Architecture Professor Wins National Teaching Award

Assistant Professor of Architecture Liz McCormick has won a 2022 ACSA/AIAS New Faculty Teaching Award conferred jointly by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS). The award is one of the Architectural Education Awards given annually by the ACSA.

“Each year, ACSA honors architectural educators for exemplary work in areas such as building design, community collaborations, scholarship, and service,” the announcement reads. “Award winners inspire and challenge students, contribute to the profession’s knowledge base, and extend their work beyond the borders of academy into practice and the public sector.”

Educators apply for awards with the submission of a lengthy portfolio that includes a teaching statement, course descriptions, student projects, and student feedback.

McCormick is a licensed architect, LEED AP, and Certified Passive House Consultant. Her research focuses on architectural innovation and construction in response to climate change. As she explains in her teaching statement, she uses accessible, low-tech methods to empower students to analyze, explore, and communicate the underlying physical principles of advanced building technologies with an emphasis on technical storytelling. This approach relies heavily on ‘learning by doing,” while fostering an environment where a student feels comfortable taking risks and making mistakes.

Last year McCormick received a 2021 Buell Center Course Development Prize in Architecture, Climate Change, and Society for her class “High-Performance, Low-Tech.”

In addition to her coursework and building technology research, McCormick is also working to create a platform for curricular redesign for schools of architecture that better addresses the climate emergency.