The university’s next architecture dean plans to add an emphasis on sustainability and local infrastructure to existing high technical standards when he takes over next month, he said in an interview.
David Cronrath — who currently serves as dean of Louisiana State University’s art and design college — will replace Garth Rockcastle on July 1 as head of the university’s school of architecture, planning and preservation. The university announced Cronrath’s appointment May 17 after Rockcastle announced his decision to step down last fall.
Cronrath, a registered architect, won accolades for setting LSU students to work planning and assisting the revitalization and rebuilding of Katrina-ravaged portions of New Orleans and said he would apply this experience to struggling communities along the Chesapeake Bay.
“I’m not a person that works at arm’s length,” Cronrath said.
Cronrath said he comes to the position with three more general goals: to continue graduating students who have both great technical skills and creative problem-solving abilities, to build relationships within the university and with state businesses to improve environmental sustainability and to help provide a boost to local communities.
He said he was attracted to this university not only because of its reputation as a terrific university but also because the architecture school has already built an excellent platform from which he can work toward these objectives.
Rockcastle said last fall he was leaving his post to pursue a private practice and out of frustration over budget cuts to his school. He did not respond to requests for comment on this article.
Some faculty members are already expressing enthusiasm for Cronrath’s upcoming deanship.
William Hanna, a professor for the Urban Studies and Planning Program, said he feels assured that Cronrath’s experience will help enrich the Maryland community.
“His work in the Ninth Ward and other projects in and around New Orleans … makes me hopeful that he will look for opportunities to apply his skills … to problems such as the link between erosion and development,” Hanna wrote in an e-mail. “Our school has given increasing attention to sustainability, and perhaps he will prove to be a leader in strengthening that aspect of our work.”
Cronrath said sustainability will be a point that cannot be ignored in architecture and planning disciplines.
“There is a profound change that is happening in the 21st century,” Cronrath said. “Energy will be the predominant issue as we drift away from petroleum.”
Cronrath also spoke generally of improving the “cultural capital” — the quality of infrastructure that attracts residents and businesses to certain places — of communities near the university and around the Chesapeake Bay but said he would need to hear residents’ needs before committing to specifics.
In Cronrath’s 10 years at LSU, he served as the director of its architecture school before becoming the dean of its art and design school.
He received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Pennsylvania State University and his master’s from the University of California, Berkeley and worked in private practice in Philadelphia before heading into to academia.
newsdesk at umdbk dot com
