Eleni Bastéa, Ph.D., Professor, received a grant from the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence to develop a new interdisciplinary course titled: “Cities and Literature: Urban Change and Urban Narratives in Contemporary Europe,” Spring 2012.
Margaret Pedone AIA, Lecturer, recently was awarded an ‘unbuilt citation award’ from the AIA Albuquerque for her project “3 River Barges”.
Kramer E Woodard, Associate Professor, has received a United States utility patent for his innovative prefabricated wall and structure system for use in small dwellings, particularly where rapid deployment is needed, as in disaster relief. Currently Woodard is working on two other systems to provide heating, cooling and electricity using solar energy, that will work in conjunction with the wall system. He expects utility patents for those systems next year.
Kristina H. Yu, Assistant Professor, competed and recently was awarded the Teaching Allocation Grant UNM for her study titled, “Technologically Enhanced Interactive Desk Critique: Reinvigorating the Studio Classroom”. Prof. Yu along with Electrical Computer Engineer Prof. Olga Lavrova (UNM) competed to teach interdisciplinary courses ”Communal Concerns – Housing and Photovoltaic Assets” to be taught at the Schloss Dyck Foundations in Neuss, Germany Summer 2012. Yu was recently selected to participate in the NSF funded faculty leadership workshop under the initiative of the NM Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. The training, courses and funding are directly related to her research area of Housing Development and Shared Amenities.
Assistant Professor Kathrina Simonenand Liv Haselbach of Washington State University College of Engineering, in collaboration with University of Washington researchers Elaine Oneil of the College of the Environment and Joyce Cooper of the College of Engineering, submitted the Life Cycle Assessment and Buildings Research for Washington State (LCA for WA) report to the State Legislature on September 1st, 2012. This research to explore the potential of integrating LCA methods and data into the State Building Code was funded by Washington Senate Bill 5485. As part of this research, two stakeholder workshops were held which included presentations on topics such as: LCA fundamentals, LCA policy and LCA in Practice. This presentations were recorded and are posted online along with the final report report at http://courses.washington.edu/lcaforwa/wordpress/.
Assistant Professor Kathryn Rogers Merlino was awarded the 2012 Runstad Real Estate Center Fellowship and traveled to Istanbul, Turkey in March 2012. This fellowship, now in its second year, is a program that selects a diverse group of academics, professionals and students to pursue research questions related to design, building, development and their environmental and economic concerns. The 2012 Fellows consisted of two professors, Merlino and Carrie Sturts Dossick (Construction Management); professionals Jason Twill (Senior Project Manager, Sustainability, Vulcan Inc.) and Liz Dunn (Consulting Director of the Preservation Green Lab, Founder of Dunn and Hobbes, LLC) and students Natalie Gualy (M.Arch, MSRE 2012) and Ian Fishburn (MSRE, 2012). The fellows spent seven days in Istanbul, investigating the urban growth policies of this architecturally rich and dynamic “megacity”, and discussing its current trajectory with real estate professionals, government officials, designers, academics, activists and citizens. The findings provided a startling reminder that despite conjectures about post-consumer, post-carbon ‘creative culture’ cities, homogenized 20th century ambitions still largely determine the way in which the globe’s most architecturally and culturally unique cities are pursing growth in the 21st century. The Fellows will present their experiences on November 8 at 6pm in Architecture Hall at the University of Washington.
Professor Steve Badanes traveled to Australia in March for a lecture tour, and spoke at UTS in Sydney, UniSA in Adelaide, and UTas and Hobart AIA in Tasmania. The Neighborhood design/build Studio, which Badanes directs with Jake LaBarre, won 4 out of 7 Honor Awards at the 2012 AIA Pacific Region Student Awards for the Urban Farm Supershed. Badanes chaired the Louisiana AIA Awards jury, and traveled to Lafayette LA in September to present the awards, and to speak at the La AIA Convention and at the Tulane City Center. A recent film focused on the Seattle icon Fremont Troll, a project led by Badanes and his firm Jersey Devil, premiered this fall. The film, Hall of Giants ‘chronicles the creation and endurance of the much beloved Fremont Troll and explores the public art movement in Seattle and beyond. Through interviews and hundreds of rare photographs and archival footage, viewers will take an historical journey through Seattle’s earliest years and on up to the present, where art and artists still struggle to survive in an ever-changing city.’
Robert Hutchison was promoted to Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture, College of Built Environments, December 2011. His firm, Hutchison & Maul Architecture is a partner with the Uniontown Community Development Association on the Addition to the historic Artisan Barn project, which was one of 80 projects to be awarded a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant. Robert Hutchison was one of eight featured Speakers at the 2012 AIA Arkansas State Convention, Little Rock AR, September 2012. Hutchison was an invited Speaker & Reviewer for the Kansas State University College of Architecture, Planning & Design, Manhattan KS, September 2012.
Professor Sharon Sutton published a Critical book essay of “Service-Learning in Design and Planning,” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 19, 1, in press for late October, early November.
The Department of Architecture at the University of Washington is working with aid organization Ayni Education International, the Janet W. Ketcham Foundation, architect Salim Rafik, and architect Bob Hull, founding partner of the Seattle based firm Miller Hull, to design the new Gohar Khaton Girls’ School in Mazar-i-sharif, Afghanistan. Bob Hull and Assistant professor Elizabeth Golden are leading a graduate architecture studio focused on developing culturally and environmentally responsive design solutions for the project, which is slated for construction in early 2013.
The University of Oklahoma dedicated Gould Hall for the College of Architecture in a public ceremony on Wednesday, Sept. 14. It is the first time that students from all five disciplines – architecture, construction science, interior design, landscape architecture, and regional and city planning – are housed under one roof. The result, says College of Architecture Dean Charles Graham, will be greater opportunities for interdisciplinary study and a more rounded learning experience. The newly renovated building features a two-story, vaulted gallery – the Buskuhl Gallery – that allows for the flexibility of lighting and space necessary to adequately accommodate the students’ work in a professional manner, as well as a beautiful space in which to host receptions, symposia and traveling exhibits. Among the innovative features of the new building are a “Super Studio,” featuring two 40-inch plasma televisions and an interactive technology table, which allows six students to share their work with the professor and other students, and a full and mini “Learn Lab.” Learn Labs differ from traditional classrooms in that they have no typical “front”; rather, space is arranged in such a way as to encourage interaction among the students and professor. Three projectors allow students to share their work on one or all of the screens, and a ceiling-view document camera can be used to zoom in on an object and display it on one or more of the projector screens.
Oklahoma educator and urban designer Blair Humphreys was named Executive Director of the Institute for Quality Communities at the OU College of Architecture. The Institute for Quality Communities, founded in 2008, builds on OU’s success as an outstanding research university. Humphreys will guide the Institute in its work to build more vibrant, sustainable and equitable communities throughout Oklahoma and provide more research and educational opportunities for OU students. In spring 2011, Humphreys was the faculty adviser for a group of students from OU’s College of Architecture and Michael F. Price College of Business competing in a national urban design competition for The Urban Land Institute. The team placed in the top four, competing against 152 others from across the United States and Canada.
Ron Frantz, an architect who specializes in small-town design and preservation has joined the Institute for Quality Communities as the director of Small Town Studios. Frantz, who has done extensive work with both national and state Main Street programs, also has been named a Wick Carey Professor and will teach in the college’s Division of Architecture. Frantz will provide design and planning experience by pairing faculty and students to projects in small towns across the state.
The Biosphere 2Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO)will consist of three massive landscapes constructed inside an environmentally controlled greenhouse facility. A scale-model built by Assistant Professor Susannah Dickinsonand two third-year architecture students,David Kim and James Carrico, will be displayed for visitors at Biosphere 2. For more info visit: http://leo.b2science.org/node/36
OF ARCH #118: International Magazine of Architecture and Design features the Tucson Zoo and Natatorium in Reid Park, by Burns Wald-Hopkins Shambach Architects with design consultation on fabric structures by Professor R. Larry Medlin.
Adjunct Lecturers Teresa Rosano and Luis Ibarra (Ibarra Rosano Design Architects, Inc.) have three projects featured in Contemporary Villas, Strahan, McMillan, and McMillan, eds. (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub Ltd, 2011).
Geoffrey C. Adams, Associate Professor, has been appointed the new Director of the Architecture Program in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico. He succeeds Mark C. Childs, Professor, in this position.
Matthew Gines, Lecturer and Director of the Fabrication Lab, launched CRAF+T: The Center for Research in Advanced Fabrication and Technology. The Center’s research focuses on four areas; digital fabrication, building technology + practices, generative design, and enhanced computational processes.
James and Claudia Horn, Lecturers, led the Global Studio, with the recipient of this year’s Marjorie Mead Hooker Visiting Professorship, Will Bruder. 13 students participated in this intensive summer studio program.
Geraldine Forbes-Isais, Professor and Dean, and Michaele Pride, Professor and Associate Dean for Public Outreach + Engagement, are planning for The Public Interest Design Institute® to provide training to architecture and other design professionals in public interest design with in-depth studies on methods of design related to critical issues faced by communities, September 2011.
Prof. Pride and Lecturer Garrett Smith, instructed and guided the summer travel program to Switzerland and Italy.
Noreen Richards has been appointed visiting assistant professor. She is actively creating connections between the architecture program and the University’s Sustainable Studies Program.
Roger Schluntz, professor and former dean at the University of New Mexico, was elected as the President Elect of the organization; he will then serve a two-year term as Presidenteffective 2013.
Kristina H. Yu, Assistant Professor, has presented at the conference, Suburbs and the 2010 Census, at George Mason University, School of Policy, two working papers. She participated in the National Housing Conference: Solutions for Sustainable Communities. These presentations and participation are related to her ongoing research and new seminar course titled ‘where is housing now?’.
The American Institute of Architects Students chapter on October 27-30, 2011 will host the regional West Quad Conference. The conference is titled, DEP: Dialogue Evolving Process. The conference questions, “How are architects evolving the standardization of the built environment?” Several workshops, tours and structured discussions and development curriculum are planned. The Keynote speakers are John Padilla (Vice-President AIA National), Eddie and Neal Jones (Jones Studio Inc) and Tom Wiscombe (Emergent Architecture).
Emily Gabel-Luddy, FASLA, instructor in the USC Master of Landscape Architecture program, was elected in April to a 4-year term as the newest member of the Burbank City Council. She will be serving as liaison to the Cultural Arts Commission and the Sustainable Commission in the City.
Paul Danna, AIA, has won the commission to design the new California State Superior Courthouse in Long Beach, with design partner Jose Palacios, AIA. He is also serving on the Executive Committee of AIA/Los Angeles, as Past President of the Chapter.
Christoph Kapeller will be presenting his research project “Chengdu Sp[eculative Mapping” at the Chengdu Biennale 2011 from September 29th until October 30th.
Kris Mun, designer and exhibitor for AAC’s Digital Futures exhibition in Shanghai August 2011, showed her work amongst other prominent practices, including Zaha Hadid Architects, Greg Lynn, UNStudio, that are engaging in computational and digital fabrication strategies in architecture.
M. Brian Tichenor, AIA, ASLA , is contributing a chapter for the upcoming Rizzolli publication ‘The California Casa’, and his work has been featured in the books ‘ Classic Homes of California’ and ‘At Home’, both published this year.
Linda C. Samuels, USC lecturer since the fall of 2010, has received a grant from UCLA’s Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies in support of her research on failed projects for the 101 ‘trench’ site, a quarter mile stretch in downtown Los Angeles where the freeway descends below grade. This research is part of her dissertation focusing on urban infrastructure redevelopment projects.
Mark Gangi, AIA, NCARB, LEED-AP was featured on AIA National Podcast as the Citizen Architect on the Move for September 2011 http://idimultimedia.net/clients/aia_podcast/07152011/Mark_Gangi_711.mp3
Adjunct Professor Regula Campbell AIA authored a presentation in June at the International Federation of Landscape Architecture World Congress: “Scales of Nature”, Zurich, Switzerland on the topic: Biodiversity in the City: Enrichment for Urban Life and Work – “Making It Personal, Making It Real”.
Joe Sturges, Lecturer has completed WIldwood School campus as senior designer with Nancy Power & Associate in conjuction with Koning Eizenberg Architects. Other projects completed this year include Children’s Institute with KEA and Indian Paintbrush Productions with Barton Myers Associates Inc.
Victoria Turkel Behner, PhD, is designing the upcoming exhibition “In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, opening January 2012.
Adjunct Professor Doug Campbell ASLA will be recognized by the Government of Hangzhou, China this October for his contribution to the region’s “Quality of Life” through his design of a recently completed sustainable new town re-visioning a former industrial site in the City’s northern district.
Dr. Ken Breisch has stepped down after twelve years as Director of Graduate Programs in Historic Preservation, a program which he founded in 1999. He will resume teaching and writing full-time in the School of Architecture.
Gary Paige’s architecture project, “Type Variant Houses” and artwork, “Ruled Surfaces” is the subject of an exhibition entitled “Other Works” at the School of Architecture at UC Berkeley, along with architects Wes Jones and IDEA Office partners Eric Kahn and Russell Thomsen.
Assistant Professor, Victor Jones and the Watts House Project were awarded a 2011 Graham Grant to complete work for the Watts House Project’s Platform fence, pocket park, and façade improvement.
Alvin Huang was appointed as a Tenure-Track Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California School of Architecture, Los Angeles. He will be teaching graduate and thesis design studios focused on advanced digital design techniques, material performance, and digital fabrication. His office, Synthesis Design + Architecture, has also moved to Los Angeles from London.
Adjunct Associate Professor Michael Hricak, FAIA, and his Venice based design firm recently received city approval for an innovative hotel and conference center to be built in Redondo Beach, California which promises to set new standards for design and sustainability in this beachside community.
Scott Uriu, lecturer at USC, partner in the firm BplusU, was chosen as one of the finalists in the Silver Lake Sunset Junction Competition in June by the City of Silver Lake, also in June BplusU were chosen for the 2011 AIA Emerging Professional exhibit in Washington DC, BplusU’s work has been recently published in the book “Futuristic-Vision of future living”, and in August was featured in the LA Times LA Home section.
Assistant Professor Rachel Berney is presenting the paper “A New Spatial Fix: The Promise of Public Space in a Fragmented Buenos Aires” at the ACSP Conference in Salt Lake City, October 13-16, 2011. Students from USC’s MLA Program in the School of Architecture have work represented in the forthcoming book, “Representing Landscapes: A Visual Collection of Landscape Architectural Drawings” (Editor, Nadia Amoroso). Contributor for USC MLA, Rachel Berney.
USC Emeritus Professor Robert S. Harris, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor and former ACSA President, concluded a 5-year appointment as Director of the USC Master of Landscape Architecture program. He was recognized as CELA Outstanding Educator for 2011, and will be awarded Honorary ASLA. membership at the ASLA Annual Meeting in October 2011.
Adjunct Assistant Professor Anna Neimark’s installation of an enormous extrusion of the Soviet hydraulic network in foam will open at the WUHO gallery in Hollywood on December 8th, accompanied by the publication, “The Infrastructural Monument: Stalin’s Water Works under Construction and in Representation,” in the forthcoming issue of Future Anterior. Research for this project has been supported by the USC Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences (ASHSS) and the Harvard GSD Appleton Traveling Fellowship.
Erik Mar is working on two Los Angeles County Public Libraries, of 7200 sf and 16,000 sf. He also delivered a lecture on sustainability and environmental imperatives to the Public Library staff on their 2011 Staff Training Day.
Lecturer Mina M. Chow, AIA, NCARB, is shooting a pilot episode for web series on innovative architecture in Los Angeles with the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, and the Getty Research Institute Wim de Witt and USC School of Architecture Professor Jim Steele as humanities advisors.
Christine Lampert whose firm is Lampert Dias Architect’s Inc. along with PDS West is working on a master plan to redesign a large portion of the Laguna Woods Village in Laguna Woods California. Laguna Woods is a community with a population of over 15,000 senior citizens in South Orange County. The project includes bringing the 1960’s designed community into the 21st century.
Professor Marc Schiler presented a new definition for Performative Facades at the Facade Tectonics Conference, July 30, and at a public lecture at USC on Wednesday, August 24, based on research done during his sabbatical on reflective facades from Odeillo, France to Berlin.
Adjunct Associate Professor Warren Techentin and his firm Warren Techentin Architecture (WTARCH) won First Prize in the STREET 2020 Vision Competition in conjunction with the inaugural Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB) for 2011. The international competition invited architects, landscape architects, and planners to focus on the hybrid issue of ‘Landscape Urbanism’ as applied to making a new street in Estonia’s capitol city. The competition sought design solutions to offset traffic concerns while improving the quality of urban life for pedestrians and cyclists.
Assistant Professor Karen M. Kensek organized the Fifth Annual Symposium on “Building Information Modeling: Extreme BIM” last July. Plans are already underway for the sixth conference to be held in Los Angeles in summer 2012.
Travis Longcore, Ph.D., of the USC Spatial Sciences Institute has become a guest critic and instructor in the Landscape Architecture program, bringing his expertise on urban ecology, restoration, conservation planning, and GIS to the curriculum.
Victor Regnier FAIA, Professor of Architecture and Gerontology will present a paper at the LeadingAge Conference in Washington DC on Dutch Service-hybrid Housing Models, as well as jury a competition for the Aging Means Business: Design for a New Age conference in Boston–both in the Fall.
“Structure and Design,” a book by Professor G. Goetz Schierle, is posted on over 30 international web sites.
Lauren Matchison, NCARB, is currently designing a sustainable beach bungalow in Orange County.
Rob Ley was recently won two separate competitions to design permanent installations in both Seattle, WA & Kansas City, MO and is recently included in Madeline Schwartzman’s new book ‘See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception’ and Rashida Ng’s upcoming book ‘INPUT_OUTPUT: Performative Materials in Architecture and Design’.
Eric Haas, AIA, Adjunct Assistant Professor, and his firm DSH had their project 2636 Residence featured in the exhibit “Tokyo/LA Houses” at July’s Little Tokyo Design Week in Los Angeles.
USC faculty Behrokh Khoshnevis (Engineering), Neil Leach (Architecture), Anders Carlson (Architecture) and Madhu Thangavelu (Astronautics) have won a NASA grant to explore the use of the robotic fabrication technology, Contour Crafting, for building structures on the Moon. The grant was one of 30 awarded to over 700 applicants by the NASA Innovation Advanced Concepts Program (NIAC). For further details see: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/08/7306644-out-of-this-world-ideas-funded
Ric. Abramson (2nd year Studio Critic)/Workplays studio recently completed its latest project, Demitasse Coffee Bar Lounge, downtown Los Angeles in Little Tokyo.
JFAK Architects, the firm of Associate Professor and UG Chair Alice Kimm, FAIA, was awarded two AIA California Council Design Awards for projects completed at Caltech and in Santa Monica. JFAK’s downtown parking structure for the LAPD was featured in Architectural Record and named one of the “5 most beautiful parking garages in Los Angeles” by LA Weekly.
Assistant Prof. Dr. David Gerber will present design computation research ‘Building Skin Intelligence’ at the ACADIA 2011 conference, he will keynote the largest and leading Brazilian AEC venue on ‘Building Industry Innovation: An Evolution of Building Information Modeling and Computing in the AEC.’
Assistant Professor Gail Peter Borden was named Director of the Master of Architecture Program. His recently opened installation at the USC-URC, entitled Density Frames consists of a variably triangulated structure interlaced with a multistory pneumatic and coincided with the release of his 2nd book Matter: Material Processes in Architectural Production from Routledge.
Vinayak Bharne has authored a chapter titled “Saving the Qanat: The Dilemmas of Sustainability & Strategic Conservation in Yazd, Iran” in the forthcoming book “Aesthetics of Sustainable Architecture” (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2011)
Esther Margulies principal at ValleyCrest Design Group in Los Angeles has been working on the 2014 World Horticultural Exposition Exposition in Qingdao, China along with design build projects in Santa Monica and Malibu California.
Contact Associate Professor Douglas Noble, FAIA, Ph.D., (dnoble@usc.edu) for details on how to submit paper and session proposals on the subject of building envelopes for the 8th FACADE TECTONICS CONFERENCE scheduled for June, 2012, in Los Angeles.
Peter Simmonds has designed two LEED Platinum buildings so far and is working on number three.
Todd Gish, PhD, AIA, is contributing a chapter to an upcoming anthology on urban planning in Los Angeles; the essay joins a revisionist literature demonstrating a long history of plans for LA, created by prominent national planners who utilized the best professional practices of their day.
The School of Architecture is please to announce that Greg Watson has joined the faculty as an Associate Professor this fall.
Greg Watson received his BA in Psychology from Columbia University and his MArch from
Washington University in Saint Louis. He has practiced in Chicago, Maine, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Minnesota. Watson’s research has been supported by grants from the New York State Psychiatric Institute, the Mississippi State University Office of Research, the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. His paintings, drawings, and prints have been exhibited at galleries in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
The School of Architecture is please to announce that Alice Guess has joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor this fall.
Alice Guess holds a five year M. Arch from Tulane University and an M. Arch from McGill University’s Architectural History and Theory Program. A South Carolina native, she has practiced architecture in Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina. For the last decade she has worked with Reggie Gibson in Charleston, South Carolina, becoming principle of Gibson Guess Architects in 2007. Before coming to LSU she taught at the Clemson Center for Architecture in Charleston.Alice Guess.
ACSA conducted its fourth annual budget and enrollment survey of member schools this fall, asking programs about changes to their budgets, enrollment and applications, and hiring patterns. The results from 60 schools in the United States and Canada showed architecture programs facing slight reductions in enrollment, while budgets are holding steady or showing slight increases.
Among the results found in this year’s report, presented in two dozen graphics, are drops in applications at about half of undergraduate programs, but more increases in applications at the graduate level. Additionally, many schools seeing drops in enrollment have the decreases tempered by growing numbers of international students. More schools reported increases in total budgets than decreases, and funding for faculty travel and discretionary stayed the same or increased.
The Architecture School Budget and Enrollment Survey 2013-14 report also includes new analyses of trends based on Carnegie Foundation classifications and other data to provide a fuller picture of how ACSA schools are faring.
How are changes in budgets and enrollment affecting your schools? Please comment, or email Lian Chikako Chang at lchang@acsa-arch.org.
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