UCSD Names First Dean of Architecture School

Adele Naude Santos, a practicing Philadelphia architect and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has been selected as the first dean of the new UC San Diego School of Architecture, it was confirmed Friday.

Acting UCSD Chancellor Harold Ticho said university officials have reached agreement with Santos and will submit her name to the UC Board of Regents for approval at its May meeting. No problems are expected, Ticho said.

Santos will work for the next two years toward the planned opening of the school in the fall of 1992. The school, approved by regents in September, 1988, will be the third in the UC system, along with existing schools at UC Berkeley and UCLA.

Tentative plans call for eventual enrollment of 100 students in the master’s program, about 10 in the doctoral program, and about 200 in the undergraduate program leading to a bachelor of arts degree, with a specialization in architecture.

Santos, who is now in Japan, will receive a professorial appointment and begin recruiting a faculty later this year, Ticho said. He hopes at least three architecture professors will be on board by this time next year, with the full staff of 20 expected by the mid-1990s. Faculty members will work with Santos in establishing the curriculum, which will then be submitted to the UCSD Academic Senate for approval, he said.

“I would expect that the school will be doing outreach with the community ahead of the opening,” Ticho said Friday. “It’s important that there be good contact with the architectural community, to have some interaction.”

Ticho expects the school to place a strong emphasis on design, given Santos’ background. In addition to training architects for the San Diego region, the school seeks to influence design and environmental planning through seminars and other activities.

Santos is known for her academic work--at Harvard University, Rice University, the University of Cincinnati, as well as Pennsylvania--for innovative designs, especially of affordable, inner-city housing.