Design Intelligence Founding Editor Guides Fay Jones School of Architecture in Creating New Strategic Plan

James Cramer, publisher and founding editor of Design Intelligence, recently led Fay Jones School of Architecture faculty members in a workshop to complete the development of a new strategic plan for the school. The faculty and Dean Jeff Shannon met with Cramer during the first week of January at the Inn at Carnall Hall.

Cramer is also president of the Design Futures Council, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, and was chief executive of the American Institute of Architects when Jones received the AIA Gold Medal in 1990. He and Jones were close friends.

Working from a draft plan, Cramer guided faculty members during the one-and-a-half-day workshop as they imagined ways to strengthen the school through strategic thinking.

“We were able to engage the world-class talent in the school in a strategic planning workshop to develop strategic initiatives and to do significant work toward a new vision for the Fay Jones School,” Cramer said. By sharing trends in design professions, Cramer hoped to help the faculty link their strategy to the future of the professions.

“We are moving from a time of very stable professions to a time of very dynamic, entrepreneurial professions,” he said.

Based on a survey of 40 design leaders, Cramer offered some predictions as the global economy attempts to recover from the recession. This year, he expects new construction to account for only 1 percent of the built environment. The majority of design projects will include retrofitting, restoration, adaptive reuse, historic preservation and new interior design.

Cramer also outlined shifts in design professions, which include integrated and collaborative delivery models, increased use of technology for innovation and a “hyper-growth” in green and sustainable design solutions.

Over the next few months, architecture school faculty will further refine concepts generated during the workshop, with the end result of a strategic plan. It will replace the previous strategic plan, done in 2001.

Cramer said such planning is critical to success.

“We’re ensuring that we have a plan to lead toward higher levels of success in the future. This should be satisfying for faculty and staff and the university, and the ultimate winners are the students,” he said.

This strategic plan comes at a good time for the school, named last year after Jones, who was among the architecture program’s first students, taught here for 35 years and served as the school’s first dean.

“The timing couldn’t be better for a new strategic plan. The legacy of Fay Jones continues to inspire people,” Cramer said, and the school’s faculty members are among the nation’s finest.

“Entering the second decade of the 21st century gives us an opportunity to plan for the decade ahead, with some very sharp strategies. And these can make a difference in the quality of education at the university,” he said.

Cramer, who works with colleges and universities across the country, said certain aspects distinguish the Fay Jones School — among them, “the joyful nature of the faculty and staff, who are fun to work with.”

“There is a depth of intellectual strength that is focused on the students and their future contributions to society that is uncommon. The campus is beautiful. So you have these special talents, a level of collaboration that is impressive and some pretty serious thinking about what the big opportunities are for the future.”

Dean Jeff Shannon said this about Cramer’s visit: “Because of his depth and breadth of knowledge about the likely futures of the design professions, Jim’s expertise in facilitating focused discussions was particularly helpful to the faculty. We hope and think we have developed a valuable friendship with Jim that will help us stay in touch with the relationship between professional trends and how we might best address them as educators.”