In the past year, the UVA School of Architecture has lost key faculty members and its dean, but last week, President John Casteen announced the appointment of Kim Tanzer as the school’s new leader.
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Kim Tanzer |
Tanzer, a professor at the University of Florida, will succeed Karen Van Lengen, who served as dean for 10 years.
“I am very pleased with the search committee,” Casteen told C-VILLE. “Karen Van Lengen started the school on a very progressive agenda in the direction of study having to do with sustainability, moral and ethical aspects of architecture … what we are looking for in Dean Tanzer is the consolidation of those strengths.”
Tanzer, 53, has received local and national awards for her community-based architecture and service in a historically African-American neighborhood in Gainesville, Florida. As Dean, she will be responsible for a laundry list of new assignments. First, Tanzer is charged with the creation of centers for interdisciplinary research. The first thing she needs to do on that front, she says, is “to find the funding to help [faculty] and for their students to have assistance,” she says. But, Tanzer is coming to UVA during a time of belt-tightening. “Here at the University of Virginia you have the same challenges that we have at the University of Florida, which is there is not enough money,” says Tanzer. “Finding money and meeting public expectations of accountability is important.”
Yet, because Tanzer has come in the thick of a major capital campaign, she “has major responsibilities that have to do with the school’s future finances and future financial prospects,” said Casteen.
Second on the list of assignments is the introduction of a Ph.D. program, which, Tanzer said, “I hope will also some way allow us to take advantage of a great strength of the school, which is its design capabilities.”
The internationalization of the school adds a global perspective to the new dean’s to-do list, and, last but not least on the list, is the expansion of the Jeffersonian understanding of the link between education, architecture and democracy. The most prominent example of this relationship is the Academical Village.
“Utilizing the Jeffersonian legacy in the 21st century,” said Tanzer, “I think will be really important, and from my perspective that means telling the story in a way that’s pertinent for those of us here now, reflecting on what Thomas Jefferson did during his time.”
UVA’s School of Architecture has the opportunity to write the second chapter of democracy, said Tanzer. “I really think that the University of Virginia is the place where education, architecture and democracy come together,” she says. “I am really thrilled to have a part in this.”
She is joined by her husband Rod McGalliard. “I know essentially two things about Rod, both of which suggest that he’ll find Charlottesville a pleasant home,” joked Casteen. “One is that he is a lawyer, and the other is that he is said to be a history buff.” Tanzer will begin her term on July 1.
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