School for Urban Planning and Architecture (SUPAR)

In exciting news, Milwaukee Public Schools, with help from planning and architecture faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is opening a small public high school on Milwaukee's near south side that will focus on architecture and urban planning.

At first a “crazy idea” of adjunct planning professor Kirk Harris, the school is becoming a reality through the concerted efforts of UWM faculty, urban planning and architecture graduate students, alumni, teachers, Milwaukee Public Schools, and even a high school student. A $10,000 federal charter grant from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and a $50,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation were instrumental in transforming the school from idea to reality.

At the time of this writing, the School of Urban Planning and Architecture (SUPAR) is in the marketing and recruiting phase, according to Bill Huxhold, Professor of Urban Planning at UWM and one of the main organizers. Opening in the fall of 2007, SUPAR will have an initial enrollment of about 80 to 100 9th and 10th graders. Over the next three to four years the plan is to ramp up enrollment to about 200, as the school recruits new students and the 9th and 10th graders graduate to upper classes.

Huxhold stressed the project-based nature of SUPAR's curriculum. It will prepare the students for planning, architecture, and design professions where they can implement the real-world skills they learned.

Visit the website (linked above) for more information on SUPAR.

Articles:

“Architecture will be focus at new Milwaukee high school” - The Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), January 8, 2007 (retrieved from Lexis-Nexis)

“Using project-based curriculum, experiential learning opportunities and linkages with the professional planning and architecture worlds, students will graduate with problem-solving, critical thinking, effective-communication and leadership skills. A central focus of the school will be geographic information systems, an information technology that imparts spatial analysis and database management skills, as well as computer design programs like AutoCAD. “University alums have already come up with 50 different real-world project ideas in which the students will learn different aspects of urban planning and architecture,” Huxhold said.

...

SUPAR is the brainchild of UWM Adjunct Assistant Professor Kirk Harris, who was concerned about the lack of minority professionals locally and students enrolled in the urban university's architectural school. Initially doubted by colleagues, Harris first garnered interest in the project from UWM students by offering a course designed to develop the school.

...

SUPAR will use MPS-licensed teachers and initially start with only freshman and sophomore classes before ramping up enrollment to create all four. There will be no tuition, so funding will come primarily from private resources.”

* * *

SARUP's Small School Initiative - UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP) web site

“Serving Milwaukee’s central city youth, this school will be founded on the ideals of community building and social justice.”

* * *

One Big, Hairy, Audacious Idea: DUP’s High School Project [PDF] - UPdate: Urban Planning News (UWM)

“Our team envisions a school that will involve SARUP students, faculty, and alumni and use the theme of community building to engage high school students in problem-based learning through real world projects. Students will use real planning and architecture-related problems to build their skills and to build the intellectual and social capital of their communities.”