The libraries of the University of Southern California are proud to announce the additions of several new digital archive collections featuring architects and architectural photography.
The Fritz Block and Pierre Koenig slides are two of the smaller unique collections in the possession of the USC Libraries. They document examples of 20th century California architecture that developed stylistically from the foundations of the International Style as established by the 1932 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, titled Modern Architecture: International Exhibition, and of European pre-World War II Modernism. Koenig. Fritz Block (1889-1955) was a German-trained architect, who moved to Los Angeles in 1938. He shot slides of many private homes, as well as of some housing developments. Pierre Koenig (1925-2004) was among the most important Modern architects working in Southern California, and a long-time faculty at the USC School of Architecture. He is noted, among many projects, for participating in the Case Study House program, and for designing Case Study Houses #21 and #22. The digitized slides were selected by Pierre Koenig. Funding for digitization of the Architectural Teaching Slide Collection was provided by Victor Albert Regnier, ACSA Distinguished Professor and Professor of Architecture and Geronotology at the USC School of Architecture. This information was provided by Ruth Wallach, Head (1999-2014) of the Architecture and Fine Arts Library, USC.
The archive of Wayne Thom, a renowned architectural photographer who shot only with natural light, worked without assistant and meticulously printed his own images,” came to the University of Southern California Libraries in September 2015. “Thom’s stunning photographs of landmark buildings throughout the American West and Asia… include many buildings on the USC campus, including images of von KleinSmid Center, the 1968 USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism building, Heritage Hall, Varian Hall and others.” The collection dates from the 1960s through 2012 and in addition to his photographs include his extensive graphic design work such as architectural brochures for clients. [All quotations are from Allison Engel. “Architectural photographer Wayne Thom’s beautiful images head to USC Libraries” in USCNews (2015 August 31)]
USC alumnus Carl Maston was an influential Los Angeles mid-century modern architect. Upon graduation, Maston worked for the offices of Floyd Rible, A. Quincy Jones, Fred Emmons, Phil Daniel, and Allied Architects before opening his own office. His homes, shopping centers, military housing units, and university buildings can be found throughout Southern California. Known for his stark, no-frills modern buildings such as the Maston (or Marmont) Residence and Hillside House, his career spanned over 40 years in public and private sectors. The bulk of the collection consists of architectural project files as well as architectural photographs by longtime-collaborator Julius Shulman.
The Edward H. Fickett Collection contains a selection of items digitized from the archives of the architectural office of Edward H. Fickett (1916-1999), FAIA, in Special Collections, USC Libraries. The physical collection contains 664.04 linear feet of architectural drawings, renderings, and photographs as well as other material stored in 360 boxes, including 99 long boxes, 163 document boxes, 2 banker’s boxes, an additional 96 boxes of various sizes; and 52 flat file drawers. Another set of renderings is stored in flat folders. In addition, there are 4 3-D models of Fickett projects. The entire physical collection dates from 1945-2013. Examples in the digital selection include some of Fickett’s more notable designs: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Police Academy, Hotel Cabo San Lucas, Los Angeles City Hall tower renovation and the Port of Los Angeles Passenger and Cargo Terminals. The rights to the archive as well as the physical materials were transferred to USC. The USC Digital Library acknowledges the support provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission in making this material available online.
ConAgra, formerly headquartered in Omaha, Neb. moved its headquarters to Chicago. Now the city of Omaha and ConAgra are considering redevelopment. Instructors Emily Anderson and Geoff Deold‘s 411 studio reimagines Omaha’s ConAgra campus and Heartland of America Park as housing, mixed use, and a new anchor tenant. Students were charged with adapting existing urban building typologies to imagine new models of urbanism, adapting form to be responsive to use, context, and public or open space.
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE STUDENT TEAM WINS HUD 2016 INNOVATION IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMPETITION
AUSTIN, TX—April 25, 2016— A team of graduate students from the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture has won the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) third annual Innovation in Affordable Housing Student Design and Planning Competition. The team was one of the four finalist teams to develop a plan to redevelop a public housing project, Monteria Village, in Santa Barbara, California.
Students Sarah Simpson, Brett Clark, Megan Recher,Brianna Garner Frey, and Tatum Lau presented their final project on April 19 at HUD headquarters in Washington, DC, and took home the win, beating teams from the University of Kansas, Harvard University, and the University of Maryland at College Park.
“It’s amazing to watch our next generation create a plan for the future of affordable housing in a way that helps low-income families become self-sufficient,” said Katherine O’Regan, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research. “As we celebrate the third year of this competition, our hope is to continue this creative and forward thinking when it comes to affordable housing.”
HUD and the Santa Barbara Housing Authority challenged the teams to consider the complex challenges associated with rehabbing the current structure or demolishing it and creating new construction. Participants had to consider design, community development, and financing elements in order to provide an all-encompassing plan and solution that would allow the housing authority to meet its goal of offering safe and sustainable affordable housing. Students also needed to understand the needs of the intended residents, the zoning restrictions, and leveraging opportunities.
The UT School of Architecture team will receive a $20,000 award for their first-place win. The competition jurors praised the team members for their sophisticated site plan that connects homes and social space. The team also received very high marks for their water conservation plans and their plans to include an education center which will provide school and job training to address the needs of the community.
The UTSOA team was advised by professors Elizabeth Mueller, Jake Wegmann, Dean Almy, and Simon Atkinson.
A confluence of forces, external and internal, creates the context in which our academic programs advance research, engage communities, and deliver an education in architecture. The reset effected by a worldwide economic downturn that, despite gains, continues to reverberate, has re-focused energy on innovation, entrepreneurship, performance, and productivity. It has done so even while heightening our awareness of a profound global interdependence, of world-wide environmental vulnerabilities, and of the myriad ways in which we are collectively diminished by broad and persistent disparities in access, in income, and in the conditions essential to health and well-being.
Out of that context grows a sharpened awareness of the centrality of research and scholarship to advancement in the academy, in the profession, and in all aspects of practice; of the outsize power that resides in cultivating diversity, and leveraging a plurality of voices, capacities and disciplinary perspectives in the course of our work; and on the necessity to exercise our disciplinary skills in collaborative, reciprocal relationship to our counterparts across borders in the academy and in the profession.
Charges to Board Committees and Task Forces
Over the past months, I have engaged the committees of the ACSA Board to address these conditions through actions that affect the governance structure of the organization, as well as its programming and management activities. These charges have sought to initiate programs and build upon successful ongoing initiatives that express our core values, help frame potential new directions and opportunities for action, and position the organization at the heart of information, innovation, and engagement within our international and multi-collateral contexts.
A joint charge to the Board’s Publications, Awards, and Scholarly Meetings Committees asked members to embark on ambitious programs to assess and grow the number of ACSA instruments and venues for the dissemination of faculty production, including publications, presentation, and exhibitions.
Presidential task forces have focused on leveraging the growing digital capacity of the organization in multiple spheres: To enhance ACSA’s role in facilitating and advancing peer-reviewed research and scholarship, both in North America and internationally; to stake out a position of influence in the critical arena of program rankings and academic metrics; and to continue to assist programs in their recruitment efforts.
ACSA has convened an International Task Force with representatives from each of the collateral organizations—AIA, NCARB, AIAS, and NAAB—to begin shaping an international agenda for ACSA, raising its profile beyond North America and leveraging its existing programs and organizational strengths to facilitate collaborative international opportunities for faculty, students, and professionals across geographic, cultural, and national borders. As in the area of research, the international task force has worked collaboratively with the collateral participants to attain mutual advancement.
Strategic Plan and Governance
Understanding that significant accomplishment requires a clear and holistic articulation of values and goals, the board’s Planning Committee, led this year by President Elect Bruce Lindsey, has concluded its 2-year strategic planning process. For the first time in over a decade, and with broad member input, the ACSA has produced a new organizational statement of its desired future.
Equally important to its ability to undertake and fulfill an ambitious agenda, is a board governance structure that supports greater productivity, and includes broad member participation. A multi-year process that resulted last fall in member approval of a longer presidential ladder, continues this year with the creation of three new governance committees whose work will inform and advance the activities of the board.
Path Forward with NAAB
Our ongoing work with our collateral organizations on the governance and funding of NAAB has entered a new phase, as we continue our efforts to create a more equitable and affordable accreditation process: one that grows representation on its governing board for educators; that cabins its expenses, bringing them to closer parity with the accreditation processes of comparable disciplines; and one that opens avenues for greater coordination with our collateral partners around our shared interests in sustaining the growth and development of the continuum of architectural education, from K-12 through collegiate, internship, and continuing education. The Board has devoted a significant amount of time to advance these goals, as they affect our members significantly.
Other Collateral Collaborations
Beyond our participation in the joint collateral Path Forward task force, ACSA maintains close, active, and productive ties with AIA, AIAS, NAAB, and NCARB. This range of engagements joins the voices of educators to those of the profession, regulation, students, and emerging professionals. Our leadership in these efforts advances architectural education and research and, in so doing, benefits our members.
With NCARB we have exchanged committee liaisons. ACSA West Central Director Nadia Anderson served on the NCARB Integrated Path Evaluation Committee, along with other educators, and she will soon transition to become our representative on the NCARB Education Committee. Northeast Director John Cayshas served for two years on the Internship Advisory Committee. We were pleased to have NCARB Board Member Kristine Harding serve on our International Task Force this year and participate in the Administrators and Collateral Track at the International Conference in Santiago, Chile, this summer.
ACSA is a participant on a NAAB Accreditation Process Review Task Force. Christine Theodoropoulos, CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, agreed to serve on behalf of the Board. NAAB Director Helene Combs Dreiling serves on the ACSA International Task Force, and NAAB Director Tamara Redburn will lead a session on international accreditation as part of the Administrators and Collateral Track of the International Conference.
ACSA is pleased to have the vice president of AIAS as a Student Director on our Board. Joel Pominville was an active and persuasive participant in board committees, discussions, and juries. We were also able to involve AIAS board member Rachel Law in the International Task Force, soon before she was elected 2016-17 AIAS Vice President. Greg Hall, Mississippi State University, will be ending a two-year termasACSA liaison on the AIAS Board of Directors. Carmina Sanchez del Valle, Hampton University, will continue Greg’s work in facilitating collaboration and dialogue between the organizations.
Finally, under collateral relationships, several partnerships with the AIA have created opportunities for our members. We arepartnering for the second year in the upcoming Intersections Symposiumduring the AIA National Convention in Philadelphia, a conference/workshop intended to highlight research that informs architectural practice. This partnership will continue in coming years, affording more peer-reviewed opportunities for faculty to showcase their research.
We continue our work as partners with AIA and the Architects Foundation on the Design and Health Research Consortium and on the National Resilience Initiative, each of which has identified a number of member schools to advance research and teaching agendas in areas of critical importance for the profession.
AIA 2017 President and UIA Secretary General Thomas Vonier is a member of the ACSA International Task Force, and is working with us to organize the Administrators track in Santiago, Chile. We took the opportunity to work with the AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community to co-organize a workshop at the beginning of the 104th Annual Meeting. Our thanks to Kathy Dorgan and Etty Epadmodipoetro for collaborating with us on an outstanding preconference housing workshop.
Conferences and Competitions
Between the Autonomous and Contingent Object, the 2015 Thematic Fall Conference, was hosted in October by Syracuse University. Co-chaired by professors Roger Hubeli and Julie Larsen, the conference focused on architectural theory and discourse, employing a provocative format structured around a series of debates. Selected papers form the core of the inaugural issue of the Plan, a new theory journal.
Uncharted Territories, the 2015 Administrators Conference, was co-chaired by deans Patricia Belton Oliver, University of Houston and Francisco Javier Rodriguez, Universidad de Puerto Rico. It was hosted by the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan and challenged administrators to address the plethora of new realities that increasingly define our work in the academy
The 104th Annual Meeting was titled Shaping New Knowledges. Co-chairs Sharon Haar, University of Michigan and Robert Corser, University of Washington graciously accepted my suggestion that the conference focus on the multiple modalities and products of architectural research currently underway at member schools. Hosted by the University of Washington, the conference offered a window on the impressive range of exploration collaborative practices in which our colleagues — in the academy and in practice — are presently engaged.
Cross-Americas: Probing Disglobal Networks is the title of the upcoming 2016 International Conference, to be held next June in Santiago, Chile. Focused on global discourses in architectural practice and research, the bi-annual conference will be hosted by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. It is co-chaired by [from north to south] Vera Parlac, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Dana Cupkova, Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania, USA; Alfredo Andia, Florida International University, Florida, USA; and Umberto Bonomo and Macarena Cortes, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Confirmed keynote speakers include Alejandro Aravena, winner of this year’s Pritzker Prize and curator of the upcoming Venice Biennale.
This year, for the first time, ACSA has introduced an International Administrators and Collateral Track within the program of the academic conference. Co-chaired by Emilio de la Cerda, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, and Roger Schluntz, University of New Mexico, the Administrators Track includes sessions on international NAAB accreditation; transitions from the academy to practice in an international context; post-professional education across borders; and international study, internship, and practice.
We invite you to participate in the critical discussions on every aspect of education and practice, and encourage academic faculty, program administrators, and professionals to attend this multi-national discussion.
Finally, selected by the ACSA Board at the close of spring 2015, and focusing on research in design and health, the upcoming 2016 Fall Conference will be the first jointly offered by ACSA and the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH). Titled Building for Health and Well-Being: Structures. Cities. Systems, the meeting will bring together academics, practitioners, and policy makers to focus on research at the intersection of design, the built environment, and public health. The University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Architecture will host the meeting co-chaired by Sara Jensen Carr, University of Hawaii, Billie Faircloth, KieranTimberlake, and Howard Frumkin, University of Washington School of Public Health.
This year’s ACSA competitions cover a range of materials and areas of design focus. Tall Buildingsis the focus of the 16th ACSA/American Institute of Steel Construction student design competition, a staple for many faculty in North America. The Binational Softwood Lumber Council returns as a sponsor for Timber in the City: Urban Habitat Competition, with a mixed-use program that includes an outpost of the Andy Warhol Museum. Two AIA committees are partners for separate competitions. Last year the AIA Committee on the Environment expanded its renown COTE Top Ten competition to include students. The AIA Historic Resources Committee also continues the biannual Preservation as Provocation competition with a design challenge for a new visitor center at the Farnsworth House.
Thanks in Conclusion
It has been a year filled, I hope you will agree, with accomplishment. It is an honor to serve on behalf of ACSA with dedicated colleagues and a truly outstanding staff led by Michael Monti. The ACSA Board of Directors is a committed group of volunteers who have devoted a great deal of time to advancing the mission of the ACSA.
We were saddened to learn recently of the death of Norman Millar, member of the ACSA Board of Directors from 2012-2015, and its 2013-14 President. Dean of Woodbury University, Norman was a long-time colleague and valued friend. The architectural community is diminished by his absence.
AASL column – April 2016 Barbara Opar and Lucy Campbell, column editors
Column by Cindy Frank, Architecture Librarian, University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
In the fall of 2014, University of Maryland’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation branch library was preparing to close. An all too familiar story, this plan was the result of permanent, campus-wide budget cuts. But rather than throw in the towel the School and Libraries formed a Task Force to explore other solutions to the budget cuts issue. Consisting of students and faculty, the architecture librarian and library administrators, the Task Force conducted a literature review, SWOT analysis, interviews, and a design charrette to assess possible solutions. The final report, submitted to, and approved by the Dean of Libraries, proposed the conversion of the branch to a professional model library with the following recommendations: 24/7 access for the School community, reduced opening hours for the public, retention of the reference librarian, increased group study space, and acknowledgement of the library as a quiet place to study with great natural light.
Begun in late spring of 2015, the transition included physical alterations to the space as well as changes in access, hours and policies. Minimizing public open hours saved on student labor costs and paraprofessional staff salaries, while providing 24/7 access to the School community served immediate users in a tangible way. Currently the library is open twenty hours per week to the public, down from eighty hours a few years ago. The students, staff and faculty of the School already have 24/7 building and computer lab access. Adding the library to the list of accessible spaces was a relatively simple matter of working with the campus security office.
Next, the large circulation desk was removed, opening up the entryway and floor space in front of a large window. A self-checkout station was installed next to the self-serve hold shelf. An employee desk with a library work computer is now used as a reference desk, work station, and book return desk for patrons during open hours.
The reference librarian works a typical workweek, with her office in the library. Students and faculty are able to consult the librarian, access materials, make appointments for special collections materials, find a quiet place to study, and utilize a group study room created from a former staff office. Gate counts reveal between ten and forty patrons are swiping in between the hours of 4 PM and 11 AM.
Two academic semesters into the transition, there have been a couple glitches. The self-checkout station occasionally does not read an ID card, or a patron doesn’t follow the directions on the screen. Returned books are sometimes left on a reading table inside the library instead of in the book drop. The Dean of the School was left off the swipe access list when 24/7 access was started.
On the positive side, books and magazines are not disappearing overnight. Architecture competition teams have used the group study room for planning meetings. Real Estate Development students now meet in the library with alumni for career advising. Planning students are already here working when the librarian arrives. Faculty have increased requests for library instruction. Plans for the fall include collection assessments, fresh paint and a special collections open house. Although initiated by budget cuts, the changes have meant a library that is more responsive to its patrons.
Douglas Elliman Real Estate and Development recently celebrated the Grand Opening of their new California Headquarters. Patrick Tighe Architecture had the privilege of designing the 11,000 square foot environment located on 2 floors of the iconic 150 El Camino building in Beverly Hills. North Beach is a new park and playground designed by Patrick Tighe Architecture for the city of Santa Monica, The project has received all approvals from the city and is scheduled for a 2016 construction start date. The universally accessible park and playground is located on an acre parcel along the bike path, north of the Santa Monica pier.
Dr. Travis Longcore (Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program) was a workshop presenter at LightFair Institute at LightFair 2016. The course, Nighttime Lighting Blues: Juggling Needs of People and Critters, was co-taught with Ian Ashdown (Lighting Analysts Inc.) and Naomi Miller (US Department of Energy). Dr. Longcore also advised two students in the USC Undergraduate Research Symposium, where their poster, Park Light: A Framework to Monitor Nighttime Upward Radiance From and Near National Parks, won awards both for physical sciences and for policy. The research project was also awarded funding from the USC Provost’s office as part of the Undergraduate Research Associates Program.
Karen Kensek and Douglas Noble helped Prof. Jae Yong Suk of the University of Texas at Austin (UTSA) to organize the FAÇADE TECTONICS FORUM in San Antonio in April. Speakers included Hazen Rashed-Ali (UTSA), Douglas Melnick (City of San Antonio), Hayden McKay (HLB Lighting Design, Matt Fajkus (Univ of Texas at Austin), Jae Yong Suk (UTSA), Kevin McClellan (Tex-Fab), James Warton (HKS) and John Houser (Gensler).
Jennifer Siegal has won the arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture, an international award to women’s architecture organized by Italcementi. The winner was described by the jury as “a fearless pioneer in the research and development of prefabricated construction systems, at low prices for disadvantaged users and areas, who has been able to invent and build practical solutions and a new language for mobile and low-cost housing”.
Geoffrey von Oeyen presented a Spring 2016 Baumer Lecture titled “Geoffrey von Oeyen Design: Site, Sight, and Sailing” in Knowlton Hall’s Gui Auditorium on Wednesday, March 30, 2016, at the Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture at the Ohio State University.
Lisa Little was an invited juror for the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo’s annual Best of Show reviews.
Assistant Professor Alvin Huang has been invited to give a public lecture and participate as a guest juror in the event “Ciudad de Dymaxion: Fuller en Mexico” at the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City from April 15-18. Professor Huang will speak about the influence of Buckminster Fuller in his own work, and review a series of constructed abstractions of Fuller’s approaches produced by students of Universidad Iberoamericano in the course “Corrupting Fuller” led by Professor Pablo Kobayashi. Professor Huang will also participate as an external reviewer in the Colloquium of final research projects presented by Master of Design Studies degree candidates in the Technology Concentration (coordinated by Allen Sayegh and Bradley Cantrell) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design on Wednesday, May 11.
Eric Nulman recently joined the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design (www.laforum.org). The Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design is an independent nonprofit organization that instigates dialogues on design and the built environment through public programming, exhibitions, and publications. Eric is on a five-year appointment, serving through 2020.
The Courtyard at La Brea building (photo) by John Mutlow, FAIA, and Patrick Tighe has been nominated for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize by the College of Architecture at Illinois Institue of Technology. The objective of the MCHAP is to reward contemplation of the intersection of the new metropolis and human ecology,” says the school. There is an outstanding group of nominees for this distinguished prize. — Check them out on StudyArchitecture!
It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Norman Millar, our friend, former ACSA president, and dean of the Woodbury University School of Architecture, on April 14 due to complications from surgery, following his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Norman co-chaired the Administrators Conference in 2011 and served on the Board of Directors from 2012 to 2015, including as ACSA president in 2014-15.
Norman was an optimistic proponent of change to improve architectural education. He was passionate about inspiring students to join the architecture community, demonstrated through his leadership in growing the program at Woodbury University. Those efforts attracted a cover story by Architect magazine in 2011 about Woodbury University and the increasingly diverse populations of students entering architecture school.
As ACSA president, Norman advocated for collaboration and equity. He challenged ACSA, and the nation’s major architecture organizations, to seek new models for support of architectural education. He helped to shape initiatives that have helped students to graduate and become architects more quickly. Within the ACSA Board of Directors, he brought a vision for the organization that valued diverse forms of research and scholarship and encouraged board members, and our numerous volunteers, to find ways to collaborate and increase the impact that architecture schools can have on their communities.
The ACSA Board of Directors invites nominations and self-nominations to participate in 2016-2017 ACSA committees and task forces. Faculty at ACSA full and candidate member schools are encouraged to participate in activities designed to strengthen architectural education.
At the 2016 Annual Meeting, the ACSA Board approved a second phase in its governance review process. To begin implementation, the ACSA plans to reorganize its board committees in 2016-17 around three new “program committees,” each comprised of 4–6 at-large members and 2–3 ACSA board members. With these committees the ACSA Board intends to expand involvement of ACSA members in addressing strategic issues facing architecture schools.
The three program committees are charged as follows:
The Scholarship & Awards Committee is charged with leading ACSA’s efforts to support faculty in scholarly endeavors; monitoring and assessing peer-review and recognition programs; and recommending actions to advocate for architectural scholarship. The committee is responsible for policies guiding scholarly conferences, journals, and awards.
The Education Committee is charged with leading ACSA’s efforts to improve the effectiveness of architectural education through best practices and overseeing programs to cultivate and disseminate these best practices. The committee is responsible for policies guiding the ACSA Teachers Seminar, workshops, and webinars.
The Leadership Committee is charged with leading ACSA’s efforts to support the strategic development of architecture programs; identifying and disseminating best-practice models of program leadership and administration; and overseeing ACSA’s efforts to promote awareness of architectural education. The committee is responsible for policies guiding the Administrators Conference, student recruitment efforts, and data collection and analysis.
Appointments to committees are initiated by the 2016-17 ACSA president, Bruce Lindsey. Appointments are for one year beginning July 1, 2016, and are eligible for renewal thereafter.
Committees will work primarily through conference calls during the academic year. A funded meeting is planned for committees in fall 2016, and committees may convene at the 2017 Annual Meeting in Detroit.
More information about ACSA’s governance plan and strategic plan are available on the ACSA website.
Interested participants are asked to submit a 1–2 page cover letter identifying areas of interest related to ACSA’s committees and strategic plan, as well as a 2 page (maximum) curriculum vitae. The deadline for nominations and self-nominations is May 3, 2016. Submit materials to Allison Smith, asmith@acsa-arch.org.
This summer, after fifteen years of dedicated service to The University of Texas at Austin, Dean Fritz Steiner will be leaving the School of Architecture to serve as dean of PennDesign at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater. Elizabeth Danze, UTSOA professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Programs, will serve as interim dean for the school effective July 1.
Assistant Professors Kory Bieg and Clay Odom won the FIU Emerging Architect’s Initiative to design a rooftop canopy for the Bernard Tschumi designed FIU School of Architecture building.__ Kory Bieg also won the Field Constructs Design Competition for his project Hybroot, which was installed in the Circle Acres Nature Preserve in Austin last fall.__
Gabriel Díaz Montemayor gave a lecture entitled, “Service Studios: Public Space and Academia,” at the VII International Congress on Architecture and Design organized by the Marista University of Merida in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. Montemayor also presented a paper, “Hybrid Ecological and Sustainable Mobility Networks for Northern Mexico,” at the 46th Urban Affairs Association Conference held in San Diego
_Steven Moore, Co-Director of the Graduate Program in Sustainable Design, recently delivered the keynote address at the Annual Doctor of Design, DDes Symposium at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Professor Wilfried Wang guest-edited two consecutive issues of the Japanese architectural journal A+U, on the work of Sigurd Lewerentz. Wang also co-curated, with Adjunct Associate Professor Barbara Hoidn, the upcoming exhibition,DEMO:POLIS–The Right to Public Space, at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
Andrew Vernooy, an award-winning architect and professor of architecture at Texas Tech University, has been named director of the Montana State University School of Architecture. He will assume his duties July 1.
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Study Architecture 
ProPEL 
by Marilys Nepomechie
It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Norman Millar, our friend, former ACSA president, and dean of the Woodbury University School of Architecture, on April 14 due to complications from surgery, following his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Norman co-chaired the Administrators Conference in 2011 and served on the Board of Directors from 2012 to 2015, including as ACSA president in 2014-15.
