Tech celebrates its architecture school

When Georgia Tech started an architecture program in 1908, its students leaned over their drafting tables in smocks or shirts and ties. Today, the jeans-and-T-shirt-clad cadre sit anywhere there’s Wi-Fi for their laptops.

Much else has changed over the course of the past century, of course, and many students have gone on to make their mark on Atlanta, and the rest of the world. Tech will be remembering it all during its celebration of the architecture school’s centennial throughout the coming school year.

A lecture by its most famous alum, John Portman, kicks it off Wednesday. It’s the first in a series of talks by distinguished graduates, ending with Michael Arad, who designed the World Trade Center Memorial, in November.

“A Century of Architectural Education at Georgia Tech,” the first of a three-part exhibition chronicling the evolution of the architecture program, also opens Aug. 27. Curated by professor Elizabeth Dowling and 2008 graduate Lisa Thomason, the show includes rare student drawings, old photos and lots of history.