New Heights: The ICAA's Youth Program Enters its Ninth Year

New Heights, the ICAA's program for middle school students, which is hosted at schools throughout the country, is now in its ninth year in partnership with Marymount School of New York. In 2023's iteration of the program, New Heights IX: Conserving, Constructing, Creating, eighth-grade students dedicated an entire week to exploring the origins and evolution of New York's architecture in a series of hands-on activities, walking tours, and urban sketching sessions, culminating in a final project designing a structure in Central Park. Throughout the week, students particularly focused on the role that the architect plays in the construction of a building, and how those design decisions ultimately shape how a city's residents interact with their built environment.

As one of Marymount's eighth-grade students notes in the video above, "I learned more about the day-to-day life of an architect. I knew what an architect was, but learning how important they are for society and the changes they make behind the scenes was definitely such a great experience."

Tags: new heights, education