In a brief message on its new website, the school of architecture at the University of Kansas (KU) announced the change of its name from the School of Architecture, Design & Planning to the School of Architecture & Design.
“On the face of it, it might seem like a simple change,” said Dean Mahesh Daas in the online announcement. “But since we seldom have the opportunity to revisit what we call ourselves, we invested a tremendous amount of time and energy into this decision. The new name just better reflects our vision, which is to be ‘the pioneering force for global impact through design.'”
The name was culled from over 100 alternatives that were gathered by students, faculty, alumni, and staff at a January brainstorming session. Along with the new name, the school rebranded its website with a new URL (www.arcd.ku.edu) and is referring to itself as Arch/D for short.
As Daas pointed out, the name of a school is often meant to express the school’s vision. For instance, The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture recently announced a name change to the School of Architecture at Taliesin. That name change came with the school’s financial break from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.