Gateway Initiative

Greater Boston, MABoston Architectural College – Program Director

The BAC has a unique history. It began as the Boston Architectural Club, a place where practitioners and professionals would meet after hours with budding designers to discuss the important issues of the day – a place for direct mentorship and support. Over the years the school has developed as one of the only institutions that gives nearly equal weight to the Academic and Practice components of design education. Students study full time while they take courses and move towards the realization of their degree. Within this structure great opportunity exists. The edge between development in practice settings and academic growth is a fertile zone for experimentation, productive critique of the professions, cross fertilization with lines of thought outside of the profession, and expansion of community service in the design industry. All of these components are at the heart of the Gateway Initiative. A program primarily developed to expand the community service reach of the BAC. During two years creating, structuring, and expanding the program, over 500 students became involved directly with local clients and community groups, generating projects and start-up materials for over 50 non-profit agencies and working together as collaborative design teams. The students were engaged as co-creators of the program, generating an atmosphere of learning at all levels, and emphasizing the role of experimentation in consideration of any specific context or design problem. Pedagogically, the aim of the program is to produce self-motivated, engaged designers, considering the systems and social influences they operate within. The program is now an integrated part of the BAC curriculum, generating 20-30 new teams of students working with local community groups each semester.