Anthony Schuman To Receive NJIT Van Houten Award
Anthony Schuman is Professor of Architecture in the Hillier College of Architecture and Design, where he has taught for 40 years. He typically teaches a design studio plus a seminar class each semester. He is currently leading an upper-year undergraduate “options” studio addressing three adjacent parcels in Newark’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Last fall, he offered an elective seminar called “Envisioning Newark”, which takes students off-campus each week to meet leaders in the public, nonprofit, institutional and corporate sectors. The objective is to familiarize students with the process of urban development with the City of Newark as the case in point. Along with Jonathan Curley’s “Newark Narratives,” it is one of the few courses at NJIT focused on our host city.
Schuman has been selected to receive the 2020 Robert W. Van Houten Award for Teaching Excellence from the NJIT Alumni Association. The award recognizes outstanding tenured faculty at the university. The voting population is a randomly drawn computer-generated list from the last five graduating classes, as it is felt that their recent experience is the most valid in judgment.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
Let me offer two.
The first is that I have maintained a clear and consistent set of values in a series of leadership positions in the architecture profession and academy: a priority on creating esprit de corps and collective spirit among colleagues and students, and an emphasis on what I call architecture’s social vocation; that is, the intersection of architecture and social life. I have served as President of the New York City Chapter of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, as Regional Director and then President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), and as Undergraduate and Graduate Architecture Program Director and, most recently, as Interim Dean of the Hillier College of Architecture and Design.
Teaching is at the core of what I do. It must be informed by research, complemented by service, and documented in publication. I am proud of how I have woven these strands together through a “public practice” of architecture. My early research was on social housing in France, drawing on my prior academic work in French and years as a housing activist in New York City. The second phase examined the history of social engagement in schools of architecture, a cause I championed at ACSA. Following a move from New York to New Jersey in 1996 my attention was redirected on Newark, most notably on the Lincoln Park neighborhood where I serve as President of the Board of Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District, Inc., the local nonprofit development corp. All of these activities are brought back to the classroom and the College, where I am presently leading an effort to extend and publicize our collective Newark-based efforts.
What are your thoughts about receiving an NJIT Van Houten Award?
There is no greater satisfaction for a teacher than to be understood and recognized by their students past and present. The Van Houten Award is especially meaningful because it is chosen by recent alumni and reflects their retrospective appreciation of the value of their education as they launch their careers. I am deeply honored by this award.