Michael Ezban and Brittany Williams have been promoted to associate clinical professors by the University of Maryland's Architecture Program. As practicing educators in the field, both professors have used their expertise to expand the architecture curriculum through their coursework and professional work.
"Michael and Brittany bring practice and research into the classroom," said Dean Dawn Jourdan. "Through their teaching and service, these faculty have helped guide and prepare our students for thoughtful and sustainable architecture practice."
Ezban's Background:
Michael Ezban, RA, ASLA, LEED AP is assistant director of graduate architecture in the Architecture Program. For over 10 years, his work as an architect and landscape designer has focused on multispecies urbanism and how architecture mediates relationships between humans and other animals. His first book, Aquaculture Landscapes: Fish Farms and the Public Realm (Routledge, 2019), explores the landscape architecture of farms, reefs, parks and cities that entwine relationships between people and fish in public spaces. It was awarded the 2020 The John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize. His current research is focused on bird blinds — architecture that shapes encounters between birds and people — and his work on this topic is funded in part through a 2023 Healthy Places Seed Grant.
Ezban brings his expertise on designing for multispecies cohabitation to the courses that he teaches. A graduate studio he co-taught in 2021, focused on the design of resilient buildings and landscapes at Assateague Island for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources; it earned him a 2022 PALS Outstanding Faculty Award. In Spring 2022, Ezban's knowledge of equestrian design informed his ARCH 407 studio, which focused on a new Livestock Teaching Pavilion at UMD's historic campus farm in collaboration with faculty scientists from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
In addition to his work at the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, he represents the school as a member of the AgroEcology Corridor Steering Committee, a university-level strategic initiative to transform underused open space on UMD's campus into habitat and productive landscapes for experiential learning. In 2023, he collaborated with xFoundry to run the interdisciplinary Smart Canopy competition, which brought together students from architecture, engineering and computer science to design a new, smart, living canopy for the outdoor terrace at the Idea Factory Building.
"I truly appreciate this promotion, and I am always pleased to see my fellow PTK faculty colleagues being recognized for their many contributions to our program and the school,” Ezban said.
Ezban holds a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Harvard University, a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Michigan and completed his undergraduate work in Architecture at the University of Virginia. He joined the University of Maryland full-time in 2020.
Williams' Background:
Brittany Williams, AIA is a registered architect teaching in the Architecture Program. Through built work that ranges from institutional projects to net-zero communities to private homes, she explores her dual interests of environmental stewardship and building craft.
Williams teaches design across the curriculum and coordinates undergraduate and graduate-level studios including the integrated design studio and advanced technology co-requisite course. Through a research grant awarded by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, she led students in those courses to develop real proposals for the design of a net-zero and resilient Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve Field Station, culminating in the celebration of the work through the publication Charting a Way Forward: Research at Monie Bay. The department used these design proposals to advance their mission of building the field station. Williams taught her 20th design studio at UMD in Fall 2023.
For the past 19 years, Williams has been a part of the Solar Decathlon community, serving as one of the faculty advisors for WaterShed, UMD's 2011 first-place entry, and later in a variety of roles including architecture juror for Solar Decathlon Europe 2019, independent reviewer for Solar Decathlon 2020 Building Challenge and mid-term evaluation juror for Solar Decathlon China 2021. She was the competition manager for Solar Decathlon China 2013 where she oversaw 22 teams from 35 universities, leading them in the evolution of their net-zero research and design concepts into built form; the competition received over 230,000 visitors over ten days. Williams’ Solar Decathlon efforts remain central to her mission of advancing the Architecture Program, bridging the critical gap between teaching and practice.
Beyond the classroom, Williams serves as a mentor. In Fall 2022, Williams was appointed to a two-year term as the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) Architect Licensing Advisor for the Architecture Program, where she serves and advises students and young professionals seeking licensure within MAPP and in the Maryland region. She represents the Architecture Program on a regional and national level within NCARB and has represented the program at two conferences, the 2023 Licensing Advisors Summit in Kansas City, Mo., and the NCARB Region 2 Student/Educator/Practitioner Symposium: From Theory to Practice with Principle in Charlottesville, Va. She is also the advisor for the school’s chapter of Alpha Rho Chi, a service fraternity and, together with a graduate student, initiated a student group called LGBTQIA+ Design Collective.
In addition to her work at MAPP, Williams works as a practicing architect at Gardner Architects LLC in Silver Spring, Md., where she currently focuses on a detailed-oriented, multidisciplinary approach to synthesizing sustainable active and passive strategies at the residential scale. Her award-winning work has been featured in the AIA Emerging Professionals exhibit, garnered numerous AIA awards and has been featured in both professional and popular publications, including on the cover of Fine Homebuilding and the cover of ArchitectureDC.
Williams said she is enthusiastic about her new position and the opportunity to balance teaching and practice. She is excited to continue shaping the Architecture Program curriculum by coordinating team-taught studios and through her leadership role as the program studio coordinator and discipline chair on the program’s curriculum committee.
Williams joined the University of Maryland as a lecturer in 2010. She holds a Master of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Maryland.