UB Department of Architecture welcomes Jason Sowell as Director of Graduate Studies
Published January 17, 2025
by Rachel Teaman
Jason Sowell, registered architect and UB associate professor of architecture, has been appointed Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) for the Department of Architecture, effective immediately.
“I am committed to advocating on behalf of students as they pursue their academic and professional goals," said Sowell. "There is a real opportunity to innovate curricula not just in the department, but across the School and university. This will involve collaboration with students, faculty, staff, and leadership.”
An award-winning architect and educator, Sowell pursues teaching, research and creative practice that explores how landscape technologies enable diverse communities to leverage resources and implement climate-resilient infrastructures integrated with public spaces. His recent work has focused on the Texas-Mexico border and the North Atlantic coast, with projects addressing housing, parks, and research campuses. His contributions to the field have earned national and international design awards, and his work has been exhibited at prominent venues such as the Venice and Pan American Biennales.
Before joining UB in 2022, Sowell served as an associate professor and director of the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin, and as associate professor of landscape architecture at Texas Tech University. He has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Tennessee.
Sowell holds a Bachelor of Architecture, magna cum laude, from the University of Tennessee and a master’s in landscape architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He is the co-principal of SSAU Stiphany Sowell Architecture + Urbanism, LLC, where he has led impactful projects such as the Sparks Community Center in El Paso, Texas; Brownie Neighborhood Park in Austin, Texas; and a one-square-mile mixed-use development in the Texas High Plains, in addition to small residential projects in New York, Texas, and Michigan.
As DGS, Sowell’s role involves supporting the departmental chair in graduate curricular and pedagogical initiatives – particularly for the accredited Master of Architecture degree – and related engagement with faculty, staff, and students. He will also represent the Department of Architecture on the executive committee of the UB Graduate School, the university’s central policy body for graduate education.
Drawing on nearly two decades of teaching and administrative experience in architectural education, Sowell says he is eager to contribute to UB’s vibrant graduate community. “I am committed to advocating on behalf of students as they pursue their academic and professional goals,” he said. “UB’s Graduate Research Group framework offers a unique opportunity to foster the integration of faculty research, creative practice, and engaged learning into the classroom,” he added.
Sowell says he also hopes to advance Dean Julia Czerniak’s vision of the role of landscape in design studies for pushing emerging initiatives and contributing to the School’s identity as an innovation hub for design education and research.
“There is a real opportunity to innovate curricula not just in the department, but across the School and university,” he said. “This will involve collaboration with students, faculty, staff, and leadership.”
To support a seamless transition, Sowell has been working closely with Joyce Hwang, professor in the Department of Architecture, who served as DGS for the last seven years, and Korydon Smith, chair and professor in the Department of Architecture. Representing the impact of this position, Hwang’s contributions as DGS helped the department navigate the COVID pandemic, expand career services, achieve the recent MArch reaccreditation, and build connections with industry and academic partners.
Please join us in welcoming our next DGS Jason Sowell to this pivotal leadership role and in supporting him as he works with UB’s administrative team to shape the future of graduate education at the School of Architecture and Planning.