Notre Dame establishes South Bend Urban Center

With startup funding from the Siemens Corporation, the Notre Dame School of Architecture established the South Bend Urban Center. The purpose is to use the urban design expertise of faculty and students to work with public officials and developers on projects in the city, according to Carroll William Westfall, chairman of architecture at Notre Dame. During the first year of the program, the center examined the impact that real projects would have on the civic realm. “This is the portion of the built environment often overlooked by developers who focus on their particular project and civic officials who are diverted by other issues,” Westfall says. With its focus on classical design, Notre Dame has always taught neighborhood planning as part of the architecture curriculum, Westfall says. But since he came on board as chairman, the former University of Virginia professor has placed a stronger emphasis on designing the public realm. “I have been trying to put more explicit attention on the urban setting of a building,” he explains. In addition to classical and historical urbanism, projects and principles of the New Urbanism are part of the curriculum.