“Bridging the Gap” Leads National Discussion of Public-Interest Architectural Internships

by GEORGIA BIZIOS & KATIE WAKEFORD

At NC State and universities across the country, architecture students enthusiastically participate in service-learning studios, community design-build workshops, and study-abroad experiences focused on humanitarian issues. Unfortunately, graduates discover a scarcity of similar opportunities in internship, the required professional development phase between receiving an accredited degree and completing licensure. Creating public-interest internships allows architecture graduates to apply their valuable energy and design skills to current social, economic, and environmental issues and have a powerful influence on the future of the profession and our communities.
Bridging the Gap: Public-Interest Architectural Internships, an essay collection edited by Professor Georgia Bizios and intern architect Katie Wakeford brings together twenty-two contributors across the United States to address a broad range of considerations regarding public-interest internships.

In the foreword, celebrated public-interest designer Sergio Palleroni elegantly summarizes the values of the collection by reflecting upon the critical need for public-interest internship opportunities. Palleroni writes:

Within the pages of this book — which is essentially a road map to significant change — you will find a thoughtful selection of useful perspectives on the issue of public-interest internship, from the ethical reasons why we need such internships to the experiences of a star lineup of the leading figures attempting to create these opportunities. Their stories, combined with the compelling, eloquent firsthand accounts from the trenches by the interns and young practitioners engaged in these pioneering programs and practices, make this book the first one to substantively contribute to solving this difficult problem. (Palleroni, Foreword, page xi)

The collection includes an essay by Dean Marvin Malecha, FAIA, which emphasizes the power of the internship process for the individual and the discipline. Malecha writes, “The seed of the profession’s evolution will be sown when its future leaders are inspired to conceptualize practice in new ways with a transformed purpose.”
Bizios and Wakeford’s (M.Arch. 2005) essay examines the benefits and challenges of university-based internships like those sponsored by the College of Design’s Home Environments Design Initiative. To date, Bizios has supervised the equivalent of more than five years of full-time public-interest architectural internships at NC State with the initiative.
Luke Perry (BEDA & BID 2000) co-authored an essay recounting his internship experience at the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless Peachtree-Pine facility. Perry writes:

Far beyond the pen, paper, or computer, it was there in the personal space of compassion, struggle, empowerment, and justice where the greatest triumphs occurred. As such, this ‘internship’ went far beyond typical professional training, setting a very high standard for what I believe architecture could and should do. (Perry and Clark Tyler, Architectural Immersion: The Peachtree-Pine Experience, page 198)

While the collection is not intended to be exhaustive in its findings, the breadth is sufficient to fuel a vibrant conversation in the hopes of inspiring the creation of new public-interest internships and informing the ongoing updates to the Intern Development Program (IDP).

“Bridging the Gap: Public-Interest Architectural Internships” was supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts along with additional funding from The NC State University College of Design’s Faculty Development Program. The NC State University Office of Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development made it possible to develop internship opportunities that inspired this publication. The book was designed by Kelly Murdoch-Kitt (MGD, 2009).

The Reviews Are In

“‘Bridging the Gap’ offers tremendous value in addressing the important linkage between architectural internship and public service. As such, this discourse has the ability to positively influence the emerging generation’s conception of practice and the value that design thinking has in serving society.”

Clark Manus, FAIA
President, American Institute of Architects, 2011
CEO, Heller Manus

“Bizios and Wakeford have assembled a timely, convincing, and highly useful collection of essays that demonstrate the power of public service to expand the education of architects through direct community engagement, greatly multiplying the dividends of internship. ‘Bridging the Gap’ enriches the literature on public-interest practice, and establishes the relevance of social equity to our continuing discourse on professional development.”

Professor Daniel S. Friedman
President, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2010-11 Dean, College of Built Environments, University of Washington

“This volume brings together a host of case studies in alternative futures for design discipline graduates. Graduates seeking meaningful, compassionate, socially relevant engagement will find this volume enlightening and a mine of trajectories. Faculty will find it a great pedagogic companion for a challenging, though opportunity-filled, future in the contemporary academy. Professionals should find it simply humbling.”

Keelan P. Kaiser, AIA
President, National Architectural Accrediting Board, 2011-12 Chair, Department of Architecture, Judson University

“Nineteen perspectives that will change the way you view the profession of architecture and the business behind design. Relevant to students and professionals alike, this collection highlights multiple avenues to engage in public-interest projects and careers, which are becoming ever more integral to the design of the built environment.”

Danielle McDonough, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP
Vice President, American Institute of Architecture Students, 2010-2011