Architecture's Robert Williams Wins 2024 ACSA Architectural Education Award

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Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture Robert Williams has been selected for this year's AIAS/ACSA New Faculty Teaching Award given by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). The award recognizes demonstrated excellence and innovation in teaching performance during the formative years of an architectural teaching career.

Each year, ACSA Architectural Education Awards honor architectural educators for their exemplary work. Award winners inspire and challenge students, contribute to the profession’s knowledge base, and extend their work beyond the borders of academy into practice and the public sector.

Rob, who joined the faculty as a full-time professor in 2020, has expertise in high-performance, low-carbon residential architecture. He teaches undergraduate and graduate design studios, digital communications courses, and has been instrumental in the development of UMass DesignBuild (UMDB), an interdisciplinary two-semester sequence that offers students the opportunity to design and construct a small dwelling in partnership with a local housing-focused nonprofit organization.

One student remarked: “His teaching style is extremely effective, he’s very good at engaging students, and he is very kind and understanding. Students want to do well in his classes because you can tell he cares about us, as well as our futures in architecture. He is passionate about what he does, and he is an incredible instructor.”

Rob will be recognized at the ACSA 112th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BS, March 14 – 16.