School of Public Architecture sees growth and prestige

The School of Public Architecture is a component of the larger Michael Graves College, centralized in the Green Lane academic building. According to learn.org, upon the program’s initial onset, Kean became one of only two public universities in New Jersey to offer an undergraduate architecture degree. When the graduate architecture program opens, it will also be one of only two at public universities in the state.

“Up until 1974, when New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) began their school of architecture, the only school of architecture in the state of New Jersey was at Princeton University,” architecture professor Craig Konyk said. “So to serve a state with the size and diversity of the population that is New Jersey, it has been rewarding to develop a smaller public alternative for New Jersey students to choose from.”

Wenzhou Kean has its own architecture program, parallel to the Union Kean’s program. Photo Courtesy of Kean Design Architecture.

Konyk teaches classes such as first-year design studio, theory, and representation. An institution in the Kean’s faculty since the foundation of the architecture program, he has been integral in establishing and upholding the school’s mission.

“The School of Public Architecture was founded on the premise that students should have the skills to serve the public good; to be fluent in both hand and digital skills,” Konyk said.

“We have with each year added 36 or so students and we have remained a program that is in demand with our prospective students,” Konyk said. “We know each and every one of our students and they feel very much a part of a positive and constructive environment.”

John Grega, a senior architecture major, believes that the modest size of the major has allowed it to develop a tight-knit culture.

“We all take about four major classes a semester and take the same classes, so we really know each other and see one another at least four to five days a week,” Grega said. “From what I know, we are the only major to have our own personal space to work where we can keep materials or projects knowing no one is going to touch or move them.”

One of the rarest factors of the School of Public Architecture is its “Spring in Rome” component, which requires all juniors to spend their spring semester studying abroad in Rome.

Junior architecture students travel to Rome every semester to study abroad. Photo Courtesy of Kean Design Architecture.

The semester is divided into four mini-semesters in which a different professor would travel to Rome for each section and teach a studio class using a different location in the city. Grega, who has already completed his trip to Rome, believes he gained much from the opportunity to learn his craft in a different culture and one of the most historically prestigious architectural cities in the world.

“Michael Graves wanted us to travel to Rome when he was helping make the curriculum. After being there, I can see why,” Grega said. “The city is beautiful, nothing like the cities of New York, Philadelphia, or Boston. It’s an entirely different world.”

Kean’s Master of Architecture program was given a candidacy status by the National Architecture Accrediting Board (NAAB) in 2017. The program is predicted to be officially accredited in 2021.

“In the state of New Jersey, in order to become professionally licensed by the state of New Jersey to practice architecture, one must first obtain a first professional degree,” Konyk said. “Our program will achieve this without our Master of Architecture program, which we are in the process of gaining accreditation for.”