Associate Clinical Professor Brittany Wiliams AIA ‘05 M.Arch ‘07 joins the architecture administrative team this fall as the new assistant director of the graduate program. Williams will partner with Program Director Mohammed Gharipour to continue to grow the program’s rigor and reputation through cutting-edge curriculum, project-based studio work, global engagement and expanded professional opportunities for students.
“Britt brings tremendous energy, creativity, and a deep commitment to design education,” said Mohammad Gharipour. “ I look forward to working with her as we continue to strengthen and expand our graduate program.”
An accomplished design practitioner, educator and double-Terp, Williams has been part of the architectural faculty since 2011, specializing in design strategies that promote both environmental stewardship and building craft. She has guided hundreds of students through the undergraduate and graduate studio experience, including coordinating the graduate-level Integrated Design Studio. She served as one of the faculty advisors on WaterShed, the University of Maryland’s first-place winning solar house in the Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011, and was competition manager for Solar Decathlon China in 2013.
Along with colleagues Lindsey May and Michael Ezban, Williams was awarded an AIA Arnold W. Brunner Grant this past spring for a research project that will test building designs generated by artificial intelligence, and composed of biogenic materials, through a real-world construction project. This year she is also working with colleague and lecturer Dan Curry to integrate steel construction techniques, with a concentration on materiality and architectural expression, into the architectural curriculum, part of a four-year $110,000 grant from the American Institute of Steel Construction.
She is a highly acclaimed designer and partner at Gardner Architects LLC, developing bespoke, resilient and sustainable residential spaces for clients across the mid-Atlantic; her work has been recognized by the AIA and through Forbes’ 200 Best Residential Architects in America. She is one of less than a dozen educators, professionals and regulators appointed by the National Architectural Accrediting Board to advise on the new conditions for accreditation of architecture programs in higher education across the U.S.
Learn more about Williams in her bio.