About the Center

The Center for Macro Projects and Diplomacy fosters the interdisciplinary formulation, design, demonstration and debate of large scale project proposals that can contribute to human progress through the improvement of world habitat.

In the increasingly globalized world, solutions to problems require a broad approach that considers an array of concerns -- cultural, environmental, technical, economic, social, political and legal -- as well as the communication and negotiation skills necessary to achieve agreement. Many current proposals or projects fail because they are conceived in isolation or consider relationships narrowly.

With invited leaders, faculty and students concentrating on clearly-defined issues of importance to the world community -- land, water, energy and food supplies; transportation, environmental quality, housing, education, health care, heritage -- the Center will follow through on steps needed to design, display, debate, evaluate, test, and in appropriate cases, deploy undertakings of relevance and urgency.

Macro scale is defined as encompassing the broadest human and geographical dimensions, beyond current provincial, regional and national boundaries.

At the heart of the Macro endeavor is the sense that people working toward maximizing the quality of the created and conserved environments - improving both man-made infrastructure and the environment of what William James once described as "...this not altogether hospitable globe..." - can contribute significantly toward transforming human potentials.

The principal focus of the Center is the establishment and demonstration of effective methods of interlinking and balancing multiple concerns to assure long-term success. Projects must offer solutions to problems in which all of the often-conflicting interests of development and conservation, community(ies) and sovereignty are accommodated in the best possible ways for the greatest number of people.

Activities will include programs that will cross the traditional boundaries of the professions and academic disciplines, inclusive of architecture and landscape architecture, environmental and heritage conservation, engineering, management, the law, the physical and social sciences, and the arts. On the institutional level, partnerships will be encouraged with local, national and international organizations.

New facilities opened in October 2004 for the Center and the School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation, including Lecture Theater, Exhibition Gallery, external projection area for large gatherings, seminar, conference and office space.

Working models of macro projects will display elements of "prima facie" cases for discussion and debate, with both past and future projects included.