Other ACSA Websites

Study Architecture ProPEL

Columbia UniversityÕs Avery Library and GSAPP Release Artstor Architectural Plans and Sections Collection

/in , /by

Columbia University’s Avery Library and GSAPP Release Artstor Architectural Plans and Sections Collection

Margaret Smithglass, Registrar and Digital Content Librarian
Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University

Barbara Opar and Barret Havens, column editors

Avery Coonley Playhouse, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1907

An ongoing challenge in the architectural community has been the limited availability of plans and sections of significant works of architecture, one that has been particularly pronounced during the architectural education process. The Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library and the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), both at Columbia University, have collaborated with Artstor to launch an architectural image set offering an exciting new option. The Avery/GSAPP Architectural Plans and Sections Collection is a two-year project that will ultimately make 20,000 images of architectural plans, sections and related materials available to Artstor subscribers at more than 1,700 institutions worldwide.  The first installment of approximately 10,000 images is now accessible in the Artstor Digital Library.

Based on the History of Architecture curriculum at GSAPP, the primary focus of the collection is 20th century modernism. The majority of images in the collection represent built works, comprising 1,000 projects in 44 countries. Curated by architectural scholars Mary McLeod and Kenneth Frampton, the collection was conceived as a resource that would provide the essential documentation for seminal works of modern architecture, built or unbuilt, in an online format intended to support architectural instruction around the world.

From Professor Mary McLeod: “As a faculty member of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, I am pleased that I have been able to help contribute to Artstor’s collection drawings and renderings of important twentieth-century architectural works, which were scanned by the Visual Resources center from books in Avery Library’s outstanding collection.  As those of us who teach architectural history know all too well, while there are numerous photographic images of buildings available on the web, there is a dearth of hardline drawings and renderings done by architects.”

The complex process of creating this wealth of visual material was executed by the Visual Resources Collection (VRC) at GSAPP, a longstanding student-run resource for faculty and students originally developed as a slide library. Beginning in the summer of 2014, three exceptional VRC student curators worked with Avery staff to establish the project’s technical framework, specifications, metadata schema, and workflows. For each project in the core collection, Avery’s extensive holdings were evaluated to identify and flag drawings and associated images that would best convey a complete understanding of architectural intent.

Avery’s general collection is non-circulating, so special arrangements were made to securely stage and transport bibliographic materials to the VRC for scanning and metadata work on a regular schedule throughout the academic year. A team of dedicated graduate student workers created image and data files, after which curatorial and metadata review served to finalize the phase one delivery.  Once VRC work was completed, database files were transferred to Avery for review and enhancement, and then to Artstor for internal image, data and legal evaluation before the collection went live last fall. “It is truly an invaluable opportunity to have a collection selected with the expertise of two GSAPP scholars from the resources of the Avery Library, one of the largest architecture libraries in the world,” said Artstor President James Shulman. “Columbia University’s contribution of plans, sections, and photographs of models to the Artstor Digital Library will be a vital resource for teaching and studying modern architecture at institutions worldwide.”

In celebrating this incredible new resource, Carole Ann Fabian, Director of the Avery Library, shared, “Avery is thrilled to have worked with GSAPP and Artstor to develop this core collection of plans and sections for teaching the history of modern architecture. Our GSAPP faculty advisors, Professors Mary McLeod and Kenneth Frampton, have shaped the record of this history through their scholarship and decades of teaching here at Columbia. Their curatorial guidance, Avery’s incomparable collections and Artstor’s extraordinary Digital Library platform have made this project possible. Our collaboration fulfills a critical need for a shared, authoritative collection of key works that document the masterworks of modern architecture, and is now available to the Artstor community.”

Work continues on phase two, and the complete collection is expected to be available for the beginning of the 2016-17 academic year. View the collection in the Artstor Digital Library.

Strategies for Planning Successful Information Literacy Assignments for Architecture Students

/in /by

Barret Havens, Digital Initiatives Librarian and liaison to the School of Architecture, Woodbury University

Barbara Opar and Barret Havens, column editors

The NAAB and Architecture Librarians Agree on the Importance of Information Literacy

If you’ve spent any time with your campus architecture librarian, you probably know that we think information literacy is really important. But we’re not the only ones! The National Architectural Accreditation Board does too, and has mandated that the architecture schools assess students’ information literacy skills. They have articulated this explicitly in the Student Performance Criteria (A.3) listed in the 2014 Conditions for Accreditation: “Investigative Skills: Ability to gather, assess, record, and comparatively evaluate relevant information and performance in order to support conclusions related to a specific project or assignment.”  Student Performance Criterion A.3 is a very familiar realm for us architecture librarians—it describes the types of activities we help students accomplish more effectively as teachers and as curators of architectural collections.  Another reason that criterion A.3 sounds familiar to librarians is that it reads like a paraphrasing of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ most recent attempt to define information literacy:

“Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.”

But What Does Information Literacy Actually Look Like?

The definition of information literacy above suggests a variety of processes that scholars from a variety of fields engage in. But what does it really look like when our architecture students do it? The discovery, evaluation, and synthesis of information into “new knowledge” such as an architectural model may take place in the studio, at reviews, or even in a dorm room. But often, the process begins in the library, where students gather information to inform the design process, such as books or journals containing architectural drawings of relevant precedents. Many students struggle with assignments that require the application of information literacy skills and end up seeking out the help of a librarian. Based on my experience working with students in those types of situations, and my examination of hundreds of research-intensive assignments I would like to offer faculty some strategies for designing successful information literacy assignments.

Strategy #1: Work with your architecture librarian way ahead of time to ensure that adequate resources for the assignment are in place

Though architecture librarians do their best to anticipate the needs of architecture students and faculty and strive to develop their collections accordingly, most of us will admit that we aren’t perfect. Occasionally we’ll overlook an important publication or the works of a lesser-known architect. Sometimes, books and journals go missing without our noticing right away. Our budget limitations might prevent us from purchasing important resources. These occurrences may leave little holes in the collection. Providing your librarian with the parameters of assignments such as precedent lists will help to ensure that when your students come to the library, they’ll find what they need. Since receiving and processing items at most libraries can take several weeks, it helps us to have those details at least a month ahead of time.

Strategy #2: Have an architecture librarian provide a hands-on workshop

At most campuses, librarians are available to provide your students with an instruction session geared specifically towards the objectives of any upcoming research-intensive assignments. Often, these sessions will take place in a hands-on environment such as the library’s computer lab where students are able to test drive resources like the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, ArtStor, and the library catalog. Not only will such a session impart skills and techniques that will help your students produce higher quality work, it will also serve to establish a rapport between students and their architecture librarian, who can continue to support their efforts long after the session ends and throughout their academic life. Even if the architecture students at your school are required to take a credit-bearing information literacy course, they will need refreshers throughout their academic trajectory in order to retain what they have learned. A hands-on instruction session can serve to reedify those skills.

Strategy #3: Give students enough time to take advantage of your library’s inter-library loan service

Many academic library catalogs are capable of searching the holdings of thousands of other libraries. Likewise, the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals will display records for journals your library may not own. Through inter-library loan programs, libraries are able to obtain these items from other libraries faster than ever. But, even though articles may arrive in as little as 2 days, some items such as books can still take 10 to 14 days to arrive. If you will require your students to do in-depth research using a wide variety of sources, it will benefit them greatly to have enough time to take advantage of this service (and to be forewarned that thorough research takes time!).

Strategy #4: Require that students use a variety of sources to ensure that they engage with different formats and perspectives

If students aren’t required to seek out academic and professional sources, they tend to rely heavily on their old friend Google. Don’t get me wrong–there are some great sources of architectural images from reputable sources on the open web, such as the images of the rock-cut churches at Lalibela available through the Zamani Project. But we all know the pitfalls students can fall into while researching on the open web. (For instance, trying to make sense of architectural images posted on Pinterest with absolutely no metadata to suggest which project is depicted, whether the drawing is to scale, whether it is the version that was actually built, etc.) To ensure that students engage with reliable resources, it may be necessary to spell out for them explicitly the gamut of sources they are expected to use to inform their work. For instance, 3 architecture periodicals, 3 books, 2 blogs by experts in the field, etc. Requiring students to locate a variety of sources also exposes them to different perspectives on a topic offered by different types of sources and gives them a more well-rounded understanding of the research process.

Strategy # 5: Encourage your students to explore their library’s physical and online collections

Physical libraries and digital libraries are arranged for the maximum possibility of serendipitous discovery! Encourage your students to spend time exploring both. There’s no telling what they might find, or how it might inform and inspire their design work.

Strategy #6: Invite your architecture librarian to reviews, student presentations, and other exhibits of student work

When librarians can experience the final product of all the research that your students have been doing, they gain an understanding that will help them to focus their efforts most effectively on guiding students through the research process in future iterations of the course. Librarian attendance at such events may also help to reinforce, for students, the idea that their architecture librarian is involved and engaged in the culture of their school, and that we librarians are not just there to save students from defeat, we are there to celebrate their victories as well!

Auburn University

/in /by

Auburn University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s (APLA) Urban Studio interim director Alex Krumdieck, and Prof. John Pittari, have been working with twelve students to develop urban design plans for the “innovation district” downtown, which includes part of the Birmingham civil rights district. A team from the Rose Center for Public Leadership, also considering a development project in the civil rights district, visited the Urban Studio to review student work.  The Rose Center team included some of the student projects in their presentation to Birmingham’s mayor and credited Urban Studio and the students – publically recognizing the studio as a valuable asset for the City of Birmingham.

Rural Studio’s 20K House is having a moment. Rural Studio has had the opportunity to field test the 20K House plan with real world constraints of codes, financing, and construction methods. The highly successful outcome is two 20K houses that have been built as artists’ residences in Serenbe, a luxury sustainable living community outside of Atlanta, Georgia. The project is garnering a lot of attention locally and around the world: 

Digital Trends  I  Elle Netherlands   I   Brisbane Times   I   Azure Magazine, Toronto   I   Builder Online  I   Trend Hunter   I  The Age, Australia   I  This Is Money, UK   I   Q Daily, China  I  OkeZone, Jukarta   I   Pro Builder  I  Yellow Hammer  I   Ontario Assoc. of Architects  I   FastCo   I   House Beautiful   I  Nehnutelnosti   I  AL.com  I  Inhabitat  I   BeltLandia  I  Atlanta Magazine  I  ArtsATL

APLA Third Year architecture student Sarah Curry was recently profiled as an “Auburn Youth Program Success Story.” She was first introduced to Auburn’s Architecture program in high school when she attended Auburn University’s Youth Programs Architecture Camp.

The Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) has awarded Associate Professor and Chair of the Graduate in Landscape Architecture Program, Charlene LeBleu, FASLA, AICP, the designation of “LAF Research Fellow.” LeBleu is one of six faculty chosen nationally for this honor.  LeBleu will work with LAF’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) program to document and test the landscape performance of three Alabama landscapes, and record them in to the nationally case study data-base. The projects are Fairview Environmental Park, Montgomery, AL / Design Firm: 2D Studio, Judd Langham, Auburn, AL;

Samford Park at Toomer’s Corner Landscape, Auburn, AL / Design Firm: HNP Landscape Architecture, Tommy Holcomb, Birmingham, AL; Railroad Park, Birmingham, AL / Design Firm: Tom Leader Studio, Emily Leader, Berkeley, CA

Prof. Tarik Orgen, Program Director of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s (APLA) International Studies Program in Istanbul, was recently inducted into Auburn University’s Global Teaching Academy, a University program that recognizes and celebrates selected members for exceptional teaching in an international context.

Auburn Alumni, Al York, FAIA, BARCH ’88, and Principal of Austin, Texas-based McKinney York Architects, has been elevated to the prestigious College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). 

AIASF Equity by Design to Launch Second Equity in Architecture Survey

/in /by

Take the survey: http://eqxdesign.com

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA)  February 18, 2016 | AIA San Francisco (AIASF) and the Equity by Design Committee will launch the second Equity in Architecture Survey in March 2016. Building upon the inaugural survey conducted in 2014, the second survey will further advance the national movement for equitable practice in the profession.

“This survey will provide us with insightful baselines to better understand and support our members along their career path,” says AIASF President Aaron Jon Hyland, AIA. “Our chapter has always been at the forefront of supporting emerging professionals, building bridges between academia and the profession, and now we will be able to leverage that support along the entire career path trajectory.”

The 2016 Equity in Architecture Survey will seek to create a comprehensive national dataset detailing current positions and career experiences of architecture school graduates. The resulting research will focus on differential experiences of women and men as well as underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. The results will provide insights for talent retention in firms by exploring pinch points that influence decisions to leave the profession as well as factors that promote satisfying and sustainable careers in architecture for all architectural professionals.

“Research has been the impetus for action with key findings fueling the 2015 AIA National 15-1 Equity in Architecture Resolution to the establishment of the AIA National Commission on Equity in Architecture, and firms of all sizes are beginning to re-evaluate workplace policies for equitable practice,” says Rosa Sheng, AIA, AIASF Equity by Design Committee Chair. “Knowledge is power, and an effective tool for change.
 
The survey will be open for a five-week period, beginning in early March. On average, the online survey should take an estimated 15-20 minutes to complete.

“We are excited to serve as the research partner for this noteworthy project,” remarks the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Executive Director Michael Monti, PhD, Hon. AIA.

Key research goals/objectives for the 2016 Equity in Architecture Survey include:

_      Comparison of the current positions and career experiences of architecture school graduates nationwide, including both current architectural professionals and those who no longer practice architecture.

_      Identification of career pinch points associated with these experiences, and comparison of the impact of career development, advancement, and talent retention of professionals of different backgrounds.

_      Highlights of individual attitudes and behaviors, as well as employer-provided benefits and practices that contribute to success in navigating these pinch points. Conversely, identification of behaviors and practices that correlate with negative outcomes.

Participation in the upcoming study includes the American Institute of Architects (AIA), National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). The survey is funded through AIASF’s sustaining sponsorship program and in part through the AIA National Diversity & Inclusion Grant. For a full list of sponsors and supporters, please visit http://aiasf.org.

University of Buffalo

/in /by

Paul Battaglia, a member of the Standards Technical Panel for Underwriters Laboratories, participated in reviews of current best procedures for penetration seals in fire-rated construction at the UL conference in Chicago in February, 2016

Assistant Professor Jin Young Song’s GLASS HOUSE project was selected for the 2016 ACSA Annual Meeting (http://dioinno.com/GLASS-HOUSE) and his SILO PROJECT received a special mention in the international competition ‘Unbuilt Vision’ (http://dioinno.com/Hotel-Ascension)

Assistant Professor Shannon Bassett presented her design research and professional work at the University of Architecture of Ho Chi Minh City Planning Department in Vietnam in January 2016. She also served as a guest critic for final reviews in Urban Design in Ho Chi Minh City.

Professor Brian Carter wrote the chapter on Steven Holl’s winning design for the Mackintosh School of Art in Glasgow that was published in ‘Competitions 2014’.

Virginia Tech

/in /by

Virginia Tech – Architecture Programs: 

Patrick and Nancy Lathrop Professor of Architecture Jaan Holt, Director of the the School of Architecture + Design’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center since 1984, has stepped down from his position in January 2016.

Professor Susan Piedmont-Palladio, R.A., has been appointed as the Interim Director of the School of Architecture + Design’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center.

Assistant Professor Aki Ishida, A.I.A., has been named as one of “Design Intelligence 25 Most Admired Educators for 2016.” 

Associate Professor William U. Galloway, Assistant Professor Patrick Doan, R.A., and Professor Frank Weiner, R.A., have received the 2016 ACSA Design-Build Award, honoring best practices in school-based design-build projects, for their cube building. The project was also awarded a Honorable Mention by American Institute of Architects Virginia.

Professor Joe Wheeler, A.I.A., has been awarded the 2015 Prize for Design Research and Scholarship by the American Institute of Architects Virginia.

Professor Dr. Mehdi Setareh, Ph.D., P.E., was awarded an Honorable Mention of the 2015 Prize for Design Research and Scholarship for his Structure and Form Analysis System (SAFAS) by the American Institute of Architects Virginia. Setareh also published the book Structural System, which covers the material to prepare intern architects for the Structural Systems Division of the Architect Registration Examination (ARE).  

Professor Dr. Markus Breitschmid, Ph.D., S.I.A., has published an article on Herzog & de Meuron’s new Perez Art Museum in Miami, Florida for the journal Archithese – International Review of Architecture.   


University of Nebraska-Lincoln

/in /by

Professor Earns Emerging Voices Award

There are certain professional accolades that are more coveted than others. The Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League New York annually recognizes rising stars in architecture and design and is highly sought after.  This year’s 2016 Emerging Voices award was given to eight firms including Min | Day and its principals E.B. Min and UNL Architecture Program Director and Professor Jeffery. L. Day.

Min | Day now joins the peerage of others who have earn this prestigious award that has been in existence for over 30 years, firms such as ArandaLasch, David Benjamin / The Living, Neri Oxman, SO – IL, Dlandstudio, el dorado, WORKac, Olson Kundig Architects, Office dA, SHoP Architects, Asymptote Architecture, Michael Maltzan Architecture, Marlon Blackwell Architect, Vincent James Associates, WEISS/MANFREDI, Allied Works, Stan Allen Architect, Morphosis, Steven Holl Architects to name a few. 

This award not only recognizes the architectural work of Day and Min through their practice Min | Day but also College of Architecture FACT (Fabrication And Construction Team) students and designs from their furniture company, mdMOD.

Since the Emerging Voices was awarded through a nomination process, that made the honor even more important to Day.

“Only eight offices were recognized for this award and the fact that it’s a nominated award makes it even more satisfying,” Day explained. “This is a big milestone for us, and it’s an award that is only achieved once in a career. It’s a wonderful accomplishment for our firm.”

Min | Day was established in 2003. The partnership emerged from a friendship that began in graduate school at UC Berkeley. After graduation they started collaborating on projects and competitions. Over the years, their partnership evolved, and it was eventually formalized in 2003 when Day relocated to Omaha. Simultaneously, Day started the FACT student design-build program at UNL which is an allied student practice. FACT frequently collaborates with the firm, giving students real-life experiences with creative clients.

Min | Day currently as two locations, one in San Francisco, California, the other in Omaha, Nebraska. Between the two places, they have a full-time staff of 6 people not including the average 15 FACT students working on collaborations.

“A big part of who we are is the fact we have two sites,” commented Day. “It is not common for a firm of our size to have that, but we turned it into an advantage. We founded Min | Day with the belief that establishing offices in these two cities would yield a perspective that transcends the limitations of regional specificity. Our office combines design-research, academic engagement, commissioned work, furniture design, and student design-build projects to create highly refined yet often imprecise and flexible designs that reflect our unusual structure.”

This environment has fostered a design approach that was given Min | Day its unique and emerging voice.

“We promote an approach to flexibility not as the absence of form but as the presence of unique and carefully considered infrastructure, affording individuals the power to manipulate their own environment while simultaneously instilling a distinct personality derived from our design process,” Day said.

He explains they want their work to participate in a culture and help create a culture, not represent a culture in a mode of a disconnected artist or critic.

“If anything is constant, it’s that our designs are always evolving. Every project is different and unique.”

Over the years, Min and Day’s working relationship has transitioned, meliorated and eventually turned into a synergy that’s hard to replicate.

“I think we are a good design partnership, and we have a similar design sensibility but enough difference that the work is dynamic and constantly evolving,” Day commented. “We challenge each other. We are not always in full agreement, and I think that is what takes our work to a higher level.”

When not working at the firm, Day divides his time with the University of Nebraska and Min lectures part-time at the California College of the Arts.

The Emerging Voices award is not only a great accolade for their firm but also for the universities they work with.

“It shows that the practicing faculty are engaged in their field at a high level and are receiving national and international recognition for their work,” Day commented. “It translates into school pride and more students seeking to be a part of a college that affords them the opportunities and recognition that the College of Architecture and FACT provide.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

/in /by

Sustainability Energizes Professor Research and Instruction

Gasoline prices have finally started to fall giving many Americans a well-deserved break for their pocket books, but another great way to drive down those energy dollars is within the home or business by reducing energy spending.

Residential and commercial use accounts for 41% of the energy consumed in the United States, according to the National Academy of Sciences.

Building energy-efficient homes and structures has been the driving passion of Associate Professor Tim Hemsath’s career. He has researched, presented, published and taught on this subject, to the point he can probably lecture about this topic in his sleep.  

“I’ve always been interested in sustainability. You could say I was raised with those values,” Hemsath commented. “When I was a kid, we would walk to church along the highway and my dad would have the family pick up trash. So before there was an Adopt a Highway program there was the Hemsath program.”

Hemsath explains his desire to make a sustainable impact only intensified in college when he decided to go into architecture. 

“I wondered where I could have a measurable impact and how it would affect design. How can we better design our buildings with a greater understanding of its impact, and how can we alter that impact so it creates a positive difference?”

Energy is measurable, so Hemsath knew he could set clear objectives and goals for his designs and his research.  

“You can use computer modeling to understand the operational energy consumption of a building and then in theory, design buildings that are more efficient.”

There is no one silver bullet to achieve an energy-efficient building. Hemsath tells his architecture students an efficient building depends on various factors such as climate, its size, the building design, how it is used, etc. 

“There are too many factors involved to say this one thing can save you x amount in energy because every place in the world is different, every building is different.  What I like to say is you have to understand all your factors before you can make any conclusions.”

Hemsath’s résumé regarding energy-related projects is quite extensive. His research started in 2006 with the College of Engineering on a project developing energy-efficient housing prototypes. He later served as the principal investigator on a Nebraska Research Initiative to increase research capacity surrounding zero-net energy at the University of Nebraska.

Hemsath explains he has seen an upward trend in designing sustainable buildings at the national level. 

“I see the use and demand growing,” Hemsath observed. “When I started researching and teaching about sustainability in 2006, only homes were achieving high-efficiency results. Now you see large facilities, campuses and communities also meeting these standards.  The capabilities and the technology are all there. It really comes down to market demand and the desire from everybody’s standpoint to make it happen. It’s a matter of the right dominos falling in the right places.”

Many factors are driving this trend including regional and national legislation with energy codes, building standards and emissions restrictions. Furthermore, 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds were tied to local energy code adoptions for its recipients. Also some municipalities such as Minneapolis and Chicago have implemented benchmark ordinances requiring energy consumption reports from commercial buildings.  At this point, Hemsath says these reports aren’t used to reduce consumption but if history repeats itself, he can see these established reporting mechanisms eventually being used to for energy conservation similar to the origins of the 1970 Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act.

But even with all these government entities pushing the market to be more efficient, Hemsath believes design professionals have to be at the forefront of that effort.

“We are the ones who design the buildings. We are the doers, the innovators.”

When designing new buildings, to achieve a zero-net energy building, there are three action steps Hemsath recommends:

  • Use energy efficiently. Design for solar, daylight, climate and design the appropriate envelope. Build the most energy-efficient building possible.
  • Minimize energy use. Incorporate energy-efficient systems and install technology such as occupancy sensors.
  • Apply renewable energy. Produce energy through such mediums as photovoltaic, thermal and wind.

However the greatest need for energy conservation efforts are actually in established buildings. It is estimated that ¾ of our current buildings will be renovated by 2050. Hemsath says that is an untapped market for innovation. For those looking to improve the efficiency of their home there are key elements he suggests.

  • Have someone evaluate the home for energy efficiency. Many energy companies offer this service.
  • Insulate the attic and walls and make the home airtight by sealing window trim and baseboards.
  • Make sure the home has a well-designed duct system with a balanced supply and return air flow. Make sure the ducts are sealed so there are no leaks.

Hemsath says if the home owner can only afford to do one thing, he says the number one thing they should do in Lincoln’s climate is improve the home’s insulation or airtightness.

With all his teaching and research experience, Hemsath is often regarded as an expert in his field. He has spoken internationally and nationally on issues of energy-efficient design and using building energy modeling. He has several local engagements this semester including a talk entitled “Zero-net Energy Homes” at the March Nebraskan’s for Solar meeting and then another presentation at the Nebraska ASHRAE Chapter on “Building Energy Modeling in Design,” date to be determined.

Furthermore, Hemsath has several published works on this subject including two recently in Science Direct entitled “Building Design with Energy Performance as Primary Agent” and “Sensitivity Analysis Evaluating Basic Building Geometry’s Effect on Energy Use.” Hemsath will have a book coming out in early 2017 published by Routledge entitled “Energy Modeling in Architectural Design.”

With the outlook of energy consumption projected to increase, Hemsath’s work couldn’t be more important or timely.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

/in /by

Professor David Chasco, FAIA was invited to be the jury chair for the AIA Michigan 2015 Honor Awards Program, held June 5, 2015. Approximately 80 entries were submitted by AIA Michigan based firms and were reviewed.  Twelve projects were given Honor Awards in categories of Building, Interior Architecture, Low Budget/Small Project, Unbuilt and Steel, that “exhibited design excellence through creative responses to issues and challenges.” Professor Chasco also selected several alumni of the Illinois School of Architecture, Carol Ross Barney, FAIA and Brian Vitale, AIA (2014 Young Architect Award) both of Chicago, to comprise the Honor Award Design Award Jury.  David then participated in the Honor Award Ceremony at Detroit’s AIA Honor Award-winning Woodward Garden Theatre.

Professor David M. Chasco, FAIA was invited to lead a team of 6 Illinois School of Architecture graduate students – Angel Ng, Jienan Zhang, Christian Pepper, Katherine Stowell, William Smarzewski, and Yang Yu – in the first Volterra 2015 International Design Workshop, sponsored by the University of Detroit-Mercy (UDM) School of Architecture and hosted by their Volterra (Italy) Detroit Foundation in the Volterra International Residential College. The Workshop was held from July 27 through August 7th, 2015. Participating university teams also involved the University of Detroit-Mercy led by Dean Will Wittig and Professor Wladek Fuches (President, Volterra-Detroit Foundation), Warsaw Technological University (Poland) led by Professor Jan Slyke, Ph.D. and University of Pisa representative Giulio Pucci. James Timberlake of Kiernan Timberlake Architects, an alumnus of UDM and designer of the new U.S. Embassy, London, was the Workshop captain. The Workshop project titled “Il Foro Ecological” explored the theme of the relationship between society and technology through the creation of a new Urban District on a large site inhabited by a large public parking lot, the ruins of first century BC Roman Theatre, Roman Baths and bounded by the Volterra hilltop ring road on one side and the medieval defensive wall on the other. The site was part of the old Etruscan and Roman City. Three (3) university integrated teams of students designed urban responses respecting and integrating the site antiquities with a redirected pedestrianized ring road, new baths, marketplace grounds and facilities and other uses deemed appropriate. The culmination of the students’ design efforts was a final exhibition and presentation to various Volterra interested townspeople and stakeholders including Mr. Mario Buselli, Mayor of Volterra. Professor David Chasco has been invited by the University of Detroit-Mercy to head the Volterra 2016 International Design Workshop as well as select a UIUC School of Architecture alumnus as the Workshop Captain.

Professor David Chasco FAIA, and Chicago Architects Carol Ross Barney FAIA and Brian Vitale AIA of Genseler, juried the recently held Michigan Masonry Institute Architectural Awards. The three had also judged the 2015 AIA Michigan Honor Award recently.  Professor Chasco is also a member of the new Campus Master Plan Advisory Committee to advise the University of Illinois Campus Planners, the Smith Group over the next 1 ½ years. He also continues to serve as the Co-Chair of the Chancellor’s Design Advisory Committee which conducts design reviews of all relevant campus architectural projects.

Erik M. Hemingway, associate professor of design in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and principal of hemingway+a/studio, will deliver a special public presentation to introduce the design problem for the 2016 Laskey Charrette. During this intensive, weekend-long workshop, sophomore architecture students work in teams to brainstorm ideas for a given design challenge. Their final designs are exhibited and reviewed, with a jury of faculty awarding prizes.

The charrette is presented annually by Studio L in collaboration with the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design to honor Professor Emeritus Leslie J. Laskey and his singular approach to design education during his 35-year WashU tenure.

With over two decades of design experience as principal of hemingway+a/studio, Hemingway’s projects have been recognized in such publications as architecture, Architectural Record, Dwell, Global Architecture, and *surface. Before coming to the University of Illinois, he taught design at the University of California, Berkeley; Lawrence Technological University; and Louisiana State University, as the Nadine Carter Russell Endowed Chair.

His academic studios are engaged with design competitions as a medium of entrepreneurial critical practice and material experimentation. He is the faculty sponsor for his students’ design work, which have resulted in twelve recognitions for global issues ranging from the United Nations on Aging, Barcelona Collective Housing, Steel Design, Preservation as Provocation, Socio Design Foundation, and a Modular School for Burmese Refugees. Two built projects from his seminar material work, mundane[UPGRADE], were published in Exploring Materials by Princeton Architectural Press.

Hemingway earned a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Architecture from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Before establishing his practice, he worked in the offices of Arquitectonica and Zaha M. Hadid. His most recent research has been engaged in significant residential structures designed by Mies van der Rohe in Chicago and A. Quincy Jones in Los Angeles. Featured in an exhibition, Erik Hemingway Modernism, at the Krannert Art Museum in 2015, these combine a “more for less” approach based on his flat pack fabrication and preservation upgrades within existing Modernist homes.  

Professor Marci S. Uihlein is the new President-Elect for the Building Technology Educators’ Society (BTES) and will serve as President of the organization in 2017.

University of Southern California

/in /by

Professors Kim Coleman and Warren Techentin, in conjunction with Wong Chiu Man and Maria Warner Wong, principals of WOW Architecture in Singapore and USC Architecture graduates, are leading research studios in the graduate and fifth year undergraduate programs that explore innovative design solutions for Bhartiya City, a 150-acre creative hub currently in construction near Bangalore.   Thanks to the generosity of the Bhartiya corporation, the group traveled to India for twelve days in January, researching the country’s culture and traditions.  The research will culminate in a planned exhibition in fall, 2016.

Dr. Joon-Ho Choi at USC has published a journal article, entitled “Investigation of human eye pupil sizes as a measure of visual sensation in the workplace environment with a high lighting colour temperature” in the journal of Indoor and Built Environment. He will host an intensive seminar, titled “Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) as a Proactive Environmental Design and Control Tool in Modern Buildings” at the Environmental Design Research Association-EDRA 47 Conference in Raleigh, NC in May 2016.

Trudi Sandmeier, director of Heritage Conservation programs, will serve as a moderator for the upcoming international Iconic Houses Conference at the Getty Center. She has also been chosen to chair the Awards Jury for the Los Angeles Conservancy’s upcoming Preservation Awards program.

John V. Mutlow Architects, Inc. recently won the Award for Innovation in Quality Affordable Housing – USA, as part of Build Magazine UK’s Architecture Awards 2015 program.

Eric Haas, Adjunct Associate Professor and Principal of DSH // architecture, presented his firm’s adaptive reuse projects and current work at the AD&A Museum at the University of California Santa Barbara in January.

Assistant Professor Alison Hirsch will serve as a panelist in the California Historical Society’s February 16th program, “The Continued Legacy of Anna and Lawrence Halprin.” Her article, “Urban Barnraising: Activating Collective Ritual to Promote Communitas” comes out in Landscape Journal this month and her article (co-authored with Aroussiak Gabrielian), “Grounding Diaspora: negotiating between home and host” will come out in the Journal of Architectural Education next month (March).

Patrick Tighe, FAIA, Adjunct Professor, will lecture this Spring as part of the Cal Poly Pomona Lecture Series. Tighe will also present the work of the firm as part of the  Cal Poly San Louis Obispo lecture series. Patrick Tighe Architecture was recently awarded 2 Best of Year Awards from Interior Design Magazine (published in the January issue). 

Lisa Little has been selected as a finalist by theTacoma Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium for two large public art installations to be constructed as part of their new facility. In addition, her practice Vertebrae has been selected to participate in the upcoming Come In!: DTLA exhibition series, opening in March 2016.  Vertebrae also recently completed a laser cut, powder-coated, long-span aluminum shade canopy in Venice, CA entitled Troll Blue Swell. 

The competition to redesign Pershing Square, LA’s most maligned but also most promising park,  Pershing Square Renew, started with 54 teams. In October, that was narrowed to ten semi-finalists. Six of the ten included USC School of Architecture faculty, representing the school’s on-going legacy and impact on the shape of the city. The competition to design the new City Hall park in DTLA for the entire block adjacent to Grant Park at 1st and Broadway has been narrowed down to four teams, including USC professor Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA and his firm Brooks + Scarpa. Final designs were submitted just before the new year holidays. Public presentations  from the four firms will occur on Friday Jan 15, 2006 with the winner selected shortly afterwards. 

Lorcan O’Herlihy, FAIA, Adjunct Professor and principal of Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects [LOHA] will be collaborating with Art Share L.A. to renovate and update their home in the Arts District. LOHA will work with Art Share to carry on their mission of fostering a creative environment for artists and the surrounding neighborhood by developing a space containing a combination of galleries, classrooms, subsidized live-work lofts, event and performance venues, and other community-building spaces. In addition, LOHA will be working with Detroit artist Olayami Dabls on building his African Bead Museum to display and celebrate a collection of African art and artifacts. LOHA’s work with Dabls and the African Bead Museum will join another new LOHA project in Detroit, designing a key component of a catalytic new development in Detroit’s Brush Park neighborhood, the city’s largest residential project in decades. Selected by the Brush Park Development Company, LOHA will design four mixed-use buildings that will become the cornerstones of this significant revitalization effort, incorporating housing, retail, dining, and various arts and cultural amenities on an 8.4 acre site in historic Brush Park. 

Geoffrey von Oeyen, Assistant Professor of Practice, organized a national meeting of the Architectural Division of the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) at the USC School of Architecture on January 27 and 28, 2016. Bill Kreysler, Chair, presented to a large audience of USC students and faculty an overview of the ACMA’s work to extend composites research and practice to architectural applications. About twenty national leaders in the composites industry met with students during a reception to discuss current materials research and design techniques. 

Kyle Konis, Ph.D AIA, Alejandro Gamas, and Karen Kensek published a paper in the journal Solar Energy entitled, “Passive Performance and Building Form: An Optimization Framework for Early-Stage Design Support.” The paper documents work completed under the Innovative Design for Energy Efficiency Activities (IDEEA) program under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.

Alvin Huang, Assistant Professor, has been awarded the 2016 ACSA Faculty Design Award for the Durotaxis Chair, a fully 3D printed rocking chair which utilizes multi-material 3D printing to express variable structural performance and ergonomic conditions. His work has also recently been featured in Autodesk’s LineShapeSpace.com article “5 Ways Architects & Postdigital Artisans are Modernizing Craftsmanship” and in The Architect’s Newspaper. On March 30, Alvin will be the keynote speaker at the AIA East Bay’s Design & Technology Symposium in Oakland, California.

KnitKnot architecture, the firm of Maria Esnaola, has been awarded a first prize in the Europan 13 Competition (Europan 13_The Adaptable City. http://www.europan-europe.eu/en/) for the municipality of OS (Norway). Europan is a biennial competition for architects under 40 years old to design innovative housing schemes for sites across Europe. The competition encourages architects to address social and economic changes occurring in towns and cities.

Laurel Consuelo Broughton, Adjunct Assistant Professor at USC SOA and her studio WELCOMEPROJECTS participated in the exhibition Errors, Estrangements, Messes, and Fictions alongside Andrew Kovacs and First Office at All Gallery in Los Angeles. The large exhibition was curated by Hadrian Predock and sponsored by USC School of Architecture. In February, Laurel was invited as a guest speaker in The XLab: Cross-Disciplinary Practice and Collaboration at University of Minnesota Collage of Design. 

Chu+Gooding Architects are designing an exhibition for Artist Rodney McMillian at the Studio Museum in Harlem which opens on March 24th in New York City. Their Santa Monica Canyon house provides the backdrop for actress Cate Blanchett in the upcoming Terrence Malick feature film ‘Knight of Cups’ which opens March 3rd. Their Hollywood Hills home of celebrity photographer James White is being published multiple times – the cover of Sept 2015 Elle Decor, Vogue Living Australia, Architectural Digest Russia & German Design Magazine Places of Spirit.

Karen Kensek and Douglas Noble have been awarded a grant from the Precast Concrete Institute Foundation in support of a design studio to examine the use of precast in extreme climates.  The studio will work with the National Park Service to study precast as a strategy for the extreme temperature swings in the desert at Joshua Tree National Park. The projects will be fully off-grid, and will be situtated in a high seismic- zone.  Noble and Kensek will travel to the PCI convention in Nashville to present the results of this three-year study.

 

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