A. J. Jack Davis named dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies
University Provost Mark C. McNamee has announced the appointment of A. J. Jack Davis as Virginia Tech's dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies.
Davis, the Reynolds Metals Endowed Professor of Architecture, has acted since last June as interim dean and was previously the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and for the college.
"Jack is passionately committed to the success of the college and he has demonstrated outstanding leadership ability during his time as interim dean," said McNamee. "His intimate knowledge of the strengths of the college and his awareness of the challenges makes him uniquely positioned to build on the size, breadth, and quality of its remarkable undergraduate, graduate, professional, research, and outreach programs. The national search process revealed the high regard our peers have for the success and potential for the college."
Said Davis of his new appointment, "It is an honor to continue in the capacity in which I have had the pleasure to serve the college these past nine months. Through all our four schools, the college will embrace a future of innovative acts of creation, design, construction, and analysis that shape the built environment."
Prior to his current appointment, Davis taught at the University of Florida and then later at the Boston Architectural Center. He practiced with Cambridge Seven and Associates in Cambridge, Mass., and in Basel, Switzerland, for Suter and Suter. Since 1984 he has been principal and co-principal investigator on more than $2.5 million in research grants and a professor in the Professional Program in Architecture at Virginia Tech.
A Fellow of the A.I.A., Davis has won design excellence awards from the Virginia Society American Institute of Architects and other affiliates. His teaching interests are in design, construction and environmentally sustainable issues.
Davis received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Architecture from Virginia Tech in 1974 and 1975, respectively.
The College of Architecture and Urban Studies is one of the largest of its type in the nation. The college is composed of three schools and the Department of Art and Art History, part of the multi-college School of the Arts. The School of Architecture + Design includes programs in architecture, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture. The School of Public and International Affairs includes programs in urban affairs and planning, public administration and policy, and government and international affairs. The Myers-Lawson School of Construction, a joint school of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the College of Engineering, includes programs in building construction and construction management. The college enrolls more than 2,000 students offering 25 degrees taught by 160 faculty members.
