D R . B . D .

W O R T H A M - G A L V I N

D i r e c t o r , M a s t e r o f R e s i l i e n t U r b a n D e s i g n P r o g r a m ,

C l e m s o n U n i v e r s i t y

b d w o r t h @ c l e m s o n . e d u

C O N T A C T & R E S O U R C E S

A s s o c i a t e P r o f e s s o r , S c h o o l o f A r c h i t e c t u r e ,

C l e m s o n U n i v e r s i t y

Dr. B.D. Wortham-Galvin is Director of the Master ofResilient Urban Design Program and AssociateProfessor in the School of Architecture, ClemsonUniversity. Her research focuses on how theories ofcultural sustainability and the everyday can beapplied to the design and stewardship of anadaptable built environment with a particular focuson those people and places left out of traditionaldesign and development decisions. She works withlocal and national communities on issues of equityand resilience in managing change in rural, suburban,and urban places; and the Daily Journal ofCommerce name her one of Oregon’s Women ofVision for 2015 based on this work. This type ofresilient community-based focus won the 2009Outstanding Project of the Year Award from theChesapeake County Heritage Area Program forwork on Maryland’s Eastern Shore by her formernon-profit Urban Dialogues. In addition, as amember of the Maryland Urban Research Studio,she helped lead the team in their award winning,invited, competition entry “Ground/Works” for TheHistory’s Channel’s, The City of the Future Challenge.She has been published in journals such asFootprint, Architecture and Culture, Places, JAE,Powerlines, GAM, Dialectic, International Journal ofInterior Architecture, and fishwrap. She ledstudents in a design-build to create downtownPortland's first public parklet as well as an NEAArtworks funded tactical design-build: the Pop UpPorch. She is also the lead editor of the book series,Sustainable Solutions (Greenleaf 2016).

M a s t e r o f R e s i l i e n t

U r b a n D e s i g n w e b s i t e

R E S I L I E N T U R B A N D E S I G N

Background on Clemson's Master of Resilient Urban Design Program

The MRUD degree is an applied research degree wherein students are trained to become

urban design professionals. Bridge courses are available for those without an undergraduate

degree in Architecture. 

The degree is a part of the Clemson Design Center in Charleston, which provides students

with, "...studio space, classrooms, seminar rooms, fabrication facilities, a laboratory, library,

multipurpose space". MRUD Faculty and staff offices are also housed in this location.  

The program model emphasizes, ...an issues-based teamwork model wherein students engage

issues/questions based on a design-thinking foundation and enhanced with methodologies

and processes from multiple disciplines". The four competitive advantages that this program

offers include: 

A Trans-Disciplinary Program: bringing together architecture, landscape architecture, city

and regional planning, and preservation as well as the humanities, social and natural

sciences

Research-Based Design: the MRUD degree applies research-based design thinking for

tackling the growing need for innovation in how to manage change in metropolitan

regions, rather than waiting to react to the urban pressures that are inevitable.

An Innovation Lab: this program uses an integrated academic-professional model

grounded in real world projects in order to stimulate pioneering thinking and research in

the Low Country that is applicable globally, the program is an innovation lab.

Managing Change: this degree focuses on resilient urbanism rather than urban resilience

as a goal or status.  The MRUD program defines resilience as a, "...dynamic notion which

includes 'springing forward' and recognition that the urban environment is dynamic and in

flux and that managing change is perhaps a more critical skill to be acquired than

stewarding the status quo."  

Current Projects Related to Resilience

B.D. is looking to make connections within the Charleston community to be able to connect

students with internship and volunteer opportunities.