FAA
Wanna get ahead this summer? Take a Gen Ed course in the arts!
We`ve got topics like intro to art, contemporary dance, and theatre arts, as well as urban sustainability and the history of rock music 🎶🎸
Check out more course info ➡️ link in bio!
🎉 Huge congratulations to Professor Akima Brackeen from the Illinois School of Architecture, recipient of the 2025–26 Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize in Architecture! 🏛️
Awarded by the American Academy in Rome, this prestigious fellowship supports visionary artists and scholars through an immersive residency in the heart of Rome. Professor Brackeen is one of 35 recipients selected from nearly 1,000 applicants worldwide.
This fall, she will join an interdisciplinary community on the Academy’s campus in Rome to continue her transformative work in architecture. @amacademyrome
Congrats, Professor Brackeen! @helloakima @archatillinois
Read more with the link in bio 🔗
#RomePrize #AmericanAcademyInRome #IllinoisArchitecture #WeDesign
🎭“Let yourself be the beginner again.” — Gianna Casanova, Lyric Theatre major
Why Gianna chose @lyrictheatreillinois?
✔️ Classical and contemporary training
✔️ Opportunities to perform in operas and musicals
✔️ A tight-knit, supportive cohort and faculty
✔️ World-class practice and performance spaces
Her days are packed with rehearsals, dance classes, studio sessions, and learning from peers and professors who truly care.
Advice to future majors: Come ready to learn, be curious, and soak it all in 🧡
@illinoismusic @krannertcenter
Video by @ad1tik
Today is the last day of our I ❤️ the Arts student philanthropy month of giving. Join us INSIDE the Architecture Building from 11am-1pm for food and FAA swag to celebrate the close of our initiative. Together, we can make a difference and help support a student in need. Show your love for the arts now by making a gift at go.illinois.edu/heart-the-arts!
Happy International Dance Day 🎉
Today we honor the universal language of movement alongside @danceatillinois.
On International Dance Day, we celebrate the power of dance to connect cultures, express emotion, and inspire change.
To our dancers, teachers, alumni, and friends:
Thank you for making our community vibrant, creative, and fearless. Today, we celebrate YOU!
#InternationalDanceDay #danceunitesus
Photo by Natalie Fiol
From "Khazan (Autumn)" by Banafsheh Amiri
🌿 New research led by landscape architecture professors William Sullivan and Bin Jiang reveals a powerful connection between green spaces and public safety. Their study—the first of its kind—shows that communities with more greenery experience significantly fewer fatal police shootings, especially in areas facing social and economic challenges. Read how thoughtful landscape design can shape safer, healthier neighborhoods.
@illinoislandarch
Learn more at the🔗 link in bio!
#LandscapeArchitecture #UrbanGreening #PublicSafety #CommunityDesign
Dance at Illinois alumna Leslie Cuyjet (BFA ’03) has been selected as a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow as part of the Foundation`s 100th year anniversary. This competitive honor was only presented to 198 exceptional individuals across 53 disciplines—selected from nearly 3,500 applicants.
Cuyjet, who is based out of Brooklyn, NY, has been choreographing and dancing in New York since 2004, collaborating and performing with other creators “on rooftops, good and bad floors, and alleyways; on stage, in film, art, on tour, and on the fly.” She is also the recipient of two Bessie Awards for her work, a top honor in the world of dance.
The Fellowship provides support for recipients to pursue independent work under what the Foundation calls “the freest possible conditions.” It empowers choreographers to explore bold ideas, push creative boundaries, and make meaningful contributions to the field of dance—something Cuyjet has been doing already for over a decade —without commercial or institutional constraints.
A huge congratulations to Leslie! We can`t wait to see what comes of this remarkable opportunity!
Read more in the link in bio! @danceatillinois @guggfellows
Are you the recipient of a financial need-based scholarship? Over a third of Illinois students are here because they were provided with some form of need-based aid. Your gift can help make the difference between a student attending FAA at Illinois or having to decline enrollment due to financial constraints. Every gift counts. Will you make a gift today? go.illinois.edu/heart-the-arts
BSSD
Join us in welcoming new sustainability-focused faculty to @faaatillinois . Today we are highlighting Teaching Assistant Professor Yvonne Gu from the Department of Landscape Architecture. Read about her inspiring perspective on sustainable design and the field of Landscape Architecture!
1. What role does sustainability play in your practice/research?
Sustainability is the core driver of my work at the intersection of architecture and landscape. In practice, I focus on nature-based stormwater strategies and “domestic hydrology”—turning walls, roofs, gutters, and small assemblies into water-active systems that store, filter, and cool. Through design-build prototypes (e.g., a low-tech greenhouse completed earlier this year that captures rain and moderates interior climate), I test affordable, repairable, locally maintainable solutions that couple ecological performance with everyday use. In research, I develop a decentralized infrastructural framework I call “Domestic Hydrology as Infrastructure,” which reframes courtyards, walls, roofs, and thresholds as active hydrological elements linking architecture and landscape.
2. What plans do you have for sustainability-related work now that you are at UIUC?
I’m launching student-engaged, design-build projects on campus that integrate stormwater capture, pollinator habitat, and public use. This includes installations (rain gardens/bioswales, water-revealing architectural assemblies), a practical stewardship toolkit (maintenance scripts, monitoring), and courses that pair environmental analysis with fabrication. We’ll measure outcomes—gallons retained, canopy benefits, biodiversity, and user engagement—to develop replicable household- and neighborhood-scale models for Illinois communities.
Did you see the BSSD student projects on the second floor of Art and Design? These posters were made by students in ARDT 451 Ethics of a Designer in a Global Economy (EDGE), a studio course that presents complex problems of social and environmental ethics within graphic design
Oct 6 - SP 2026 Class Schedule Available on Course Explorer
Oct 10 - Do you have an academic or professional opportunity you’re excited about that requires funding to pursue? For Fall semester 2025, scholarships of $300 or $500 will be awarded to selected students based on the clearly defined benefit to the student’s academic or professional growth. Link in bio. For questions, email sustaindesign@illinois.edu or schedule an advising appointment.
Oct 10 - Application deadline for the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP). URAP provides students with little or no research experience the opportunity to work with graduate students and post-doctoral scholars on their research projects, explore the culture and process of research, and build on existing abilities within a community of scholars. Learn more: https://undergradresearch.illinois.edu/programs/urap.html
Oct 15 - BSSD Intercollegiate Transfer Deadline - Link in Bio
Oct 17 - BSSD Virtual Info Session https://enroll.illinois.edu/portal/prospect_susdesign
Oct 17 - Deadline to apply for this spring break course that engages multidisciplinary and mixed-level students from the FAA in dialogues on participatory methods to bridge the campus community divides, frustrating productive collaborations for sustainable design in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students travel to directly engage with local academics, artists, activists, and communities working with Casa Pueblo in the municipality of Adjuntas, PR. Visit https://go.illinois.edu/CasaPuebloSpringBreak for more info and to apply.
Oct 17 - Halfway Point of Class Deadlines: Drop a course via self-service with no “w” grade; withdraw from semester without w grades; submit Cr/NC request; submit grade replacement; and last day to withdraw for minimum 40% refund
✨Reminder ✨ Due one week from today! Get your applications in by Friday, October 10 at 11:59 pm
Do you have an academic or professional opportunity you would like to pursue but need additional funding to do so? The Opportunity Scholarship provides $300 or $500 awards to selected students. Funds are awarded based on clearly articulated benefits to the student’s professional or academic growth.
Link in bio and QR Code
Have questions?: email sustaindesign@illinois.edu or schedule an advising appointment 🍂
Kaia Rytel received a BSSD Opportunity Scholarship last year. With the funds, Kaia was able to purchase materials for her ARCH 401 final project, a midcentury-inspired chair made using steam-bent timber production. The class focused on developing new skills in laser cutting, 3D printing, metalwork, welding, and wood carving. Her final project was an opportunity to apply these new skills. The scholarship also supported Kaia’s ability to create a high-quality book for her capstone project.
Do you have a project that needs funding? Applications for the Fall 2025 BSSD Opportunity Scholarship are open now and due October 10. Link to application in bio. Questions?: make an advising appointment to talk through your ideas.
BSSD is hiring two tenure stream Professors of Sustainable Design at the Assistant or Associate level. Apply by October 26. Visit https://go.illinois.edu/BSSDProfessor for additional details and to apply.
These interdisciplinary positions will have joint appointments across two of the academic units that contribute courses to the BSSD (detailed below), with a firm primary tenure home established in one of those units. We seek colleagues who bring vision, intellectual rigor, and expertise in emerging as well as traditional forms of sustainable design inquiry and research.
The curriculum draws on the research and teaching expertise of faculty from the School of Architecture, School of Art and Design, Department of Landscape Architecture, and Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Students engage in a rigorous, cross-disciplinary course of study that emphasizes systems thinking, ecological stewardship, and design excellence. Through this integrated approach, the program prepares students to shape sustainable communities, systems, and policies.
The ideal candidate will engage sustainable design from their area of research specialization, leading and collaborating on research across and between the units that support the BSSD curriculum within and beyond the College of Fine and Applied Arts.
The successful candidate will be expected to teach and develop new critical insights in one or more areas central to the BSSD curriculum.
In addition to teaching and research, the candidate will demonstrate a strong commitment to fostering a collaborative environment across teaching, learning, departmental service, and research activities. They will contribute to advancing the educational mission of the University of Illinois, a land-grant institution dedicated to access, education, research, and public service at both local and global scales.
Candidates must possess a doctorate or other appropriate terminal degree (e.g. MArch, MFA, MLA) in or related to sustainable design, architecture, landscape architecture, or urban planning.
Do you have an academic or professional opportunity you would like to pursue but need additional funding to do so? The Opportunity Scholarship provides $300 or $500 awards to selected students. Funds are awarded based on clearly articulated benefits to the student’s professional or academic growth.
Link in bio and QR Code
Important Dates:
Application opens: Monday, Sept 22
Application closes: Friday, Oct 10 at 11:59 PM
Winners Notified: By Oct 14
Winners Return Signed Acceptances: By Friday, Oct 17, 11:59 pm
Funds distributed by the end of October
Eligibility: To qualify, students must be: enrolled as a continuing student in the BSSD program; registered for at least three-quarters time during the semester for which the scholarship funds will be applied; have a minimum GPA of 2.0
Selection Criteria:
Winners are selected based on the quality of the proposal, academic performance, and demonstrated potential for leadership within the field of Sustainable Design.
To apply, students must submit an online application form with a 1-page proposal and 1-page budget
Rick Collins with Firmitas Timber is helping the students in Prof. Hodgin Jones’ FAA 230 Sustainable Design of the Built Environment course learn to raise a sustainable timber frame peg barn!
