CEFPI Northeast Region

INTERNATIONAL BOARD REPRESENTATIVE CANDIDATE SUBMISSION – PETER LIPPMAN

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What is your vision for the CEFPI?

When I joined CEFPI, I was attracted to the research grants to fund studies on learning environments.

Currently, I do not believe this program is still in operation. However, I believe that CEFPI must return tofunding research and establish itself as the premiere organization for architects, designers andeducational facility planners who want to program, plan and design learning environments. In order to dothis, CEFPI will need to rethink its Website as place for accessing information, provide POEs ofMcConnell Award winning projects to understand how they have stood the test of time, and continue toencourage educators and administrators to participate in events and write for the newsletters.

Additionally, CEFPI needs to make the REFP more than just initials that someone has attached to itsname. REFP must be evaluated to determine what this means and what it add to the profession. Lastly,it must be marketed as something that is valued not only by the organization, but more importantly by laypeople.

What do you believe you will bring to the leadership of our organization?

Over the last few years I have become involved with the planning of the Northeast Regional Conferences,participated on the governance committee, research committee, and currently I am working on theInnovation Committee. In addition, for the last couple of years I have been working with the MayfieldProject. This project is a research project that is being developed for the Australasia Conference in May

2010. My role has been to work with the team guiding their research, from providing literature todiscussing methods and methodologies for collecting information. As result of this, I will be attending thisconference this May and make a presentation on the research.

While I have presented regionally and nationally at various CEFPI conference, I also presented to theVictorian Chapter in Melbourne in 2007. Furthermore, articles that I have written for the CAENet andDesignshare have been cited in various books and journals nationally and internationally. Recently, Iparticipated in Tall Primary Schools: a research inquiry for Cambridgeshire County Council, UK. I wassought out by the primary researcher which involved only one other designer from the United States.

Last year, I was the Chair for the AIA’s National Committee on Architecture (CAE) Conference in NewYork City. As a result of this and the qualitative research that I have done, the book which I have writtenfor John Wiley and Sons, titled, Evidence Based Design for Elementary and Secondary School (due outin September 2010), I was elected to the CAE’s Advisory Group (AG), a group of five nationally recognized school designers from around the United States.

While CEFPI has provided me with a forum to connect with others who are passionate about the creationof learning environments, being on the AG will allow me to make better the connections between theseorganization which understand that buildings (the physical environment) influence and shape the way inwhich we develop. My primary goal will be to investigate how research can be implemented as part of thedesign process (prior and post), develop literature reviews for our members, identify the affordances andconstraints about school design nationally and internationally. Finally, I believe as a leader, one has theresponsibility to truly evaluate our work for what it does successfully and what it does not do successfully.

Bio

Peter C. Lippman, Assoc. AIA, REFP

Educational Resource & Facility Planner

Peter C. Lippman is an Educational Resource and Facility Planner for JCJ Architecture. This uniqueposition informs the organization about design research, research methodologies, and is used to offer ourclients the most appropriate solutions for projects. Mr. Lippman is an analytical thinker, who understandshow to apply design research to design practice and provides social science research tools andmethodologies that are unique to the practice of architecture.

Research Skills:

For over 15 years, Peter C. Lippman has dedicated his professional career to researching, programming,and planning learning environments. Mr. Lippman has extensive experience in empirical research anddesign that few architects have in the United States. While obtaining his professional degree, a Bachelorof Architecture (1995) at the School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture of the City

College of New York of the City University of New York, he was also working towards his Masters Degreein Philosophy (1995) and Psychology (1998). Given this, Mr. Lippman has the needed skills as adesigner as well as a unique background in formal research, where he has used various researchmethodologies (cognitive mapping, tracking, interviews, focus groups), and Participatory ActionResearch) for collecting data to understand how environments function and make the appropriate designrecommendations for the built environment. Mr. Lippman used mapping and tracking methods tounderstand how an Aids Pediatrics Clinic operated at Harlem Hospital to propose solutions for creatingthe appropriate Mini-treatment Lounge for the doctors, nurses, patients, and their families. While Mr.Lippman has researched on hospital environments as well as sustainable office environments, currentlyhis research focuses on the situated nature of learning and how the physical environment influences andshapes teaching and learning in school settings.

Architectural Skills:

Mr. Lippman’s distinctive blend of professional experiences offers a unique perspective to the practice ofarchitecture. His motivation stems from his desire to create places that are responsive to the needs of itsusers and encourage people to appropriate knowledge for themselves. Mr. Lippman’s researchbackground affords him the ability to be current with trends in educational theory and go beyond thenormative theories presupposed by his contemporaries. He is stellar, for not only can he design andmanage projects from programming through construction administration, but, most importantly, he is ableto transfer his understandings from the research into thoughtful design. Not only was this achieved forthe Aids Pediatrics Clinic at Harlem Hospital, but also when he planned the Harvey Milk School and

School for Medical and Dental Assistants in New York City and was influential in the design of theElizabeth Kolnaski Elementary School along with Duggan Elementary Schools. In each of these projects,his research on learning environments was transferred into the design which provided a variety of spacesinside and outside instructional spaces to encourage formal and informal learning to take placethroughout the facility. Furthermore, he is continually examining research that looks at how the physicalenvironment of the school can be designed as vehicle of change to encourage students to question,resolves the problems-at-hand as they appropriate knowledge for themselves. As a result of hisprofessional and academic work, he has written a book, Evidence Based Design for Elementary, Middle,

& High Schools: A Responsive Approach to Creating Learning Environments, for John Wiley & Sonswhich is currently under production and will be available in September 2010.

Professional Skills:

Mr. Lippman is a Recognized Educational Facility Professional (REFP) by the Council for EducationalFacilities Planner International (CEFPI). Currently, Mr. Lippman is New York State Governor for CEFPI, isinvolved with planning the 2010 Northeast Regional Conferences. Furthermore, he is an acknowledgedthought leader in the field of educational architecture, has written extensively, and presented his worknationally and internationally. In 2007, he presented his research at the ConnectED 2007 Conference inSydney, Australia and CEFPI (Victorian Chapter) in Melbourne, Australia. For this reason, he was invitedin 2008 to participate on the Mayfield Project a research venture with member’s of CEFPI’s AustralasiaChapter, where the results will be presented in 2010 in Perth, Australia, and on CEFPI’s 2010 InnovationCommittee. Peter’s involvement is not merely limited to CEFPI, but he also chaired the 2009 AIANational CAE Conference in New York City. In 2009, he was unanimously elected to American Institute of

Architects National Advisory Group, Committee on Architecture for Education. Lastly, Mr. Lippman hasreviewed books for John Wiley & Sons, evaluated research proposals for Environmental Design

Research Association (EDRA) and CUNY, has been a Juror for various architectural competitions, and

Co-Chaired Cyberspace and Digital Environments Network for EDRA in 2009.