The firm will select students from each university for paid summer internships with its Chicago, Detroit or Washington, D.C. offices to provide practical learning opportunities in a real-world setting.
Dr. Hazel Edwards, Professor and Chair in the Department of Architecture at Howard University’s College of Engineering and Architecture, says the partnership with SmithGroup is supporting the department’s third-year studio, which focused on housing. Some of SmithGroup’s instructors, who include some Howard graduates, complement the school’s studio instructors.
Smith Group also raised $12,000 in personal donations to provide Howard architecture students with personal laptops.
Since 2018, SmithGroup has conducted an annual Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion scholarship program that supports and mentors students from historically underrepresented demographics in architecture, interior design, planning, landscape architecture, and engineering. The firm has awarded $90,000 in tuition aid to 15 recipients across the country.
Related Stories
| Aug 20, 2013
Top Data Center Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Corgan, Gensler, HDR head Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest data center architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Aug 20, 2013
First look: $550 million Billie Jean King National Tennis Center renovation
The United States Tennis Association has announced its plans for a sweeping transformation of the USTABillie Jean King National Tennis Center that will include the construction of two new stadiums, as well as a retractable roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium. The transformation will be implemented in three phases to begin at the conclusion of the 2013 US Open, with the goal of overall completion by the 2018 US Open.
| Aug 15, 2013
Design-build project delivery holds steady at nearly 40% of nonresidential construction: DBIA study
The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), the only organization that defines, teaches and promotes best practices in design-build, has released research indicating that design-build project delivery represents nearly 40 percent of total market share in the United States, based on dollar value at the end of 2012.
| Aug 14, 2013
Five projects receive 2013 Educational Facility Design Excellence Award
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) has selected five educational and cultural facilities for this year’s CAE Educational Facility Design Awards.
| Aug 14, 2013
Sluggish gains in architect compensation due to weakness in construction sector: AIA survey
U.S. architecture firms have experienced modest improvements in business conditions over the last two years that has resulted in very small gains in compensation levels for staffs.
| Aug 14, 2013
Green Building Report [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Building Design+Construction's rankings of the nation's largest green design and construction firms.
| Aug 13, 2013
DPR's Phoenix office, designed by SmithGroupJJR, affirmed as world's largest ILFI-certified net-zero facility
The new Phoenix Regional Office of DPR Construction, designed by SmithGroupJJR, has been officially certified as a Net Zero Energy Building by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). It’s the largest building in the world to achieve Net Zero Energy Building Certification through the Institute to date.
| Aug 8, 2013
Energy research animates science sector [2013 Giants 300 Report]
After an era of biology-oriented spending—largely driven by Big Pharma and government concerns about bioterrorism—climate change is reshaping priorities in science and technology construction.
| Aug 8, 2013
Top Science and Technology Sector Engineering Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Affiliated Engineers, Middough, URS top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest science and technology sector engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.