University of Oklahoma

The Division of Architecture (DivA) recently appointed the following faculty as new administrative positions: Marjorie P. Callahan as Associate Director of Faculty Development, Anthony Cricchio as Associate Director of Curriculum Development, and Dr. Stephanie Pilat as Associate Director of Student Development.

Associate Professor of Architecture Marjorie P. Callahan, AIA received an Ed Cline Faculty Development Award Spring 2014. The award funded research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University with noted scholar Dr. Omer Akin exploring how University environments shape teaching and learning. Marjorie was recently appointed the in-house IDP Education Coordinator and advisor to the newly formed DivA student organization Architectural Virtuosi, a student organization focused on assisting students through the IDP process.

In association with the Bruce Goff Chair of Creative Architecture, Assistant Professor Dr. Catherine Barrett, AIA is chairing the 2014 Creating_Making Forum, November 5-7. This year’s forum builds upon the discourse introduced at the inaugural 2010 Creating_Making Forum.  Featured speakers include Dr. Robert Fishman, OU DivA Director Hans Butzer, and Andrew Freear. For more info, visit: http://www.ou.edu/architecture/centers/creating-making.html

Associate Professor David Boeck, AIA and Assistant Professor Dr. John Harris (Division of Regional and City Planning) led a student service-learning initiative to Zambia, Africa Summer 2014. David also gave a presentation titled Aging in Place to a group of senior citizens in Stillwater, Oklahoma September 2014. As advisor to the College of Architecture (CoA) student organization NOMAS, David escorted the student competition team to Philadelphia for the 42nd Annual NOMAS Conference.

Assistant Professor Daniel Butko, AIA collaborated with Russ Berger Design Group (RBDG) Summer 2014 on a variety of acoustical design projects including a 7,000 sf multi-studio facility. Daniel’s ongoing research with RBDG has shaped his professional and academic investigations, including the curriculum for his biannual Architectural Acoustics seminar titled The Sound of Shaped Space. As a member of the OU CoA Compressed Earth Block (CEB) Research team, Daniel is currently collecting thermal, energy, and acoustical data from both recently completed CEB and adjacent wood-framed residences. Daniel will present conclusions based on recent data in a paper presentation at the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) conference October 2014. Daniel continues his role as advisor to the CoA student organization Design-Build Society (DBS) as they prepare for their first community-based service-learning project of the 2014/15 AY. As part of the DivA’s Bridging Cultures Program, Daniel led a three-day visit to Kansas City, MO September 2014 for the 4th year Undergraduate and 3rd year Graduate students. The group of 46 students and 3 faculty toured numerous firms, buildings, and site options for the semester mixed-use design project. 

Director Hans Butzer, AIA through his practice Butzer Gardner Architects recently published the North Downtown Redevelopment Plan for Oklahoma City. The plan explores the relationship of development opportunities with transportation improvements including streetcar routes and a bicycle boulevard. Hans also lectured at the Oklahoma District Council of the Urban Land Institute.

Associate Professor Anthony Cricchio, RA was promoted to Associate Professor upon receiving tenure. Anthony also serves as Coordinator of College of Architecture International Programs, overseeing bridging cultures experiences. 

Associate professors Anthony Cricchio, RA and Nickolas Harm, RA were instructors for the annual Playhouse Parade project in which students design and build a playhouse for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Oklahoma County. This is the fifth year CoA students have designed and constructed a playhouse for CASA’s raffle to raise support for local children in need. The collaborative course included 8 students of various year levels, Building Facility Manager Jerry Puckett, and Creating_Making Lab Manager Hunter Roth.

Associate Professor Lee Fithian, AIA joined with Associate Tammy McCuen (Division of Construction Science) as advisors to the third place team at the National Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) annual student competition October 2014. Lee recently returned with an interdisciplinary group of students as part of the Spring 2014 semester Rome Program. Lee and her CoA students collaborated with an Italian elementary school to design and construct a rainwater collection system as the service-learning component of this annual bridging cultures experience. Professor Nickolas Harm and 20 students from the Divisions of Architecture and Interior Design are preparing for the Spring 2015 semester in Rome.

The CoA Institute for Quality Communities hosted Oklahoma’s 26th Annual Statewide Preservation Conference in June under direction of Wic Cary Professor and Director of Small Town Studios, Associate Professor Ron Frantz, AIA. Ron was also a speaker during the conference.  For more information, visit http://okpreservationconference.wordpress.com

Assistant Professor Dr. Stephanie Pilat completed the book titled “Reconstructing Italy: The Ina-Casa Neighborhoods of the Postwar Era.” This book, published by Ashgate Publishing Limited, traces the transformation of the Italian nation through an analysis of the Ina-Casa plan for working-class housing, established in 1949 to address the employment and housing crises. As a recipient of the Wolfsonian-FIU Fellowship, Stephanie conducted research in residence on a new project titled “Shaping the Body Politic: Architecture for Youth and Sports in Fascist Italy.” Stephanie is also the recipient of The University of Oklahoma, CoA 2014 Outstanding Educator Award.

Joining the DivA faculty Fall 2014 are Assistant Professor Dr. Shideh Shadrahan to lead instruction on structural design in architecture, Assistant Professor Bob Pavlik, AIA to shape pedagogical strategies for digital haptic fabrication techniques and beginning design, and Associate Professor Jay Yowell to enhance the integration of sustainability and ethics in design and systems courses. Award winning practitioners Debra Richards, AIA and Geoff Parker, AIA serve as adjunct faculty for the 2014/15 AY.

In other program news, the CoA is now offering a PhD in Planning, Design, and Construction as of Fall 2014. The CoA recently awarded over $110,000 in 40 scholarships to 90 students from all disciplines (Architecture, Construction Science, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Regional & City Planning, the Tulsa Urban Design Studio, and Environmental Design). The CoA also recently honored Academic Counselor Suzanne Robinson with OU CoA 2014 Jerri Hodges Bonebrake Award, named after Bruce Goff’s long-time assistant.

Licensure at Graduation and the Known Unknowns

by Michael J. Monti

We are hoping that a number of programs may wish to take the next step to allow students the ability to complete the entire IDP process as well as the Architect Registration Examination® (ARE®) over the course of their studies.

– NCARB

If you haven’t seen it already, NCARB has asked for a formal response from accredited and candidate schools about its Licensure at Graduation initiative. So like it or not, it’s happening, and here’s why you should be talking about this complex issue at your school and why you should tell NCARB what you think.

Schools influence the profession when we speak clearly. This happens at the local level and at higher scales. The problem is that clarity overcomes complexity only through sustained and open debate. When we in academia don’t air out the issues, our beliefs become muddled, and inevitably the result is that the profession will “influence” us, as NCARB’s initiative may do.

Their Request for Interest and Information asks schools to report by October 31 on their “interest level and readiness to design and develop an integrated path leading to licensure at graduation encompassing the NCARB requirements of education, experience, and examination.”

Since its announcement in June, the Licensure at Graduation initiative has drawn both praise and jeers. Some of the jeers misunderstand the purpose of the initiative, which does not intend to replace existing architecture curricula or paths to licensure. Other jeers come from the realization that we don’t exactly know what this initiative means for architecture schools, faculty, and students. Licensure at Graduation poses a series of interconnected questions whose answers we know we don’t know:

  • How many students would do it?
  • Would students have to stay in school longer?
  • Are enough jobs available to support every student who wants one? (Paid jobs, ahem.)
  • If other schools do it, will my school lose a competitive edge if it does not?
  • If other schools do it and compromise their commitment to educating students, rather than training them, will architectural education suffer?
  • Will those jobs allow students to satisfy IDP requirements by graduation?
  • Will my curriculum change radically to satisfy the training needs of graduates?
  • Is a license to design buildings too small a target to shoot for in architectural education?
  • What does it mean to ‘teach to the test’?
  • Will my institution permit it?
  • What role will my state registration board have in making this work?
  • What does this do for my NAAB accreditation?

And so on…

One merit of NCARB’s approach is that it wants to understand what its integrated path means for your school. They need to hear from schools that will not pursue this option as much as from those that will.

Licensure at Graduation will not be for everybody, but until NCARB (and the rest of the profession for that matter) understands how and why schools will and will not pursue this outcome, relative silence from the schools will generate confusion and will hamper schools’ ability to work with the profession over the long term.

We have long known that the Licensure at Graduation path existed. We have talked for decades about integrating education and practice. Now the fallen logs and overgrowth have been cleared through sustained efforts to think about redundancy and complementarity in NAAB Student Performance Criteria, IDP requirement areas, and ARE divisions.

It is time to use this opportunity to respond to NCARB and to share those responses among our members, so that we can continue talking not just about licensure, but about practice in all its forms.

 

NCARB’s Request for Interest and Information can be found here. If you wish to also share your school’s response with ACSA, we will make an aggregate report during the November 6 Administrators Conference session on Licensure at Graduation. Send your response to Michael Monti, mmonti@acsa-arch.org. These will be kept confidential, unless otherwise specified. 

University of Southern California

100 Years of Architecture at USC!  2014 marks the exciting milestone of educating the 100th class of students at USC Architecture. These 100 classes have produced more than 5,000 alumni who are advancing modernism, prefabrication, sustainability and urban design. The students in these 100 classes have been mentored by faculty members who are leaders in modern architectural design, construction and conservation excellence, and who have developed a multidisciplinary perspective on the design of projects in urban settings. USC Architecture is proud to have been the first accredited architecture school in Southern California, and the first in the west to teach a curriculum focusing on modernism, highlighted by a faculty supporting the Case Study House Program through teaching, research and practice. To commemorate the centennial, 2014 will be marked by several once-in-a-century events, including a lecture series, special scholarship announcements and the launch of a fundraising campaign. USC Architecture is known for real-time design, focused on the now. Our centennial is another opportunity to move from thinking to building, from students to leaders and from Los Angeles to the world. These concepts will guide us as we begin our next 100 years.

University of Southern California

New faculty teaching in the USC School of Architecture this semester include Marwan Al-Sayed, Sofia Borges, Tina Chee, Stephen Deters, Ian Dickenson, Steven Ehrlich, Maria Esnaola, Ryan Guitierrez, Karen Janosky, Erin Kasimow, David Maestres, Michael McGowan, Andrew Watkins, and Takashi Yanai.

The USC School of Architecture will host the fifth annual Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute on September 16-18. Sponsored by Enterprise Community Partners, the Institute brings together a team of designers (including USC faculty member Lorcan O’Herlihy) and a team of non-profit developers who each present a project in the schematic design phase for feedback. This year’s theme is “Sustainable, Connected Communities, ” addressing best practices in community design and how L.A. can become a national model for transit-oriented development. Brought to USC by Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA and  John Mutlow, FAIA, the conference will include 3rd year undergraduate students who will be developing some of the projects further in studio. David Baker, FAIA, LEED AP and Andrea Cochran, FASLA are the keynote speakers; their lecture on Wednesday, September 16, at 6 pm in the Gin D. Wong Conference Center, Harris Hall, is open to the public.

Hraztan Zeitlian’s work as Director of Design at DLR for the LAUSD Edward R Roybal Learning Center High School was used as a setting for the VW GTI TV AD with Michael Ballack during FIFA World Cup, shown on ESPN2 TV Channel.

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7Dvt/2014-volkswagen-golf-gti-greatest-hits-featuring-michael-ballack

Prof. Emeritus Roger Sherwood continues to add to his website on “Modern Housing Prototypes.”  The HousingPrototypes.org website now contains hundreds of buildings, and includes detailed descriptions, drawings, photos and much more.  Most building types can be readily researched in books and magazines. Because of the large worldwide production and very dynamic nature of housing construction, however, it is very difficult to track new developments in housing design. Books quickly obsolesce and few libraries have the resources to even subscribe to the range of periodicals necessary to track new developments. The advantage of web-based material is that it offers a dynamic database accessible by anyone with a computer. It can be periodically revised and thus allows the researcher to continually update their knowledge about a particular subject. HousingPrototypes.org was conceived to fill the need for a dynamic, interactive database about housing. It provides the research instrument to monitor research about historic and new developments in the field of international multi-family housing. The current phase of construction provides data on an international selection of both new and old housing projects of the past century or so. New case studies will be frequently and continually added.  HousingPrototypes.org is published free on the Internet as an information service.

Call for Nominations: 2015 ACSA Board of Directors

2015 Board of Directors
Deadline: November 4, 2014

The ACSA Nominations Committee invites nominations for two national officers two regional director positions and on the 2015 Board of Directors. The offices are President-elect andTreasurer. The two regional director positions are for Gulf Region Director & West Central Region Director.


President-elect
The president-elect will serve a three-year term; one year each as vice president, president, and past president; presiding at meetings of the Association and is responsible for calling meetings of the Board of Directors, preparing an agenda for such meetings, and presiding at such meetings. The president coordinates activities of the board, Association committees, and liaison representatives, provides liaison with the officers of the American Institute of Architects, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the National Architectural Accrediting Board, and the American Institute of Architecture Students, and serves as representative to the Five Presidents’ Council. The president also prepares a brief report of activities of the Association and the Board of Directors during the term of office for dissemination to the constituent associations.

Treasurer
The treasurer serves for a two-year term, and prepares the budget and the financial report of the Association for the approval of the board. The treasurer oversees the financial accounts and the records of the Association, and makes them available once a year for audit by an independent certified accountant chosen by the board. He/she serves as chair of the Finance Committee.

The Nominations Committee is chaired by Norman Millar additional members include Greg Luhan, ACSA Secretary; Shannon Criss, ACSA West Central Director; & Judith DiMaio, New York Institute of Technology (outside member) will review nominations for the two national officer positions.


Gulf Region Director West Central Region Director
Each Regional Director shall be a full-time and/or tenured or tenure-track faculty member of a full member school and shall be on the faculty of a school in the region represented.

The term of office shall be three years beginning July 1, 2015, and extending through June 30, 2018. Regional Directors serve the ACSA in at least three ways – as members of the Board of Directors, on a variety of national committees, and as executive officers of their regional constituent associations. In this latter role, the Regional Director sets the agenda and chairs meetings of his or her regional council. He or she maintains a file of regional records, correspondence, and minutes of regional meetings. The director is responsible for the fiscal affairs of the constituent association and is accountable to his or her regional council for these funds. He or she provides assistance to regional schools and organizations applying for institutional membership. The Director prepares annual reports of regional activities for publication in the Association’s annual report and provides updates to the constituency on both regional and national matters of note. He or she administers the nomination and election of the subsequent Regional Director and performs such other duties as may be assigned by the Board. Regional Directors are required to attend three Board meetings a year: a fall meeting which typically occurs after the Administrator’s Conference, a spring meeting which typically occurs after the ACSA Annual Meeting, and a summer meeting.

Each region will have a Regional Nominations Committee made up of regional constituents that will review applications received and develop a slate of not less than two nor more than three candidates. Ballots will be mailed to all full member schools in the appropriate region by mid-January, 2015. The results of this election will be announced at the ACSA Annual Meeting in Toronto, ON in March 2015. Candidates will be notified of the results in mid-February.


Electronic submissions are encouraged and can be sent to Eric Ellis at: eellis@acsa-arch.org

Nominations should include a one-page CV, a letter of interest from the nominee indicating a willingness to serve, and a candidate statement. The deadline for receipt of nominations is November 4, 2014.

Nominations should be sent to:
Email (preferred): eellis@acsa-arch.org
Eric Ellis, ACSA Director of Operations and Programs
ACSA, Board Nominations
1735 New York Avenue, NW 
Washington, DC 20006

Call for Nominations: 2015 ACSA Representative to the NAAB Board of Directors

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
ACSA Representative on NAAB Board of Directors
Deadline: November 4, 2014

The 2015-2016 National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) will comprise thirteen members: three representing ACSA, three representing AIA, three representing NCARB, two representing AIAS, and two public members. Currently Patricia Kucker of University of Cincinnati; Brian Kelly of University of Maryland; & Judith Kinnard, Tulane University represent ACSA on the NAAB Board. With the expiration of Patricia Kucker’s term in October 2015, the ACSA Board of Directors is considering candidates for his successor at its meeting this March in Toronto, ON.

The appointment is for a three-year term (Oct. 2015 – Oct. 2018) and calls for a person willing and able to make a commitment to NAAB. While previous experience as an ACSA board member or administrator is helpful, it is not essential for nomination. Some experience on NAAB visiting teams should be considered necessary; otherwise the nominee might be unfamiliar with the highly complex series of deliberations involved with this position. Faculty and administrators are asked to nominate faculty from an ACSA member school with any or all the following qualifications:

    1. Tenured faculty status at an ACSA full member school;
    2. Significant experience with and knowledge of the accreditation process;
    3. Significant acquaintance with and knowledge of ACSA, its history, policy programs, and administrative structure;
    4. Personal acquaintance with the range of school and program types across North America.
    5. Willingness to represent the constituency of ACSA on accreditation related issues.
    6. Ability to work with the NAAB board and ACSA representatives to build consensus on accreditation related issues.

For consideration, please submit a concise letter of nomination along with a one-page CV indicating experience under the above headings, and a letter indicating willingness to serve from the nominee, by November 4, 2014.

Nominations should be sent to:
Email (preferred): eellis@acsa-arch.org
Eric Ellis, ACSA Director of Operations and Programs
ACSA, Board Nominations
1735 New York Avenue, NW 
Washington, DC 20006

Washington University in St. Louis

Assistant professor Catalina Freixas presented “Eco-urbanism: Sustainable Strategies for Vacant Land in St. Louis” at 1pm May 29 as part of EDRA45NewOrleans. Co-authored by senior lecturer Pablo Moyano, the paper introduces WUSTL’s Sustainable Land Lab initiative, which showcases strategies that can transform vacant land into assets that advance sustainability. Specifically, the paper looks at the five projects that have been implemented, as well as HUB: Hybrid Urban Bioscapes, a finalist proposal focused on a synergistic approach to eco-urbanism.

http://www.edra.org/content/edra45neworleans

Washington University in St. Louis

How does one move past a creative standstill? Associate professor Heather Woofter (principal of Axi:Ome), Steve Knight (director of COCAbiz), and poet MK Stallings led workshop participants in a series of hands-on exercises aimed at moving past creative blocks. The workshop concluded with a conversation on ways to nourish innovation. The event, sponsored by the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, is part of Build4STL.

http://pulitzerarts.org/events/public-programs/buildstl/

Washington University in St. Louis

JOHN HOAL, PhD, Associate Professor and Chair of the Doctor of Sustainable Urbanism and the Master of Urban Design programs for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and founding partner of H3 STUDIO, leads an international, national and local team of experts known as STUDIO MISI-ZIBBI – as finalists in a global design competition to improve river management and the rebuilding of the lower Mississippi River Delta.

Titled “Changing Course: Navigating the Future of the Lower Mississippi River Delta,” the competition aims to halt land loss and restore the delta ecosystem while improving navigation and strengthening the resilience of local communities and industry. The final designs are intended to assist Louisiana coastal planners and engineers with developing the state’s 2017 Coastal Master Plan.

Besides H3 STUDIO other members of this carefully selected 35 member expert team include design professionals from URS, HKV, Robbert de Koning Landscape Architect, Colectivo, Delft University of Technology, Washington University in St Louis, M.I.T., HR&A Advisors, Dynamic Solutions, Bureau Drift Ecological Planning, Coastal Environments, Inc. AEP River Operations, and Louisiana-based experts from Louisiana State University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Louisiana State University, University of New Orleans, and Tulane University (see http://changingcourse.us/team_finalists/ for a complete list).

“It is a real privilege to lead an incredible and unique international collaboration to develop design solutions that could be implemented over many years which will result in the rebuilding of a sustainable living delta for one of the world’s greatest river systems – The Mississippi River.” Says JOHN HOAL

Washington University in St Louis is well represented with Derek Hoeferlin, assistant professor of architecture a member of the core team, and alumni Matthew Bernstine as project manager and Laura Lyon, Bryan Robinson, Tim Breihan, Courtney Cushard, Colleen Xi Qui, and Junru Zheng as members of H3 STUDIO design team. Hoal and Hoeferlin had previously collaborated on water management strategies in New Orleans and organized MISI-ZIIBI: Living with the Great Rivers, an international design workshop investigating climate adaptation strategies along the Mississippi.

Over the next five months, each team will develop a preferred design for the Lower Mississippi River system, including using the natural power of the Mississippi River to protect and restore the delta landscape while addressing the needs of navigation, flood risk management, fisheries and coastal communities.

“In a very strong competition, these winning teams stood out because their experts bridge strong regional knowledge with innovative ideas from deltas around the world,” said Carlton Dufrechou, general manager of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and a member of the Changing Course leadership team. “We are confident these teams have the vision and experience to develop bold solutions for the delta and our people, economy and culture.”

Changing Course is a design competition aimed at developing innovative solutions to rebuild and protect the Louisiana coast. It is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, Shell, Blue Moon Fund, Greater New Orleans Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The Selley Foundation and The Walton Family Foundation; with leadership support from Van Alen Institute, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes the power of design to transform cities, landscapes and regions to improve people’s lives, and Environmental Defense Fund, which has 30 years of experience in the Mississippi River Delta region; and with technical support from BuroHappold Engineering, a worldwide consulting and engineering firm.

More information on Changing Course is available at www.changingcourse.us.

Follow Changing Course on Twitter at @ChangingCourse and on Facebook at facebook.com/ChangingCourse.us.

Queensland University of Technology

QUT Creative Industries Faculty PhD Scholarships for 2015 Entry

 

Applicants with excellent academic track records (equal to an Australian Bachelor Degree with First Class Honours) or equivalent professional research experience may be eligible for competitive PhD scholarships to undertake study in the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT. The Faculty is also offering a number of top-ups to these scholarships for highly ranked students whose projects align with our areas of strength.

 

The Creative Industries Faculty’s world class, industry-connected researchers undertake innovative applied and theoretical research in the media, creative arts and design, and QUT is home to some of the world’s best researchers in digital media, communication and culture, given the highest possible rating of 5 in both the 2010 and 2012 ERA rankings.

 

Researchers in Architecture at QUT cover a range of different areas, from history and theory of architecture to daylighting; from subtropical urbanism to people-place interaction; from design education to sustainability. Our work is grounded in real world research projects aimed to provide a service to the general community as well as advance knowledge in strategic areas. An overview of our researchers and their expertise is provided in the included poster.

 

 

How to apply

 

PhD program > https://www.qut.edu.au/study/courses/doctor-of-philosophy-creative-industries

 

Doctor of Creative Industries program > https://www.qut.edu.au/study/courses/doctor-of-creative-industries-research

 

Information on the University’s Annual Scholarship Round can be found here > https://www.qut.edu.au/research/scholarships-and-funding/research-scholarships

 

Closing date: 30th September 2014 (earlier enquiries strongly encouraged)

 

Further information about the Faculty’s research can be found here > https://www.qut.edu.au/creative-industries/research

Looking for a supervisor? Please view our Academic Staff profiles here > https://www.qut.edu.au/creative-industries/about/staff

 

Any Questions?

 

Contact the Creative Industries Faculty HDR support team at ci.hdr@qut.edu.au or phone +617 3138 3799 or 3138 8591