University of Tennessee-Knoxville

The American Institute of Architecture Students has recognized a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, professor for his excellence as an educator.

Brian Ambroziak, an associate professor in the UT College of Architecture and Design, recently received the AIAS Educator Honor Award.

The student organization honored Ambroziak based on its criteria that the recipient must provide outstanding contributions to the formal education of architecture students, be exemplary in teaching about architecture and the built environment, and provide contributions to the academic and career counseling of architecture students.

Ambroziak’s UT students nominated him for the award.

“His first concern is for the well-being of his students and their development as critically minded individuals,” said Annie Stone, a UT architecture student and one of Ambroziak’s nominators. “He is devoted to helping each of us define our own artistic consciences–what moves us to draw, to write, to speak, and to act.”

Scott Poole, dean of College of Architecture and Design, called Ambroziak “an institution builder.”

“In addition to the excellence of his teaching, innovative approach to creative research and well-respected scholarship, he is dedicated to service of the college and university, generously committing time and energy to building a better institution,” he said. “He leads by example and is a superb mentor to our students as well as his peers.”

Ambroziak also led the UT, Knoxville, AIAS chapter to receive additional honors. The student organization was given an honorable mention as chapter of the year, and architecture student Amanda Gann was granted the Chapter President Honor Award.

“The numerous awards won by his students are a testament to his ability to create exceptional learning environments where students are nurtured, inspired, challenged and introduced to the serious responsibility and enduring value of architecture,” said Poole.

“The prestigious recognition that accrues from awards of this caliber continues to elevate the stature of our college and the University of Tennessee at a national level.”

Ambroziak earned his Master of Architecture from Princeton University and Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia. He has served as a faculty member at the UT College of Architecture and Design since 2002. 

University of Calgary

The Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary has appointed Dr. David Monteyne as Associate Dean of Architecture.

Trained at the University of British Columbia and the University of Minnesota, Monteyne has been teaching in the Faculty of Environmental Design since 2005. Prior to his academic career, he worked several years as a heritage consultant in Vancouver. He has held fellowships at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Cambridge University. As an architectural historian, has recently authored Fallout Shelter: Designing for Civil Defense in the Cold War.

As one of two Canadian teams chosen to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s bi-annual solar house design/build competition, Team Alberta is preparing to ship to California their entry in the 2013 Solar Decathlon competition. Faculty Advisor Loraine Fowlow has been working for almost two years with students in Architecture, Interior Design, Engineering, and Business from the UofC and Mount Royal University to design Borealis, a 900 square foot house comprised of three prefabricated modules designed to accommodate working professionals in remote regions of Alberta. Designed to be entirely net zero and powered solely by a 10kW PV and solar thermal tube arrays, Borealis provides private, comfortable and sustainable housing for an under served population.  Borealis is currently deemed to qualify for LEED Platinum. 

Branko Kolarevic and Vera Parlac organized and co-chaired the “Building Dynamics: Exploring Architecture of Change” international symposium, which was held on April 26 and 27, 2013, at the Banff Centre (www.buildingdynamics.org). Over 120 participants, mostly from North America, joined 16 invited speakers for presentations and discussions related to the broad symposium themes of change, building dynamics and dynamic buildings. Speakers included Sir Peter Cook from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, Chuck Hoberman from New York, Enric Ruiz Geli from Barcelona, Kas Oosterhuis from Rotterdam, among others. The symposium was sponsored by Oldcastle Building Envelope, DIRTT, Haworth, EVDS, and Laboratory for Integrative Design (LID).

Branko Kolarevic has completed on June 30, 2013 his three-year term appointment as Associate Dean (Academic) for the architecture program.

Branko Kolarevic delivered an invited presentation at the symposium on design research which was held on May 14 and 15 at Holmsbu in Norway. The symposium was organized by the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). On May 22 he delivered a research seminar on “Performative Architecture” for MPhil and PhD students at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Architecture. He was one of the invited speakers at the “Intersections” symposium in New York, which was held on May 31 at the City College of New York (CCNY). He was also one of the keynote speakers at the “Sustainable Intelligent Manufacturing (SIM)” Conference held from June 26 to 29 in Lisbon and organized by the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Lisbon.

“The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada selected the
University of Calgary’s Child Development Centre (CDC) as one of about 15 Canadian case studies for its 2030 Challenge web area (http://2030.raic.org/index_e.htm. The CDC achieved a 77% reduction in energy use on the 2030 Challenge rating scale, tied with Manitoba Hydro Place  for the best for any project outside the relatively mild regions of 
British Columbia.

Dr. Love was the energy systems consultant. He is the only energy systems advisor to have more than one project selected by the RAIC, the other being Lawrence Grassi School.”

Dr. Brian R. Sinclair, in April 2013, was an invited speaker at the international symposium “Building Dynamics: Architecture of Change” held in Banff Canada.  His talk centered on agility in architecture, open buildings and systems of flexibility in design & construction.

Dr. Brian R. Sinclair, in June 2013, was conferred the prestigious “Rev. Dr. Chief John Snow Sr. Award for Excellence in Teaching + Research” in recognition of his dedication to and work with Canada’s First Nations communities.

Dr. Brian R. Sinclair, in August 2013, delivered the opening lecture of the 2013-2014 academic year at the School of Architecture, University of Hawaii at Manoa.  His talk, entitled “Devising Design”, explored critical qualities of design appropriate for our complex and demanding times.

Dr. Brian R. Sinclair, in July 2013, was inducted into Lambda Alpha International, the Honorary Society for the Advancement of Land Economics.  Membership in LAI is reserved for those who have demonstrated leadership in, and built a compelling reputation of significant contributions to, the field of land economics.

Assistant Professor Jason Johnson and Professor John Brown are part of a team in the Faculty of Environmental Design to receive a 2013 Mayor’s Urban Design Award from the city of Calgary.  On September 29, 2012, more than 75 students from the University of Calgary Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS) volunteered to put their stamp on a pop-up park in Victoria Park. The park began as an effort to take a derelict construction site and turn it into a public asset. The EVDS volunteers added six custom-designed benches designed by Guy Gardner and Assistant Professor Jason Johnson. Their work took place as part of the first annual Green Apple Day of Service.

Rhode Island School of Design

Isover Competition

Students of Professor Jonathan Knowles presented their Isover-sponsored skyscraper competition projects to the national jury in New York. Santiago Hinojos Reyes (B.Arch ’12) won second place with a monetary award. His work will be submitted for consideration by an international jury in Prague.

RISD Architecture hosted its first Passive House Symposium and Training Seminars April 13-17 and May 5-8, 2011.  

The program’s developer and lead trainer, Katrin Klingenberg, launched the training seminars with a keynote address at RISD’s Chace Auditorium.

Levittown  Project

Adjunct Professors Lauren Crahan and John Hartmann’s office Freecell participated in “Open House” in Levittown NY, a project initiated by Droog and Diller Scofidio + Renfro.  Their installation simulated a suburban farm with a 60-foot-long floating greenhouse.

Three ACSA Schools Receive First of AIA "Decade of Design" Research Grants

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced the launch of its “Decade of Design,” a commitment to develop design and technology solutions that address challenges in public health, sustainability, and resiliency to natural disasters. AIA Chief Executive Officer Robert Ivy, FAIA, made the announcement at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting, where more than 1,000 global leaders are gathering to address the theme, “Designing for Impact.”

One of the commitments made by the AIA involves both monetary and “in-kind’ contributions to help University research on solutions-based outcomes. Earlier this year, ACSA partnered with AIA and CGI to solicit proposals from schools for research projects in the first of a series of topic areas: design and health. Three ACSA schools received the first of these research grants:

Texas A&M UniversityEvaluating Health Benefits of Liveable Communities: Toolkit for measuring the health impacts of walkable communities, validated with an empirical study of a LEED for Neighborhood Development project in Austin.

University of ArkansasFayetteville 2030: Creating Food City Scenario Plan: The study of planning possibilities and design solutions for creating a local food infrastructure while accommodating a quickly growing population.

University of New MexicoEstablishing Interdisciplinary Health-Architecture Curriculum: Pilot program to develop a framework for implementing a three-year interdisciplinary program for addressing health issues in local neighborhoods.

Read more at AIA.org

Clemson University

The faculty, staff and students of Clemson University’s School of Design and Building have enthusiastically moved into the 55,000-square-foot addition to Lee Hall. This showcase building provides not only a new home, but one that is a model for sustainability. The building’s anticipated energy consumption will make it one of the most energy efficient buildings in the U.S., featuring exterior and interior skylights, geothermal radiant heating and cooling, natural ventilation and the largest university Garden Roof installation in the Southeast.

The Lee Hall complex houses our master’s and undergraduate programs in architecture, art, city and regional planning, construction science and management, landscape architecture and real estate development, and the doctoral program in planning, design and the built environment. Thomas Phifer and Partners designed Lee III in collaboration with McMillan Pazdan Smith. Holder Construction was the Construction Manager at-Risk.

photo: Annmarie Jacques

Graduate student Joe Podolski from Clemson University and Fred Lebed and Andrew Leung from University of Illinois at Chicago were awarded an honorable mention for their contribution to the the AIAS/Kawneer Competition.

The prompt was that due to global climate change coastal cities are in more danger than ever.  After Hurricane Katrina, the Super Dome was used as a shelter, using this as an example each group was charged to think up a stadium that would be able to be used more effectively in both a crisis and as a stadium in normal times. Their response was a form derived from the many shapes water creates and using lighting to inform the public on a large scale.

More information can be found at the competition website: http://kawneer.aias.org/winners/

Louisiana Tech University

Liane Hancock has joined the Faculty at Louisiana Tech University School of Architecture as full-time tenure-track Assistant Professor.  Liane will be teaching foundation level studios and history/theory courses.   Liane has recently curated the exhibit Material Landscapes at the Sheldon Art Gallery in St. Louis which features the work of STOSS Landscape+Urbanism, D.I.R.T. Studio, dlandstudio, Eskyiu, KBAS, LeggeLewisLegge, PEG and Wanted Landscape.  It remains open to the public until mid January.

The School of Architecture welcomes back Ian Macaskill, RIBA, to the School of Architecture to serve as an adjunct professor. Macaskill practiced architecture in South Africa for over a decade before serving as a member of the Louisiana Tech University faculty from 1984-1989. From 1989 until 2008, he served as head of the Design Department in the Louisiana architecture office of Architecture+.

Professional-In-Residence Walter Green was invited this summer to join the stable of artists represented by The Michael McCormick Gallery in Taos, New Mexico. He currently exhibits twelve original oil paintings at the gallery, covering his work from the past three decades.

New work of Assistant Professors Troy Malmstrom and Michael Williams was featured at Louisiana Tech University’s Enterprise Center Gallery from 16 September through 13 October. The exhibition of work displayed objects and installations exploring digital and analog fabrications and methods of production.

Professor Guy Carwile received a grant from the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation for the documentation to HABS standards of the Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana.  His continuing research on the former Jack Tar Hotel addition in Galveston was featured in the Society for Commercial Archeology Journal (Spring 2011).

Assistant Professors Stephanie Carwile and Troy Malmstrom and a group of Interior Design students are working with the OMSA (Ouachita Medical Society Alliance) and the Northeast Louisiana Children’s Museum this fall to design, fabricate and install a new exhibit.  The 12’x16’ space will be a permanent part of the museum’s “Health Hall” and will provide a medical related educational and imaginative play environment to include an operating room, neonatal unit and pharmacy.   All funding for this project is provided by OMSA and donations from regional medical centers and physicians.  The Children’s Museum provides educational play and entertainment for northeast Louisiana pre-k through grade school systems as well as member families.

Assistant Professor Pasquale De Paola spent five weeks in Italy this summer researching, documenting and finishing up his doctoral work: A Question of Method: Architettura Razionale and the XV Milan Triennale of 1973, which he will be defending at the beginning of October at Texas A&M University.

During those five weeks, Professor De Paola also attended several workshops/conferences in Rome and Naples. At the MAXXI in Rome, Pasquale participated to the event Architecture Visions/Erratic language in architectural narrative: Playing the Scene; this happening was highlighted by documentary followed by a critical debate which analyzed the formal interaction existing between the architectural object and its urban background.

Pasquale also attended the informal Workshop of Architecture and Urban Photography, a meeting organized by the International Society of Biourbanism, which involved the study or Rome’s dynamical transformations of its urban fabric through photography and cartographic mapping.

While in Naples, and Avellino, De Paola’s home town, he participated as a guest speaker to two public debates that addressed the necessity for a new comprehensive regional and urban plan that deals with issues related to the planning of new solid waste management collector points in the Campania.

University of Kentucky

 

Professor Richard S. Levine has recently retired from teaching after 46 years at the School of Architecture at the University of Kentucky. From early in his architectural career, Prof. Levine has been a pioneer and advocate for sustainability-oriented architecture. He has over 200 publications on solar energy and sustainable cities and has done sustainable city research and projects in Italy, Austria, China, the Middle East as well as in Kentucky.

He is now devoting his energies to his architectural and urban design practice at the Center for Sustainable Cities Design Studio (CSC Design Studio). Dick Levine’s practice in design has encompassed such areas as structural systems, hospitals, design process, solar oriented architecture and sustainable cities. In the mid ‘70’s his widely published Raven Run Solar Home was the first to incorporate active and passive solar, super insulation, earth tubes, composting toilets, attached greenhouse, and many other integrated features in a single project. The patented active air collectors developed in that project are part of one of the most efficient and least expensive solar collection and storage systems ever devised.

The Hooker Building in Niagara Falls, NY (1978) for which Levine was energy and design consultant, was projected to consume 88% less energy than that of a conventional office building and received the Owens-Corning Energy Conservation Award. Thirteen years later, Norman Foster reproduced Hooker’s double glass wall with its computer operated aluminum louvers in an office building in Duisburg, Germany, sparking a transformation in Europe of energy efficient commercial buildings whose design strategies are now being emulated in the US.

In the mid 1980’s, Prof. Levine, along with his colleague Ernest J. Yanarella, started the Center for Sustainable Cities (CSC) at the University of Kentucky, to advance the theory and practice of sustainability. In 1994 Levine became the principal author of the European Charter of Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability (the Aalborg Charter), the main vehicle in Europe for carrying out the Local Agenda 21 provisions of the Rio Earth Charter (1992). He also gave the keynote address at the Charter ratification conference.

Partnering with Dr. Heidi Dumreicher, director of Oikodrom: the Vienna Institute for Urban Sustainability, the CSC focused on the city-region as the appropriate scale at which homeostatic relationships between social, environmental and economic issues could be realistically pursued to become the exemplar for the proliferation of sustainability throughout the globe. This was a pivotal determination that would lead to the formulation of the first Operational Definition of Sustainability. In the early 1990’s, the CSC and Oikodrom partnered to work on a series of three commissioned designs for a Sustainable City-as-a-Hill to be built over the Westbahnhof rail-yard in Vienna, Austria. Using Levine’s patented Coupled-Pan Space-Frame (CPSF) structural system as the city’s underlying structural framework a rich, diverse and sustainability driven urban fabric was developed.  Late in his life Lou Kahn had visited an early test of the CPSF and commented, “You should build a museum around it.” The City-as-a-Hill urban form, the Sustainable Urban Implantation, the Partnerland Principle, the Sustainable Area Budget, the Operational Definition of Sustainability, the Multiple, Participatory, Alternative Scenario-Building Process and other sustainable urban design principles were elaborated and integrated in the Westbahnhof project and continue to be studied and expanded upon today.

From 2002-2005, Prof. Levine worked on the European Commission sponsored SUCCESS project which developed sustainable future scenarios for rural villages in six Chinese provinces. This was followed by two successive EC projects focused on the renewal of the Islamic bath house (Hammam) tradition in six Mediterranean countries with the intention of developing and enhancing empowered, sustainable, civil society processes. In 2005, the CSC Design Studio (CSCDS) was formed as an extension of the CSC and Prof. Levine’s private architectural practice. In 2007, the CSCDS, headed by Prof. Levine, organized a system-dynamics modeling seminar in Fez, Morocco. This was part of the ongoing development of the “Sustainable City Game™”, the Sustainability Engine™, and the SCIM (Sustainable City Information Modeling) process.

As a recognition of his leadership and lifetime of work, in 2010 the American Solar Energy Society awarded Dick Levine its “Passive Solar Pioneer” award.  Levine is currently engaged in the design and construction of a number of low cost, zero net energy houses using the passive house standard.  His research and publications continue including his just published book with Ernest J. Yanarella titled, “The City as Fulcrum of Global Sustainability,” (Anthem Press, 2011). His web site is: www.centerforsustainablecities.com.

 

Tulane University

The Sustainable Real Estate program had a booth in the Expo of the Urban Land Institute Fall meeting in Los Angeles in October.  Several students joined Director Alexandra Stroud to talk to interested students and promote the program.  Director Stroud participated on a panel at the ULI Fall Meeting entitled Post-Catastrophe Reconstruction: Case Studies of  Japan, Chile, Haiti, and New Orleans.   She spoke on a panel with representatives of these other disasters about the recovery effort in New Orleans.

 

Faculty members Alexandra Stroud, Tatiana Eck, Casius Pealer and Reuben Teague all participated in the Green Build conference in Toronto in early October.  Professor Stroud and Professor Pealer were included in the Greenbuild NEXT VIP interview series .  Professor Eck is an integral part of the Green Build conference planning committee.  Professor Pealer participated in the Affordable Housing Forum.  Professor Teague presented at the conference in a presentation entitled, 100 Sustainable Homes; Lessons Learned in New Orleans’ Project Home Again with Tulane School of Architecture alumni, John Williams.

 

The Sustainability and Globalization lecture series is underway.  The September lecturer was Allison Plyer with Greater New Orleans Community Data Center presenting the Index at Six, a report summarizing the progress of New Orleans since Katrina.  The October lecture was given by Terry Henry, of Global Perpetual Energy.  His company is developing a device that produces enough wind, water and solar power to power a small city post disaster.  

University at Buffalo

Professor Edward Steinfeld was awarded the rank of SUNY Distinguished Professor recognizing his career achievements. Only seven faculty in the entire SUNY system were awarded that rank in 2012. Dr. Steinfeld is internationally known as a lead researcher on accessible environments and inclusive design. Dr. Steinfeld also was a keynote speaker at the Universal Design 2012 Conference in Oslo, Norway, where he spoke on the “Goals of Universal Design.”
Professors Hiro Hata and Harry Warren are one of two finalists in the $100 million Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital reuse competition. They are part of the Chason- Affinity team proposing a new Veterinary School.

Associate Professor Omar Khan and Assistant Professor Laura Garofalo won Second Place in the Second Annual Modern Atlanta Prize Competition/Green Dwelling. Their winning entry was displayed at this year’s “Design is Human Week” in Atlanta, GA. The jury looked for “projects that critically consider today’s notions of sustainability as applied to the modern dwelling…[and] showcase a critical investigation into sustainable design practices …as well as projects that thoughtfully dealt with unique geographical, social, political or cultural conditions.”

Associate Professor and Associate Dean Beth Tauke gave two presentations at June UD 2012: Oslo, an international conference on universal design in public space: “LIFEhouse_: Consumer Preference Study for Universal Design Features” and “Bridging the Gap: Using Architecture and Social Justice to Increase Access to Universal Design.”

Master of Architecture/Master of Urban Planning dual degree students and recent graduates, Courtney Creenan and Michael Moch presented “Inclusive Public Toilet Design,” research, proposals and built work from Beth Tauke’s inclusive design graduate studio in the fall 2011.

Assistant Professor Laura Garofalo’s installation, Buoyant, part of the 13th International Garden Festival at Reford Gardens/Jardins de Metis, opened on June 23rd and will be shown until September 30, 2012.

In June, Assistant Professor Jordan Geiger opened “Beau-Fleuve,” an interactive play structure and workshop for immigrant and refugee youth in Buffalo, as part of the Fluid Culture program of lectures and public arts. The project gathers oral history and maps global paths to an online map with the invisible policies and technologies that attend migration today.

Clinical Assistant Professor Nicholas Bruscia and Assistant Professor Jordan Geiger presented research of the Center for Architecture and Situated Technologies at the Tokyo University of Science’s Digital Studio.  Bruscia and Geiger also organized two exhibitions of their Tokyo-based summer study program at Shibaura House, a new multi-use building for public and cultural events.

Assistant Professor Joyce Hwang participated as a speaker in “Interrogating Green,” a roundtable discussion at Storefront for Art and Architecture which featured a selection of contributors to Praxis 13: Ecologics. The event centered on the interrogation of contemporary approaches to sustainability in architecture: http://www.storefrontnews.org/archive/2010?c=&p=&e=483. She also gave a lecture in July titled “Constructing Wilderness” at the University of Waterloo in Cambridge, Ontario as part of their School of Architecture lecture series.

Assistant Professor Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, Adjunct faculty Curt Gambetta and Assistant Professor Joyce Hwang participated in reviews at the University of Waterloo in July as guest critics for Lola Sheppard’s second-year studio.

A team of graduate students (including Courtney Creenan, Kyle Mastalinski, Daniel Nead, Scott Selin, and Lisa Stern) has completed a project called Elevator B, a collaborative project by graduate students from the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning with the support of Rigidized Metals, a Buffalo based building material manufacturer. The overall goal of the project was to successfully design for the relocation and habitation of a colony of honeybees occupying a building which is scheduled for significant modification at Silo City, a dense cluster of grain elevators in Buffalo, New York.  Elevator B was selected from a group of ten entries by a mixed panel of jurors, who represented Rigidized Metals, the fields of architecture and planning, and the bees: www.hivecity.wordpress.com.

Andrew Perkins and Matt Bain, both recent graduates from the Department of Architecture, SUNY-Buffalo, have been asked and commissioned to work on house in Flint, Michigan as part of the Flint Public Art Project. The invitation was offered because of the thesis that they had recently completed in Buffalo, New York. A more in depth description of the project they’ll be working on can be found at the blog which will cover it:  http://dwellingonwasteflint.blogspot.com/p/about.html . The Flint Public Art Project, which will contain dozens of other installations and performances and constructions:  http://www.flintpublicartproject.com/

University of Tennessee-Knoxville

New Chair Named to University of Tennessee Graduate Architecture Program

George Dodds has been appointed the chair of the graduate architecture program in the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Dodds, a professor of architecture, will oversee the program’s three tracks in master of architecture studies. He has served as interim chair since August and replaces Associate Professor Mark DeKay, who held the position from 2008 until this year. 

“In his role as interim chair, I have witnessed his dedication to recruiting, advising and mentoring,” Dean Scott Poole said. “Dr. Dodds has extensive experience teaching graduate students in our college, as well as at the University of Pennsylvania and Clemson University.

“By way of his own graduate studies and through his service as executive editor of the Journal of Architectural Education, he has built an impressive network of colleagues who can assist us in our efforts to establish a graduate program with national stature.” 

Since joining the college in 2000, Dodds has published two books, “Building Desire: On the Barcelona Pavilion” and “Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture.” In 2006, he was named the executive editor of the Journal of Architectural Education and the James R. Cox Professor, an honor given by the university to faculty who demonstrate excellence in teaching, scholarship and service.

A Distinguished Professor of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, he earned his bachelor of architecture from the University of Detroit and master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. During his doctoral studies, he was a fellow in landscape studies at Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Library and Research Center in Washington, D.C.

The college’s graduate program in architecture is distinguished for its strengths in sustainable building, urban design, high-performance building technology and the history and theory of architecture. The program currently has nearly fifty graduate students and anticipates increasing student enrollment next year. 

To learn more about the UT graduate architecture program, please visit http://www.arch.utk.edu/Architecture/Graduate/index.shtml.