Women in Build Awards 2017

2017 Women in BUILD Awards 2017 Build 19 Company: Hampton University Contact: Mason Andrews Contact Email: [email protected] Address: Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia, 23668, USA Phone: 001 757 727 5000 rior to her role at Hampton University, Mason created an innovative design firm in New York, as she explains. “After completing a Master of Architecture program at Prince- ton University in the early 1980s, I co-founded a design firm, ARCHI- PELAGO, based in New York City, which focussed on architectural and interior design with a significant side-line in real estate development.” Later, Mason moved into her current role, returning to her native Virginia and beginning to work on a range of vital flood risk projects, which she highlights. “About a decade ago, I began to teach at the Department of Architec- ture at Hampton University, an HBCU (Historically Black College and University). The program at Hampton has a focus on urban design, sustainability, and preparation for professional licensure. Our program is predominately African American and in any year of the last decade we have been first or second in awarding Master of Architecture degrees to the largest number of African American women in the nation. The teach- ing staff has ranged during my time here from 30 to 70 percent female. “Within the program, I have developed the third-year design studio, as well as an urban design program which works in France each year, co-led an entry in the 2011 Solar Decathlon, and began a program on Adaptation to Sea Level Rise. The latter is a cross-disciplinary program teaming architecture, engineering, and marine science students working each year with a particular urban neighborhood in our fast-sinking region to develop a suite of water management and resilience interventions. Our initial project was sent through the Dutch Dialogs charrette and subsequently won $115,000,000 in implementation funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.” Looking ahead, the future looks bright for both Mason and her depart- ment, as she proudly concludes. “As we move forward we hope to use our Adaptation program as a labo- ratory to explore pedagogical models for more effective transdisciplinary collaboration, a necessary component to finding solutions to emerging crises related to climate change. We are using emerging theoretical methodologies adapting Studio Based Learning to the sciences and en- gineering. I am pleased and proud that many of our future leaders in this work will be African American women, a group sorely underrepresented in our professional ranks.” Hampton University Most Innovative Woman in Flood Risk Architecture – USA & Academic Leader in Architecture Graduate Studies - USA Business Founder and Academic Mason Andrews talks us through her work in the flood risk architecture space and how she has achieved such phenomenal success over recent years. P WIB17017