Mike Christenson, Associate Professor of Architecture at North Dakota State University, received an American Institute of Architects (North Dakota) Honor Award for the architectural design of the Horizon House (private residence) in Moorhead, MN. Christenson designed the house with Malini Srivastava. This is the first project to receive an Honor Award under ND-AIA’s new Residential Design category.
Jason Young has been named the new director of the School of Architecture of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He becomes acting director on August 1.
Young, a researcher specializing in contemporary conditions of American urbanism, brings over twenty years of teaching experience to the College of Architecture and Design. He comes to Knoxville from the University of Michigan, where he was an associate professor in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
“We are very excited by the appointment of Jason Young,” said Scott Poole, dean of the College of Architecture and Design. “He has a strong national reputation, and brings a breadth of experience from one of the top architecture programs in the country.”
In addition to teaching at Michigan, where he was named the Helmet F. Stern Professor by its Institute for Humanities, Young was, in fall 2013, the Howard A. Friedman Visiting Associate Professor of Practice at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior, he taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Schwerpunkt Holz in Murau, Austria, and Catholic University of America.
“I am excited for the opportunity to lead the School of Architecture into the future, taking the strong foundation established by dedicated students, faculty, and administrators as a starting point for advancement,” said Young. “In relationship to the larger context of the university and state, I look forward to making contributions to the intellectual environment at the university and advocating for architecture and design excellence in Tennessee.”
The UT School of Architecture is home to professionally-accredited undergraduate and graduate architecture programs. It is frequently cited as one of the best schools for architecture in the South, achieving national acclaim and research funding for such projects as its Living Light Solar House, Appalachia Project, Green Oak Project, and New Norris House, winner of numerous national awards including the prestigious ‘Top 10 Green Project’ from the American Institute of Architects Committee for the Environment in 2013.
“Director Young comes to our college at an exciting time in its history,” said Poole. “We recently established an unprecedented partnership between industry, research, and academia – the Governor’s Chair in Energy and Urbanism – with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and SOM, one of the largest and most respected design firms in the world. We also are kicking off the new year with $2M in facilities upgrades, including a new fabrication laboratory in the heart of downtown Knoxville.”
As a licensed builder in Michigan, Young is the founder of YARD, a design and build practice with “a nice collection of built work with close attention to detail,” said Young. Before founding YARD, Young was co-founder and partner of WETSU, a design and build practice in Ann Arbor. WETSU received an Honorable Mention in Interior Design Magazine’s Design Review in 2001, was recognized by Wallpaper* magazine as one of twenty-five notable emerging practices worldwide in 2003, and received an Honor Award from Contract Magazine in 2005.
Young earned his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1990, and Master of Architecture from Rice University in 1992.
To learn more about Director Jason Young and the UT School of Architecture, please visit http://archdesign.utk.edu/.
Mark DeKay was promoted to Full Professor of the School of Architecture.
Katherine Ambroziak was promoted to Associate Professor of Architecture by the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees.
Lisa Mullikin was named the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Research of the College of Architecture and Design.
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students will host the largest architecture student conference of the year in Nashville this winter.
Architecture students from around the country will attend workshops and seminars led by professionals, lectures by world-renowned guests and networking events that will help them better prepare for the profession. AIAS is an independent nonprofit student-run organization dedicated to providing programs, information and resources on issues critical to architectural education. It has been in existence for six decades.
This is the first time the forum is being held in Tennessee.
“This year, AIAS Forum will put the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the city of Nashville in the spotlight,” said Breanna Weaver, forum conference chair and former UT AIAS chapter president. “I think it’s hard for us to mask our pride and enthusiasm as we prepare to present our school and the region to the rest of the architecture community. We’re making our mark on a tradition that has spanned almost 60 years.”
The 2014 theme is Reverb, a play on the spirit of the Music City. Selection to host the forum was competitive. It required a formal bid, a vote by AIAS members; financial backing from the home university; and a presentation to the AIAS’s National Board of Directors, the Council of Presidents and the AIAS general body at the 2012 forum.
The AIAS Forum will showcase the architectural side of Nashville and Tennessee through city walks, architecture firm visits and museum tours. It also will feature a New Year’s Eve Beaux Arts ball.
“UT students have been working on this for over two years, so we are more than ready to get people registered and let the fun begin,” Weaver said.
The conference also will mark the 10th anniversary of AIAS’s philanthropy, Freedom by Design, which provides accessibility solutions for community members with disabilities. All projects are completely designed, planned and constructed by AIAS members. The UT Freedom by Design chapter is one of the most widely regarded programs in the country and just completed its third major project this past spring.
More information about the AIAS Forum is available through at http://www.aiasforum2014.com or on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for “AIASForum2014.”
UT Architecture and Design Improving Facilities with $2.5M Dedicated to Updated Labs, New Building
The College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is improving its facilities over the next year through renovations and upgrades to the Art and Architecture Building and its newly acquired facility in downtown Knoxville.
A total of $2.5 million is being dedicated to mechanical upgrades, design lab equipment and state-of-the-art digital fabrication tools to create new collaborative environments throughout the Art and Architecture Building. It will feature study areas for students, lighting upgrades, updated restrooms, a redesigned Student Services Center, upgraded student breakout labs and state-of-the-art digital panel displays for group projects, as well as two new kitchenettes designed by students.
Advanced design laboratories, or studios, will feature 400 new student work stations to replace decades-old equipment. Each student will have a work space with a new desk, chair, storage system, lighting and computer monitors for design projects.
“Through our exceptional faculty and their nationally recognized work, our college is emerging as a leader in the areas of sustainability and urbanization,” said Scott Poole, dean of the college. “Our goal is to create the best teaching and learning environments for our students and faculty through new spaces and equipment on par with contemporary design practice. We want our students to be excited, inspired and proud of our facilities.”
The College of Architecture and Design is home to three disciplines—architecture, interior design and landscape architecture. This fall, the college will welcome its most diverse incoming class in recent years with students hailing from 12 states and five countries.
As part of the renovations, $250,000 of the total sum will go toward a new design laboratory for the incoming Governor’s Chair—a research team led by Phil Enquist from internationally recognized architecture, engineering and design firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP. Over five years, the team will investigate regenerative energy strategies and urban density through a joint appointment between UT and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The Governor’s Chair work will occur in the college’s recently acquired 20,000 square-foot fabrication facility and design studio at 525 N. Gay St., referred to as the Fab Lab. The facility will have more than $600,000 in new equipment, including computer-aided design and manufacturing machinery such as computer numerically controlled mills, laser cutters, 3D printers and robotics. High-performance metal fabrication materials including digital lathes and mills will complement the college’s existing wood shop equipment in the Art and Architecture Building.
“Our new facilities provide us with the capacity to realize projects that were beyond our reach in the past,” Poole said. “I am excited by the possibilities. We are convinced that our new facilities will enable our faculty and students to achieve new levels of excellence.”
The improvements are part of the changes that have occurred under the college’s new administration, which has been reshaped since 2011. Over the last three years, they have created an office for student services and advising, acquired new furniture and workspaces for students, improved staff work areas, created new spaces for the growing leadership and faculty, removed graffiti in the building and refurbished the building’s primary auditorium.
The college also has helped bring about a research partnership with furnisher Herman-Miller to create an advanced design studio lab for students and established a new gallery with storefront exhibits at the college’s 500 S. Gay Street Downtown Studio.
Assistant Professor Rachel Berney and Visiting AC Martin Chair Oliver Schulze are guiding students through an investigation of the Mobile City of LA in our current studio course, ARCH 642 “The Mobile City – People, Transport, & Public Life.” While we tend to link the city of Los Angeles with the automobile (think: Missing Person’s “Nobody Walks in LA”), the reality of transportation in LA is far more complex. The city pioneered large streetcar systems in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The last incarnation of those systems – the red line – was collapsed in favor of embracing freeway construction in the mid 20th century. Since the 1970s, however, public transportation networks and services have grown rapidly in LA. The city now has the largest bus system in the United States and there has been more transit building in the last decade in LA than in any other city in the United States. LA also hosts the most-traveled urban commute rail line in the country – the Blue Line – with 80,000 trips per weekday. The next iteration of Los Angeles is that of THE MOBILE CITY, one connected and networked via public transit options with higher density housing at nodes and with opportunities to reweave the urban fabric of the city to incorporate visible and legible natural systems and public space. It is a crucial time for reinvention and change in the city’s life. The challenge is great. The possibilities for design greater.
Laurel Consuelo Broughton was named one of the fifteen 2014 Racked.com Young Guns of Fashion for her collection, WELCOMECOMPANIONS an offshoot from her design studio WELCOMEPROJECTS. Her residential project Shed House is now under construction in Malibu, CA and slated for completion January 2015. In July she gave the talk Soft Abstraction as part of UCLA Jumpstart’s Series, Endlessly Worthwhile Dilemmas. Her project Retrospective City is on view at the A+D Museum in Los Angeles until August 31, 2014. Gallery Attachment, a collaborative project with Andrew Kovacs, was selected to participate in the Storefront For Art and Architecture’s exhibition program WorldWide StoreFront, forthcoming fall 2014.
Patrick Tighe, FAIA (Professor Adjunct) USC School of Architecture received the IDEAS 2 Award for Excellence in Steel Frame Building Design from the American Institute of Steel Construction for an affordable housing project in West Hollywood. The Sierra Bonita Affordable Housing project for people living with disabilities also won an Award of Merit for Structural Engineering from the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California (SEOSC).
Chu+Gooding Architects (Annie Chu and Rick Gooding) has recently completed design and drawings for a 110,000 sf Collection Storage, Conservation and Research Facility for the new Autry Resource Center in Burbank. A 110,000 sf Collection Storage, Conservation and Research Facility which is scheduled to start construction in January. Chu+Gooding Architects is also in the design phase for the 100-Room Tiverton House Renovation at UCLA. Rick Gooding’s Subterranea drawing exhibit in the Napa Gallery at Cal State University Channel Islands from November 13 to December 5 and will include about a dozen of the USC Student 3rd Year Models from this past Spring Semester.
Adjunct Associate Professor Eric Haas’s firm, DSH // architecture, was the recipient of Honorable Mentions for both the Para Los Niños Family Center and the Villa Tangente in the Re-Thinking the Future 2014 Awards.
Assistant Professor Alison B. Hirsch received the James H. Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund Grant to develop her next book, Landscape as Thick Description. She conducted a new MLA research studio titled “The Geography of the LA Riots: Designing the Public Realm in the Insurgent Spaces of the City.”
Lauren Matchison, NCARB, will serve as Interim Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture program for the remainder of 2014.
Professor G. Goetz Schierle is preparing a book on fabric structures.
Ed Woll is enjoying a re-organized practice focusing more completely than before on design of affordable housing. The re-organized firm — TWG Architects Inc — is a troika/collective with three equal principals and is currently in production on two substantial projects: one in LA (Eagle Rock neighborhood — 46 units at 4 stories over parking) and one in the Bronx (120 units at 13 stories with no parking!). Both projects are for special needs clients and incorporate extensive social service provisions; both feature site development that includes some urban farming.
Sofia Borges, Lecturer, released two new books in August. Hide and Seek:The Architecture of Cabins and Hide-Outs and Building Better: Sustainable Architecture for Family Homes are now available on Amazon and bookstores worldwide.
The UT Austin Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) is pleased to announce that Associate Professor Allan W. Shearer will be joining Dr. Richard L. Corsi as co-director staring this fall.
The August 2014 Architectural Digest cover story, “Texas Triumph,” highlights Laura and George W. Bush‘s residence in Crawford, Texas, designed by Professor David Heymann and completed in 2001, just after Mr. Bush became president.
Senior Lecturer Fran Gale participated in the 39th Annual California Preservation Conference at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California, this past spring.
Drs. Barbara Brown Wilson and Steven A. Moore have been awarded the esteemed 2014 Great Places Award in the place research category for their ongoing work at the Green Alley Demonstration Project in east Austin.
Associate Professor Fernando Lara contributed an Op-Ed, titled “Don’t Wait for Mega-events to Build Public Projects,” in the June 10, 2014, edition of the Houston Chronicle.
Assistant Professor Clay Odom‘s bike-powered farm stand project for the HOPE Farmers Market was highlighted in the May 9, 2014, edition of the Austin Chronicle.
“Drawing Lines,” a community-based art project by Lecturer Sarah Gamble [M.Arch. ’05] and community and regional planning Ph.D. student Lynn Osgood was selected by the City of Austin Economic Development Department to receive one of two grants from ArtPlace America.
Professor Charlene LeBleu, FASLA, has been appointed Interim Program Chair and Interim Graduate Provisional Officer of Landscape Architecture effective August 1 until July 2015. National Vice President of Research for the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), her primary areas of interest and research have been focused on green building and water quality issues, especially issues related to low impact development design.
LeBleu replaces Rod Barnett, PhD, who has been appointed chair of the Master of Landscape Architecture program in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
On Auburn’s campus, Professor LeBleu has recently been involved in the restoration Parkerson Mill Creek, a campus project that has incorporated experts in engineering, horticulture, soil science, environmental sciences, landscape architecture and urban planning. Watch a video about the Parkerson Mill Creek restoration here.
The August issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine, the magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects, features the work that Charlene LeBleu, FASLA, and her students have done on a marine spatial plan for Dauphin Island Penninsula. “The Whole Shore,” in LAM’s Foreground NOW section, has an interview with LeBleu, APLA’s interim program chair of Landscape Architecture, beginning on page 22. For more, click here.
The Executive Committee of the Birmingham chapter of the American Institute of Architects recently named architect and Auburn alumni Joel Blackstock, of Williams Blackstock Architects, as its 2014 recipient of the “Birmingham Accolade Award.” The Award is the highest honor the Chapter can bestow on one of its members, and indicates peer recognition of an exemplary achievement or service to the Chapter, profession or society.
Professor Magdalena Garmaz has been named chair of Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design Program (BSEV) in the College of Architecture, Design and Construction. Garmaz, who holds the Ann and Batey Gresham professorship, joined the CADC faculty in 1990 in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (APLA). Her research and teaching has focused on the relationship of architecture and textiles, exploring different textile techniques and their application in the architecture making process. With work featured in Metropolis magazine and in the book Exploring Materials by E. Lupton and I. Alesina (Princeton Architectural Press, 2010), Garmaz has won grants from the Alabama Arts Fellowship and the Graham Foundation and been a visiting artist as the American Academy in Rome, Italy. For more, click here
The University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture Participates in the Venice Biennale
The much anticipated Time Space Existence collateral event at Palazzo Bembo and Palazzo Mora for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale brought together a diverse group of 100 architects from six continents in an “extraordinary combination.” …. The 32 rooms in Palazzo Bembo mainly highlight solo-presentations, by architects such as Ricardo Bofill, AHMM, GMP and White arkitekter, or research projects such as that of the University of Houston.
100 Architects From 6 Continents Discuss “Time Space Existence” at the 2014 Venice Biennale
Professor Henri T. de Hahn, S.I.A., has been named director of the School of Architecture + Design. A Canadian-Swiss dual citizen, de Hahn was educated as an architect at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology located in the city of Lausanne. Henri de Hahn completed additional studies at The Cooper Union and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York. He has practiced architecture with Atelier Cube and Musy et Vallotton in Lausanne. Prior to his most recent role as Provost at the NewSchool of Architecture + Design in San Diego, Calif., de Hahn was the Department Head at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California from 2006 to 2012. Previously, de Hahn was a professor at the University of Kentucky. Henri de Hahn also taught for several years at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich and the Aayojan School of Architecture in Jaipur, India. De Hahn is a registered architect in Switzerland, a member of the Swiss Institute of Architects (S.I.A.) and numerous professional societies both in America and Europe.
Associate Professor Vance Hunter Pittman, R.A., has been named the chair of the graduate programs in architecture at the School of Architecture + Design. He oversees the two-year and three-and-a-half-year Master of Architecture programs, the Master of Science in Architecture program, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture and Design Research degree program.
Professor Susan Piedmont-Palladino, R.A., has been named director of the School of Architecture + Design’s new graduate concentration in urban design, a stream within the Master of Science in Architecture program. The Urban Design concentration enrolls its first class in Fall 2014. Based at the Washington Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC), the new program builds on the interdisciplinary structure of the WAAC and draws on current graduate programs in architecture, landscape architecture, planning, and public policy. In addition, Piedmont-Palladino, who is a curator at the National Building Museum, has been awarded the 2014 John ‘Wieb’ Wiebenson Award for Architecture in the Public interest by the Washington Architecture Foundation and the AIA/DC. The award is given to an architect who has spent a career championing design in the public interest.
Visiting Assistant Professor Dr. Laura McGuire, Ph.D., has been appointed to teach lecture courses in history and theory of architecture. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in History and Theory of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin and her B.A. in Anthropology from Brandeis University. McGuire joins the architecture program from Vienna, Austria, where she has been a curator at the Kiesler Foundation.
Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors has approved the following promotions of architecture faculty members:
Professor Kathryn Clarke Albright, A.I.A., has been promoted from the rank of Associate Professor to Full Professor.
Professor Dr. Markus Breitschmid, Ph.D., S.I.A., has been promoted from the rank of Associate Professor to Full Professor.
Professor Joseph Wheeler, A.I.A., has been promoted from the rank of Associate Professor to Full Professor.
Associate Professor James Bassett has been promoted from the rank of Assistant Professor without Tenure to Associate Professor with Tenure.
Associate Professor Dr. Hilary Bryon, Ph.D., has been promoted from the rank of Assistant Professor without Tenure to Associate Professor with Tenure.
Professor Dr. Mehdi Setareh, Ph.D., P.E., a structural engineer, was a team member, led by Zaha Hadid Architects, London, UK, that designed the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI. The building won the 2014 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel (IDEAS2) award from the American Institute of Steel Construction. Mehdi Setareh, principal investigator, and undergraduate architecture students Kelly McCarthy and Sarah Spanski, were awarded a grant from the Research Experience for Undergraduate program of the National Science Foundation to study vibration serviceability of buildings. The on-going project is the recipient of NSF grants in the total amount of $213,000.
Smith Creek Park (the Masonic Amphitheatre and Smith Creek Pedestrian Bridge Projects) in Clifton Forge, VA, designed and built by 3rd-year architecture students in the design/buildLAB, led by Assistant Professors of Practice Keith Zawistowski, A.I.A., and Marie Zawistowski, has been named the winner of the A+ Award in the fourth annual AZ Awards program. The award program is an international competition honoring excellence in design and architecture, sponsored by AZURE, Canada’s leading contemporary architecture and design magazine.
Assistant Professor Aki Ishida, A.I.A., and Lynnette Widder were awarded a Professional Runner-Up in the Strategy & Research category for the Core77 Design Awards 2014 program. The Project Making the Giraffe Path created workshop events and artifacts for the not-for-profit CLIMB (City Life is for Moving Bodies) to explore, record, and enhance the relationship between five parks along Northern Manhattan’s major escarpment and the communities along their edges.
Instructor Rengin Holt, longtime professor of the architecture program’s printing laboratory, had her print entitled “Secret Gardens” selected from over 600 entries and exhibited in First Street Gallery of New York City’s 2014 National Juried Exhibition. The print will be included in her forthcoming book “Constructive Geometry.”
Assistante Professor Rachel Berney is preparing a new ONLINE fall course to be taught in the School of Architecture. ARCH 521 Health and the Designed Environment will address issues of health, equity, and sustainability vis-à-vis how designers shape the built environment. Rachel Berney has been re-appointed to USC’s University Research Committee for the 2014-2015 school year where she is working with a team of faculty from across the university on topics such as improving research mentorship and research administration processes.
Assistant Professor Doris Sung has received the 2014 R&D Award from Architect Magazine for her project “eXo”, which uses the dynamic movement of thermobimetals during construction to make lightweight structural surfaces. Her work will be featured in the UK edition of Wired Magazine next month.
Geoffrey von Oeyen, Lecturer, recently installed an exhibition of his work, lectured, and participated in press interviews at the Architectural League of New York as a winner of the 2014 Architectural League Prize. For more information refer to http://archleague.org/2014/04/geoffrey-von-oeyen-design/
On July 10, Russell Fortmeyer presented a talk on his book, “Kinetic Architecture,” to New York’s Urban Green Council. New project work includes the replacement hospital for Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, California, as well as a new consulate for the State Department’s Overseas Bureau of Operations in a confidential location.
Professor Diane Ghirardo gave a presentation on Lucrezia Borgia’s entrepreneurial activities in June, for the city of Ferrara. She also recently revised her courses on Women’s Spaces to meet University requirements for general education.
Justin Brechtel has recently been hired as a Computational Designer and Research Architect in the Los Angeles office of Perkins+Will.
Lauren Matchison and Lee Schneider created and taught a new online graduate course entitled Visual Literacy in Media for Architecture and Design. The master class developed students’ media making skills and showed them how to design, produce and distribute their videos over social media channels. The class also introduced students to key concepts in crowdfunding.
Simon Chiu founded Tensile Evolution North America in Irvine, and Tensile Evolution GmbH in Vienna, Austria, with architectural membrane structure experts Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Robert Roithmayr and Dipl.-Ing. Horst Dürr. The organization focuses on architectural membrane project consultation, research and development on product and software, higher education and practical training workshops. The trailer of forthcoming documentary film “FREI OTTO: SPANNING THE FUTURE” will be featured as a part of the upcoming exhibition “Building with Textiles” at the TextielMuseum in Tilburg, Netherlands. The exhibition opens on September 27, 2014 until January 25, 2015. This documentary film is being produced in partnership with PBS Colorado Public Television. The documentary featured interviews with Frei Otto himself, as well as Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schmacher of Zaha Hadid Architects, Professor Goetz Schierle and Associate Gail Peter Borden of USC School of Architecture, among others.
Associate Professor Eric J. Jenkins, as an AIA District of Columbia chapter board member, is organizing a two-part portfolio and résumé workshop. The fall session will be a “how to” of graphic layout and content with a spring session will be one-on-one “desk critiques” with an architect and student. Students and recent graduates from the area schools of architecture are invited to attend these free workshops.
Associate Professor Adnan Morshed, PhD, will present two talks based on his forthcoming book, Impossible Heights: Skyscrapers, Flight, and the Master Builder (University of Minnesota Press, Fall 2014). The first is at the Wolfsonian-Florida International University in Miami Beach on Sept. 19, 2014 and the other at the Birkbeck, University of London, on Oct. 23, 2014. Professor Morshed will serve on the keynote panel at the Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Dec. 2014.
Founded in 1912 by 10 charter members, ACSA is an international association of architecture schools preparing future architects, designers, and change agents. Our membership includes all of the accredited professional degree programs in the United States and Canada, as well as international schools and 2- and 4-year programs. Together ACSA schools represent some 7,000 faculty educating more than 40,000 students.
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