Kent Kleinman, chair of the Department of Architecture, has been a UB faculty member since Fall 1999. A designer with an international reputation in architectural design and theory, he previously was on the faculty at the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Is architecture a profession or a discipline?

Architecture is both an academic pursuit with scholarly traditions and theoretical precepts-a discipline-and an activity with codified standards and procedures subject to state oversight and licensure-a profession. However, let me emphasize that not only is architecture both a profession and a discipline, but, most importantly, it is necessarily both. It is a common misperception that academia and professional practice have distinct agendas or that one precedes the other. But the words "professor" and "professional" have a common root: practicing architecture and theorizing architecture are both acts of "professing." One cannot build without assuming a theoretical stance, and building is what one theorizes about.

How would you describe the relationship between the City of Buffalo, the surrounding towns and suburbs, and the School of Architecture and Planning? What can be done to improve that relationship? What might result from that?

Much of the scholarly work of the architecture faculty is deeply involved with issues of the city and the region, and I believe that the same can be said of the Department of Planning. I personally see the city and region as an indispensable teaching and research resource. I hope that the school is understood by local communities to be equally indispensable. But we certainly could improve our visibility and offer our students a unique perspective if we had a more direct presence in downtown Buffalo, perhaps in the form of a satellite studio.

Do you consider yourself a preservationist?

Let me be provocative and answer "no," primarily because the term "preservation" has become conflated in popular usage with the term "restoration," and restored artifacts tend to be bracketed out of the flux of daily life in a way that is inherently antithetical to architecture. This topic is very complex and vitally important. Oftentimes, preservation debates are loaded with words beginning with the prefix "re:" recreate, re-establish, restore, and so on. When the Berlin Wall came down, the German population was mobilized by the prospect of "reunifying" Germany. This was a mistake; at stake was the issue of unification, not reunification. The prefix distracted people into thinking they were going back to something that once was, when in fact they were entering something quite new. More locally, for example, if "Front Park" is to become a vital urban component, one should debate how it should be created, not assume that it should or could be recreated.

You've established two year-long fellowships that will bring distinguished figures in the field to UB to teach. Who's coming next year?

The fellowships are an attempt to build on the extraordinary legacy of two former faculty: Peter Reyner Banham and Magda (and John) McHale. The Banham and McHale fellows will be in residence for one year to teach, conduct research and interact with faculty and students. The program is structured as an annual international competition, with a distinguished jury composed of UB faculty and outside experts selecting the finalists. The applicant pool for this inaugural year was nothing short of remarkable, and I am currently finalizing the details with two individuals who, if all goes well, will be joining the department in Fall 2000.

Tell me a little about the "Great Bronze Book of Buffalo's Historical Architecture."

Shahin Vassigh and Frank Fantauzzi received a multidisciplinary grant from the university last year to work on a project entitled "The Public Casting of Cities." Any description of the scope and quality of the work will be woefully inadequate: Essentially it involves creating dozens of low-relief models of Buffalo's great and minor icons, casting them in bronze and compiling them into a large, 12-leaf, book-like structure made of milled-bronze stock and bronze counterweights. The casting is being done in the Center for the Arts, and the structure will be installed in Buffalo at a site yet to be determined.

What's that big thing going up behind Crosby Hall?

For the past few years, the entire junior-level studio-70-plus students this year-has collaborated on a single construction project. This year's effort-the Negotiated Construction Project-was headed by Professor Lynda Schneekloth, working with faculty members Kevin Connors, Ken MacKay and Peter Murad. The assignment represents a fairly dramatic shift in architectural pedagogy and highlights a particular strength of the department. Our students are not merely producing models and drawings of proposed designs, but they are constructing them at full scale, using actual materials and construction techniques. The outcome is not a building, but neither is it a model. By moving back and forth between scalar representations and material constructions, students come to appreciate the consequences of seemingly innocent lines on paper, and learn to question individual authorship as a privileged mode of design.

The School of Architecture and Planning will hold "Atelier 2000," its annual exhibition of student and faculty work, this weekend. What will those who attend see there?

Atelier is the annual open house of the School of Architecture and Planning. The opening event is a lecture by the architect Daniel Libeskind at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow in 146 Diefendorf Hall, followed by a reception in Crosby Hall. Crosby Hall will be transformed into a showcase of past and present work. All the design studios there will be open and students will be available to describe ongoing architecture and planning projects. The "Public Castings of Cities," the "Negotiated Construction Pro-ject," designs for improving Crosby Hall and several other installations also will be on display. On Friday and Saturday, the local AIA will host a workshop on teaching architecture and design to grade-school students in 301 Crosby. Last but certainly not least, the school will use this opportunity to welcome the Fall 2000 incoming class of students to UB.