Center for Architecture Foundations (CFAF)    
Project Location: NYC Metro Area
Number of Participants: 2,700/year
Age of Participants: K-12
Team Members: Jaime Endreny, Tim Hayduk, Rebecca Parelman, Catherine Teegarden
Design Educators: Jane Cowan, Carol Gretter, Greta Hansen, Ian Harris, Grace Hwang, Al Kurchin, Jenny Lee, Eric Ratkowski, Yves Roger

Through project-based residencies in NYC schools, the Center for Architecture Foundation’s (CFAF) Learning By Design:NY (LBD:NY) program connects students to passionate design educators, diverse cultural institutions and, most important, to the joy, inspiration and benefits of immersion in the practice of architecture and design. Through our integrated design residencies and core subject teacher professional development, children receive the arts education they need to grow and thrive, and the tools they need to design a sustainable future for our cities, our nation and the planet.

LBD:NY residencies enhance hands-on arts and core curriculum learning for NYC area K-12 school children through interdisciplinary architecture and design lessons that cultivate students’ observation skills, critical thinking, problem solving and creativity. The goals of LBD:NY are to: 1) provide NYC children with quality design-based arts education, 2) raise awareness of the built environment among NYC youth, 3) increase NYC teachers’ ability to integrate design-based arts education in core subject teaching, and 4) in middle and high schools, expose students to architecture and design as career possibilities. To achieve these goals LBD:NY pairs professional design educators with NYC classroom teachers in residencies customized to meet the schools’ educational goals. Although each residency is unique, they all follow the same methodology, which aligns with state and national standards. The residency may center on a school’s unique neighborhood, a class’s unit of study, or a larger school-based project, as in our residency at New Design High School that transformed the school’s rooftop into a rich learning environment with a functional greenhouse and outdoor classroom. In some residencies, students will identify a community need that they can address through design, such as the re-use of a neglected site, which plants the seeds of civic activism. Our residency at PS 161 in Morningside Heights worked with the same students for three years (from 4th-7th grade) on an in-depth site-development project based on Harlem’s history and the Manhattanville Project.

While residencies are typically delivered in ten 90-minute sessions over 10 weeks, a design-build project might run as long as 25 weeks, and a neighborhood study might extend from one year to the next. Programmatic flexibility is central to our ability to successfully integrate design-based learning into existing school curricula, and a unique feature of the program. LBD:NY strengthens teaching by training classroom teachers in project-based, interdisciplinary learning methods through observation, modeling, co-teaching and professional development workshops.

Tackling real-life and curriculum-based challenges students engage creatively to solve problems, apply STEM skills, and connect knowledge and skills across disciplines. Neighborhood walks, studio projects, discussion, site visits, and critiques, help students master new architectural terms and concepts. Group and individual activities such as 3-D modeling, architectural drafting and design, collage, map-making, drawing and photography develop students’ design sensibilities and skills. In final presentations to teachers, parents, community stakeholders and/or architects, students articulate their concepts and designs.

Outcomes and Evaluation of the Project
CFAF assesses progress toward the following outcomes:

• 1) students acquire a framework of knowledge about the built environment
• 2) Students develop the skills needed to engage in the design process
• 3) Students learn to reflect and assess their own work and that of others
• 4) Teachers demonstrate skills in design-based teaching methods

Data comes from pre- and post-tests, observation, portfolio review and surveys. We make mid-program adjustments based on feedback from school leaders, teachers, design educators and the observations of our program director. Student progress is deemed a success when 80-90% of students achieve our stated indicators. The program is considered a success when it delivers the activities as planned (activities are adjusted based on formative assessment) and they have the desired outcomes. We also consider student enthusiasm, parent participation (when applicable) and the level of classroom teacher and school administrator engagement and enthusiasm as indicators of program success.

Based on feedback, we have strengthened the professional development component of our program and provided more time for mentoring between teacher and design educator. Our analysis also indicates that long-term (over multiple years) and grade-wide (serving all classrooms of one particular grade level) collaborations are most effective to enhancing students understanding of the built environment and classroom teachers’ ability to lead lessons and activities. Therefore, through outside funding and advanced planning our goals moving forward are to engage more schools in this in-depth, long-term partnership.

Additional Information
The Center for Architecture Foundation (CFAF) promotes public awareness and a broader appreciation of the important role architecture and design play in our daily lives. We engage general public audiences in contemporary topics on the built environment to encourage design literacy.

Programs include K-12 in-school collaborations, school visits to the Center, out-of-school time youth and family workshops, professional development for teachers, scholarships, and public exhibitions and educational events at the Center for Architecture — a public gallery space committed to advancing the understanding of the built environment managed in partnership with the American Institute of Architects NY Chapter. CFAF was incorporated in 1966 as the New York Foundation for Architecture and has been providing school-based LBD:NY residencies for 19 years.

LBD:NY serves an average of 2,700 NYC area students grades K-12 each year and 45 teachers through professional development. In 2009, 84% of students served attended NYC public schools throughout NYC (42% K-5, 26% Middle School and 32% high school.) More than 75% of our residencies are in NYC public schools where a majority of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

CFAF’s LBD:NY program is a certified vendor of the NYC Department of Education. The Center for Architecture Foundation received a Community Development Award in 1999 from NY Association of Architects, and has been awarded the American Architectural Foundation’s K-12 Architectural Education Award of Merit in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009.