Lois Weinthal, Associate Professor and Graduate Adviser for the Master of Interior Design Program recently presented a paper, titled "Embedded Emotions in Objects of the Architectural Interior," at the interdisciplinary conference, "Objects of Affection: Towards a Materiality of Emotions," at Princeton University. Associate Professor Lois Weinthal also participated on a panel at the Dallas Center for Architecture, organized by the AIA Dallas Women in Architecture Committee.
Dr. Nancy Kwallek, director of the Interior Design Program, published a paper, titled "Ellen Swallow Richards: Visionary on Home and Sustainability," in the summer 2012 issue of Phi Kappa Phi FORUM. better living").
The firm Alterstudio has been busy this year. The firm includes Associate Dean Kevin Alter, Ernesto Cragnolino [B.Arch. & B.Arch.Eng. '97], and Tim Whitehill [B.Arch. '02].On August 8, the "Hillside Residence" will be the setting for one of this year's "Discover Design Over Dinner," presented by the Austin Foundation for Architecture. The "Elizabeth House" won a 2012 AIA Austin Design Award and, in January, was open to the public as part of the Austin Modern Home Tour. The recently published book, 21st Century Architecture: Designer Houses, includes a feature on the "Windsor East Residence" (the only building included from Texas). The firm's design for the "Three Court House" was featured in an article in Austin Home Magazine's spring 2012 issue.
Alter presented a lecture on current work in Boston, in concert with the opening of an exhibition of five recent houses titled "Looking for Trouble."
Senior Lecturer and Architectural Conservation Laboratory Director Fran Gale and independent conservator Casey Gallagher [MSHP '09] will assist with an evaluative study of the effects of the 2011 Bastrop fire on Bastrop State Park's historic structures, which were built in the early 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The study is funded by a $25,000 grant to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department from the National Park Service.
In June, Dean Fritz Steiner traveled to Turkey. Steiner and landscape architect Charles Waldheim, of Harvard University, were invited by Osmangazi Municipality, in Bursa Province, and Anadolu University to participate on a panel with local experts on devastating earthquakes that struck several regions in Turkey in 2011.