Amy Gardner, AIA
Associate Professor

Office: 1227    |    Phone: 301-405-6303    |    Email

B.S. in Architecture, 1981, University of Virginia; M. Arch., 1985.

Holding degrees of Bachelor of Science in Architecture (1981) and Master of Architecture (1985), both from the University of Virginia. Amy Gardner has been on the faulty at the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation since 1989, and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1998. She is a registered architect in the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland, and a member of the American Institute of Architects.

Gardner teaches in the design studio program, and offers courses in drawing, theory, and tectonics. She has participated in the re-formulation of the Architecture Program's drawings and technical curricula, in particular the integration of subjects regarding building assembly into the design studio. Professor Gardner's teaching is focused on relationship between architectural and broad cultural ideas and their material realization through construction. Her teaching also reflects her focus on the interconnectedness between academic and professional settings. She has been the coordinator and a driving force behind the courses Arch 600/611 Comprehensive Studio and Advanced Technology, and teaches a parallel seminar entitled Arch 673 Building Culture in which students explore the relationship between broad architectural and cultural ideas and their material realization. She, her colleagues, and all the students who have participated in Arch 600/611 have led the course to win multiple honors since 1995: the AIA Education Honor Award; an ACSA Teaching Award; a Lilly Center for Teaching Excellence Award; an NCARB Prize for the Creative Integration of Teaching and Practice in the Academy, and the course has been published on the AIA website in recognition of its integration of sustainable material into the curriculum. Additionally, in September of 2004, the studio undertook the c2c competition as the work of the semester. The work of 11 students from the Arch 600/611 studio was selected for inclusion in an exhibition of competition entries.

Professor Gardner and Adjunct Professor Mark McInturff FAIA have collaborated in the Arch 601 Competitions Studio and have worked with many a student from the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation to win ACSA Competition awards. They also directed student efforts in the Ideas Competition for a New Convention Center for Washington DC. University of Maryland students were awarded first, second, and third place and first commendation in the multi-school competition. Most recently, along with Adjunct Associate Professor Julie Gabrielli, they worked with Arch 601 students and adjunct engineering consultants Chris Cobb and Don Posson to win Third Place in Western Maryland Welcome Center Competition / Sustainable Design Showcase, and a Finalist position in the competition for the Kingman and Heritage Island Environmental Education Center.

Professor Gardner has also led the School's Paris Program, and has explored research topics in French architecture specific to the development of modern theories of material and construction in 19th and 20th century Paris, in particular the work of Auguste Perret. She is the author of "Auguste Perret: Invention in Convention, Convention in Invention," published in the Journal of Architectural Education, "Paris: The Wall, the Frame, and Urban Form," published in Making Environments: Technology and Design, and "Paris and Washington: A Tale of Two (Concrete) Cities", published in Blueprints, the journal of the National Building Museum. Gardner's interest in the study and representation of French architecture led to her winning the Western European Architectural Foundation's Gabriel Prize in 1992. She is now a member of the Advisory Board of the Foundation, and par