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̽»¨ÊÓƵ’s School of Architecture proudly congratulates Assistant Professor and Foundations Coordinator Heather Ligler on receiving the Excellence and Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching Award, recognizing her impactful and forward-thinking contributions to architectural education. The award honors faculty who demonstrate outstanding teaching through effective practices, innovative pedagogies, and meaningful student engagement. Selection criteria include student, peer, and administrative evaluations; prior teaching honors; evidence of curricular innovation; and scholarly contributions to teaching.

Ligler was nominated by the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters following a comprehensive application that highlighted her three-course curriculum development, teaching evaluations, and scholarly work. Her submission included letters of support from faculty and students, SPOT evaluation data, a teaching portfolio, and documentation of previous recognition, including the 2025 Educator of the Year Award from the Fort Lauderdale chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Her research on pedagogy has been published in the International Journal of Architectural Computing and presented at the 2025 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Intersections Research Conference on AI Design Practices. She was first selected as the College’s nominee and subsequently chosen as one of four university-wide recipients of the award, presented by Provost Dawson-Scully at the FAU Spring 2026 Honors Convocation. Dr. Ligler was also recognized at the ceremony by President Hasner as one of nine university-wide finalists for the 2026 Distinguished Teacher of the Year award.

Central to Ligler’s teaching is a multi-semester pedagogical framework developed over the past three years within FAU’s Bachelor of Architecture program, which operates across two campuses. The initiative addresses both the physical and curricular divides within the program by establishing a cohesive sequence rooted in formal design methods and shape computation. The curriculum unfolds across three interconnected courses: Constructing Architectural Theory introduces students to rule-based design through precedent analysis; The Imitation Game (Architectural Design 4) advances this work through schema-driven investigations of building typologies; and The Urban Remix (Architectural Design 5) culminates in the development of design machines that synthesize architectural logic within complex urban and environmental contexts.

By framing design as a form of visual calculation, Ligler’s approach integrates analog and digital methodologies, fostering both spatial reasoning and procedural thinking. Students engage with geometric algorithms and shape grammars as tools for critical inquiry and creative production, developing skills in pattern recognition, formal analysis, and iterative design. Through this sequence, Ligler equips students to navigate emerging architectural workflows that bridge speculative research and professional practice, preparing them to engage critically with technologies ranging from environmental simulation to machine learning. Her recognition with the Excellence and Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching Award underscores FAU’s commitment to advancing design education through research-driven, student-centered teaching.