Our Mission
The Rochester Architecture Foundation supports initiatives that uniquely contribute to improving our region's quality of life. The Foundation fosters awareness of architecture and its impact on the Rochester community. We achieve this by funding outreach projects that promote the contributions of students, professionals, and quality design. Our key areas of focus are education, arts and culture, and design.
About the Rochester Architecture Foundation (RAF)
Architecture is essential to the well-being of our communities and to the quality of life for families, individuals, and children. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that there is no such thing as a neutral experience of a built environment; in fact, design can have a critical influence on a person's well-being. For example, studies on the relationship between the built environment and health outcomes, conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found that the evidence plays on mental, physical, and psycho-social health dictates that we invest, as a community, in high quality design.
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Moreover, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the built environment also directly influences a person's level of physical activity. For example, inaccessible or nonexistent sidewalks and bicycle or walking paths contribute to sedentary habits. These habits lead to poor health outcomes such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer. One study by the University of Rochester found a patient recovering from surgery in a hospital room with a view outside healed 30 percent faster than the same patient with a view of a brick wall.
The decision to promote and support good design is not solely one we make for ourselves, but also for the future well-being of families in the Greater Rochester region. High quality design for everyone promotes racial equality and supports justice by providing accessibility to architectural resources and building more resilient and robust neighborhoods.
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Two changes currently taking place in our society are of fundamental importance to our mission. First, as our society becomes more diverse, it becomes imperative to educate the public on the future of architecture in order to bring more members of minority groups, women, and other traditionally underrepresented people into the profession of architecture. Accomplishing this goal includes significant outreach to the secondary and tertiary educational systems. In addition, climate change and global warming make it necessary for our society to respond in many ways, which include changes to the design of new buildings and the rehabilitation of existing structures. The next generation of architects needs to be oriented to these changes, and the public needs to be educated about the importance that design can have on society at all these levels.