Ila Berman , BArch / 83

After graduating from Carleton, Ila Berman earned a doctorate in architectural history, theory and criticism from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 1993 and became a professor of architecture in 1994 at Tulane University, New Orleans. She was appointed associate dean of the school in 2004.

After Hurricane Katrina struck the city, Berman was appointed to the urban design/city planning committee of the mayor’s “Bring New Orleans Back” commission. She established URBANbuild, a program that applies the resources of the school of architecture to create scenarios for New Orleans revitalization. URBANbuild generated multiple types of housing solutions (low-rise, high density housing, portable and mobile housing, and individual houses) and prototypes were built as models to seed blighted areas in the city. The models were low in cost, high in architectural quality, and environmentally responsive as a solution to not only the housing problem, but also environmental, urban and social issues.

In 2005, Berman won the President’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching—the highest teaching award given by Tulane to a faculty member from any discipline. She also completed New Orleans: Strategies for a City in Soft Land, in collaboration with Joan Busquets and Felipe Correa of Harvard University.