Dean, School of Architecture
2019
Bio:
In the Dean Emeritus nomination letter, Professor and Dean Will Wittig, AIA, wrote “Professor Vogel has in fact distinguished himself and in turn the University over a very long and productive career as an excellent educator, practitioner, and leader in our field. His work has garnered a national reputation in several arenas, and has been one of the central factors that has allowed the School of Architecture to maintain a national reputation that surpasses what one might expect given our location and relative size. His tenure as dean over an eighteen-year period marked a pivotal time for the School with the establishment of a collaborative program with the University of Windsor, the initiation of the acquisition of a new facility in Volterra, Italy, the launching of a Masters of Community Development degree program, and the establishment of the Detroit Collaborative Design Center. These last two initiatives have proven to be transformative for the University’s ability to truly live its mission.”
Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, Dr. Gloria Albrecht’s emeritus support letter wrote how Dean Vogel and her paths crossed many times through their mutual work on university committees. “However, it was through his determination to bring into reality a new vision of community development, a holistic vision, that our paths merged. As Dean of the School of Architecture, Professor Vogel had already promoted a community-oriented vision of the architect. Now however, his vision had broadened to acknowledge the limitations of a singular focus on the built environment. Gathering together an interdisciplinary group of faculty, he outlined a vision that embraced the importance of the built environment as only one of the key ingredients of a healthy community. To that, he and this new committee added three more components: organizational development, human development, and economic development. And so a unique program was born: not urban planning or urban design, but holistic community development engaging interdisciplinary teams working in partnership with local communities to identify threats and assets and to strategize the marshalling of community strengths and opportunities. The Master of Community Development program, begun in 2008, now with almost 60 alumni working in the Detroit metropolitan area, is a unique program preparing students to work with communities facing the most serious issues.”
“Even more extraordinary to me, given my background in religious ethics, was the overt articulation of three basic values that would shape this program’s approach to these diverse disciplines: service, sustainability, and social justice. These three terms have specific meaning with the social justice tradition of the Catholic Church, meanings that shape the charisms of the Jesuit and Sisters of Mercy traditions, meanings which often challenge cultural understanding of ‘development.’ In the MCD program, envisioned by Professor Vogel, and now embodied by its students and faculty, service is a door through which issues of justice are revealed creating an experience of solidarity among diverse people working together toward a more just and sustainable society. Thus, this visionary program has developed a unique blend of intellectual, ethical and spiritual growth for its students as they engage with community-based wisdom in pursuit of a fullness of life for all.”
In the support letter from Dr. Libby Balter Blume, Professor of Psychology, she writes about Dean Vogel’s belief in the value of interdisciplinary programs: “When SOA student enrollment under his leadership as Dean was way over capacity, Steve discovered my Master’s degree in Creative Arts Education and asked me to teach visual Communication to the freshman architecture students….Steve’s collegial support then blossomed into a generous opportunity to co-teach Architectural Analysis with him in Volterra, only one of the international programs he personally nurtured.”
Previously, Dean Vogel was honored as University of Detroit Mercy Distinguished Professor. Professor Dan Pitera, FAIA, contributed to that nomination with a support letter that spoke to Professor Vogel’s teaching within the School. “…Even though Professor Vogel was Dean of the School of Architecture in the middle of his time at UDM, he never stopped teaching. Professor Vogel did not want to lose his connection to the faculty or the classroom/studio. In Professor Vogel’s teaching, I have observed his ability to connect architecture to disciplines well beyond the conventional knowledge base. He draws on anthropology, cultural politics and social responsibility. He helps students find creative ways to discuss and use this interdisciplinary knowledge in their design and thinking processes. His delivery of this material is accessible without sacrificing the complexity of the issues discussed, which makes the connections and learning opportunities come alive for students. His expertise and teaching ground the students in the context of Detroit while illustrating the global implication of this learning.”
Professor Pitera further notes: “I cannot overstate the importance of the two initiatives Professor Vogel founded at the School of Architecture that have been instrumental in altering how students and professionals learn, practice and engage communities – The Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) and the Master of Community Development (MCD) degree program. The DCDC is modeled after the teaching hospital. It is a unique hybrid of professional work, applied research, and educational development. Often the DCDC is called an alternative practice. It was Professor Vogel’s intention for the DCDC to not represent alternative work; he explicitly established it to alter how we work and how we learn. The DCDC has become the unprecedented model for many other centers around the country and has directly influenced the local and national urban design agenda for cities with shrinking populations. It recently won the 2017 National AIA’s Whitney Young Jr. Award which is the highest honor the DCDC could achieve nationally. The MCD program provides a holistic approach to the theory and practice of community development. It is an interdisciplinary graduate program with a foundation rooted in service, social justice, and sustainability. The MCD program is recognized as one-of-a-kind program nationally that alters how we think and practice community development.”
Dean Vogel’s vitae includes this summary statement: “Professor Stephen Vogel initiated the process of securing and developing a permanent location/building to serve as the classrooms, studio space, residential spaces and offices for the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture’s 28-year running Volterra study abroad program. The uniqueness of the Volterra International Residential College in its relationship with the City of Volterra, its structural relationship with UDM, and its unique engagement with community living in Volterra has prompted many universities and municipalities to contact Professor Vogel for advice and insight.”
Awards given by local and national organizations bring honor and contribute to the quality of the university. Dean Vogel was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1994, an honor given to only 3% of American architects; he served as President of AIA Detroit and AIA Michigan; AIA honored him with their highest award for individuals, the AIA Gold Medal; and Dean Vogel is a national AIA Richard Upjohn Fellow and Louise Blanchard Bethune Fellow. In 2017, Professor Vogel was named a University of Detroit Mercy Distinguished Professor.
While serving as Dean, Vogel held the positions of Founder/Senior Principal Detroit collaborative Design Center; Michigan Region Representative, AIA National Strategic Council; Board of Director AIA National Board of Directors; Board of Directors, Detroit Institute of Arts, Board of Director, EcoWorks; Founder/Principal Schervish Vogel Consulting Architects, PLC; Commissioner, Mackinac Island State Park Commission; and President, AIA Michigan.
Citation:
Professor Vogel’s nomination for Dean Emeritus status was approved and conferred by Dr. Antoine M. Garibaldi, President of the University of Detroit Mercy on August 19, 2019.