AIA New Jersey – The New Jersey Society of Architects members gathered at Kean University to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Michael Gravel College! Our immediate past president, Andrew Thompson , AIA, NOMAC, addressed the audience on our behalf. It was a wonderful occasion and we appreciate the invitation to attend!
Dean Mohney was the master of ceremonies. David Mohney is Dean of the Michael Graves College at Kean University and Wenzhou-Kean University in China.
Faculty and Students
Enrollment growth at the college has grown substantially over the past decade. Student numbers have increased from 400 to nearly 1000, and the number of faculty has grown from 12 to 45. The implementation of the college’s programs at Wenhou-Kean University accounts for the largest portion of these increases.
Rome
When Michael Graves assisted Kean in developing the new professional program in Architecture, he insisted that the students needed to be in Rome for a portion of their academic study. Graves was transformed by the two years he spent as a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in the early 1960s. His enthusiasm for understanding architecture fully through the first-hand experience of it was critical to both his teaching and his practice. The acculturation of Kean’s students through their experiences in a new culture with a deeply rich architectural heritage has been a profound asset to the program since it’s inception in Spring 2018. In recent years, the Rome program has included students from Advertising, Graphic Design, Interior Design, and Industrial Design as well as Architecture.
