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After a rocky start, the Charter High School of Architecture + Design is
proving the powers of design as a teaching tool.
By Tess Taylor
The Metropolis Observed
October 2002
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With a design-based curriculum, classes taught by professional
architects and designers, and a largely low-income student body, a
Philadelphia high school is preparing typically underrepresented groups
for careers in design.
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Bill Cramer, Rowhouse Pictures, 2002
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Offsite:
Charter High School for Architecture
and Design, (215) 351-2900, www.chadphila.org
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The scene backstage was like that at any high-school end-of-year show. Jittery,
excited students giggled while checking makeup and costumes for a cheerleading
demonstration, a drum circle, and a scene from Waiting for Godot.
But after the performances, parents listened to a lecture on graphic arts,
examined models of "libraries for the 21st century," and paused
to admire exercises in row-house renovation and neighborhood planning. "Here
are my tensile structures," one sophomore told his guests.
Welcome to Philadelphia's Charter High School for Architecture + Design
(CHAD). The school, opened in 1999 by AIA Philadelphia, is part of the chapter's
commitment to create a "legacy project"--something of lasting
value to the city. Its missions: to use a design-based curriculum to engage
kids in learning, and to attract more women and minorities to design professions.
With design professionals in the classrooms and on the board, it offers
a snapshot of what can happen when architects become high-school educators.
This fall the members of CHAD's first freshman class are seniors, and
the time is right for a fair, if early, assessment. Is the experiment working?
Is the school creating future designers? Is design a good teaching tool
for other subjects?
The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no. CHAD is one of a
small handful of high schools in the nation shaping design education for
teenagers. The High School of Art and Design and the School for the Physical
City, both in New York, offer drafting classes and use city structures as
teaching tools. Design Architecture Senior High, a selective magnet school
in Miami, offers high profile architecture classes to some of its region's
most privileged students.
Yet amid a growing number of design-based mentoring programs, CHAD is one
of the most comprehensive experiments in how design can be integrated into
a high-school education. In addition it reaches out to kids who might never
have thought of pursuing design. Open to any student in Pennsylvania, the
school serves mainly low-income students, many of whom are looking for an
alternative to overcrowded public schools. The city's school board has been
replaced by a reform commission and the charter school system has acted
as a safety net for families. Ninety-five percent of CHAD's students
are African-American, and the number who qualify for free lunches classifies
the school as "high poverty."
By outside standards, CHAD students are at risk. Many aren't performing
at grade level when they arrive. Given that none of the architects who founded
the school had a background in education, the project might easily have
failed. It nearly did: behind schedule and lacking teachers, a student-screening
process, or even a completed facility, the school opened its doors in September
1999 only to close them a month later. "It was mayhem," says Barbara
Chandler Allen, the school's director of development and mentoring.
The school did reopen two weeks later, however, and three years in it has
the support of parents, college professors, and the design community. Applications
are up nearly 60 percent from a year ago. Part of the school's current success
lies in the attention it is able to offer students. A dedicated staff and
a 16-to-1 student-teacher ratio make it hard for kids to fall through the
cracks. The environment is rigorous: students who are repeatedly absent
or tardy attend Saturday school. A passing grade at CHAD is 70, versus the
citywide 65. As Chandler Allen says, "High poverty does not amount
to low expectations." Most important, daily attendance is up to 92
percent, as opposed to the citywide average of 63 percent. "The kids
are here," school principal Greg Amiriantz says. "The rest will
follow."
The school is also becoming a haven for design-minded kids. Assistant principal
Cristina Alvarez scours after-school and summer art programs for CHAD students
in the making. "I look for a certain sparkle," she says. "The
kid who is interested in community gardening, the kid with an urge to sequin
her T-shirt, the kid whose mom says that he won't put down his sketchbook.
I tell these kids I think they might thrive here." Prospective students
submit work that expresses their interest in pursuing design. Some send
collages, ceramic tiles, or charcoal drawings. One sent in a newspaper clipping
of himself beaming while completing a park mural project. "In a lot
of public schools art is the first thing to go," Chandler Allen
says. "In a traditional setting, it is undervalued. We're saying, 'This
is one way to learn.' We're providing an academic environment for visual
learners."
Accepted students are immersed in a curriculum where design challenges are
used to teach everything from history to biology. In freshman math, kids
lay out books that teach geometrical properties to younger children. In
sophomore history, they learn about the Romans by modeling an aqueduct.
Other projects include researching historic buildings and designing habitats
for migrating birds. In addition, each student takes a focused 100-minute
design studio each day.
Alex Gilliam, head of the school's design department, graduated from the
University of Virginia and taught in England before coming to CHAD. "My
goal is to use design problems as a way of shaping both an academic and
a design education," he says. "In the process kids learn a lot
about the politics of built space." Gilliam uses Philadelphia as a
laboratory. For a senior-year studio, his students entered a local competition
to design a new public library. They observed neighborhoods, led tours of
their chosen site, and then drew thoughtful models of how a library might
attract a wide community of users. "In the process they effectively
designed the library as a resource for themselves," Gilliam says.
Meanwhile, the design and construction communities are both offering their
resources to the school in the form of materials, furniture, mentorship,
and money. Donations include the Sol Le Witt mural in the school's entryway
and the futuristic Ayse Birsel toilet seat that hangs outside its restrooms.
"In some ways, the school functions like a public-private partnership,"
says John Hays, an architect and the school board president.
As CHAD enters its fourth year, there are still physical--and academic--hurdles
ahead. If design is engaging kids, it's not clear that it's adding up to
higher test scores. The school's combined average SAT scores lag in the
low 800s. Michael Reingold, a design and drawing teacher, says he sometimes
worries that design may overwhelm the core curriculum. "Many kids arrive
without any basic skills, so there's need for remedial work," English
teacher Allison Geiger says. Other staff members agree. But the hope is
that the design curriculum can enhance well-rounded study. "We'd like
to see our kids go to the Ivies and get liberal arts degrees," Chandler
Allen says. "We'd like design to be the tool that shapes critical thinkers
and concerned citizens."
All of this may come. CHAD recently pursued, and won, a sizable grant to
hire a curriculum-development specialist. Yet in the meantime the school
has successfully created a safe, desirable destination for the 365 teenagers
it serves. It was hard to miss the enthusiasm at CHAD's open house in May.
The hallways were bright, and the kids seemed happy. Almost every student
I talked to said they loved the teacher attention. (Chandler Allen says
it's hard to get people to go home at night.) One student came to ask Chandler
Allen about a glassblowing internship. Another showed off his metal sculptures.
Senior Antonio Black, who, like many students, had never considered design
before coming to CHAD, was the program's first Rhode Island School
of Design acceptee--although he had decided to attend Pratt Institute, where
he'd received a full scholarship. Black had plans not only for college but
for graduate school. (He'd like to attend Art Center.) "I only wish
I'd found it sooner," he told me. "CHAD really gave me a focus."
Other seniors had received scholarships to Parsons, Howard, and Penn State.
Those who would not be attending design schools or four-year colleges had
emerged with other impressive plans. Ebony Hudson, off to culinary school,
explained why she wants to be a pastry chef: "The school helped me
realize how much I like making things with my hands."
If the design curriculum offers a great deal to students, what do students
offer designers? "They keep you on your toes," Gilliam says. "It's
amazing. You share your knowledge with the kids, and then suddenly they
start arguing with you about design and cities and architecture. Suddenly
they are passionate too, and you've helped form that."
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