The Association of Architecture School Librarians held a second special focus session at the 2012 Boston meeting. This session examined ways in which faculty and librarians have collaborated to explore innovative approaches to the development of writing, research and design skills.
Gilda Santana from the University of Miami spoke to her work as a studio-embedded librarian. Gilda works directly with students in the design studio, instructing and assisting them in research at the point of use. Her presence in the design studio has helped to diminish the boundaries between the library and studio as well as to reinforce the concept of the library and librarian as design resources. Students see the relationship between research and design and have easy and direct access to an on-site librarian.
Research and design skills can also be impacted by new kind of tools being offered by certain libraries. To that end, Amy Trendler spoke to Ball State University’s Building Samples Collection. Amy noted the importance of collaboration in shaping the collection and tailoring its content and organization to meet the needs of patrons.
Heather McCann of MIT then described GIS Services at her institution. Architecture students work with GIS tools and resources to find data, create base maps, explore demographics and terrain data and learn how to export this information into CAD and Adobe Illustrator. Faculty can request additional more targeted training sessions to meet the needs of their specific classes.
Stacy Brinkman, the Art/Architecture Librarian at Miami University and Diane Fellows, Associate Professor presented an overview of their multi-year collaboration in terms of information literacy. Information literacy goals have been integrated into course learning objectives in the M. Arch pre-thesis seminar. Concepts such as audience, authority, methodology, and different ways of evaluating information are embedded into writing assignments. Professor Fellows described how the use of methods already familiar to the architecture student- such as the sketch notebook, hand drawings, and even visual posters – have been utilized as concept generators to help explore the connection between visual thinking and the art of writing.
From reference and instruction to collection building, collaboration between faculty and librarians can take many shapes. Each, however, can help further the architectural education process.
In December 2013, Professor Eric Mumford was an invited participant in the International Seminar of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Lima, on the topic “Architectural explorations, pedagogical practices.”
Students from the Master of Urban Design (m.U.D.) program at the College of Architecture and Design at Lawrence Technological University have won the Outstanding Student Project Award from the Michigan Association of Planning (MAP/APA Michigan) for the “Mid-Century Modern Design Guidelines” they developed for the City of Southfield, Michigan.
The award was presented on Oct. 17 at the MAP annual conference in Traverse City. Winning the award were one LTU graduate student and two graduates of the m.U.D. program, Carolina Ferrero and Michael Mason. LTU graduate student Matthew Galbraith, CoAD student representative to MAP, acted as the nominator. In order to complete the design guidelines, the LTU students extended the internship they took for a course, Principals and Practices of Urban Design, taught by m.U.D. coordinator and Assistant Professor Constance Bodurow. Working as interns in the planning department under Planning Director Terry Croad, the students documented three districts/neighborhoods and dozens of buildings built in the Mid-Century Modern style from the 1950s to the early 1970s that are important to the architectural heritage of Southfield, which grew rapidly after World War II as a first-ring suburb of Detroit.
One of the most significant buildings in Southfield is the former Reynolds Metals Regional Sales Office designed by Minoru Yamasaki, a Troy-based architect best known for the World Trade Center in New York.
The design guidelines provide the Southfield Planning Department with an essential tool to keep significant structures and districts intact. The guidelines not only define the style and identify significant structures, but also provide recommendations for enhancements through the use of case studies.
The student authors gathered input from local historians, architects, and academics in order to comprehensively identify, document, and inventory the city’s significant resources. The recommendations made by the students were considered and applied, resulting in the adoption of Low Impact Design Guidelines for the City of Southfield.
“The Mid-Century Modern Design Guidelines is a valuable asset for the Planning Department in our understanding and review of redevelopment of existing Mid-Century Modern buildings and sites,” said Terry Croad, Southfield’s director of planning who worked with the student interns.
The MAP award recognizes the high-quality design guidelines and detailed direction exhibited throughout the manual.
Dr. Anat Geva, Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, Texas A&M University became the President of the Southeast Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) as of this October. SESAH was founded in 1982 at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta as a nonprofit organizationto promote scholarship on architecture and related subjects and to serve as a forum for ideas among architectural historians, architects, preservationists, and others involved in professions related to the built environment. SESAH holds an annual meeting, publishes a newsletter three times a year, an annual scholarly journal, ARRIS, and presents annual publication awards and the “Best of the South” Preservation award.
Associate Professor Mark Gillem, PhD, AIA, AICP has been elected as the Vice-Chair of the American Planning Association’s Federal Planning Division. He will be leading the division’s 2011-2012 conferences in Denver and Los Angeles. His Urban Design Lab has received a grant from Camp Lutherwood in western Oregon to develop a master plan for the site through a participatory process.
Professor Kevin Nute presented an exhibition of the work of his ‘Healing Healthcare Spaces’ design studio to the Northwest Architecture for Health Panel in August, and has also contributed a chapter on ‘Japanese Art as a Means to Organic Architecture’ for the forthcoming book Reception et diffusion en Occident de l’espace architectural et de l’art des jardins du Japon (Paris: French School of Far Eastern Studies, 2011).
Associate Professor David L. Boeck and College of Engineering Professor Musharraf Zaman have been awarded a two-year $250,000 grant from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to study the use of Recycled Asphalt Shingles (RAS) in road mix design. A significant number of asphalt shingles are damaged each year in Oklahoma due to storms, and this grant will allow testing which should prove their viability in road construction.
Dr. Khosrow Bozorgi will be presenting a paper entitled “Contributions of the Middle East to European Architecture” at the 5th Annual ASMEA (Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa). Conference on October 11-13, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Dr. Bozorgi is also the Founder of the The Center for Middle Eastern Architecture and Culture at the College of Architecture, which was established in the spring of 2012. The Center seeks to advance knowledge of the Middle Eastern built environment and culture, and will support scholarship that is of historical and contemporary importance, by acting as a coordinating body for participating universities and institutions whose research focus relates to this geographic area.
Assistant Professor Daniel Butko was the Instructor for a Spring Intercession Course in which students designed and built a playhouse for the Playhouse Parade project for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Oklahoma County. This is the third year the college has been involved in the project. The playhouses were raffled off in early June 2012 to raise money for CASA, which provides trained court appointed volunteers who advocate for the best interests of abused or neglected children in the juvenile court system. The playhouse was designed to be easy to assemble with light-weight materials, and to be weatherproof. The students used harvested cedar from around the Norman campus and wood donated from local construction sites in this year’s design. Krone Construction and Western Plastics also donated materials. Enrolled and volunteer students included Aaron Crandall, Haven “Bud” Hardage, Nick Norsworthy, Hunter Roth, Alma Sandoval, Trent Still, Jason Tyler, and Ryan Williams. Faculty reviewing the design and assisting included Assistant Professor Tony Cricchio, Professor Joel Dietrich, Dean Charles Graham, Shop Manager Hunter Roth, and Assistant Professor Stephanie Pilat.
Professor Butko is also on the planning committee for the 164th Meeting/Conference of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). Please see the web site for details: http://acousticalsociety.org/meetings/kansas_city
The Oklahoma City Skydance Bridge, completed following a national competition with a design consortium assembled by OU Mabrey Presidential Professor Hans E. Butzer, was recently completed in Oklahoma City and has now been recognized as one of the 50 best public art projects by the 2012 Public Art Network Year in Review by Americans for the Arts. Included in the multidisciplinary team that designed the $6.8M pedestrian bridge are OU faculty members Dr. Chris Ramseyer, P.E. and Stan Carroll, AIA.
“Tomorrow’s Yukon” is an initiative that will engage the City of Yukon in a partnership with faculty and students from the University of Oklahoma’s (OU) College of Architecture. Associate Professor Marjorie Callahan, Architecture, and Associate Professor Leehu Loon, Landscape Architecture, are directing a design studio which will provide the initial visionary steps to stimulate ideas for (1) a streetscape on Main Street and Route 66 and, (2) a new city hall complex capable of consolidating all city services. This project will involve the beloved Oklahoma Route 66, which runs through the heart of the Yukon community. The students’ landscaping and architectural conceptual plans and models will demonstrate ideas for: (1) colorful and safe streetscapes; (2) retail and office options; (3) a government central campus; (4) the beautification of the Route 66 to Garth Brooks Drive; (5) a parkway system of bicycle trails; and, (6) other important connections to children’s state of the art playgrounds, housing, schools and festivals.
Associate Professor Lee Fithian was awarded a grant by SAIC in the amount of $5,000 to provide the continuing education program series in sustainability entitled “ Acquisition, Coordination and Dissemination of AIA+2030 Curriculum.”
Professor Fithian and Associate Professor Tamera McCuen (Construction Science), were awarded OU Provosts’ Dream Course funding in the amount of $20,000 for the interdisciplinary collaboration “BIM for Constructors” which will be used to enhance curriculum for over 70 graduate and undergraduate OU College of Architecture students. The grant provides the opportunity for students, academicians and professionals to train in BIM and interact in a virtual charrette via the upcoming BIMStormtm OKC on November 7, 2012: http://www.bimstorm.com/i/OklahomaStorm.php. Professors Fithian, McCuen, and Butko will be working together in this collaborative effort with the Construction Science students and the Design 7 studio in Architecture to design a mixed-use building in the Core to Shore re-development area of Oklahoma City.
Assistant Professor Dr. Stephanie Pilat has been awarded an AAUW American Summer/Short-Term Research Publication Grant for 2012-13, which provides support for work on her forthcoming book, Reconstructing Italy: The Ina-Casa Neighborhoods of the Postwar Era (Ashgate, 2014).
M. Arch Grad Student Andrew Stevens has won 2nd Place in the National ACSA/NSF jointly sponsored Open Challenge Competition “The Architecture & Engineering of Sustainable Buildings”. http://www.sustainableae.com/ This award gives $2,000 for to the student and $500 to the faculty involved; in this case Professor Lee Fithian.
In other student news, Lisa Om and Ana Ruiz were just awarded the Newman Medal for Excellence in Acoustics based on work performed in Spring 2012 architectural acoustics class. http://www.newmanfund.org/newman-student-awards/. Keaton Cizek, as a member of the OU Habitat for Humanity Group (HFH for Cleveland County), is involved in the “Shackathon,” a fundraising and awareness event held in fall semester which engages many student organizations as well as any person walking along the South Oval for a day. Participating student organizations are allotted a plot of grass along the Oval upon which to build a minimal shelter with limited materials. Facts about poverty displayed by the participants raise awareness among passersby, who are then asked to donate whatever they can to the cause (Cleveland County HFH). Friendly competition among the participating student organizations encourages hard work.
The ACSA invites proposals from member schools to host the 2014 ACSA Fall Conference. This ACSA Fall Conference will be thematic in focus and feature scholarly presentations, based on peer-reviewed abstracts, and a digital proceedings that will be available in ACSA’s permanent online archive.
The Fall Conference is an opportunity for the host school to bring educators from across North America and beyond to their campus. The thematic focus can highlight a school’s strengths and demonstrate educational excellence to upper administration. Other goals for the new format include strengthening social opportunities for participants with common scholarly interests and bringing concentrated visibility to the work being done in the topic area.
Attendance at the Fall Conference is anticipated to be 100-200 people, with host schools using campus facilities or other appropriate venues (including a local hotel or conference center) for conference sessions. Joint proposals from neighboring schools and partnerships with other groups (such as those formed around the thematic area) are welcome.
Final proposals will be reviewed and selected through the ACSA Board of Directors Scholarly Meetings Committee.
Proposals should be 3 pages or less, excluding supporting documents, and should include:
1) A title and paragraph-length description of the conference that clearly identifies the theme.
Further explanation for the theme is encouraged. However, a separate brief description of the conference is required.
2) Proposed dates for the conference.
The Fall Conference should occur in late September or October, typically a Thursday–Saturday.
3) The name of the conference chair or co-chairs, as well as any other relevant organizers.
Identify one or more faculty members to act as chair and whose area of expertise relates to the proposed theme. The chair(s) will be responsible for the academic portion of the conference and will work with ACSA staff on logistical details, communication with partners, and other planning and promotion duties.
4) A description of other potential conference features: partnerships, sponsors, keynote speakers, tours, etc. that would enhance the conference.
5) Clear expression of interest by school.
Show evidence of support from the school’s dean, provost, or other appropriate university representatives through letters and/or supporting documents.
6) A description of other resources available for the conference.
This includes potential venues for conference sessions, keynote lectures, and receptions; potential tour sites; or other local connections to enhance the conference.
Fall Conferences are normally funded by income from registration fees and sponsorship. This income pays for expenses related to meeting space, audio-visual equipment, invited speaker travel and honoraria, and food and beverage.
ACSA will provide the following support: international promotion of the conference, from the call for papers through the proceedings publication; an online system (including staff support) for submission, review, and upload of scholarly material; publishing services for conference programs and proceedings; and other planning services, such as negotiation and coordination of meeting facilities.
In-kind support from the school is requested for invited speaker costs, a/v equipment, meeting space, student volunteers, etc. Schools providing in-kind support will be recognized for their contribution in promotional materials, and participation of students and faculty in the conference will be invited.
ACSA has held successful Fall Conferences the last two years:
2012 ACSA Fall Conference: OFFSITE / Modular Building Institute
Schools interested in hosting are encouraged to contact the ACSA to discuss potential arrangements prior to making a proposal.
SUBMISSION AND INFORMATION Please submit your proposal and direct questions to: Eric Wayne Ellis, Director of Operations and Programs, eellis@acsa-arch.org, phone: 202.785.2324.
NJIT Associate Professor Georgeen Theodore and her partners were the winners of this year’s MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program. Theodore is a co-founder and principal of the New York City-based Interboro Partners. Interboro won the 2011 competition with its proposal Holding Pattern, a project for MoMA PS1′s courtyard that opened to the public in June, 2011.
The Young Architects Program asks architects to create a temporary environment for the 6,000 people who attend the museum’s summer concert series every weekend from June through August.To create Holding Pattern, Interboro asked MoMA PS1′s neighbors the following question: Is there something you need that we could design, use in the courtyard during the summer, and then donate to you when Holding Pattern is deinstalled in the fall? Interboro talked to taxi management companies, libraries, high schools, senior and daycare centers, community gardens, a post office, and dozens of other Long Island City–based institutions, trying to make matches between things the neighborhood needed and things MoMA PS1′s courtyard needed. The result is an eclectic collection of objects—including mirrors, ping-pong tables, a lifeguard chair, a rock-climbing wall, and eighty-four trees—that the architects might not have thought to include in its design but that enhanced the experience of the courtyard and strengthened connections between MoMA PS1 and its surroundings. In the fall of 2011, a total of seventy-nine objects and eighty-four trees were donated to more than fifty organizations in Long Island City and beyond.Many NJIT College of Architecture and Design students and recent graduates from the B.Arch, M.Arch and MIP programs were members of the competition, design and installation teams, and made a significant contribution to the project.
Matt Gosser, adjunct faculty member at the College of Architecture and Design, has curated a retrospective of the works of Claire Wagner Kosterlitz, a Bauhaus artist who emigrated to the United States, at the Jewish Museum of New Jersey in Newark.Gosser, who is active in the Newark art scene, also serves as curator of the CoAD Gallery in Weston Hall.
Assistant Professor Matt Burgermaster has won the 2011-2012 ACSA Faculty Design Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) for his project “Ice Cycle House”.This small prototype home located in Buffalo, New York, demonstrates an alternative approach to conventional sustainable design and construction practices with a unique combination of high and low tech strategies that integrate digital fabrication, prefabricated components, and low-cost materials.The award will be presented at the 100th ACSA Annual Meeting, which will be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on March 1-4, 2012.
Associate Professor George Elvin gave plenary speeches at Buildgreen Argentina in Buenos Aires and Arc-LA: The Forum for Latin America’s Leading Architects in San Jose, Costa Rica. Elvin’s article, “Principles of Integrated Practice in Architecture,” was published in the Journal of Architectural and Planning Research.
Associate Professor Pam Harwood’stot spot, an interactive play space, has just opened at the Muncie Children’s’ Museum, a two year student design build project.
Professor Edward W. Wolner has published Henry Ives Cobb’s Chicago: Architecture, Institutions, and the Making of a Modern Metropolis (University of Chicago Press, 2011).
The second edition of The Green Studio Handbook (by Alison Kwok and Walter Grondzik) has been recently published by Architectural Press (now an imprint of Taylor and Francis). The first edition has been translated and published in both traditional and simplified Chinese.
Professor Joe Bilello will serve as Director of Ball State’s Australia Centre in Lennox Head, New South Wales during the spring term.
Graduate students Michela Cupello and Wes Stabbs won the USGBC Multifamily Midrise Design Competition sponsored by AUTODESK. Professor Robert Koester served as their critic/advisor as they developmed their entry.
Dana Buntrock has been promoted to Full Professor.
Professor Rene Davids has been selected for a Fulbright Specialist Grant in Urban Planning as a guest of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile. He will be spending 6 weeks in his native Chile giving lectures and organizing seminars around the country in the late Fall. During the summer Davids was invited to chair a panel and give a conference paper entitled “Designing for a Global Context: The Impact of New Technologies in Architectural Education” at the 3rd annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies held in Barcelona, Spain; he discussed in part his experiences in conducting architectural studios abroad.
Professor Harrison Fraker is theAx:son Johnson Visiting Professor for Lund University Master’s Program in Sustainable Urban Design (SUDes). His duties include lecturing, conducting workshops, participating in conferences, advising thesis students and the development of a case study research agenda on best practices of sustainable urban design from around the globe. Frakeris concurrently a faculty leader in an interdisciplinary team of UC Berkeley faculty and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories staff working in collaboration with Tianjin University faculty on the development of a new “green,” zero-carbon campus for Tianjin University. Finally, Fraker reports that he is an advisor to India’s TATA Management on how to make Jamshedpur’s urban services more sustainable, preparing a detailed report on thirteen strategies to achieve zero-carbon operations and services.
In June, ProfessorMargaret Crawford gave a paper, “The Paradoxes of Public Space,” at symposium “Thinking Architecture, Technology, Culture: A Conversation” at the Bavarian-American Academy in Munich, Germany. Crawfordalso contributed a catalog essay on the entries to the Chengdu Biennale, held in Chengdu China from late September to late October. Crawfordalso published an essay, “Temporary Urbanisms,” to the catalog accompanying the “Reclaim Market Street” exhibition at SPUR, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association. The exhibition, which opened in early September, will run through January of 2012. Finally, Crawfordwas also a juror for the new “Pro Bono” category of the SF AIA Honor awards.
Recent work by Professor Richard Fernau’s firm Fernau & Hartman and Associate Professor Mark Anderson’s partnership, Anderson Anderson Architecture is featured in the book, Nature Framed: At Home in the Landscape published by Monacelli Press. (For more on the book, go here: http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20110819/qa-framing-nature)
Assistant Professor Ronald Rael has renewed his research partnership, managed through UC Berkeley’s Industry Alliances Office, with the IT group Luxology. The partnership allows Rael and his students to test Luxulogy’s 3D modeling tool, called “modo.”
Professor Mary Comerio was invited to speak at the Yale School of Architecture symposium, “Catastrophe and Consequence: the Campaign for Safe Buildings” in November.
Associate Professor Lisa Iwamoto’s partnership, IwamotoScott, was included in an exhibition “Architecture of Consequence: San Francisco” held from late August through the end of October, at the Center for Architecture + Design Gallery and sponsored by AIA San Francisco.
Associate Professor Raveevarn Choksombatchai participated in a panel on architectural education, organized by swissnex San Francisco and AIA San Francisco. Choksombatchai discussed a workshop she led at Thammasat University in Bangkok.
Professor Galen Cranz was keynote speaker on “The chair Conundrum and the Challenge of Sitting” at the Australian National Feldenkrais Conference in Brisbane, Australia in August. She also lectured in Sydney at the architecture firm BVN and in Melbourne at the Alexander Centre.
Professor Susan Ubbelohde was a panel member on “The Edge of Design” at the AIA Women’s Leadership Summit, in Kansas City in September.
“FRAMES FOR LIVING: The Life and Work of William Wilson Wurster” is the inaugural exhibit for the new Wurster Hall Gallery. The exhibition includes images by nationally recognized artists never before seen and others from the College’s Environmental Design Archives and coincides with publication of a book by the same name, authored by Caitlin Lempres Bostrom(M. Arch ‘90) and Professor Emeritus Richard C. Peters, FAIA. The exhibit and the book illustrate the impact of Wurster’s work on the practice of architecture today, and document how his designs and educational philosophy continue to inspire architects and those who occupy his buildings. The show will run through November 15 of this year.
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