"Defining the Urban School in the 21st Century: An international conversation on preparing students for a global economy" will be held at the School of Architecture, Planning, & Preservation auditorium on Saturday, February 16 at 9 a.m.

Building on the international exhibit of school architecture "School Buildings—The State of Affairs," representatives of two world cities will join a multi-disciplinary panel to define and discuss the most critical issues and challenges facing the design of urban school environments in the twenty-first century.

Few municipalities have worked to define and address these issues with more determination than the City of Zurich, Switzerland, a financial center and home to many of the world's largest companies. For the past five years, an international survey found that Zurich is "the city with the highest quality of living in the world." An important contributor to that perception is the quality of the city's education system.

Adrian Fenty, the newly-elected Mayor of Washington, DC, has begun a $3.5-billion school-modernization program as part of a comprehensive renewal of the city's school system. Starting with the belief that education is the most important promise a society makes to its citizens, collectively the Mayor's efforts are designed to ensure a high-quality education in healthy, safe, and engaging neighborhood schools that are the physical and symbolic center of their communities.

Join us as representatives of these two world cities discuss their goals and successes and share best practices in creating great urban schools for the twenty-first century.

RSVP now for this free event!

Panelists
Ron Bogle Chairman & CEO, American Architectural Foundation—moderator
Allen Lew Chairman, Office of Public Educational Facilities Modernization, DC Public Schools
Tony Vinzens School and Sports Department, City of Zurich
Daniel Kurtz City of Zurich 
Quintus Miller Architect, Basel, Switzerland 
Jeff Lackney Architect, Fielding/Nair International 
 
Symposium organized by
Isaac Williams Assistant Professor, Architecture Program
Sean O'Donnell Chair, AIA DC Chapter Committee on Architecture for Education
Alessandro Delprete EDA DAO Head of Cultural Affairs, Embassy of Switzerland

Continuing education credit
3.5 HSW AIA Learning Units (LU) are available for attendance.