Other ACSA Websites

Study Architecture ProPEL

University of New Mexico

/in , /by

Eleni Bastéa, Ph.D., Professor, was interviewed for the English-language documentary “Smyrna. The destruction of a cosmopolitan city, 1900-1922”, which was directed by Maria Iliou and premiered in Athens in January 2012 (90 min., Proteas production). “Smyrna” was subsequently shown on Greek television and the Benaki Museum in Athens. In collaborating with the director both as a historical consultant and an interviewee, Bastéa drew from her own on-going archival research on Smyrna (present-day Izmir, in Turkey), as well as family stories and oral-history interviews she conducted over the years. Her research has been supported, in part, by the Graham Foundation and by the Research Allocations Committee (UNM) travel grants.

Jeremy Jerge, graduate student, is one of 16 finalists in the2011 Fentress Global Challenge competition.  His submission, “2100 Air Terminal of the Future” was developed in Associate Professor Kramer Woodard’s 604 graduate architecture studio course this past fall.  This project was selected from over 200 competition entries.  

University of Southern California

/in /by

David Jason Gerber, D.Des, Assistant Professor USC School of Architecture and USC Viterbi School of Engineering was invited to chair the Simulation in Architecture and Urban Design Symposium in 2014 (SimAUD 2014), he was also invited to be chair of the ACADIA 2014 “Design Agency” conference to be held at USC. Dr. Gerber presented research and held workshops at Tsinghua University Beijing China on the topics of building performance through design computation. He is a keynote at Istanbul Technical University, Middle East Technical University and at Ozyegin Unviersity  where he will hold a workshop titled “Design Agency | Informed Surface Tectonics”. Dr. Gerber is the first repeat recipient of the competitively awarded IDEA studio research grant from Autodesk Inc. Dr. Gerber has been invited to be an editor for the International Journal of Architecture and Computing and for a special edition of the Journal of Simulation.

Diane Ghirardo‘s book chapter, La “Terza” Repubblica Italiana: Spettacolo e spreco dell’architettura e dell’ambiente,” just appeared in the book edited by G. Bonini and C. Visentin, Geografie, storie, paesaggi per un’Italia da cambiare (Arachne, Rome, 2013). She presented a lecture on architecture and the environment at Palazzo Capponi in Florence in October 2013. and another on Aldo Rossi at the University of Ferrara (November 2013).

Andy Ku, Lecturer, and Partner of OCDC will be featured as one among three up and coming artists from Los Angeles and Japan in a contemporary exhibition at the JACCC. The exhibit features diverse media including painting, drawing, installation, and architecture. Opening Reception is on November 23 at 2pm, showing at the George Doizaki Gallery through December 22.

Emily Gabel-Luddy, FASLA, Mayor of Burbank lead a panel at the October 2013 Cal APA Conference. The panel, “Lost and Found: Creating Public Places in Overlooked Spaces,” critically evaluated three case studies that resulted in repurposing the public rights-of-way. The innovative approaches were discussed by Steve Rasmussen Cancian, Shared Spaces Landscape Architecture; Veronica Hahni, Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative; and Tori Kjer, Trust for Public Land.

Visiting Professor Charles Anderson, FASLA, will be a speaker at The American Society of Landscape Architects National Convention in Boston on November 15th. The presentation is titled “Seattle’s  Olympic Sculpture Park Turns 5” and will highlight a design practice called “Urbanature.”

Mario Cipresso, AIA, adjunct assistant professor of architecture received first prize in the “Re-Envisioning 7th Street” competition in Long Beach, California.  His entry also received the People’s Choice Award.  The East 7th Street Collaboration asked artists & architects to envision the street as an urban boulevard that supports and reflects the culture of the neighborhoods it intersects.

Lecturer Vinayak Bharne in his capacity as Director of Design at Moule & Polyzoides recently completed a 200-acre master plan for a marina resort in Panama City. His project for the downtown transformation of the city of Lancaster, California was also recognized with the International Downtown Association’s (IDA) Pinnacle Award at the World Congress in New York City. He was also recently invited by the Business Goa magazine to opine on the ongoing plan for the future of Panaji, the capital of the state of Goa, India.

Aaron Neubert, Adjunct Assistant Professor, and his firm ANX’s Sycamore House was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times. In addition, his Busan Opera House was included in the Ifengspace monograph “To Enjoy To Listen”.

Assistant Professor Kyle Konis, Ph.D, AIA was recently selected as a 2013-2015 Upjohn Scholar. His proposal Daylighting Design Performance Criteria for Alzheimer Care Facilities, Towards Evidence-based Best Practices for Improved Health has been awarded a $25,000.00 matching funds grant.

Assistant Professors Kyle Konis and Karen Kensek have been awarded a $25,000 grant by the Southern California Gas Company (SoCal Gas) to conduct research on Passive and Low Energy Strategies to assist the non-residential commercial market in achieving Sustainability, Zero Net Energy (ZNE), and Thermal Comfort as part of the SoCal Gas Commercial Sustainable Development Program (CSDP). 

Alexander Robinson, Assistant Professor in the Landscape Architecture program, has been consulting and providing strategic advice and materials to a local effort to influence a decision by the United States Army Corps of Engineers on an up to 1 billion dollar restoration of an 11-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River.

Amy Murphy, Associate Professor, will be partnering with Michael Maltzan Architecture to design an upcoming exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on German Expressionist Cinema (expected to open in Fall 2014).

Gail Peter Borden, Discipline Head of Architecture and Director of Graduate Architecture Programs will have several featured commissioned pieces at Art Basel Miami Beach in December. Additionally his installation Light Frames will be included in a museum exhibition in the spring the University Art Museum at California State University Long Beach. His fourth book: Process: Material and Representation in Architecture with Routledge will be on shelves in spring along with his introductory framing essay to Material ConneXtion’s Material Innovation: Innovations in Architecture by Thames and Hudson. This fall professor Borden was appointed Faculty Master of the USC Parkside Arts and Humanities Residential College.

Tom Kundig, FAIA of Olson Kundig Architects—2013-2014 visiting professor and Jon Adams Jerde, FAIA Chair in Architecture at USC—designed one of the venues that will be used for Project Los Altos, the off-site exhibition program for SFMOMA. The 242 State Street building will host SFMOMA from November 9, 2013 through March 2, 2014

Neil Leach has been appointed Professor of Digital Design at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. He has also published 2 books, Digital Workshop in China (Tongji UP, 2013) and Design Intelligence: Advanced Computational Research (CABP, 2013), curated 2 exhibitions, Interactive Shanghai in Shanghai and the 2013 DADA Student Exhibition in Beijing, and organised 2 conferences, Interactive Shanghai in Shanghai with Philip Beesley as keynote speaker, and 3-D Printing in Concrete in Dessau with Behrokh Khoshnevis and Enrico Dini as keynote speakers.

Patrick Tighe, FAIA, Adjunct Professor, won a 2013 AIA award from the AIA, California Chapter for the Sierra Bonita Affordable Housing. 

The project was also awarded the IDEAS2 Award from the American Institute of Steel Construction for excellence & innovative design in steel frame buildings. 

Rob Ley, Principle of Urbana, completes ‘May/Septmber’, a 14,000 sq. ft. interactive facade at the new Wishard Hospital, Indianapolis IN this month.  A grand opening is schedule for February, 2014.  Ley’s firm also recently completed a permanent outdoor installation ‘Floating Point’ as part of a new high density residential development outside of San Francisco, CA.  Ley also has past projects included in the recent Acadia conference, and included in recent publications Performative Materials in Architecture and Design by Sneha Patel and Installation Art II edited by Annie Lai.

 

 

 

University of Southern California

/in /by

 Jose Sanchez, assistant professor of architecture has just joined USC coming from The Bartlett, UCL in London where he formerly taught. He will be exhibiting the ‘Bloom’ project, designed and developed for the 2012 London Olympics the 5th of September at the new Frac building for the Archilab opening in Orleans, France. Later in the year he will be presenting his paper ‘Gamescapes’ in Acadia 2013 in Waterloo, where he develops a framework for using game mechanics as a design heuristics. Additionally, he will be presenting his paper ‘Hacklikes’ in the TxA conference in Texas taking place the 7-9 of November of 2013. His paper connects ideas of gaming, design and object oriented ontology. Jose, director of the Plethora-Project (www.plethora-project.com), is currently working with the support of Soomeen Hahm on the translation the over 120 videos of online teaching, his current public repository, into Chinese language, attempting to open the field of computational architectural design via online teaching to China

DSH // architecture, the firm of Adjunct Associate Professor Eric Haas, was named a finalist in the 2013 Spark > Spaces Design Competition for the Para Los Niños Family Center in downtown Los Angeles. The firm also recently completed the renovation of Welton Becket’s 1955 New York Life building to house a 500-student charter middle & high school. 

Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA and his firm Brooks + Scarpa received six 2013 American Institute of Architects California Council (AIACC) Design Awards. He also chaired the 2013 Monterey Design Conference held  at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA. His building, Metalsa Center for Manufacturing Innovation was published in The Plan, Architect Magazine, Architectural Review and several other books and journals.

Principals of Ehrlich Architect Steven Ehrlich, FAIA and Takashi Yanai, AIA were speakers at the 10th annual Reinvention Symposium produced by Residential Architect Magazine. The symposium, held in San Francisco October 9-11th, was focused on Resilience and how architects can lead the way as change agents for near- and long-term shifts in the environment, demographics, economics, technology, and much more.

Victor Regnier FAIA, Professor of Architecture and Gerontology is continuing his exploration of the hybrid housing/service model “Apartments for Life” (A4LIFE); that uses universal design principles, adaptable physical adjustments and technology to maintain older frail people in normal purpose-built independent housing. He has just completed a 56 page monograph that chronicles the work of his Spring graduate studio–a 60 unit project on the northwest corner of the USC campus.  The project integrates an emeriti center, USC civic engagement, 14 classrooms, an auditorium, café and coffee house in a moderate-density mixed-use setting.  Copies of the publication entitled USC Apartment for Life are available from Blurb, Inc. for $80. http://www.blurb.com/search/site_search?search=USC+Apartment+for+Life&filter=bookstore&commit=Search(ISBN#978-0-578-12743-9) OR you can request a FREE PDF by emailing him directly at regnier@usc.edu. 

Professor Regnier has made presentations in the last year to the University of Iowa Medical School, the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, and carried out discussion sessions at the Hammar Museum and Westside Urban Forum (LA) on this topic.  He will continue to present A4LIFE ideas at a symposium at the University of Kansas in November, a Healthcare Forum in Michigan in the Spring and a soon to be scheduled seminar at Clemson University in their healthcare Architecture program.  An article reviewing the history and future trajectory of this concept will appear in the ASA (American Society for Aging) journal in the Spring.  A Q+A on the studio can be downloaded at  http://asaging.org/blog/life-way-we-want-it-conversation-gero-architect-victor-regnier-faia

Jennifer Siegal, Adjunct Associate Professor and Principal of Office of Mobile Design, was recently featured by international Swedish filmmaker, Jesper Wachtmeister, in his documentary film Microtopia — an examination of modern alternative dwellings and mobile lifestyles. The film profiles Siegal’s first prototype for prefab dwelling: “Joshua Tree PreFab”, a fully functional mobile dwelling that also embodies responsible, sustainable, and aesthetically beautiful design. The film has received international attention and acclaim, drawing attention to current trends in dwellings and use of space, as well as looking to the future for the  impact and influence design will have on lifestyles and resources. Siegal will be lecturing this Fall at RTKL’s Corporate Officer’s Meeting and at Texas Tech College of Architecture El Paso, in partnership with the El Paso Museum of Art and the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.

Professor Schierle added iconic structures to his web site http://www.usc.edu/structures  (click the tent icon) OR the direct link: http://www-classes.usc.edu/architecture/structures/Projects/Iconic%20Projects.htm.

Todd Gish, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, is part of the local committee working to bring the national conference of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History to Los Angeles in 2015.

Ken Breisch is the General Chair for the Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians to held in Austin, Texas, in April 2014, and recently served as the Moderator for a Panel Discussion Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the re-opening of the Los Angeles Public Library Central Building. 

Emily Gabel-Luddy, FASLA, lecturer, elected Mayor of Burbank for FY13-14, addressed the State of the L.A. River Watershed Symposium along with Mayor Eric Garcetti held October 10 in Downtown Los Angeles. Several landscape Architects attend the conference including Esther Margulies of AECOM also a lecturer. In September Mayor Gabel-Luddy lead a Burbank Delegation to Incheon, Korea for a Sustainable Cities Conference. 

Joon-Ho Choi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Building Science at USC was invited by the Philips Research Center, located in Briarcliff Manor, New York in August to talk about one of his recent research work, entitled “Human-Building Interaction: Potential Use of Human Bio-Signals for Building Environmental System Controls”, and part of the work will be presented at the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers – Indoor Air Quality (ASHRAE-IAQ) Conference held in Vancouver, Canada on October 15 through 18, titled “Human-Environment Interaction: Potential Use of Pupil Size for Visual Environmental Controls.”

Peter Simmonds and Pavel Getov presented a workshop titled “EPIDERMIS/HYPOTHALAMUS: BUILDING ENVELOPE AS A FACTOR CONTROLLING OCCUPANT THERMAL COMFORT” at the AIA Monterey Design Conference. There were more than 150 attendees.

Lecturer Scott Uriu‘s work will be exhibited in two upcoming Architecture and Design events in Santa Fe; Design Santa Fe – DesignLAB Next Nest at the SITE Gallery sponsored by Metropolis Magazine, and the Life Support: Art<->Design Sustenance exhibition to be held at the David Richard Gallery, both opening November 1st. Uriu’s Lima Project has been featured in the September issue of Green Buildings Magazine, Mark magazine #40, and the August issue of Urbanista.   Uriu’s Firestone Project  has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Architecture Record, and The Architects Newspaper regarding its inclusion in the Neverbuilt exhibition.  Uriu’s Keelung Project has been featured in the July B1 Magazine, and Future magazine #39/40, and his firm (Baumgartner+Uriu) has been featured in the Hindu Newspaper June 15th.   In April 2014 Baumgartner+Uriu will be exhibited in the SciArc Main Gallery in Los Angeles.  In October, Baumgartner+Uriu has been chosen by the Santa Cruz Metro Transit Authority as the Architect for the Watsonville Transit Center.

Kyle Konis, Ph.D, AIA, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Southern California, was invited by the City of Los Angeles Department of Urban Planning and the Office of Science and Technology at the Embassy of Austria to speak at a conference entitled “The Urbanization Challenge –Smart City Solutions from Austria and California,” at LA City Hall on October 11. He will speak on the topics of high performance buildings and resource efficient development.

Travis Longcore, Associate Professor (Research) of Spatial Sciences and Lecturer in Landscape Architecture was guest editor of a special issue on human-caused mortality of birds in Canada, published in the journal Avian Conservation and Ecology.  His guest editorial noted the need to adopt best management practices to reduce mortality such as bird-safe building design to reduce collisions with windows.

Assistant Professor Alvin Huang has been awarded a 2013 AIA|LA NextLA Design Award for the Pure Tension pavilion, a portable tensile membrane solar-powered charging station for the new Volvo V60 plug-in hybrid, which launches on October 10, 2013 in Rome, Italy.  He will be giving a lecture of his recent work on October 7, at the Aura Magna Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bologna, Italy.  Additionally, professor Huang has been appointed Program Director for the newly launched Architectural Association Globabl Visiting School Los Angeles, taking place in Summer 2014.

Laurel Consuelo Broughton and her studio WELCOMEPROJECTS’ installation, Black Holes opened at the Santa Monica Museum of Art as part of their Wall Works Series and runs through January 12, 2014. A play on words, in Black Holes over five hundred kindergarden through twelfth grade students interpret ideas about abstract space through drawing inside of blank Tetra Pak milk cartons. Installed all together, the group produces a part to whole simultaneity. On November 1,2013 Laurel will lecture on her work at Cal Poly Pomona as part of their Fall lecture series. 

Tulane University

/in , /by

 

The Tulane Regional Urban Design Center continues its work in the design education of public officials both in the US and abroad.  After a visit to New Orleans to better understand its urban character, planning and government officials from Jintang, Chengdu, China, have asked the TRUDC to create a master plan for their new town.  Accommodating approximately 150,000 new residents, TRUDC Director Grover Mouton and Project Director Nick Jenisch are working closely with several government agencies to aid in the implementation of the plan, including green infrastructure retrofitting of existing streets, design of all new roadways, siting and design for new civic buildings such as a stadium, library, and cultural center, and application of design guidelines to define and control the urban character of each new-town district.  As in each of its projects, the TRUDC has engaged School of Architecture students, who have contributed critical design and research work to the project.  The plan has been presented onsite to Jintang government leadership and is currently moving from design to engineering and implementation.

University of Houston

/in /by

Assistant Professor Gregory Marinic recently co-curated two exhibitions featuring selected work from ‘Close the Gap’, an international competition that envisioned alternative transportation strategies along the East River waterfront in New York.  Co-curated with Sandra McKee, Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Fordham University, ‘Close the Gap’ exhibitions feature winning submissions and selected projects representing global perspectives on the call.  Exhibitions are currently showing in CUNY/Baruch Collage’s Newman Library Lobby in Manhattan and Mashburn Gallery of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston.  ‘Close the Gap’ was co-sponsored by Transportation Alternatives–a New York-based transit advocacy organization and d3.


The University of Houston  Graduate Student Team in the ULI- Gerald D. Hines Urban Design Competition has been awarded Honorable Mention for their entry “Houston’s Urban Bayou Neighborhood.”

Out of 139 entries …only four are selected as finalists and nine for Honorable Mention.
The entry was a collaborative effort with the College of Business.  The team was led by Charlie Savino, Adjunct Professor, College of Business,and Susan Rogers, Assistant Professor, College of Architecture.  CoA Graduate Students were Ashley Rogers, Tiger Lyon,  and David Ladewig. Keith Richards and Brian Ferguson represented the College of Business. 

Gerald  D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston, Associate Professor Leonard Bachman has been invited to present a plenary presentation entitled Affect and Effect: A Blue Sky Curriculum Model for the Next Generation of Architectural Educators. He will be addressing the June 15 SBSE Retreat as the opening keynote.

Southern Illinois University

/in /by

Assistant Instructor Thad Heckman, RA of the School of Architecture Southern Illinois University Carbondale is the first winner of the newly created Leicester B. Holland Prize was selected by a jury held on August 31, 2011. The Holland Prize, a competition open to both students and professionals, recognizes the best single-sheet measured drawing of an historic building, site, or structure prepared by an individual(s) to HABS/HAER/HALS standards and guidelines. http://www.cr.nps.gov/hdp/competitions/holland_winners.htm The prize honors Leicester B. Holland (1882-1952), FAIA, who in the 1930s was chairman of the AIA’s Committee on Historic Buildings, head of the Fine Arts Division of the Library of Congress and first curator of the HABS collection, a co-founder of the HABS program, and the first chair of the HABS Advisory Board. It is administered by the Heritage Documentation Programs and is supported by the Paul Rudolph Trust, Architectural Record, a magazine of the American Institute of Architects, and the Center for Architecture, Design & Engineering in the Library of Congress.  The prize is intended to increase awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of historic sites, structures, and landscapes throughout the United States while adding to the permanent HABS, HAER and HALS collection at the Library of Congress, and to encourage the submission of drawings among professionals and students. By requiring only a single sheet, the competition challenges the delineator to capture the essence of the site through the presentation of key features that reflect its historic and its architectural, landscape architectural, or engineering significance. Assistant Instructor Heckman’s winning submittal is of the Richard Buckminster Fuller & Anne Hewlett Fuller Dome Home in Carbondale, Illinois.  From 1959 to 1970, Fuller taught at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Beginning as an assistant professor, he gained full professorship in 1968, in the School of Art and Design.      

Catholic University of America

/in /by

As in the previous four years, the School of Architecture & Planning at The Catholic University of America had a world-renown architect teaching a studio and lecturing at CUArch as part of our Walton Critic Program. Previous Walton Critics included Antoine Predock (2009), Craig Hartman (2010), and Juhani Pallasmaa (2011).

This year the Walton Critic and Professor in Residence was architect Alberto Campo Baeza. Campo Baeza is a Spanish architect internationally known for his luminous, simple yet nuanced, and always provocative architecture. His work is the result of a long, continuous, and disciplined investigation into the miracle of light in space. He has received extensive global recognition, including the Buenos Aires Biennial International Critic Prize (2009), the Eduardo Torroja Award (2005), the Venice Biennial (2000), and the Miami Gold Biennial Gold Medal (2000). Campo Baeza was also a selected candidate for The American Academy of Arts and Letters 2010 Architecture Award and a finalist in the 2011 Premio de Arquitectura Española. His built work, drawings, and ideas have been widely published in Spanish, English, Italian, French and Japanese. Campo Baeza has been a faculty member at the ETSAM-UPM in Madrid since 1976. On 09/12/12, Campo Baeza presented the lecture “Ineffable Architecture: Buliding Poetry by Thinking with Your Hands” at the Crough Center for Architectural Studies of The Catholic University of America. Additionally, on 09/19/12 7:00pm, Alberto Campo Baeza gave a lecture on his current work and reflections at the District Architecture Center (DAC) in downtown DC as part of the event “Architecture Week 2012” organized by the DAC. Please contact Director of the Sacred Spaces concentration Professor Julio Bermudez for more information.

The 2012 Summer Institute for Architecture (SIA) included several successful new initiatives including an Architectural Design Studio led by Ben Gilmartin (Diller Scofidio + Renfro); a Traveling Studio to NYC with Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, and Boston with Stoss LU; and a Design-Build Studio in Hopewell, Ohio. The Summer Institute also hosted a successful speaker series with Steve Vogel (University of Detroit Mercy); June Williamson (City College of New York); Billie Tsien (Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects); and Ben Gilmartin (Diller Scofidio + Renfro). A publication is currently in development with an anticipated January 2013 release date.

Each summer, the Catholic University of America School of Architecture and Planning conducts the Summer Institute for Architecture featuring numerous undergraduate and graduate level courses.  Among these are design studios and elective courses, including history of architecture, graphics, furniture design, theory, and computer-aided design/fabrication. Plans for the 2013 SIA include the NADAAA Design Studio (directed by Nader Tehrani) and a traveling studio to Los Angeles, CA. Please contact SIA Director Professor Julie Kim for more information.

Associate Professor Julio Bermudez received a grant to complete the second phase of his interdisciplinary neuroscience research of architecturally induced contemplation (done in collaboration with several researchers and departments of the University of Utah). Bermudez will be presenting two papers this Fall. The first work coauthored with Brandon Ro is entitled “Extraordinary Architectural Experiences: Comparative Study of Three Paradigmatic Cases of Sacred Space (The Pantheon, The Chartres Cathedral and the Chapel of Ronchamp) at the 2nd International Congress on Ambiances (Montreal, Canada). The second work “fMRI Study of Architecturally-Induced Contemplative States” will be presented at the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) 2012 Annual Conference (La Jolla, CA). In addition, professor Bermudez will travel this November to the University of San Juan in Argentina invited by the Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo to give a lecture entitled “Lo Cotidiano y lo Sagrado: Reflexiones desde el Arte y la Arquitectura” and teach the course “Philosophy in/of Architecture.”

As part of the AIA National Convention in Washington this past May, Associate Professor Eric J. Jenkins participated in the AIA Los Angeles and Broadcaster’s multimedia guide to Washington, DC architecture. This smartphone application helps guide listeners to architectural sites accompanied by commentary from local architects and educators.

Assistant Professor Hollee Hitchcock Becker presented a paper in the Smart and Sustainable Building Environments Conference in Sao Paolo, Brazil last June 2012. She also won a SASBE 2012 “Highly Commended Paper Award” for her work entitled “Sustainable, Affordable Housing using Locally-grown Bamboo”.

Assistant Professor Carlos Reimers was invited to be part of the Network Session “The Search for Multi-Story Incremental Housing” organized by the MIT’s Special Interest Group in Urban Studies SIGUS and presented in the Sixth Session of the United Nations World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy in September 2012. Professor Reimers also presented a paper on alternatives for the manufactured housing industry entitled “Beyond the Trailer: Rethinking Affordable Manufactured Housing in the U.S.” in the ACSA Fall 2012 Conference in Philadelphia “Off Site”.

The Catholic University of America is pleased to announce four new faculty members:

Assistant Professor Patricia Andrasik has been teaching both studios and sustainability courses at the CUArch Master of Sustainable Design Program since 2004, while practicing at an international architectural firm, She teaches LEED(ing) Green; Sustainable Synergies in Building Assessment, and recently developed a course called LEED EB: O&M on the Crough Architectural Center at CUA tracking and metering utility consumption to improve sustainability. Patricia will be launching two new courses in lighting and environmental analytics next year. 

Assistant Professor Dr. Charles Hostovsky joined the Catholic University of America to teach in the Master of City and Regional Planning program. “Chuck” is a Registered Professional Planner in Canada, and taught for 15 years at the University of Toronto. He has published widely and won two teaching awards, including the 2011 Government of Canada award for teaching sustainability. In professional practice for 25 years and with an extensive portfolio of planning projects, he was one of the Project Managers that won the Canadian Institute of Planners award for planning excellence in Transportation and Infrastructure in 2011.

Assistant Professor of Practice John Nahra, is the owner and Principal of Nahra Architects. John has been an architect in the design and construction industry of the greater Washington, DC area for the past 10 years. He received his dual degrees in Architecture and Civil Engineering at the Catholic University of America and is a member of the AIA, NCARB and the USGBC. John will be exploring the added value of architectural design in the real estate development process as well as serving as advisor in the Thesis program.

Visiting Assistant Professor David Dewane is an architect with Gensler.  In 2010 he founded Librii with seed funding from the World Bank Institute. The project aims to construct a network of digital libraries along Africa’s expanding fiber optic infrastructure. David trained at the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems in Austin, TX under renowned Pliny Fisk III and has a Master of Architecture from Rice University. He has held leadership positions on three teams in the U.S. DOE’s Solar Decathlon competition.

In the summer of 2009, the Catholic University of America Design Collaborative (CUAdc) was approached  by the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land with the special request to design four Hermitages on the Monastery grounds in Washington DC. A design studio led by CUAdc Director William Jelen AIA began work analyzing the site and the unique challenges and opportunities of the task. On the following Fall, two graduate studios led by professor George Martin and professor Lou Boza examined both the spiritual opportunities and the tectonic opportunities of a hermitage building. Finally in the Spring of 2010 as part of Catholic University’s Comprehensive Design Studio, Director Jelen led a 12 architecture student studio towards a singular design. This group known as Studio 12, designed what became the concept of the first Hermitage to be built. The design concept centered on the interplay and blending of the sacred and profane worlds as they pertain to an individual’s daily patterns, routines, and needs. The idea that each moment of ordinary daily life can be an opportunity for sacred appreciation and meditation, guided everything from the choice of natural materials and textures to the orientation of the unit itself facing East towards Jerusalem. The hermitage contains a sleeping area, kitchenette, and bathroom in approximately 350sf. The design incorporated sustainable site considerations, electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems including the use of natural ventilation. Through the choice of materials the design was meant to integrate into the existing historic campus. The first Hermitage is ADA compliant as well. The design for the project was awarded the 2010 AIA Unbuilt Award from the DC chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Work of the CUAdc has continued through the completion of construction on the interior design for the Hermitage including designing and fabricating a custom made chair, bed and desk for the Hermitage. For more information contact CUAdc Director William Jelen.

Philadelphia University

/in /by

Vini Nathan, dean of the School of Architecture at Philadelphia University, has been named dean of Auburn University’s College of Architecture, Design and Construction, effective July 1.

During her tenure at Philadelphia University from 1997 to the present, Nathan has been involved in a range of curricular, administrative and strategic initiatives, including recruiting faculty, assisting in accreditation efforts, helping to establish study abroad programs in such countries as Denmark and Australia and developing curricula enhancements, such as an artists in residence program and an annual design guest speakers series.  Nathan has taught in architecture and interior design programs at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota and New York Institute of Technology as well as at Philadelphia University.

Nathan earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Anna University, India, a master’s degree in interior design from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Ph.D. in architecture from the University of Michigan; she was a practicing architect in New Delhi, India, and more recently worked as an architect for Walker Group/CNI in New York, a full-service architectural design firm. Nathan was part of the team that worked on the Kuala Lumpur City Center, a design venture in conjunction with the noted architect and a former dean of the School of Architecture at Yale, Cesar Pelli.

“Dr. Nathan‘s experience, in the classroom and as a practitioner and administrator, will be a valuable asset not only to the college but also to the entire Auburn University community,” Provost Mary Ellen Mazey said.

Auburn University’s School of Architecture name has changed to the “School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture” in recognition of the growth and strength of the School’s graduate programs in Community Planning and Landscape Architecture.

Prof. Ricard Pié from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya is serving as a Visiting Scholar in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture through the spring summer of 2011. Prof. Pié is a Professor of Urban Planning at the UPC, where he currently teaches urban planning, urban design, and landscape subjects. He was director of the School of Architecture of Vallès and founder and director of the School of Architecture of Málaga. He was member of the team that designed General Plan for the Barcelona Metropolitan Area in 1976 and served as Head of Urban Planning Services and Management for the Barcelona City Council in the urban preparation for the Barcelona Olympics and the later development. Prof. Pié also manages a professional studio focused on architecture and urban planning, especially town and regional planning in tourist and coastal areas. The studio has been awarded several prizes thanks to many of these projects. The last two prizes are the Catalonia Prize for Urbanism (General Plan of Igualada) and the Research Award of the Biennial of Spanish Architecture and Urbanism (Housing Territorial Plan of Catalonia), both in 2011.

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of its ongoing sponsorship, Alagasco hosted an exhibition of Auburn Architecture student work from the 2010 Alagasco Student Design Competition.  The exhibit opened Friday evening, June 24th at 5:00 PM with a reception at the Alagasco Center for Energy Technology in downtown Birmingham.  The School also plans to celebrate past winners of the Alagasco Student Design Competitions with a special reunion event to be held at the School in October.

The College of Architecture, Design, & Construction is sponsoring Miklos Oroszlany, Fulbright Visiting Student Researcher in Architecture, from Hungary.  Oroszlany studied architecture and landscape architecture at the Budapest University of Technology. His architectural studies also included a one year scholarship at the Federico II University of Naples.  His specialization is architecture and materials, waste management in the field of architecture and research of building materials.

Oroszlany began his Fullbright research on June 1st and will be conducting research and assisting Prof. Sheri Schumacher with Fall Semester third year Architecture / Interior Architecture dual degree studio courses.

Prof. Charlene Le Bleu has been elected National President of Sigma Lambda Alpha, the Landscape Architecture Honor Society.   Prof. Le Bleu will assume office in August 2011 and serve for two years.

Professor Paul Zorr has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Building Technology Educator’s Society.

Prof. Alan Cook has been awarded Emeritus Associate Professor status upon his retirement from the architecture faculty in May. Alan has served on the faculty since 1979 and has taught at all levels of the architecture studio curriculum and in a broad spectrum of required and elective courses. His contributions to the architecture program and the School have been significant and he has touched the lives of countless students over the course of his long and success teaching career.

The School welcomes two new faculty for the fall. Dr. Jay Mittal will join the Community Planning program faculty as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. Jay has completed his PhD in Planning from the University of Cincinnati and brings experience as a professional planner in India to the program. Margaret Fletcher will join the Architecture program faculty as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. Margaret has a combined 14 years of teaching and practice experience, most recently with Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects in Atlanta.

This fall the School will host seven students from Istanbul Technical University (ITU), led by Dr. Bahadõr Numan of the ITU faculty. The ITU students and faculty will be working with Auburn students led by Prof. Tarik Orgen in the 3rd year architecture studio program and related classes. Auburn and ITU have been collaborating on international study programs since 2008. Under Prof. Orgen’s leadership, fifteen Auburn architecture students spent the spring semester studying at ITU.

David Hinson, Head of the School of Architecture, Planning, & Landscape Architecture has been promoted to the rank of Professor of Architecture.

Tulane University

/in , /by

Judith Kinnard, Harvey-Wadsworth Chair of Landscape Urbanism and Professor of Architecture was named as one of the DesignIntelligence 25 Most Admired Educators of 2012. Professor Kinnard’s commitment to architectural education spans 28 years, having taught at Syracuse University, Princeton University, and the University of Virginia. In her studio teaching, she focuses on institutional programs and their creative engagement of physical and cultural context. Her current research and teaching also involves the development of innovative approaches to low-rise/high-density housing for American cities. She maintains an active practice.

Favrot Professor and Dean Kenneth Schwartz, FAIA delivered a plenary address at the IBM Smarter Cities Conference in Rio de Janiero, Brazil in November, discussing the strategies and initiatives that Tulane School of Architecture and Tulane University have taken in the recovery of New Orleans.  He participated in this event with Ginni Rometty, the new President and CEO of IBM.  He also gave a talk at the same conference on the Richardson Memorial Hall Sustainable Strategies project that he has undertaken for the school’s 100 year-old building. The pre-design phase has been completed by FXFOWLE and el dorado architects with a strong team of sustainable engineering and landscape consultants.

Tulane School of Architecture is pleased to be the recipient of the 2011 NCARB Grant. This grant supports the creation and implementation of new methods to integrate practice and education in the academy. The funded proposal authored by adjunct assistant professor Z Smith and assistant professor Kentaro Tsubaki aims to integrate the post-building performance survey/analysis into pre-building design practice in the educational setting. The funds will be used to equip our students with the latest, most advanced technologies to collect and analyze building performance data in the newly developed technology course slated to be offered in the 2012-13 academic year.

Catholic University of America

/in /by

The School of Architecture & Planning at the Catholic University of America, Spain Arts & Culture, and the District Architectural Center are co-sponsoring the lecture by Spanish architect Iñaqui Carnicero on “Second Hand Spaces.”  Iñaqui Carnicero has been an Associate Professor of design at the School of Architecture, Polytechnic University of Madrid for 13 years and is currently a Visiting Critic at Cornell University.  He is also the director of “Symmetries” an architecture platform that relates Roman and contemporary strategies in the city.  His work has been widely recognized in multiple occasions by publications, exhibitions, and prestigious awards.  Carnicero´s lecture will explore the relationship between architecture and the economical context through some of his projects, and the opportunities that these constrains can offer in the design process.
The lecture is on Thursday 10/24 at 6:00pm, at the District Architectural Center located at 421  7th Street Northwest Washington, DC 20004 and entry is free for all public.  Registration is required at  http://aiadac.com/calendar/event/architecture-week-lecture-iñaqui-carcinero
Photo: hangar-16-matadero-madrid by Symmetries.

We use cookies and other tracking technologies for performance, analytics, marketing, and more customized site experiences. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our terms. Learn more about these in our Privacy Policy. ACSA reserves the right to delete content and suspend user accounts that it determines to be inappropriate.

OKLearn more