News Archives - The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture

News9.16.2025

Illustration of a fire station's exterior. The building has a modern, textured brick facade with large arched windows and doors. A fire truck is parked in front, and a firefighter stands near one of the arched doorways.

SSA places 2nd in 2025 Concrete Masonry Student Competition

We are proud to announce that Rafah Alzindani B Arch ’28 and Era Hulaj B Arch ’28 have won second place in the prestigious 2025 Concrete Masonry Student Competition. Their winning project, East Harlem Fire Station & Local Marketplace, was sponsored by Prof. Suzan Wines and was recognized for its outstanding design and community-focused approach.

Alumni9.16.2025

John Ploss, B Arch ’77, funds travel scholarship at SSA

John Ploss, a distinguished alumnus of The City College of New York’s Bernard & Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, is giving back to his alma mater after a successful career as an architect. He’s funding a $5,000 annual travel scholarship for Spitzer architecture students nearly 50 years after graduating with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from

News9.15.2025

A man stands on a stage in a large auditorium, giving a presentation to an audience. He is on the right side of the stage, next to a wooden podium. A large projection screen behind him displays a presentation slide with the title

Convocation 2025-2026: A New Academic Year Begins

Welcome to the 2025-26 academic year! There are many exciting opportunities to get involved and a lot to look forward to. SSA students, faculty, and staff convened in person for Convocation on September 4th. View the presentation here. Dean Marta Gutman led the event and gave updates on community standards, facilities, and upcoming events. Chair

News9.5.2025

Spitzer Students Selected as 2025-2026 NYC Community Planning Fellows

Two Spitzer School graduate students have been selected for the 2025-2026 cohort of the Fund for the City of New York’s Community Planning Fellows Program. Alejandra Páez UD ’25 and Ziko Malambo MS Arch ’26 will learn from seasoned professionals in urban planning, local politics, and community development, in addition to collaborating on real-world projects

News8.19.2025

Announcing the Fall 2025 Lecture Series

The Fall 2025 Sciame lecture series, rePURPOSE, centers on the practice of adaptive reuse in the built environment. Repurposing, embedded in historical patterns of city building and for the most part discarded in the modern movement, is undergoing a remarkable renaissance. The lecture series invites architects, planners, developers, advocates, and engineers to present the technologies,

News7.22.2025

A construction site at dusk shows the initial stages of a design-build project. In the foreground, a foundation of concrete blocks is laid out in a zig-zag pattern on a concrete slab, with rebar protruding vertically from some of the blocks. Behind this, more concrete blocks are stacked, some forming small square frames, and building materials like buckets are visible. In the background, a grassy hill slopes upwards towards some trees and a building, and a green construction tarp covers a structure to the far right. The overall impression is one of active, ongoing construction.

The Beauty of Block competition yields insights into design-build

A $51,000 grant to The City College of New York’s Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture created a competition, in the form of a course, that provided select fourth- and fifth-year architecture students the unique opportunity to see a design project from conception through construction. The competition, “The Beauty of Block,” was sponsored by: