Former student heading School of Architecture at Georgia Tech

Scott Marble ‘83 , an [Outstanding Alumnus] (http://www.arch.tamu.edu/community/formerstudents/outstanding-alumni/past-honorees/133/) of the Texas A&M College of Architecture, is emphasizing creative collaboration, diversity and the use of new technology and design workflows at the Georgia Tech [School of Architecture] (http://www.arch.gatech.edu/) , where he began as the school’s chairman July 1, 2015.

Hailed as an innovative educator and outstanding designer by Steven French, dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture, Marble comes to Tech after directing the integrated design program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

He is also a co-founding partner at [Marble Fairbanks Architects] (http://marblefairbanks.com/) , an award-winning architecture, design and research office. Marble and his wife Karen Fairbanks, the firm’s co-founder, pioneer innovative uses of digital fabrication and unique assembly techniques for a wide range of clients that include Princeton University, Haverford College, Columbia University, and the New York Museum of Modern Art.

“He pushes design excellence and inquiry with intelligence, sensitivity and effectiveness in practice and academia,” said San Antonio architect and educator David F. Bogle ’83. “He has a natural and practiced ability to communicate professional issues and goals, not only to clients and architectural colleagues, but to architecture students and the greater public.”

Marble began is beginning his School of Architecture chairmanship with the conviction that the architectural profession is changing.

“It’s typical that an architect is known as a leader of big teams,” Marble said. “That’s still important to maintain, but I think the next generation designer will be more of a master collaborator than a master builder, embracing collaborative and interdisciplinary models to expand the landscape of architectural practice.”

Collaboration, he added, driven by digital communication among architects, engineers, fabricators and builders, has turned design from an autonomous process into a collective workflow. He discussed this change and the opportunities and risks that increased collaboration present to architects in his 2013 book, [Digital Workflows in Architecture: Design, Assembly, Industry.] (http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Workflows-Architecture-Scott-Marble/dp/3034607997)

In his new position, Marble also aims to address what he calls a legacy of gender inequity in architecture.

While current architecture program enrollments generally show an equal distribution of women and men, he said, there’s a radical falloff in practice.

“My partner is my wife and we’ve been practicing together for over 20 years,” he said. “I see every day how powerful, diverse views come out through gender difference. It’s fundamental to expanding architecture’s intellectual breadth.”

Meaningful diversity in architectural practice, he said, can result from design graduates trained to collaborate and find innovative leadership solutionsMar.

Marble received a [Bachelor of Environmental Design] (http://dept.arch.tamu.edu/undergraduate/) degree from Texas A&M University in 1983 and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University in 1986. He is a licensed architect in multiple states.

His firm’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including the Architectural Association in London, the Nara Prefectural Museum of Art in Japan and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where his drawings are part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Marble Fairbanks has received numerous recognitions, including awards from The American Institute of Architects and the Chicago Athaneum, and was named as one of the city’s most inventive design firms by the Architecture League of New York. The studio’s work has been featured in Architectural Recordand Architect magazines as well as [Bootstrapping] (http://www.amazon.com/Marble-Fairbanks-Bootstrapping-Michigan-Architecture/dp/1891197371) , a 2005 book about the firm’s work Marble co-authored.