All School Meeting Discussion

At the all-school meeting, Director Marco Frascari discussed how and where money will be used to improve the school, following David Azrieli's huge donation to the school.

David J. Azrieli, philanthropist, developer, and architect has just donated 5.5$ million dollars to the school of architecture, bringing his total donations to around 8$ million dollars. Azrieli is a CSA alumni ('97). The donation will become fully active in the next three years, so we won't experience immediate changes, but it means that the new Ph.D program will finally take flight. It will be the second Ph.D program in Canada and the "only one of its kind", based on its emphasis on design rather than theory. The donation also has an impact on concentrating student space in the building, meaning we will at last be able to kick out the computer engineering students from the 5th floor to make space for our currently over-cramped students. Other changes include: better computer facilities, wireless internet (which is long overdue) and big improvements will be made to the Directed Studies Abroad program for grads and undergrads -- even rumours of it being paid for, this year (unconfirmed). Another great change is the revival of the school folio, which was one of the prized documents that the CSA produced in the 80's. Sadly, we will miss the boat on all of the above, but the incoming first years will get the full benefits of these improvements.
Ofcourse, the accumulated donations by Mr. Azrieli is so high at this point that by default, the school is to be renamed in his honour. We are now the Azrieli School of Architecture. All those opposed, tough luck.

Link to full article at canadianarchitect.com