Carlo Aiello received a 2013 GOOD DESIGN Award from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design for his furniture design. 

DSH // architecture, the firm of Eric Haas, Adjunct Associate Professor, has completed block-long signage and graphics for the Para Los Niños preschool and family services facilities in downtown Los Angeles, and is beginning work on their third project for the organization.

Jennifer Siegal will be speaking during Palm Springs Modernism weekend as part of the Unbuilt Palm Springs lecture panel. Her original art work entitled Double Negative, homage to Michael Heizer, was recently presented as a gift to the the Palm Springs Art Museum and will be on view in a special exhibition entitled Into the Future. 

Professor Victor Regnier made presentations in 2013 to the University of Iowa Medical School, the Beckman Research Institute at the University of Illinois, and the Boomer Project at the University of Kansas–College of Architecture. He kicked off the Health Facilities Graduate Program–spring studio at Clemson University in January with two lectures that focused on the “Apartment for Life” building type and innovations in senior housing from northern Europe. He will present his research about boomer preferences at the 46th Annual Health Facilities Forum in Grand Rapids, Michigan in March.  An article reviewing the history and future trajectory of the apartments for life building concept will appear in the ASA (American Society for Aging) journal in the spring.  Copies of the recently produced 50 page, 605b studio book on the USC Apartments for Life–Emeriti Project can be downloaded free of charge (request the pdf from regnier@usc.edu).  A Q+A on the studio can also be downloaded at http://asaging.org/blog/life-way-we-want-it-conversation-gero-architect-victor-regnier-faia

Patrick Tighe presented a lecture of his work in Rome, Italy as part of the Millennium lecture series. The lecture entitled “in the gray”  was presented at the Casa dell’Architettura of the Ordine degli Architetti di Roma. Past participants in the prestigious Millennium lecture series, included, Richard Meier, Enric Miralles, Dominique Perrault, Peter Eisenman, Steven Holl, Raimund Abraham, Eric Owen Moss, Mario Botta, Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry amongst others. Link: http://www.casadellarchitettura.it/mostre/millennium-patrick-tighe-recent-works/

Part-time/Adjunct Faculty Lauren Dandridge Gaines will be featured in the upcoming February edition of LD+A magazine for the Illuminating Engineering Society. The article will feature her award winning lighting design work for the newly completed Old Town Newhall Library.

Professor James Steele spoke at a Colloquium at Unesco Headquarters in Paris on December 18, 2012 and the Proceedings have just been released as World Heritage Papers 36 Earthen Architecture in Today’s World, World Heritage Paper Series 18/12/2013.  He was just named as architect for the World Heritage Animal Genetic Repository ( WHAGR) the “Ark” project to set up a genome bank of endangered species.  Steele recently completed 5 chapters the cover the entire gamut of Islamic architecture to be included in Architecture: The Whole Story to be published by Thames and Hudson, for release in summer of 2014.

Professor Steele has just been commissioned by Thames and Hudson to contribute three chapters, on Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt to: Vernacular Buildings: A New World Survey.  He just established a new publishing house with his son Casey called Gulf Pacific (because it focuses on those regions of the world). Our first book, on the leading Jordanian architect Jafar Tukan, is ready to go to press and will be released in May.  Working with Professor Gail Borden, he established an Undergraduate Program in São Paulo, Brazil to be based at Fundacao Armando Alvares Penteado to run this summer, and set up a Graduate Studio at Universidade de São Paulo, for this current semester as well working on an Ecoport project for the disadvantaged Oliveira Freire neighborhood so they can have access to the river, and community facilities we will design there. A delegation from USP will visit USC to present the parameters in early February, and our Studio will visit USP over Spring break this March. Steele is coming off a Sabbatical spent mostly in Japan working on a new book entitled: Contemporary Architecture in Japan: The Next Generation for Taylor-Francis/ Routledge.

Gary Paige lectured in Japan at Kyoto Seika University this past November on the firm’s recent work and the Team USC Solar Decathlon fluxHome™.

Douglas Noble and Karen Kensek hosted the FACADE TECTONICS 14 conference at USC in January.  More than 70 speakers made 50 presentations over three days.  This was the 14th FACADE TECTONICS conference, and it attracted 437 registered attendees.

Nefeli Chatzimina, Lecturer of Architecture at the University of Southern California, is a PhD Candidate at the University of Athens and in parallel organizes and teaches International Architectural Workshops in Europe. Founder of X|Atelier Architecture (http://www.xatelier.com/) she currently completed the design and high-end construction of a Flagship store Offices for Orizon Insurance company in Athens, Greece.

Neil Leach has been appointed Professor of Digital Design at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. He has also published 2 books, Digital Workshop in China (Tongji UP, 2013) and Design Intelligence: Advanced Computational Research (CABP, 2013), curated 2 exhibitions, Interactive Shanghai in Shanghai and the 2013 DADA Student Exhibition in Beijing, and organised 2 conferences, Interactive Shanghai in Shanghai with Philip Beesley as keynote speaker, and 3-D Printing in Concrete in Dessau with Behrokh Khoshnevis and Enrico Dini as keynote speakers. 

Academy Award-winning Producer Mitchell Block and award-winning author, Huffington Post journalist/filmmaker Michael Rose have joined the team of FACE OF A NATION:  “What Happened at the World’s Fair?” with architect, filmmaker and Lecturer Mina M. Chow, AIA, NCARB as director/producer.  Emmy Award-winning composer Joseph VItarelli of Academy Award-nominated “My Architect” (2003) and multi-Emmy Award-winning HBO mini-series “John Adams” is composing an original score.  A search for national and personal identity, hope and vision for our future—in which a first generation Chinese-American architect asks why we no longer care about World’s Fairs?  FACE OF A NATION is in the final stages of post-production. 

Vinayak Bharne was recently interviewed by World Architecture News on his recent award-winning work and three books The EmergingAsian City: Concomitant Urbanities & Urbanisms, Rediscovering the Hindu Temple: The Sacred Architecture and Urbanism of India, and the soon-to-be-released Zen Spaces and Neon Places: Reflections on Japanese Architecture and Urbanism.

“Structure and Design” by Professor G. Goetz Schierle got positive reviews at http://www.jacquiecliff.com/wp-content/gallery-old/download-Structure-and-Design/p1692702303/

Diane Ghirardo’s essay on contemporary architecture in Italy and environmental degradation appeared in the book, Geografie, Storie, Paesaggi per un’Italia da cambiare, edited by Chiara Visentin; another essay on Aldo Rossi appeared in the Electa Encyclopedia of Time (2013). 

Dr. David Gerber, Assistant professor at USC’s School of Architecture is Co-Chairing this years’ Simulation in Architecture and Urban Design conference SimAUD 2014. He is also the Co-chair of this years’ annual A2014 CADIA conference  “Design Agency” to be hosted at USC’s School of Architecture. in 2013 Dr. Gerber has been awarded a second NSF grant to support research at the intersections of design, computation, engineering, and social science. Dr. Gerber has been elected to the editorial board of the International Journal of Architectural Computing and as an advisory Board Member to Robots in Architecture.

Joon-Ho Choi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Building Science at USC spoke on the topics of indoor environmental impacts on human health and physiological principles  at the Korean Scientists and Engineers Association in America Technical Symposium held in Silicon valley, CA on December 13-14, 2013.

Dr. Travis Longcore (Lecturer in landscape architecture and Associate Professor (Research) of Spatial Sciences) received a $280,000 grant from the Baldwin Hills Conservancy and Baldwin Hills Regional Conservation Authority to undertake mapping and surveys of wildlife and habitats in the Baldwin Hills planning area and to develop an online mapping interface to share these data with the public.  The Baldwin Hills study area includes state and county parks and has one of the most diverse and park-poor service areas of any urban regional park; it also provides habitat for many native species and is the site of extensive environmental education programs serving these communities.

Assistant Professor Alvin Huang has recently received a number of distinctions.  This spring at the 2014 ACSA  Annual Meeting in Miami, Florida, Professor Huang will be presented with the 2014 ACSA New Faculty Teaching Award as well as a 2014 ACSA Faculty Design Award (Honorable Mention) for his Chelsea Workspace Project.  His firm, Synthesis Design + Architecture has also been honored with the 2013 Autodesk Small Business Innovation Award.  Professor Huang’s “Pure Tension Pavilion”, a portable solar-powered tensile membrane charging station for the Volvo V60 electric car was named one of Time Magazine‘s 20 Most Important Inventions of 2013.