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University of Texas at Austin

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The School of Architecture’s Historic Preservation Program and the 2010 and 2011 graphic documentation students won first place in the National Park Service’s Charles E. Peterson Prize competition. The team submitted measured drawings of Austin’s North-Evans Chateau (1874-1960), now the Chateau Bellevue and home of the Austin Woman’s Club, located at 708 San Antonio Street in the Bremond Block National Register Historic District.

 
Lecturer Clay Shortall and Assistant Professor Matt Fajkus were commissioned to design a sculpture in collaboration with Will Meredith of 5 Axis LLC for the President of the United States during his visit to Austin on July 17. The sculpture, titled “8,” featured inspirational words from the president in abstracted Braille on the exterior and large portions of the 2009 inaugural speech etched in the interior. The sculpture was composed of eight building blocks, representing eight administrative principles in the pursuit for equality of opportunity in humanity, and was presented to the president during an evening event. UTSOA graduate students Eliza Bober and Arman Halidou greatly contributed to the digital production, 3D-printing, and processing of the sculpture.

Dr. Nancy Kwallek, Gene Edward Mikeska Endowed Chair for Interior Design, is one of four UT Austin faculty members selected to hold a Dads’ Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Wilfried Wang, O’Neil Ford Centennial Professor in Architecture, was elected to the post of Deputy Director of the Architecture Section at the Academy of the Arts, Berlin. He has also been appointed as the vice chair of the design review board for Munich Airport.


In July 2012, Adjunct Associate Professor Barbara Hoidn and Professor Wilfried Wang were invited to lead a team, which included UTSOA graduate students Melissa Seanard and Lauren M. Vogl, during the “Experimenta Urbana 7: Masterplan for the University of Kassel, 2012,” organized by the University of Kassel in Germany.

Additionally, in August 2012, Hoidn Wang Partner were commissioned with the design for an extension of a kindergarten in a Berlin housing settlement originally designed by Walter Gropius—the Gropius Stadt. During the summer, the Berlin Senate launched a city-wide program to make available more spaces in kindergartens, in order to fulfill a recent federal German law to provide a place for each newborn child beginning in 2013. The client is the International Federation, a German charitable society.

David Heymann, Harwell Hamilton Harris Regents Professor in Architecture, has received the Bradford Williams Medal, awarded by Landscape Architecture Magazine (LAM), the magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Additionally, Professor Heymann just returned from a month as a scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy, where he worked on an ongoing series of essays. His essay, “Some Ado About Nothingness,” about the Asia Society Texas Center, was published in the summer 2012 edition of CITE magazine.

Dean Fritz Steiner presented the keynote talk at the 10th International Urban Planning and Environment Association Symposium (UPE10), held July 24 to 27 at the University of Sydney, Australia. UPE10 was co-hosted by the U.S. Studies Centre and the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning. The keynote session topic was “Next City: Planning for a New Energy and Climate Future.”

Assistant Professor Igor Siddiqui‘s work is presented in “Interior Affair: a State of Becoming”, a refereed exhibition of design research that accompanies the Interior Design / Interior Architecture Educators Association symposium in Perth, Australia. This fall, Professor Siddiqui was invited to join the editorial board of ii, the International Journal of Interior Architecture + Spatial Design in the capacity of associate editor.

Dr. Danilo Udovi_ki-Selb was invited by the newly created Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) to participate in the evaluation of the quality of research performed between 2004 and 2010 by researchers of all Italian universities and research institutes.Princeton Architectural Press has invited Udovi_ki to be the editor of and contributor to an anthology titled Architectural Theory: A Global Perspective. He will be responsible for the section on Soviet Modernism, 1900-1991.

Senior Lecturer and Architectural Conservation Laboratory director Fran Gale taught a training course for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration (NCA). Beginning in 2010, Gale worked with Heritage Preservation, a nonprofit organization hired by NCA to coordinate assessments and review treatment proposals for monuments in NCA’s cemeteries and soldiers lots across the country. 

Illinois Institute of Technology

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Professor Robert J. Krawczyk was an invited speaker at the International Society of The Arts, Mathematics and Architecture Conference, ISAMA 2012, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, June 18-21, 2012. Krawczyk’s speech was entitled “Exploring Digital Fabrication.”

Living Room Realty’s new exhibit, Objects in Space, will feature work by Studio Associate Professor Paul Pettigrew. The show, open June 22 – August 3, displays living spaces in a storefront gallery, and highlights locally sourced and produced furniture, textiles, and accessories. Pettigrew’s iCharnley, an iPod stereo system, will be included in the exhibit. The stereo was built into and around a single piece of quartersawn white oak fumigated in ammonium to match the patina of the Charnley House interior woodwork. The white oak came from Chicago’s urban forest via Horigan Urban Forest Products.  For more information, visit: www.livingroomrealty.com

Chicago Architecture Foundation’s new exhibit premiering June 22nd features College of Architecture undergraduate and graduate studio work. Unseen City: Designs for a Future Chicago tackles the question, “What might this neighborhood and city become?” Designs include a 19th century boulevard transformed for the 21st, a horizontal deconstructed Willis Tower, an industrial district as creative hub, and a skyscraper that scrubs the air.

IIT exhibits: 

Hi-Rise, Lo-Carb
Studio Associate Professor Antony Wood, Spring 2012 undergraduate studio Collaboration with Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Garfield Boulevard:  Completely Stripped Naked, Dirty, and Wet
Assistant Professor Marshall Brown, Fall 2011 graduate studio

For more information, visit the Chicago Architecture Foundation website: www.architecture.org

The July/August 2012 issue of Chicago Architect magazine includes an article on Associate Professor Frank Flury’s recent undergraduate design/build studio project. IIT students adopted the local vernacular—the round barn—for their design of a visitor support facility at Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois. Read the article at: http://mydigimag.rrd.com/publication/?i=116280

2013 ARC: What Happened to the 4+2?

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As we prepare for the 2013 NAAB Accreditation Review Conference, the ACSA Board of Directors would like to hear your thoughts on some of the most pressing issues regarding conditions and procedures. Every week leading up to the Administrators Conference in Austin, we will ask one question for your feedback. Please share these with your colleagues and keep the conversation going. Please comment below. 

What Happened to the 4+2?

Should there be a standard way to document advanced standing and preprofessional work? How can we make this clearer and easier?

University of Oklahoma

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The University of Oklahoma joined Harvard University as one of only two universities with multiple teams honored in the 10th annual Urban Land Institute Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition.  One OU team received an “Honorable Mention First Place” and the other an “Honorable Mention Overall Merit” in the competition, placing them both in the top 10 percent of the field, which consisted of 139 graduate-level teams from 64 universities throughout United States and Canada. Serving as advisers were Blair Humphreys, executive director of the Institute for Quality Communities, and Associate Professor of Architecture Hans Butzer. “The Veranda” placed fifth receiving “First Place Honorable Mention” and featured a dynamic public space connected to the Buffalo Bayou trail network. The team members were fifth-year architecture students Adelle York, who served as team leader, Aric Yarberry and Grant Hromas; regional and city planning graduate student Ty McCarthy, and MBA student Ohm Devani. “The Foundry” received an “Honorable Mention Overall Merit” for their proposal to create a district designed to empower startup entrepreneurs. Members of the team were regional and city planning graduate students Phillips Walters, who served as the team leader, and Shane Hampton; landscape architecture graduate student Alex Tyler; architecture graduate student Grant Evert, and fifth-year architecture student Preston Kunz. Read more.

University of Oklahoma architecture and construction science students made history by winning all categories of the 17th Region V Associated Schools of Construction/TEXO Student Competition, a first for any university in the region and a first for the competition. The OU students won in the Commercial Building, Design Build, Design Build International, and Heavy Civil categories of the competition held in Dallas.  The teams were coached by Tammy McCuen, OU assistant professor of construction science, and Anthony Cricchio, OU assistant professor of architecture (Design Build); Ken Robson, OU construction science professor, and Dublin Institute of Technology Professor Lloyd Scott (International Design Build); Dominique Pittenger, OU adjunct professor of construction science (Heavy Civil); and Richard Ryan, OU professor of construction science (Commercial Building). Read more.

The OU College of Architecture will remodel an old nearby hotel that was damaged in a 2009 fire. The Alvis Hotel in Pauls Valley suffered fire damage in Sept. 2009. The students, alongside associate professor of architecture Ron Frantz, will assist in the remodeling of the hotel, which was built in the late 1800s. The Alvis property is working toward being registered with the National Register of Historic Places, which will open the project up to tax credits and federal funding to allow the students a large amount of leeway, Frantz said. Read more.

Faculty in the College of Architecture will present papers and research during our second annual Research and Creative Activity Day on March 14, 2012. See the full schedule and topics.

Designers James Burnett and Jereck Boss of Project 180, the significant street and public space overhaul underway in downtown Oklahoma City, will speak about their work in Norman and Oklahoma City as part of the Streets for People lecture series presented by the Institute for Quality Communities on Thursday, March 15, 2012.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

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Patrick and Nancy Latrop Professor Emeritus Dayton Gene Egger was inducted into the university’s “Virginia Tech Academy of Professors Emeriti and Emeritae” earlier this year. He also received the “Career Achievement Award” of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies in 2011. Professor Egger was been a faculty member since 1969. Despite his offical retirement in 2010, he continues to be engaged in the nurishment of students and faculty colleagues of the School of Architecture + Design.

Professor Scott Poole, AIA, Director of the School of Architecture + Design from 2004 until 2011, is the new Dean of the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee. Professor Poole has been a faculty member at Virginia Tech since 1986. The School of Architecture + Design wishes Scott Poole the best of luck and success with his new responsibilities.

LumenHAUS, the Virginia Tech solar house, a project led by T. A. Carter Professor Robert Dunay, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, Associate Professor Joseph Wheeler, AIA, and Professor Robert Schubert, and created by hundreds of students across many disciplines, is currently situated on exhibit with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, the twentieth-century masterpiece of modern architecture in Plano, Illinois. Citing the Farnsworth House as precedent for its pavilion type design, the LumenHAUS / Farnsworth House Exhibition in runs through October 23, 2011. Previously, the LumenHAUS was on exhibit at the National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., on the National Mall in Washington D.C., on Times Square in New York City, on Millennium Park in Chicago, and in Madrid, Spain where it won the international Solar Decathlon Europe Competition.

Professor Dr. Charles Steger, FAIA, President of Virginia Tech, hosted an event to help build corporate partnerships through School of Architecture + Design’s Center for Design Research in conjunction with the Farnsworth House / Virginia Tech LumenHAUS exhibition. Present were Joel Bagnal and Dean Kershaw representing L-3 STRATIS, Bob Gunn from Clark/Nexsen, Kristine Fallon of Kristine Fallon Associates Inc., Robert Turner, former partner at SOM, Reynolds Metals Professor of Architecture Jack Davis, FAIA, Dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, and T.A. Carter Professor of Architecture Robert Dunay, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, Director of the Center for Design Research.

T. A. Carter Professor Robert Dunay, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, Associate Professor Joseph Wheeler, AIA, and Visiting Instructor Andrew Balster led a team of the School of Architecture + Design’s Center for Design Research to form a research collaboration focusing on the development of high density, net-zero residential housing with SOM, Chicago. The workshop aimed to initiate the next frontier of design research after LumenHAUS, the Virginia Tech Solar House.  The research team worked with the partners of the firm as well as staff experts in the fields of planning, high-density residential housing, structure and environmental design to develop an innovative concept for the future of housing.  This effort begins a strategic partnership between the academy and profession.

 G.T. Ward Professor of Architecture Donna Dunay, FAIA, Chair of the International Archive of Women in Architecture and T.A. Carter Professor of Architecture Robert Dunay, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, directed and taught inside Architecture and Design, offered by the School of Architecture + Design at Virginia Tech this summer. In its 15th year, inside Architecture has served over 1000 high school students. For individuals seeking an insight into the world of design, this year’s course of 100 participants offered workshops, lectures and seminars across an interdisciplinary spectrum of interests.

G.T. Ward Professor of Architecture Donna Dunay, FAIA, and Associate Professor Kay Edge travelled to Tokyo in June to install the exhibit “For the Future: Pioneering Women in Architecture from Japan and Beyond,” a collaborative effort of The International Archive of Women in Architecture Center (IAWA) with the International Union of Women Architects (UIFA) Japan. The exhibition is shown at the Architectural Institute of Japan and it features international pioneering women in architecture.   The materials are drawn from the IAWA Center collections held at Virginia Tech along with additional early Japanese women pioneers. A special section of the exhibition was devoted to IAWA founder Professor Emeritae Dr. Milka Bliznakov, Ph.D., who passed away last year. Professor Edge delivered the Exhibition Opening Lecture “Overlaps and Parallels.” Professor Dunay gave the Annual UIFA Japon Lecture “For the Future:” delivered at the Campus Innovation Center, Tokyo. Later this Fall, the exhibition will be mounted at two additional locations in Tokyo, UIA 2011 TOKYO (International Union of Architects) 24th World Congress of Architecture at the Tokyo Forum and the Gender Equality Center, Chiba Ward, Tokyo.

Professor Dr. Mehdi Setareh, Ph.D., P.E., has had the following papers published: “Vibration Serviceability of A Building Floor Structure – Part I: Dynamic Testing and Computer Modeling” and “Vibration Serviceability of A Building Floor Structure – Part II: Vibration Evaluation and Assessment” in: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities of the American Society of Civil Engineers, December 2010 Edition; “Vibration Studies of A Cantilevered Structure Subjected to Human Activities Using A Remote Monitoring System” in: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities of the American Society of Civil Engineers, April 2011 Edition; “A Study of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Movements During A New York City Marathon” in: Journal of Bridge Engineering of the American Society of Civil Engineering, February 2011 Edition. Professor Setareh also presented the following papers at the Sixth International Structural Engineering Construction Conference in Zurich, Switzerland: “Structural Behavior of Double-Layer Braced Barrel Vaults” and “An Analytical Study of Steel Flat Double Layer Grid Spatial Structures.”

Professor Scott Poole, AIA, T.A. Carter Professor of Architecture Robert Dunay, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor and Reynolds Metals Professor of Architecture Jack Davis, FAIA, Dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, initiated and led this year’s International Architecture and Design (IAD), a study abroad/continuing education course for senior level practitioners, a study of Alvar Aalto, Finnish and Scandinavian architecture. The program is in its 15th year. Professor Dr. Charles Steger, FAIA, President of Virginia Tech, joined the group of distinguished architects.

The School of Architecture + Design has appointed Associate Professor Dr. Markus Breitschmid, Ph.D., S.I.A., to be chair of the Bachelor of Architecture’s Core Professional Program beginning with the academic year 2011/12.

The following faculty members have been appointed into a tenure-track appointment:

Dr.-Ing. Dipl. Ing.-Arch. Christian Gänshirt, Ph.D., a registered architect in Germany and an architecture historian, is joining the faculty on the rank of associate professor on tenure-track. He studied at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, from where he received his master degree, the École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and the University of Cottbus, Germany, from where he obtained his doctorate. He has previously taught at the University of Hannover, the Berlin University of the Arts, the University of Kassel, and at the University of Cottbus, all in Germany. Before returning to obtain his doctorate, Gänshirt practiced architecture for several years. Among other engagements, he was an executive project architect for Alvaro Siza in Oporto, Portugal, for three years. Gänshirt is the author of Tool for Ideas. An Introduction to Architectural Design (Basel: Birkhäuser 2007). He will offer courses in history, theory and design.

Aki Ishida, AIA, a graduate from the University of Minnesota and Columbia University, is joining the faculty as a tenure-track assistant professor to offer courses in architecture design, building construction technology and building materials. She has practiced architecture for fourteen years, among other offices, at I.M. Pei Architect, James Carpenter Design Associates, and Raphael Vinoly Architects. Previously, she has taught at Pratt Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Parsons School of Design. 

Paola Zellner Bassett is a registered architect in Argentina, where she has been graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires. She obtained her graduate degree at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Zellner Bassett is new on a tenure-track assistant professor appointment after she has taught at Virginia Tech as a visiting faculty for the previous three years. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, she had academic appointments at the University of Michigan and at Woodbury University. Zellner Bassett will offer courses in architecture design, building materials, and building construction.

The following faculty members have been newly appointed as visiting faculty:

Robert Holton, RA, a graduate of the University of North Carolina and Columbia University, joins the architecture program on a two-year visiting appointment. He has practiced architecture for fifteen years, among other offices, at Bernard Tschumi Architects in New York and Paris for five years. Previously, he has taught at Pratt Institute and Florida International University. 

Erin Putalik, RA, a graduate from Brown University and the University of Michigan, joins the architecture program on a two-year visiting appointment from practice. She has worked for Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects since 2007.

Tim Frank, RA, a graduate from Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech, joins the architecture program in a two-year visiting appointment. He is the Principal of Tim Frank Architecture in Atlanta and he has been teaching at Georgia Institute of Technology during the past six years.

Benjamin Rice, a graduate from Southern California Institute of Architecture and Princeton University, joins the architecture program on a one-year appointment from practice. He most recently worked for Reiser + Umemoto in New York City.

Christopher Pritchett, a graduate from Virginia Tech, rejoins the architecture program on a one-year visiting appointment. Pritchett returns from Scandinavia, where he studied ecclesiastical architecture.  

Oklahoma State University

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Oklahoma State University will host the 2012 Biannual Conference of the Design Communication Association from October 21-24, 2012. The conference theme is Graphic Quest: the Search for Perfection in Design Communication. For more information contact the conference chair, Professor Moh’d Bilbeisi (mohd.bilbeisi@okstate.edu) or visit www.designcommunicationassociation.org.

Oklahoma State University’s new Donald W. Reynolds School of Architecture Building received a 2011 AIA Oklahoma Honor Award. The design was a collaboration of OSU School of Architecture faculty and students and Studio Architecture of Oklahoma City. Professors Jeff Williams and Randy Seitsinger led the design process initially, while Williams continued to work with Studio Architecture and other consultants through completion. Associate Professor Khaled Mansy assisted with the design of the day-lighting systems.

Michael Rabens was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in 2011. Rabens teaches a variety of architectural history and theory courses. His research interests focus on the architecture of 17th- and 18th-century France and 19th- and 20th-century Chicago.

Assistant Professor Jerry Stivers and Assistant Professor Awilda Rodríguez Carrión were recently awarded the Big 12 Faculty Fellowships for the 2012 term.  Both are investigating aspects of Revit integration and applications within the curriculum.  Stivers will be visiting the University of Kansas and Kansas State University; Rodríguez Carrión will be visiting Texas A&M University.

OSU School of Architecture Associate Professor Paolo Sanza, Assistant Professor Awilda Rodríguez Carrión, and alumnus Gloriana Barbosa were runners up in the international Ceramics of Italy Exhibit Design Competition, among 80 entries. The judges were Bernard Tschumi, Laurinda Spears, and Michael P. Johnson.

Associate Professor Tom Spector has completed work with co-author Rebecca Damron on the book How Architects Write, a handbook for students and practitioners wishing to improve their writing, for the Routledge Press. Spector will be chairing a session for the first conference of the ISPA (the International Society for Philosophy in Architecture) to be held at the University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, July 10-12, 2012. For more information about the conference, see www.isparchitecture.wordpress.com/.

Associate Professor Khaled Mansy returned from his fall 2011 sabbatical. In his sabbatical he conducted two research projects in Cairo, Egypt and Chicago, Illinois. In Cairo, he collaborated with a research team of faculty and graduate students from the American University in Cairo (UIC) to study the performance of light wells as required by the Egyptian Building Code. In Chicago, he was hosted by the Illinois Institute of Technology and interviewed architects and engineers of leading design firms documenting the most current practice in the design of high-performing buildings.

Professor Jeff Williams also returned from his fall 2011 sabbatical. He explored the integration of urban issues in curriculums within schools of architecture throughout the western United States. He studied thirty-six schools of architecture and visited fourteen. A website documenting the sabbatical research is forthcoming.

University of Texas at Austin

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The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture will honor the life and work of Associate Dean Kent Butler at a memorial symposium on October 1 at the UTSOA. Dr. Butler, a long-time faculty member, died during a hiking trip in Yosemite National Park in May.

The Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) is a proud co-sponsor of the 2011 UT Campus Sustainability Symposium September 23, 2011, led by the President’s Sustainability Steering Committee, with support from UT’s Office of Sustainability, the Center for Sustainable Development, the Campus Environmental Center, the Environmental Science Institute, and the UT Energy Institute.

Dean Fritz Steiner will moderate the panel discussion, “How Green is My City?,” at the, http://www.texastribune.org/festival/home/,Texas Tribune Festival, which will take place on September 24 and 25 in Austin.

On Wednesday, November 3, Houston Tomorrow Distinguished Speaker Series luncheon, Dean Fritz Steiner will discuss his latest book, Design for a Vulnerable Planet, and his ideas for a sustainable future based on new regionalism-a theory of design which holds that structure and landscape should be inspired by the surrounding ecosystem. Steiner frequently works with local, state, and federal agencies on diverse environmental plans and designs. He is a member of the Steering Committee of America 2050 and is current president of the Hill Country Conservancy and board member of Envision Central Texas.

Pollen Architecture & Design’s Balcones House will be featured on the 2011 American Institute of Architects <http://www.aiaaustin.org/firm_project/balcones-house>Austin Homes Tour, October 1 and 2. Lecturers Elizabeth Alford and Dason Whitsett [B.Arch. ’95, M.S.S.D. ’05] are principals of Pollen Architecture (with Michael Young).

Associate Dean Kevin Alter was a featured speaker at the American Institute of Architects Arkansas 2011 State Convention in Hot Springs, on September 17, where he presented selected work from his firm, <http://alterstudio.net/>alterstudio architects, llp.

Assistant Professor Fernando Lara recently published two articles. “Incomplete Utopias: Embedded Inequalities in Brazilian Modern Architecture,” appeared in the June 2011 edition of the Architectural Research Quarterly, published by Cambridge University Press. The article, “New (Sub)Urbanism and Old Inequalities in Brazilian Gated Communities,” was published in the August 2011 edition of the Journal of Urban Design, published by Taylor & Francis Group.
Senior Lecturer Joyce Rosner‘s work in the exhibition, “SLICE: Connections and Deviations,” will be displayed at the Kreft Center Gallery, Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan, from October 25 to December 4.. A central theme in Rosner’s  work is the idea of an iterative collection. Through the interplay of hand and material, narrative tension is developed between the subject and its recorded evidence.

Dr. Steven Moore, Bartlett Cocke Regents Professor of Architecture and Planning; Dr. David Adelman, Harry M. Reasoner Regents Chair in Law; and Dr. Barbara Brown Wilson, director of the UT Austin Center for Sustainable Development, have been awarded a National Science Foundation Workshop Grant to host “Sequencing and Targeting Climate Change Policy for Architecture: An Interdisciplinary and International Approach.”

On September 27, Dr. Nancy Kwallek, Gene Edward Mikesa Endowed Chair in Interior Design and Director of the Interior Design Program, presented a lecture on color palettes from the 1950s, in conjunction with Mika Tajima’s exhibition, “The Architect’s Garden,” at the UT Austin Visual Arts Center. Dr. Kwallek used Herman Miller and Knoll as examples to discuss the impact of color on our senses.

Wilfried Wang, O’Neil Ford Centennial Professor in Architecture, led the Quito Travel Studio with 13 students to Ecuador. Besides seeing the impressive work of José Maria Saez Vaquero and Adrian Moreno, both visiting professors at the School of Architecture this semester, the group met José Miguel Mantilla and the office of El Borde: David Barragan and Pascual Gangotena. The students visited a number of outstanding pieces of contemporary architecture, as well as museums with Pre-Columbian art. While in Ecuador, Wang presented a lecture on “Changing Paradigms: The Challenge of Sustainability to Architecture” at the Universidad Católica de Santiago Guayaquil and a lecture on “Judging Architecture” at the Universidad de Guayaquil.

Adjunct Associate Professor Barbara Hoidn was an invited participant in the Jane Jacobs Revisited: A Bellagio Conference” at the Rockefeller Foundation at Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy, which took place from September 29 to October 3, 2011.

Barcelona Bits

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by Michael Monti, Executive Director

Clockwise from top left: closing reception at the Mies van der Rohe Pavillion, reception at the CCCB; participants at 2012 ACSA International Conference; keynote lecture with Martha Thorne, Mohsen Mostafavi, and Xavier Costa. (visit flickr.com/acsa-arch for more photos from the event)

Take these notes from Barcelona, print them or rewrite them on paper. Cut them up and, thinking of nothing about order, mix and layer the pieces—spread them around on the table until a picture forms.

  • Colin Ripley performed his presentation on new demands and outcomes from architectural education. He said the paper was a lob, a defensive move to get your feet under you. There were no images of a tennis court or the straining muscles of player’s lunging volley save. His text, however, has some drama. We are efforting a web version of this performance, so you can see and hear for yourself.
  • People from Cape Town, Auckland, Tokyo, Brazil, Denmark, Egypt,the Philippines, and Catalonia came. Also someone from Normal, Illinois.
  • The live Q&A with Harvard’s Mohsen Mostafavi redeemed that format for me. The session achieved a sustained intellectual discussion about how and why to educate architects. The featured speaker’s ideas and expertise were always understood, so that helped give the discussion a head start. More helpful, though, was having a day’s worth of paper sessions and audience discussions to create the right mood.
  • I expected more presentations about Barcelona on the program. We received many more submissions from people wanting to talk about pedagogy, and many of the presentations were less about the city’s setting and more about cross-cutting issues in architecture schools.  
  • No matter the graffiti, the urban grime that is in every large urban area, Barcelona is an elegant city with a refined design culture. I hope the conference in some measure kept up both of these descriptors of the city. If anything did, it was the sight of so many of our people at the closing reception at the MVDR Pavilion. 
  • Where do you want to go in summer of 2014?

Call for Proposals: 2013 ACSA Fall Conference

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Deadline: February 1, 2012 

The ACSA invites proposals from member schools to host the 2013 ACSA Fall Conference. Beginning in 2011 the ACSA began holding annual fall conferences that were thematic in focus. The 2011 conference hosted by Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University focused on “Local Identities/Global Challenges.” The 2012 ACSA Fall Conference will be “Offsite Production in Architecture: Theory and Practice,” hosted by Temple University and chaired by Ryan E. Smith, University of Utah, John Quale, University of Virginia, and Rashida Ng, Temple University. 

The Fall Conference program is assembled from peer-reviewed abstracts, with full papers collected in a digital proceedings published in ACSA’s permanent online archive. The 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 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’s 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

2. Proposed dates for the conference

  • The Fall Conference should occur in late September or October, typically Thursday through 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 to craft the conference program, oversee local logistical details, and maintain communication with partners on any joint efforts. The chair(s) will also work with ACSA staff on planning, promotion, and on-site support. 

4. A description of other potential enhancing conference features: partnerships, sponsors, keynote speakers, tours, etc.

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 resources available for the conference 

  • ACSA does not expect host schools to contribute direct financial support to the conference, and instead encourages in-kind contributions of available resources, such as meeting space, audio-visual equipment, ongoing lecture series to cover keynote speakers, etc. 
  • ACSA will work with the host school to develop a business plan that accounts for in-kind school contributions, registration revenue, and staff and direct financial support from the ACSA. Resources that cannot be provided in-kind will be paid out of registration fees or sponsorships. 

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 any questions to: Jonathan Halpin, Conferences Manager, jhalpin@acsa-arch.org, 202.785.2324 x2

University of Virginia

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The University of Virginia School of Architecture has named Spanish architect Iñaki Alday to serve as R. Quesada Professor and Chair of the Department of Architecture. The five-year appointment, which was announced by Architecture School Dean Kim Tanzer, will begin Aug. 1.

“Iñaki’s expertise in design and practice will add a significant dimension to not only our programs in the Architecture School, but to the global scope of our community as well. We are so pleased that he has decided to join our faculty and School,” Tanzer said.

Alday replaces associate professor of architecture Craig Barton, who held the post since 2007 and will return to full-time teaching.

An internationally recognized practicing architect, Alday is principal of aldayjover architecture and landscape in Barcelona, Spain, an office founded in 1996 with partner Margarita Jover. The firm specializes in works of public architecture, urban space and landscape, and has received numerous design awards, including the FAD Prize of City and Landscape and the European Urban Public Space Prize. Alday and Jover will maintain their practice in Spain, returning periodically to oversee key aspects of current projects. Jover will begin an adjunct teaching appointment as a lecturer in architecture in the spring 2012 semester.

Alday was born in Zaragoza, Spain, and received his degree in architecture from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia Vallès School of Architecture in Barcelona. He has held visiting and associate professor positions in the Vallès School of Architecture, as well as visiting professor or lecturer positions in several architecture and landscape programs.

Alday and Jover gave the 2010 Benjamin C. Howland Memorial Lecture at the U.Va. School of Architecture, titled “Beautiful Floods,” a transcription of which is featured in the school’s student journal, “Lunch 6: Systems.” [link to: http://www.arch.virginia.edu/spotlight/lunch6/ ]

The School of Architecture includes four departments – architecture, architectural history, landscape architecture, and urban and environmental planning – supporting a tapestry of interdisciplinary research themes that connect the faculty’s research with the curriculum and engage in the most important issues of the day.

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