Interview with the Dean Branko Kolarevic

Branko Kolarevic will be ending his three-year term as Dean of the Hillier College of Architecture and Design (HCAD) on June 30, 2022. With over 30 years of experience in academia he has taught architecture at universities in North America and Asia and has lectured worldwide on the use of digital technologies in architecture and design. He has served in numerous leadership roles, including as president of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), president of Canadian Architectural Certification Board (CACB), and president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). He is a recipient of the ACADIA Award for Innovative Research in 2007 and the ACADIA Society Award of Excellence in 2015. He has authored, edited or co-edited several books. He holds doctoral and master degrees in design from Harvard University and a diploma of engineer in architecture degree from the University of Belgrade.

Hillier College: Can you take us back in time and share with us what sparked your interest in architecture, and later on your interest in pursuing an academic career in architecture?

Branko Kolarevic: My parents had very good friends who were architects, and I remember visiting them at their home every now and then. I really liked the aura of the little design studio that they had set up in their home, with large drafting tables and all the markers and pens. As a kid I loved drawing and would spend hours doodling. The idea of working at a drafting table appealed strongly to me. I liked arts, but I liked math and science too. I saw architecture as a profession that bridges arts and science, as kind of a perfect fit for me. After graduating from college (in mid 1980s) I started working in Belgrade (Serbia) and was really attracted to computer aided design (CAD), which was back then in its early stages. I had a chance to use state-of-the-art CAD technology early in my career and wanted to keep expanding my CAD knowledge and skills. In late 1980s I got the Fulbright Scholarship to study at Harvard where I completed my master’s and doctorate degrees and where I got a chance to study CAD even deeper. During my time at Harvard, I also realized that I liked teaching very much. Looking back, the interest in exploring new methods in architecture and the love of teaching, which emerged together by chance, lead me to an academic career. So, it’s been a journey that started more than 40 years ago, and quite an amazing life experience.

HC: You have served in a number of leadership roles prior to joining NJIT. What are some of the formative leadership experiences that informed your approach to leading Hillier College?

BK: I had a chance to learn from several people, whom I admire greatly. First and foremost, late Bill Mitchell, who was my mentor at Harvard, and who later became dean at MIT. I've learned immensely from him, and he has been a role model to me in many ways. Another great influence was Roger Schluntz, who was a professor and dean at the University of Miami School of Architecture. The third person that I looked up to was Marvin Malecha, a professor and dean at Cal Poly Pomona. All three have been great role models, great mentors, and great supporters throughout my career, and I owe them much of what I've learned about leadership. Leadership provides interesting opportunities to affect change. I would like to think that in three years I've been the Dean of Hillier College, I helped to make it a better place for teaching and learning, helped it grow, and that I had a positive impact on the future direction of the College and its two constituent schools.

HC: Looking back at your tenure as dean, can you tell us what are your greatest accomplishments here at HCAD, what are you most proud of?

BK: When I became dean in 2019, the enrollment was the first challenge that had to be addressed. It had dropped from about 1,000 to 630 students in the middle of previous decade and then stayed flat for several years. Growing enrollment was given to me as top priority by Provost Fadi Deek. I was fortunate to have been in a position to build a great leadership team and together we came up with ideas and initiatives to bring back our college’s enrollment onto the upward trajectory. This coming Fall we expect the College to have approximately 880 students, which is a third more than what we had back in the Fall of 2019. But I am even more proud of the fact that this increase in enrollment also achieved a greater diversity of our student body. We increased the number of Hispanic and African American students by roughly 20%. We also increased the number of female students in the college, and now we have more women than men. We have strengthened the academic programs in the College across the board. We have streamlined some of them and we have introduced some new ones too.

Besides these major, measurable accomplishments, as dean I also wanted to raise the profile of the college. Our faculty and students are doing amazing things, but I had an impression that the world out there is not fully aware of all that fantastic work that's taking place within the walls of Weston Hall. I initiated right away an effective communications and marketing strategy, and we succeeded in bringing our wonderful stories to our community within the college, NJIT campus, our alumni, and the world at large.

HC: You were dean for roughly eight months when COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020 and everything had to “close”. How did Covid affect some of your plans, and is there something that you wish you would have been able to do, but have been upended by the pandemic?

BK: The pandemic has obviously had an immense impact on all aspects of the college’s operation. One of the key dimensions of my job as dean is developing relationships – the relationships within our college community, with the rest of NJIT, and most importantly, with the external world. Unfortunately, I have not had an opportunity to deepen the relationships that were just beginning to develop. I think that was the most negative impact that the pandemic had on my role as a dean. However, the pandemic also created circumstances that presented an interesting set of opportunities. We were able to reach out to and engage people that otherwise wouldn't be able to work closely with us. We were able to have fantastic lecture series during the pandemic. We were able to bring prominent names from the profession and academia to join us for the final reviews of studios, because they could do so virtually. I thought that the pandemic suddenly introduced everyone across the board to a new way of learning and teaching through online media. The challenge for us is to figure out how to leverage that pandemic experience in these (hopefully) post pandemic times.

HC: What do you see as the HCAD’s strengths?

BK: I think diversity is our core strength. We have an incredibly diverse group of students, and we have a very diverse faculty, which allows us to pursue success in different directions, but also build upon collaborations. Another strength is our hometown. City of Newark has a very rich history, and Hillier College has a long history of engagement with our home city. This provides an amazing set of learning experiences for our students. Our strength is also in the sheer disciplinary richness. Our students can design on a variety of scales, from objects that we touch in our daily lives, which falls in the domain of industrial design, through the spaces that we occupy (interior design), to the scale of the buildings, the cities and even the entire regions, when it comes to urban design and planning. We can do design in both physical and virtual realms. Our digital design program is rather unique as it prepares students for a variety of careers in the virtual realm, from 2D and 3D animation to game design and the design of user interfaces and experiences. Our strength is also that we are part of a polytechnic university, which has very strong programs in computing and engineering, as well as in sciences and liberal arts. Our students are really exposed to a breadth of disciplines on our campus.

HC: Looking ahead, what in your opinion are top priorities for Hillier College?

BK: We are one of the smallest colleges on campus, although architecture is now the third largest major. I think it is incredibly important to continue to grow our programs, particularly in the School of Art and Design. And we must strengthen and grow our graduate degree programs across the board, particularly the PhD program, because we are part of a top tier research institution.

HC: What are your thoughts on architectural education today and how do you see the role of designers in shaping the future?

BK: I think the architecture as a profession and a discipline finds itself in the center of the current discourse on the issue of mitigating the effects of climate change. Much of the greenhouse gas emissions come from the built environment. As a profession that is responsible for designing that built environment, we can help the planet cope with some of the negative effects of what we do. Also, the built environment has been used in the past as a blunt instrument of implementing and reinforcing some of the inequities that exist in our society. And just like we were an instrument that led to some of the inequities that we have today, through our designs of the built environment we can also be an instrument that can help erase or reduce those inequities. That's why I've highlighted Newark as one of the strengths of the college, because the present realities of Newark embody all the challenges that we face as a society and civilization. Floods and the rising sea levels are obviously going to have a huge impact on our state and Newark in particular. The racial and social inequities that exist in Newark are being addressed, but they need to be more broadly engaged. I see our college as a kind of catalyst of important conversations and initiatives that will help address these issues that affect our home city, our state, our nation and planet as a whole.