Deane Evans Named Hillier College Associate Dean of Research

Deane Evans, newly named Associate Dean of Research at Hillier College, has been at the  School of Architecture at NJIT since 2001, building one of the most successful architecture research programs in the country as Executive Director of the Center for Building Knowledge (CBK) and the Center for Resilient Design.

Evans is a registered architect and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He has held positions in government, academia and the private sector, formerly as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Director of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing, Vice President for Research at the American Institute of Architects, and as Director of the AIA/ACSA Council on Architectural Research. In all of these roles Evans led research initiatives in the field of architecture and building sciences designed to generate new knowledge that benefits both architectural education and activities within the profession. 

In his new role, Evans is focusing on three priorities. “I am planning on making collaboration and funding opportunities more visible to faculty, while also highlighting the work that is already being done. This will develop an even more robust culture of research at Hillier College and expand not only our extensive knowledge base in the historical, social and community-based understanding of design and planning, but also our in-depth expertise in STEM-based applied building performance science,” he explained.

Evans has dedicated his career to creating innovative ways to improve the built environment – through better design, the development and use of better technology, and the creation and dissemination of new knowledge. As part of his current activities, Evans helped develop and currently directs the New Jersey Clean Energy Learning Center, an online energy efficiency education portal, for the state’s Clean Energy Program. The Learning Center provides online training on a wide variety of energy topics, including innovative energy technologies and systems. Evans’ dedication to educating future and current professionals is reflected in the multiple, research-based online training programs he and his centers are currently developing: an online training program focused on financing community microgrids and a complementary training platform developed on how to create microgrid development plans. Both programs contain segments focused on distributed energy resources technologies. In his ongoing role as the executive director of CBK he also directed the Center’s participation in the U.S Department of Energy (USDOE) Consortium for Building Energy Innovation, and is currently overseeing deployment of a national, online training and certification program on USDOE’s Asset Score tool. Original support to develop the training was provided by USDOE.

The Center for Resilient Design was established in late 2012 in the immediate aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. The Center’s founding mission was to serve as a resource to help New Jersey communities recover from the effects of Sandy, first as a special program within the Hillier College of Architecture and Design (HCAD) and then as a full-fledged center within the university. There are several ongoing studies and projects including an online educational platform to educate municipal officials and their staff on the value and feasibility of developing resilient community microgrids in their jurisdictions. The project was funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. 

“There are two main types of research being carried out in architecture. The first focuses on the history of architecture and design, and the interaction of people with design, as well as the involvement of architects in community development and planning work, all of which have a great deal of social impact. HCAD faculty have published extensively in these areas and  have also contributed significantly, through effective community engagement, to demonstrating the power of design and urban planning to improve quality of life for the public at large. The second main area of research has more to do with the technologies, systems and materials of the built environment, with a special focus on improving the performance of buildings through better building science,” he said.

“These efforts have, historically, received significant funding nationally, and Hillier College has been consistently successful in obtaining such funding, typically between $500,000 to $1M per year over the last 20 years — a track record that places it in the top 15 architecture research enterprises nationally, in standing with institutions like Georgia Tech, U.C. Berkeley and other top ranked universities.” 

Evans explained that these two main streams of research in architectural design are roughly parallel to the two most prominent approaches to architectural design. While architects will resist boxes, one approach is often referred to as regenerative design and takes into account historical, social, environmental and economic factors when designing the built environment. This approach works to integrate the built environment in a way that serves the communities that live and work in them, and often designs for resilience to climate change and for conservation of the natural environment while addressing social issues such as the need for affordable housing, as well as people-centered quality of life factors such as clean air and public green spaces. 

The other approach keeps its focus on data-driven design, taking into account the performance of building design, systems and materials and how effective they are for increasing the overall performance of a building, including its energy performance, the life cycles of it’s materials and systems, along with its ability to withstand extreme events like heat waves, earthquakes, hurricanes and flooding. An example of the kind of impact that this approach can yield is evident in the work being done at CBK on energy performance. According to Environmental Protection Agency research we spend almost 90% of our time in the built environment, either our homes or our workplaces. The energy budget for the approximately 129 million households and more than 4.7 million commercial buildings accounts for close to 40% of total U.S. energy use. These buildings consume more energy than the transportation or industry sectors, according to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The Center for Building Knowledge is doing significant work in this area, as is Associate Professor Hyojin Kim with her (BE)2 Lab, because improving energy performance continues to be one of the ways that architects, who design buildings and their systems, are reducing the energy budget and carbon footprint of the built environment. 

Designers are known for being innovators. HCAD has long been known for being on the leading edge, using advanced technology in the curriculum and alumni who are exceptionally well-versed and skilled in the creative use of the latest technological innovations. With its research labs in computational design, material systems and building sciences, HCAD already has many areas where technologies and research overlap. Architects who want to build affordable housing benefit from knowing how to use innovative housing materials that cost less and reduce exposure to toxins like mold. Design students who learn building energy modeling can apply principles like airflow and passive cooling to the design of their built environments, and interior designers who use virtual reality to model interior spaces can assist in the rapid prototyping and design of critical facilities such as the mobile medical care unit (M2CU) recently designed at Hillier College.  

Evans continues, “We are also very happy to have Colette Santasieri bringing her Center for Community Systems to Hillier College, and co-locating with us in CBK. Her extensive background in brown field remediation, community planning for land re-use and coastal resilience brings another set of expertise to the work we are already doing, and provides opportunities for collaborations, external funding and student education,” Evans said. “We expect only good things to come from having such a multidisciplinary group of faculty working on the practical application of their research projects. We plan to continue bringing our expertise to the curriculum, preparing students for their future careers, and recognize that as the issues we address in design become more complex, we need to continue to work across disciplinary boundaries, in collaboration with our colleagues across NJIT.” 

In his new position as associate dean of research, Evans sees great possibilities for significant research growth at HCAD going forward. “With the deep bench of talented faculty, students and researchers that we already have — and the large potential for cross-pollinating their skill sets in new and inventive ways — the potential for substantial growth in research and knowledge development at the College is very high,” he said. “This is especially true in the College’s three core focus areas: sustainability, urbanization and computation. We anticipate significant research activity in all three of these areas individually, and we look forward to exploring innovative approaches that combine one, two or all three of these areas into exciting new research and community engagement initiatives.”