Dear Alumni, Friends and Parents:

This has been an especially exciting time at the UVa School of Architecture with the exuberant Reopening Celebration for Campbell Hall that took place just a few weeks ago, coupled with the 20th Anniversary Dean?s Forum Dinner. I want to thank you for all you have done to enhance the School, both as loyal donors and as individuals who are truly invested in the quality of education we provide. Because of your support, the major additions have been constructed and we can now focus on sustaining the vitality of life in Campbell Hall through unrestricted gifts to the Architecture Annual Fund and an increased endowment to provide for more student fellowships and travel opportunities, as well as significant faculty research. I would like to give you an update on just a few of the many accomplishments of our students, faculty, and staff this past year through four key thematic areas which have importance in the current state of our School and our world.

Architecture that champions the stewardship of our natural resources. As a School, we continue to lead by example. Emeritus Professor Warren Byrd?s plan for the new landscape around Campbell Hall serves as a living demonstration of ecological principles applied with aesthetic purpose. Assoc. Professor William Sherman?s design for the South Wing façade, with its computer-controlled glass louvers hovering above locally-hewn slate shingles, allows for optimum use of the sun?s heat in maintaining a comfortable indoor temperature. With Heinz Professor Timothy Beatley and IEN Senior Associate Tanya Denckla-Cobb, our planning faculty and students are spearheading the ?Glocal Food? movement, working to find ways of bringing locally produced food to American consumers to provide energy savings, greater food safety, and many other benefits. The Learning Barge, an award-winning project directed by Assoc. Professor Phoebe Crisman, offers K-12 children an unusual learning facility to directly study and steward their local and regional environment of the Chesapeake Bay. The barge, designed by UVa students, and currently under construction will launch its maiden voyage next summer as a floating classroom on Virginia?s Elizabeth River.

Architecture that sponsors dynamic social and cultural relationships in support of a democratic culture. We have an active collective of studios, courses, and projects that promote democratic principles in communities near and far. The ecoMOD Project, directed by Assistant Professor John Quale, is currently designing a fourth modular, affordable, and economically responsible home with its team of architecture and engineering students. Of the three homes already designed, constructed, and evaluated by the ecoMOD team, two are in Charlottesville and one is in Mississippi housing a family whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Initiative ReCOVER, a project directed by Asst. Professor Anselmo Canfora, just celebrated the groundbreaking of a school in Uganda designed by our students (co-sponsored by Building Tomorrow) that will provide a place for 325 underprivileged children in that country to receive an education. The School continues to send a large number of our students to study abroad. Among our summer programs are the Falmouth Preservation Field School, in which students carefully record and restore historically-significant buildings in a Jamaican port town; and the newly expanded China Travel Program, which brings our students to Beijing for six weeks of tours and lectures with an optional internship following in a design firm based in China. In May of this year, several of our students who had recently visited Peru made presentations at a University-wide symposium on managing tourism in Machu Picchu as part of a studio course on architectural preservation and technology led by Asst. Professor Dean Abernathy. Just as we have taken the lessons of the Lawn into the design of Campbell Hall through the juxtaposition of public and private spaces which initiate dialogue and collaboration, we take the lessons of Campbell Hall to the world through our projects that promote awareness and spark international conversation.

Architecture that celebrates life and regenerative cycles. We are inspired by the new life in our surroundings, and in no small part by the Woltz Bioretention Garden, designed by Professor Emeritus Warren Byrd and situated on the south side of Campbell Hall, which addresses erosion issues and stormwater drainage through rills and drains that culminate in a series of collection basins behind weir walls. This pedagogical landscape demonstrates the way we might all consider the precious reclamation of our water supply that is at risk in the long term. To the north, we celebrate the life of the late Eric Goodwin, through the memorial project that Professor Peter Waldman and his students designed and built. Regeneration is a common theme in our studios: the Martha Jefferson Hospital Studio, directed by Quesada Professor William Morrish, created a proposal for the sustainable redevelopment of several blocks near downtown Charlottesville which will soon be vacated by a hospital complex and associated buildings. The studio prepared a 65-page document which includes a careful analysis of existing conditions followed by a proposal of design opportunities and strategies for implementation over a period of several years.

Architecture that honors aesthetics and beauty. I am particularly proud to note that we continue to uphold superlative aesthetic standards throughout the curriculum, even while we dedicate ourselves to pursuing the highest ecological, sociological, and ethical standards. One needs only to take a passing glance at Professor W.G. Clark?s design for the Victor and Sono Elmaleh East Wing which welcomes passersby to view our unique educational process in action, or Associate Professor Judith Kinnard?s redesign for the Fine Arts Café which features a local and organic menu, or to visit the faculty porches and offices by William Sherman to know that beauty and functionality are equally prized here.

These are exciting times at the School of Architecture, so please join us in ensuring that the School continues its preeminence in the fields of architecture and landscape design, planning, history and sustainability. We are on pace to achieve our historic campaign goal of $25 million by the year 2011 thanks to your support. To date, the School has received over $16.5 million in gifts and future commitments in the campaign?s first half and we are moving forward steadily. Together, we can further our commitment to educating leaders who will shape the built environment for the public good, and support the innovative faculty who will be their role models. Help us Sustain the Momentum.

Your unrestricted contributions to the Architecture Annual Fund are vital to the School and can be used to support any number of strategic priorities, fill in unexpected funding gaps, and provide us with the financial flexibility to provide resources where they are most needed. As the School confronts diminished state support and all of us are concerned about these tenuous economic times, private support from alumni and friends is more essential than ever. All gifts, of any size, make a significant impact on the School:

? $100 could help send a faculty member to a conference

? $250 could send a student on a studio trip

? $500 could cover application fees and costs of a student design competition

? $1,000 (and up) qualifies you for Dean?s Forum membership (the School?s annual giving society)

? $2,000 could fund an exhibit at the School or an alumni networking event off-grounds

? $3,000 could sponsor a student to participate in one of the School?s foreign travel programs or studios

? $10,000 could sponsor the student-run LUNCH publication for one year

I hope you will join us - not only through your philanthropic contributions but also by your active involvement - as we continue to celebrate the building additions and the wave of rejuvenation they have brought to the School. I invite you to return to Charlottesville soon to see it all for yourself and when you do, please let us know. Visit our website, www.arch.virginia.edu for all the latest news from the School and update your contact information so you will receive our new e-newsletter ?Urgent Matters?. I hope you will also keep us updated on your life and accomplishments. I wish you a wonderful holiday season, and a fruitful 2009.

Best regards,

Karen Van Lengen

Dean and Edward E. Elson Professor