Michael A. Berk, AIA
Director of the School of Architecture

The School of Architecture believes that design is the touchstone to all things great. Design education requires a deep and integral understanding of art and science. The Architecture faculty are committed to providing students with an experience and a framework that approximates a Renaissance education . . . while simultaneously exploring the modern conditions of our time and place to provide the intellectual ground for the artifacts (writings, drawings, models, and constructions) that the students will be making in their coursework.

The world is on the brink of a new era. The School of Architecture is engaged in the issues of our time and has positioned itself with a diverse faculty including: practicing architects, engineers, artists, researchers, and theoreticians. All faculty teach both in the Design Studios and in an area of specialization. They are deeply committed to the challenges of teaching twenty-first century architects; issues of ecology and sustainability; making and building; and phenomena and abstraction; and are all intertwined into the work and pedagogy of our school. The faculty have maintained the School’s long tradition of engaging in the authentic nature of place, region, culture, and habitation. The School also houses three Research/Outreach Centers that provide unique opportunities for the undergraduate students to participate in funded research throughout the state.

The School has been prominently featured in two of the leading architectural professional journals of North America. ARCHITECT magazine identified our School as one of three schools leading the nation in the area of Community Design; we were also identified as one of six schools leading the nation in the area of Social Justice in the built environment. ARCHITECTURAL RECORD featured the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio (our research center in Biloxi, MS) on the cover along with an in-depth multi-page article and images of their work.

The MSU School of Architecture offers the only NAAB-accredited professional architecture degree in Mississippi. We have approximately 250 students with a student-to-faculty ratio of about 15:1. All of our students receive a dedicated 24/7 studio workstation space in our building (Giles Hall). These studios are the center of all teaching, activity, culture, and life in our School. The School hosts an annual Visiting Lecture Series (endowed by Robert and Freda Harrison); this series brings in national and internationally recognized architects, artists, and philosophers. The student organizations regularly host Friday Forum weekly lectures, Movie Night Film Series, and other major events (like the Annual Beaux Arts Ball). These events help shape the school and our place in the region and world. The School has also been the host to national and international conferences; most recently, the 34th Annual International Merleau-Ponty Circle Conference.

Above all, we understand design to be a deeply considered artistic endeavor. The School emphasizes the delight of architecture and the search for the indefinable spark that enlivens the things we make.

Come make an appointment to visit and tour our School. I would like to meet you and tell you more. (For any high school student considering an education in design, please consider attending our annual Design Discovery Summer Workshop program in June.)

On behalf of the faculty, staff, and students,

---- Michael A. Berk, AIA, F.L. Crane Professor
      Director of the School of Architecture

See MSU President Mark Keenum's VIDEO INTRODUCTION to the School of Architecture