i. institutional support and commitment to continuous improvement

School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects
Master of Architecture
Master of Architecture with emphasis in Interior Architecture
for Brown’s extensive art collection. Located 75 miles from Chicago, the home is maintained
by the School for residencies. One artist is selected for each two-week period, with exclusive
use of the fully furnished, secluded house, guesthouse, and studio overlooking the Galien
River on the east and across the street from Lake Michigan on the west.
Nearly 150 faculty and staff have completed residencies in New Buffalo since Brown gifted
the furnished home to SAIC shortly before his death in 1998. Of the 150 residencies, two have
been completed by AIADO faculty—Carol Yetken, a landscape architect who pursued a study
of the historic landscape and with graduate students has produced the five-year plan the
School has adopted to restore the landscape to its original design; and Anne Sullivan, chair of
Historic Preservation and architect who teaches in the MArch program as well. Additionally,
AIADO Senior Administrative Director Melanie Feerst has also had a New Buffalo Residency.
o Artist-in-Residence Exchange with Krems, Austria
A former carpet factory along the Danube River has been converted to an arts building by the
government of Lower Austria.Through an exchange program, artists are provided a furnished
apartment and a shared studio space. In exchange, artists from Austria are awarded residen-
cies in Chicago, and are hosted by the School. SAIC provides a $1500 stipend per month to
assist with travel expenses.
The summer 2010 artist in residence was AIADO faculty member Anders Nereim whose proj-
ect researched European city designs as models for creating downtowns that produce their
own energy using new zoning envelopes. From the AIR Krems website, Nereim posted:
When I arrived in Vienna and saw the buildings in the ringstrasse, I suddenly recalled the writ-
ings of a very important nineteenth century Austrian urban designer, Camillo Sitte, whom I
had last studied in 1975.
Of the 18 artists sent to Krems since the exchange began in 2001, three have been associated
with the Architecture and Historic Preservation program (Nereim, Achilles, Michael), while two
of the nine Austrian artists who have spent the summers in Chicago have been architects.
C. STAFF
SAIC employees approximately 300 staff members who serve in a variety of capacities, ranging from ad-
ministrative support, facilities management and maintenance, as well as technical staff.
1) Recruitment
Staff are hired by applying to open positions listed on the website and, in some cases, other classified ad-
vertisements and solicitations. The Office of Human Resources—which services both the museum and the
School staff—coordinates those searches. Similar to the policies and opportunities that undergird student
and faculty handbooks, staff have a governing document know as the Employee Guidelines, which is no
longer widely published as it is available to most employees on the School’s intranet. Human Resources
is the central administrative department that summarizes makes these policies available at a mandatory
orientation and adjudicates harassment disputes.
a) Non-discrimination policy
One of the chief staff policies deals with a similar commitment to diversity, equal opportunity, and
non-discrimination that is also found among students and faculty. For example, the EOE policy is
posted online with all employment listings:
The Art Institute of Chicago is an Equal Opportunity Employer. To maintain excellence in all its ef-
Architecture Program Report | 68