Donna Kacmar, Professor at the University of Houston, has just released her latest book, “Victor Lundy: Artist Architect.” Victor Lundy is an important yet underappreciated figure in the history of American architecture. The first book on Lundy’s life and career documents his early work in the Sarasota School of Architecture, his churches, and his government buildings. In addition to essays on his use of light and material, many of the architect’s original drawings, painting, and sketches now held at the Library of Congress – are reproduced here for the first time.
Graduate students in the design/build studio at the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design received accolades for their design and fabrication of an Embarkation Station at Port Houston. When it is installed, the nearly 400-foot structure will provide seating and shade from the hot Houston sun for many of the 30,000 passengers who take boat tours annually. On rainy days, the station’s roof will direct rainwater to four 130-gallon tanks to lower its flooding impact. Prof. Patrick Peters was the instructor. The project won the Mayor’s Proud Partner Award, Patrick’s 15thaward for his design build projects.
University of Houston Dean and Professor, Patricia Belton Oliver, FAIA, received the 2018 AIA Houston Educator of the Year Award.
Maziar Behrooz, TSA ’85, and his firm MB Architecture received several awards in 2018 for the project Bard College Center for Experimental Humanities. The building was named runner-up in Dwell magazine’s 2018 Best of Design awards in the prefab category. DrivenxDesign also gave the project awards in two categories: DrivenxDesign New York, Public & Institutional, Gold 2018, and DrivenxDesign Now, Social and Community-Oriented Design, Silver 2018.
For more information about the project on Dwell.com, click here.
Click here for the DrivenxDesign New York award page, and click here for the DrivenxDesign Now award page.
2019 ACSA Appointee to the NAAB Board of Directors Deadline: March 6, 2019
The ACSA Nominations Committee invites nominations for one appointee to the NAAB Board of Directors.The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) is comprised of thirteen members: three appointed by ACSA, three appointed by AIA, three appointed by NCARB, two appointed by AIAS, and two public members. Currently, David Hinson, Auburn University; John Cays, NJIT; and Marilys Nepomechie, Florida International University are the ACSA appointees to the NAAB Board. With the expiration of Jori Erdman’s term in October 2018, the ACSA Board of Directors is considering candidates for her successor.
The appointment is for a three-year term (Oct. 2019 – Oct. 2022) and calls for a person willing and able to make a commitment to NAAB. While previous experience as an ACSA board member or administrator is helpful, it is not essential for nomination. Some experience on NAAB visiting teams will be considered necessary; otherwise the nominee might be unfamiliar with the highly complex series of deliberations involved in this position. Faculty and administrators are invited to nominate faculty from an ACSA full member school with some or all the following qualifications:
Significant experience with and knowledge of the accreditation process;
Significant acquaintance with and knowledge of ACSA, its history, policy programs, and administrative structure;
Significant acquaintance with the range of school and program types across North America.
Willingness to represent the constituency of ACSA on accreditation-related issues.
Ability to work with the NAAB and ACSA boards to build consensus on accreditation-related issues.
For consideration, please submit a concise letter of nomination, a one-page CV indicating the nominee’s experience under the above headings, and a letter from the nominee indicating willingness to serve. Materials are due by March 6, 2019.
Nominations should be sent to:
Nominations should be sent to:
Michelle Sturges (ACSA, Board Nominations) 1735 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20006 Email: msturges@acsa-arch.org
RESULTS The ACSA board of directors is pleased to announce the results of the 2019 ACSA Elections:
Second Vice President: Robert Alexander González, Texas Tech University At-Large Director Position 1: Courtney Crosson, University of Arizona At-Large Director Position 2: Jeff L. Day, University of Nebraska Lincoln
They will be joined by Adam Gregory Fogel (Illinois Institute of Technology / AIAS) as incoming ACSA Student Director.
Candidates & Online Voting Below is information on the 2019 ACSA election, including candidate information. Official ballots were emailed to all full-member ACSA schools’ Faculty Councilors, who are the voting representatives. Faculty Councilors must complete the online ballot by close of business, February 8, 2019.
The Second Vice President will serve on the Board for a four-year term, beginning on July 1, 2019, with the first year served as Second Vice President, the second year served as First Vice President/President-Elect, the third year served as President, and the fourth year served as Past President. The links below include campaign statements written by each candidate and short curriculum vitae.
The At-Large Director serves for a three-year term, beginning on July 1, 2019. At-Large Directors serve as voting members of the Board. In addition, they have the following roles and responsibilities: (A) Liaison With Member Schools, including participating in organized business meetings; maintaining contact with Faculty Councilors and others associated with member schools; assisting member schools upon request; advising candidate or affiliated schools; and advising the Board of issues and concerns raised by members; (B) Contributing to the Work of the Board through actively serving on Board committees and contributing to collective deliberations; and (C) Performing Other Duties, as provided by the Rules of the Board of Directors or requested by the Board. The links below include campaign statements written by each candidate and short curriculum vitae.
ACSA Bylaws, Article VIII. Nominations, Elections, and Recall, Section 3: Election Process: “Elections shall be held in accordance with the Rules of the Board of Directors. Faculty Councilors of member schools shall be responsible for encouraging colleagues to express their views regarding candidates for Association elections, and shall submit the vote of the member school they represent on behalf of all members of the faculty. The Association shall announce the results of elections and appointments as soon as feasible, consistent with the Rules of the Board of Directors.”
The Faculty Councilor from each ACSA full-member school is the voting representative. Faculty Councilors must complete the online ballot by close of business, February 8, 2019.
2019 ACSA Board Election Timeline January 9, 2019 Ballots emailed to all full-member schools, Faculty Councilors February 8, 2019 Deadline for receipt of completed online ballots March 2019 Winners announced at ACSA Annual Business Meeting in Pittsburgh
The Faculty Councilor from each ACSA full-member school is the voting representative and must complete the online ballot by close of business, February 8, 2019.
Associate Professor Lisa Schrenk authored “Design Evolution: Art Deco at the Century of Progress International Exposition,” one of five leading essays in the just released book Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America, edited by Robert Bruegmann and published by Yale University Press. To read more about Lisa’s work and the publication http://capla.arizona.edu/awards/lisa-schrenk-essay-published-new-book-chicago-art
Nader Chalfoun, PhD., professor of architecture; Ivan Gaxiola, MS.Arch alumus (2016), and Colby Moeller, architecture lecturer; have recently published their work in the “International Journal of Design and Nature Economics.” The article, “Architectural Implementation of Vegetated Cover from Agriculture and Restoring Human Thermal Comfort and Mitigating the Urban Heat Island Effect in Arid Regions,” is available via www.witpress.com/journals/dne
Assistant Professor Alethia Idareleased a book chapter titled “Energetic Forms of Matter” on October 22 in the book publication Reusable and Sustainable Building Materials in Modern Architecture by IGI Global Press, Eds. Gulsa Koch and Bryan Christiansen. https://www.igi-global.com/gateway/book/201930
Assistant Professor Jonathan Bean’s book, Taste Consumption and Markets: An Interdisciplinary Volume published by Routledge.
Residency
Associate Professor Beth Weinstein received a second Visual Arts Residency at the Cite` International des Arts, in Paris for Spring 2019. www.citedesartsparis.net/
Grants
Assistant Professor Courtney Crosson received National Institute for Transportation & Communities Small Starts grant for the research entitled, “Urban Trasportation System Flood Vulnerability Assesment with Special Reference to Low Income and Minority Neighborhoods” with Dr. Daoqin Tong at ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. http://capla.arizona.edu/awards/courtney-crosson’s-grant-funded-through-nitc
Assistant Professor Anna Koosmann received an Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) Core Certificate of Research Excellence for the study entitled, “Evaluating the Impact of the First Filipino Design-Build University Program”. https://www.edra.org/page/2018_core_recipients
Director David Fortin, served as a co-curator along with Architect Douglas Cardinal and Professor Gerald McMaster (OCAD University)
for UNCEDED: Voices of the Land, which was selected through a national juried competition to represent Canada at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. This was at the Arsenale, Venice, Italy, held May-November, 2018.
MSoA UNCEDED participants included: Master Lecturer Eladia Smoke, Sessional Instructor Jake Chakasim, Adjunct Professor Patrick Stewart and Bohdana Chiupka-Innes and Krystel Clark (students).
The inaugural meeting for the McEwen International Advisory Board occurred on November 27th. Members of the board include: MSoA Founding Director and Chair Terrance Galvin, Current MSoA DirectorDavid Fortin, Bruce Mau, Jason McLennan (McLennan Design) (Marianne McKenna (Architect, KPMB Architects), Alfred Waugh (Architect, Formline Architecture), Cheryl and Rob McEwen.
Architecture Students Design New Santee Sioux Nation Family Resource Center
University of Nebraska College of Architecture master students are helping theSantee Sioux Nation Family Resource Center (SSNFRC) become a reality. After years of planning, consultation and design, this new center is breaking ground January 10th at 2 pm on the Santee Sioux Nation Reservationat the corner of Wounded Man Ave and Visiting Eagle St.,Niobrara, Nebraska, with an estimated fall 2019 completion date. This 950 square foot facility encompasses a Child Advocacy Center and a Services and Support Center for residents and members of the Santee Sioux Nation. Among the amenities, the center will have rooms for private interviews, observations, examinations and a large room and kitchen for family reunions.
The work on the SSNFRC facility began late in 2015 as a collaboration between The Nebraska Children and Families Foundation (NCFF), The Santee Sioux Tribal Council (SSTC) and the PLAIN2015-16 design research studio, instructed by Architecture Associate Professor Jason Griffiths. In the spring of 2016 Griffiths and design-build master students created the concept designs and assisted with construction documents for the project in consultation with SSTC and NCFF.
With the concepts in hand, this allowed the design team to raise funds and begin negotiations with construction professionals.
“Over the next year I was able to maintain enthusiasm and develop details of the project through other classes,” said Griffiths. “These efforts paid off through material donations of brick by Glen-Gery Brick and the International Masonry Institute, windows from Acadia, CLT wall cost deductions from Structurlam and “in-kind” donations of services from engineers Shaffer & Stevens.”
With commitments and financials in place, the NCFF appointedActual Architecturefounder and UNL Architecture Professor Jeffrey L. Day as the architect of record for the final stages of the project including preparing construction documents, construction contract administration and collaborating with Griffiths, the PLAIN studio and contractor Woody Roberts Construction.
“The Santee Sioux Nation Family Resource Center is a fine example of how the College of Architecture can bring a meaningful change for Nebraskans who live in challenging situations. Teaching architecture through “design-build” presents a unique opportunity to provide quality buildings for people who would not normally have the benefit of our profession,” said Griffiths.
A facility located in a remote, rural Nebraska community under federal jurisdiction with the confines of a tight budget presents many challenges that would understandably exclude most working architects. However it’s precisely those difficulties that give College of Architecture students unique learning experiences in design-build education explains Griffiths.
“The process is long and often appears to move slowly but it also provides a true test of the patience and broad, creative thinking needed to make a good building,” said Griffiths. “Through design-build, students learn to apply their knowledge to “real world” situations while maintaining a high quality of architecture.”
Griffiths explains the SSNFRC is a great example of architectural work that elevates ordinary building forms through careful consideration of spatial arrangements.
“It illustrates how the functional aspects of a building can develop into a symbolic architectural language,” said Griffiths. “In this case the message lies in the eloquent arrangement of two squares that are linked together in the corners, a symbol for uniting people whose lives have been disrupted by difficult circumstances. From the exterior, the building appears unremarkable. Its double gables convey the plan arrangement in two simple facades each with a square window. However this simplicity is a pretext for a message of stability that we want the project to convey.”
Through careful consideration and input from stakeholders’ consultations, the students created a facility that was cognizant of the environmental situations surrounding the building’s occupants.
“Children and families coming to this building do so in difficult emotional circumstances. We hope that an unassuming building would help mitigate fear and anxiety wherever possible,” said Griffiths. “To provide privacy, windows selected for the façade that look into examination rooms are partly obscured with a ContraVision, one-way screen, brick pattern, while the larger windows that open to the gathering spaces invite the kind of reconciliation that we hope the building will help achieve.”
Additionally, this building will be the first, fully-conditioned, cross-laminated timber (CLT) building in the Great Plains region. CLT is an emerging form of construction that offers an alternative to concrete and steel construction. It provides a clean, fast-track assembly system with the benefits of carbon sequestration.
“These CLT advantages add to a profound sense of warmth and stability on the interior. The wall and roof panels, produced from solid 4’ thick Douglas Fir, provide a natural finish with a palpable sense of solidity that is rare in contemporary architecture,” said Griffiths. “Once completed SSNFRC will become a showcase for advanced forms of engineered lumber construction and will demonstrate how the College of Architecture is promoting new, innovative, forms of architectures to the next generation of architects.”
Architecture faculty exhibit work at world famous museum
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Yasmine Abbas and DK Osseo-Asare, assistant professors of architecture and engineering design at Penn State, are among the invited artists whose works are on display in the “Africas in Production” exhibition at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The exhibit is part of the Digital Imaginaries project, which began in spring 2018 with events in Senegal and South Africa before heading to Germany. Throughout the year partners including Kër Thiossane, an independent art and multimedia center in Dakar (Senegal), the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival and Wits Arts Museum, both in Johannesburg (South Africa), collaborated on a series of distinct but connected programs, including workshops, seminars, talks, performances and exhibitions. These activities were designed to “bring together artists, architects, makers, hackers and researchers to question and reimagine how globalized technologies shape and shift African futures.
Penn State’s submission to the exhibit stems from the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP), founded by Abbas and Osseo-Asare in Ghana. AMP is a youth-driven community-based project that couples the practical know-how of makers in the informal sector with the technical knowledge of students and young professionals in the science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) fields to amplify inclusive innovation.
Abbas and Osseo-Asare’s AMP project has received international attention, winning the Rockefeller Foundation’s Centennial Innovation Challenge Award, being named the Africa 4 Tech Digital Champion for Educational Technology (EdTech) and the Design Corps Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED) Award for Public Interest Design. Most recently, the duo received seed funding via a Penn State College of Arts and Architecture faculty research grant to advance their “spacecraft” research around community-enabled materials design research, which is currently ongoing with a number of graduate and undergraduate students at the University Park campus.
The pair traveled to Germany in November to install their third-generation AMP Spacecraft, which featured a “building performance” wherein graduate students and faculty from the Karslruhe Institute of Technology participated in an experimental test build to provide feedback on Penn State students’ design work to date. AMP Spacecraft is small-scale, incremental, low-cost and open-source, operating simultaneously as a set of tools and equipment to “craft space,” and empowering makers with limited means to both navigate and terraform their environment. Made in Ghana by grassroots makers and shipped from the first AMP maker hub in Accra’s Agbogbloshie scrapyard, the AMP Spacecraft prototypes a smart canopy device – or “Scanopy” – that collects air quality data and explores opportunities to amplify environmental sensing in data-scarce regions.
While in Germany, Abbas and Osseo-Asare presented the AMP project along with their on-going design research around maker ecosystems in African spaces during a “Tangana” panel at the “Open Codes: The World as a Field of Data” installation at ZKM. Panelists included makers from Ghana and Germany that discussed common trends in open-source maker and technology culture, as well as opportunities for bottom-up (democratic) innovation by leveraging citizen science initiatives and/or models of open science.
ZKM | Karlsruhe is the fourth-highest ranking museum in the world by ArtsFacts.net and houses both spatial arts, such as painting, photography and sculpture, and time-based arts, such as film, video, media art, music, dance, theater and performance. The “Africas in Production” exhibit is now open and will remain on display until March 31, 2019.
The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) are launching a second phase of research into professional practice education and its connection to work in architecture firms. The research will measure practitioners’ perceptions of readiness for professional practice, as well as what recent graduates think about the alignment of their education with firm expectations. The effort, which will begin in early 2019, follows on a 2018 analysis of professional practice education at programs accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB).
“ACSA and NCARB have common interests in improving the alignment of architectural education and practice,” said Michael J. Monti, ACSA Executive Director. “We are pleased to continue collaborating with NCARB on issues that affect the profession and the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”
“Through NCARB’s continued partnership with the ACSA, our 55 licensing boards will gain a deeper understanding of how the current educational landscape is preparing the next generation of architects for practice,” said NCARB CEO Michael Armstrong. “We are particularly interested to learn if key lessons from professional practice courses align with firm expectations.”
Firm leaders and human resources staff at architecture offices will be invited to take the online survey in the coming months, followed by a survey of architectural associates who recently graduated with an accredited professional degree.
AASL Column, December 2018 Lucy Campbell and Barbara Opar, column editors Column by Barbara Opar
Yes, it’s that time of year. Based upon feedback from last year, we thought we’d again share a list of notable books from 2018. Any one of these would make a great gift for you to suggest or give to yourself!
Many books have described and shown Calatrava’s built work. This book, written in the first person, reveals the architect/engineer’s creative process through beautifully presented sketches.
An encyclopedic overview of the modern movement, Bradbury has chosen to divide modernism into two categories: Media & Masters and Houses & Interiors. Many of the images shown are iconic. A robust text with background information and the influence of the designer follows. Furniture, lighting, ceramics and glass, industrial and product design, and graphics and posters make up the first category. In the section on houses and interiors, emphasis is placed on masterfully selected color photographs detailing the structures. The book distills the modern movement in a highly visual and engaging way, making it a great addition to anyone’s collection.
Chalk, Warren. Archigram : the book. London: Circa Press, 2018. ISBN: 9781911422044. 300 pages. $85.07
This book is a must-have for anyone interested in the ideas of Archigram. It faithfully presents the work of this important group, with major endeavors shown in full color. The covers of the zines are realistically shown with the pop-ups found in the originals.
Balkrishna Doshi just won the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, though this title will not be released until late May 2019. But the wait may be worth it as there are few current books on this leading figure in modern Indian architecture.
Susan Jones, responding to the challenge of climate change, has written a book about this new construction technology. Jones’ research includes a study of sustainable forest management and carbon emission issues, then moves on to present the actualization of her research in the designing of her own home.
This new release is the edited version of the multi-volume set based on two HGSD studios and written for the 2014 Venice Biennale. The format is much larger and clearer and errors corrected. Each chapter traces the origins, use and issues related to a specific building element.
The topic of this book is unique with its study of the ceremonial stone landscapes of the Northeastern United States. The author has prepared a field guide to the known, lost, forgotten and misidentified megalithic stone structures, discussing their symbolism and asserting them to be remnants of a past now lost civilization.
This newly released biography of Philip Johnson presents him in all his complexity with his paradoxical views and often controversial stances. The author details Johnson’s contributions to modern architecture such as the creation and funding of MOMA’s architecture department, his impact as a theorist, his changing views on architectural styles and legacy of notable built works. But he also describes the Jewish gay man with a fascination for Nazism. While entertaining, the book delves depth into the life of Philip Johnson, the stararchitect.
Libeskind, Daniel. Edge of Order. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2018. ISBN: 9780451497352. 320 pages. $37.42
In an engaging book, Libeskind reveals his creative process and talks about the myriad sources he draws upon for inspiration for his buildings. Libeskind shares his ideas, sketches, drawings and photographs for a select list of built and unbuilt works, revealing how his architectural projects evolve.
McLeod, Virginia(Ed). Atlas of Brutalist Architecture. New York: Phaidon Press, 2018. ISBN: 9780714875668. 560 pages. $107.00
High resolution black and white photographs help tell the story of this modernist movement. The author lists buildings according to region of the globe, providing a basic description of the work along with function, status and condition. The author’s approach makes a compelling case for the wide variety of forms that constitute this often reviled form of architecture which at one point in time spanned the globe .
Eric Mumford has written a number of critical texts on the urbanism of the modern movement. In this book he presents an overview of both actual and theoretical designs, from a global perspective.
Pauly, Danièle. Le Corbusier: Drawing as Process. . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018. ISBN: 9780300230994. 304 pages. $32.37
Written by a scholar of the work and especially art of Le Corbusier, Pauly discusses how Le Corbusier used drawing to understand the world and how his drawings influenced his other work.
A thorough review of the role of the architectural exhibitions in shaping both discourse and design, Pelkonen highlights watershed moments with stunning images.
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