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Tulane University

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Tulane School of Architecture welcomes the following new non-tenure track faculty for the 2011-12 academic year.  The following adjunct faculty has been appointed as part of the school’s new Master of Sustainable Real Estate Development program. 

M. Tatiana Eck, most recently Vice President of Architecture and Development at AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp. and a registered architect and LEED AP at William McDonough + Partners before that. Her BA in Architecture, cum laude, is from Princeton University and she holds two master’s degrees, in Architecture and in Urban and Environmental Planning, from the University of Virginia. 

Kelly Longwell, Director in the New Orleans office of Coats Rose, where she concentrates in the areas of real estate, affordable housing and taxation. She holds a LL.M degree in Taxation from New York University, a JD from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor’s degree from Tulane University.

Casius Pealer, is Principal of Oyster Tree Consulting L3C, a mission-driven limited liability corporation that provides affordable housing and community development advising services. He served as the first Director of Affordable Housing at the U.S. Green Building Council and is a Senior Sustainable Building Advisor for the Affordable Housing Institute in Boston, MA, and he is 2011 Chair of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Housing Committee.  He holds a Masters in Architecture degree from Tulane University’s School of Architecture and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

Ommeed Sathe, has served as Director of Real Estate Development for the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (“NORA”) since June 2007. He received his JD from Harvard University Law School, a Master in City Planning from MIT and a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in Urban Planning and Neuroscience.

Z Smith, AIA received his bachelor’s degree in Physics from MIT, master of architecture degree from UC Berkley, his doctorate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University.  He is director of Sustainable Design at Eskew+Dumez+Ripple Architects.

Reuben Teague, is co-founder and principal of Green Coast Enterprises. He has been named an Echoing Green fellow for 2008-10, one of Gambit Magazine’s “40 under 40” for 2009, one of Fast Company’s “10 Coolest Innovators Rebuilding New Orleans,” and one of “America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs” by Business Week. He holds a JD from New York University School of Law and an AB in Economics from Princeton University.

Seth Welty, LEED AP received his Master of Architecture degree from Tulane University and won a prestigious Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship under whose support he worked for the last three years on rebuilding efforts in Biloxi, Mississippi with the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio. Welty’s primary area of interest is finding venues and methods of practicing a socially responsible architecture that takes a more inclusive, active role in shaping equitable and sustainable environments. 

University of North Carolina Charlotte

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Professor David Walters led one of five urban design teams engaged in a large scale block-by-block design and coding project for the historic core and adjacent neighborhoods in Beaufort, SC organized by the City of Beaufort with the Lawrence Group as lead consultants. This innovative design and coding project will result in a form-based code calibrated to detailed site-specific proposals for future development within the historic context.

Walters’ work on place-specific urban design and form-based coding is also featured in a commissioned paper entitled “Smart Cities, Smart Places, Smart Democracy: Form-based codes, electronic governance and the role of place in making smart cities.” This paper, which features a case study of the work in Beaufort, SC, will be published in a special themed issue of the European journal “Intelligent Buildings International.”

Associate Professor Jose Gamez and his collaborative efforts through the Design + Society Research Center was recently awarded a $20,000 matching grant from the City of Charlotte’s Neighborhood Services and Economic Development.  The funding augments previous funding from Z Smith Reynolds Foundation and is intended to support efforts to address crime and safety in Windy Ridge, a foreclosure hit neighborhood in NW Charlotte.  This on-going, action-based research project has recently been covered by an Associated Press article, featuring the work of faculty and students who aim to help stabilize the neighborhood.  The story appeared in The Charlotte Observer, the San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Denver Post, WRAL in Raleigh, BusinessWeek.com, MSN Money section online, and many other smaller newspapers.

Associate Professor Peter Wong served on the panel discussion “Modernism at Risk: Challenges and Solutions to the Preservation of Modern Architecture” at the Wells Fargo Auditorium in Uptown Charlotte, as part of Historic Charlotte’s “Mad About Modern” Preservation Program.  Other panelists included John Boyer of the Bechtler Museum of Art, George Smart of Triangle Modernist Houses, and Robert Ciucevich of Quatrefoil Consulting.

Assistant Professor Jeff Balmer presented “The Diagram & Beginning Design Education” at the 27th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, hosted by the College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Assistant Professor Chris Beorkrem presented “Material Ecologies in Parametric Design Software” at the

International Conference on Sustainable Design and Construction held on the campus of the

University of Kansas.  Also, five student groups from his spring term Topical Design Studio were selected as Finalists in the ShiftBoston Barge 2011 design competition.  Each proposal was designed using a combination of off-the-shelf unconventional recycled or “pre-cycled” components in conjunction with digitally manufactured connections.  

Assistant Professor Zhongjie Lin received a research grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (Chicago) for his research project “Constructing Utopias: China’s Emerging New Town Movement.” This is Dr. Lin’s second Graham Foundation grant award. He received a publication grant award in 2008 for his book Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan. The current project will focus on the planning and development of the “model new towns” emerging from the current massive urbanization in China, and study them through the lens of urbanism and utopianism. 

Assistant Professor Emily Makas co-authored the book “Architectural Conservation in Europe and the Americas” with John Stubbs of Columbia University, published by Wiley Press.  This book serves as the first comprehensive survey that examines in detail architectural conservation practice on a wide comparative basis.

Assistant Professor Nick Senske presented “A Curriculum for Integrating Computational Thinking” at the

ACADIA Regional Conference: Parametricism: (SPC), held at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. 

Auburn University

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Auburn’s Urban Studio, directed by Professor Cheryl Morgan, played a key role in a Regional and Urban Design Assistance Team (R/UDAT) project to assist Birmingham, Alabama’s Pratt City community with a recovery plan following April’s devastating tornado.  The R/UDAT project was sponsored by the American Institute of Architects’ Center for Communities by Design and was held at the request of Birmingham Mayor William Bell in October of last year.

Morgan served as a key member of the R/UDAT Local Steering Committee, hosted the national R/UDAT team of pro bono design professionals and experts from around the country for charette studio sessions, and engaged students from Auburn and Tuskegee University in the process. The final report and public presentation to the Pratt City community on October 10 was met with great enthusiasm.

In early August 2011, Morgan gathered a team of AU faculty, professional planners, and designers in Cordova, Alabama to study rebuilding opportunities that were hardest hit by the April 27th tornados.  The team included a group from FEMA along with experienced planners, architects, landscape architects and economists who volunteered their time for the workshop.   The charette was open to the public and many citizens participated.

The summary review of the initial work was presented to 65 citizen attendees on August 28, 2011 and focused on evaluating alternatives to capture Cordova’s assets and opportunities.  Commenting on the community meetings, Morgan observed that, “The input of the citizens of Cordova was the foundation of the work, and the work accomplished during the August workshop establishes the road map for first steps in rebuilding.”  As a result of the combined volunteer and community planning effort led by Morgan other organizations (such as Alabama Forever, founded by longtime Alabama residents in response to the April 27th, 2011 tornadoes) are becoming interested in assisting the Cordova community.  The Urban Studio and other key team members will be planning regular meetings with Cordova’s long term recovery committee and with the community to be sure that they are included in the progress of the work and in the final proposals.

The Urban Studio’s efforts in Cordova are being complemented by other faculty within the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture.  During Fall Semester 2011, Landscape Architecture Professor Jocelyn Zanzot organized a collaborative (landscape architecture and community planning) graduate seminar that worked closely with Professor Cheryl Morgan and the Cordova Long Term Recovery team.  The seminar students focused on post-disaster planning and design for resilience including strategic/resourceful first moves with the idea that the work will seed long-term processes of regeneration. A combined research document was produced with the intention to support future School work in Cordova.  The Master’s of Integrated Design (MID&C) and Construction program at Auburn, under the leadership of Professor’s Josh Emig and Paul Holley, will build on the previous efforts of Morgan and Zanzot by focusing on the design of key civic buildings. Cordova lost almost its entire civic infrastructure due to damage from the tornadoes of April 2011.

The Urban Studio also hosted the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) South Regional Session on February 15 thru 17.  MICD is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and U.S. Conference of Mayors.  The Regional Session in Birmingham was attended by 6 to 8 mayors from around the country and helped teach the value of good city design in context of confronting challenges faced by cities. In the years since MIC&D’s inception in 1986, nearly 900 mayors, governors and members of Congress have been involved in the initiative.

MID&C students have been invited back to Chattanooga by the Urban Design Forum to develop a vision for a Chattanooga Industrial Heritage Center. The proposed center will celebrate Chattanooga’s industrial history, as well as its continued industrial development which balances traditional manufacturing with high-tech startups and a strong ethic of sustainability and community. MID&C students will explore two sites along the proposed north and south extensions to Chattanooga’s River Walk. Industrial Heritage Center projects will combine newly constructed elements with re-use of existing structures.

The $20K House began in 2005 as an ongoing Rural Studio research project to address the need for affordable housing in Hale County, provide an alternative to the mobile home, and accommodate potential homeowners who are unable to qualify for commercial credit.  The $20K House project gets its name from the highest realistic mortgage a person receiving median Social Security checks can maintain.  The objective of the Rural Studio students is to design and build a model home that could be reproduced on a large scale by a contractor and built for $20,000.  Currently, Rural Studio has designed ten versions of the $20K House with costs of approximately $12,000 for materials and $8,000 for contracted labor and profit.

In June 2011, Rural Studio hired Marion McElroy, a 2002 Rural Studio alumna, as the $20K House Product Manager.  Marion is taking steps to move the projects out of the research area and formulating an initial plan to move from $20K Project to $20K Product.

In the early 19th century, the Federal Road was constructed to connect Washington City (DC) to New Orleans through the soon to become State of Alabama. Established first as a postal horse path, the road usurped Creek Indian trails to traverse woodlands, navigate rivers and backwater swamps, and reach remote settlements and trading crossroads. Soon expanded as a military route to defend the United States in the War of 1812, it divided the already compromised Creek Nation and precipitated battle over the land. The road, a conduit for both travel and information, opened the Old Southwest to settlers; it promised wealth and delivered violence. As a place unto itself, it was a site of contested relations and encounters between strangers. Land use transformations that followed the road disturbed multiple ecosystems initiating protracted processes of reconfiguration. The State Legislature has identified the Old Federal Road as a route of significant historic potential that could assist rural economic development.

Beginning in the spring semester of 2011 and continuing through 2012, students and faculty in Auburn University’s Master of Landscape Architecture program have embarked on a 21st century re-exploration of the road in search of viable alternatives to the normative landscape-based tourism that so often conceals Alabama’s rich eco-cultural complexity and post-modern eclectic vernacular. Under the direction of Assistant Professor Jocelyn Zanzot in partnership with artist Dan Neil, the students will work with communities along the Old Federal Road to uncover potentials for place-making that interpret and activate the contemporary landscape of this historic route. A first series of investigations and events have been conducted at Uchee, Burn Corn and Mt Vernon, historic crossroads of significance to the Creek Nation. Results from this first work are forthcoming in Southern Spaces journal, and an on-campus exhibition of Creative Scholarship.

Daniel Bennett, Dean Emeritus of the College of Architecture, Design and Construction, was presented the Alabama Architectural Foundations Distinguished Architect Award Feb. 9 at the Alabama Council of The American Institute of Architects Awards Gala at The Country Club of Birmingham.

Mississippi State University

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The School of Architecture (S|ARC) at Mississippi State University has the following four faculty members joining its ranks this academic year:

Amber Ellett, AIA, LEED AP, Visiting Assistant Professor, comes to S|ARC from the office of Burris/Wagnon in Jackson, MS where she has was an Intern Architect for the past 3 years and taught part-time as an adjunct studio-critic in the S|ARC  5th year program. She received her degrees at the University of Nebraska (B. Design + M. Arch) where she also taught as a Teaching Assistant for 2 years while completing her graduate studies. Professor Ellett will teach in the 2nd and 3rd year studios and in the concentrated area of Building Technology.

Alexis Gregory, AIA, Assistant Professor, joins the S|ARC faculty from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She received her degrees at Virginia Tech (B. Arch) and Clemson (M.S. Arch).  As a registered architect she worked for numerous firms in the Wash DC metropolitan area (including Perkins + Will).  Professor Gregory and will teach in upper-level studios and in the concentrated area of Building Technology.  Alexis was named a member of the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) Editorial Board for 2010-2013 and since arriving was awarded a ($2,000) Mississippi State University Cross-College Research Grant for a project titled: Service Learning for Architecture Students: Designing a Habitat for Humanity Prototype; the research is being conducted in conjunction with an elective course in Spring 2012.  Professor Gregory also has an article entitled “Taking Back Territory: Adapting Architectural Education and Practice to Reclaim the Role of Master Builder” in the upcoming Spring 2012 issue of AIA Forward Journal.

Frances Hsu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, comes to Mississippi State University from Georgia Tech. Hsu teaches design studios, architectural theory, and seminars in urbanism and practice. She has also taught at the ETH-Zürich and worked in the offices of Ben van Berkel, Peter Eisenman, and Rem Koolhaas. She holds a B.S. Arch, University of Virginia; M. Arch., Harvard University; and Ph.D., ETH-Zürich.

Andrew Tripp, Assistant Professor, comes to S|ARC from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design where he taught and is finishing his PhD dissertation. He received his degrees at Cooper Union (B. Arch) and U. Penn (M.S. Arch History and Theory). As an Instructor, Professor Tripp taught at the Cooper Union for 3 years. He worked for 5 years as an architectural designer and project manager for Tsao & McKown in NYC and 1 year with Kaplan/McLaughlin/Diaz.  Professor Tripp will be teach in the foundation-level studios and in the concentrated area of History/Theory.

Florida International University

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Assistant Professor Malik Benjamin has been named a Miami Fellow by The Miami Foundation, which seeks to build a Greater Miami through leadership and philanthropy initiatives that invest in creating more informed, thoughtful and effective leaders in the community. Benjamin is one of eighteen members of the Miami Fellows Class VI, and was cited for his innovative leadership in the community. Fellows develop a deeper understanding of Greater Miami and its critical community issues. They will learn from established leaders, develop their own abilities and engage in efforts to increase their community impact individually and as a class. Miami Fellows Class VI builds on the legacy of the program that began in 1999. 

Associate Professors Shahin Vassigh and Jason Chandler published the outcome of their collaboration in a book entitled Building Systems Integration for Enhanced Environmental Performance. The book examines work of architectural practices that produce exemplary models of integrated design that engage climate and context. There are a total of twenty-one buildings discussed and analyzed with graphical detail.

Mississippi State University

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The School of Architecture at Mississippi State University is pleased to announce the addition of four new faculty members.

Emily McGlohn has joined the School as visiting assistant professor. She received her Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon and her Bachelor of Architecture from Auburn University, where she completed her thesis at the Rural Studio and remained after graduation as an instructor for three years. McGlohn next spent several years in professional practice at William McDonough + Partners and brwarchitects in Charlottesville, Va. 

Jacob Gines is another new visiting assistant professor at Mississippi State this year. He received his graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Utah, where he later taught as an adjunct in the design studios. Gines also practiced as a senior associate in the design firm of Method Studio in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Todd Walker, FAIA, is currently serving as a visiting design studio critic in the first-year studio. He is a principle and founding member of the awarding-winning Memphis firm archimania and has also received the prestigious “Eminent Architect of Practice” appointment for spring 2013.
Finas Townsend is currently serving as studio assistant in the first-year design studio. Townsend is from Memphis and received his Bachelor of Architecture from Mississippi State in 2011.

While on sabbatical leave last year, Professor Rachel McCann, PhD, presented two lectures in Europe, “Architectural Sense” at the Merleau-Ponty and the Sense of Space Symposium, University of Nottingham, England; and “Architectural Flesh in the Digital Age” at the Chalmers School of Architecture in Sweden.

David Perkes, AIA, director of the School’s Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, has been promoted to full professor.

Associate Professor Jane Britt Greenwood, AIA, has been selected as one of three Peer Discipline Reviewers for The Fulbright Program for architecture. Greenwood also serves as a Fulbright Program Campus Representative, working to promote the program to students and faculty.

The Carl Small Town Center (CSTC), a research center under the direction of Associate Professor John Poros, AIA, received the Public Outreach Award from The Mississippi Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA MS). The center won the award for its MS Bypass Guidelines, which were published this year. The Public Outreach award was one of only three awards given by the MS APA this year and is for an individual or program that uses information and education about the value of planning to create greater awareness among citizens and other segments of society.

The Carl Small Town Center has also been awarded a grant to work with communities along the Tanglefoot Trail on transportation and economic development issues. The $120,000 grant comes from the federally funded Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center, a regional university transportation center located at the University of Florida. The funds will be shared by Mississippi State University, North Carolina State University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Under the direction of Jassen Callender, associate professor, six teams of fifth-year students had documentary films selected for inclusion in the thirteenth annual Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson, Miss. The documentaries were produced in the fall of 2011 as part of the Theory of Urban Design course.
The six documentaries selected were:
• Richard Akin, Raymond Huffman, and Taylor Poole, From Field to Fork
• Scott Archer, Charles Barry, and Ryan Morris, Chinese Potatoes
• Audrey Bardwell, Aaron Schwartz, and Meredith Yale, Madison the City Needs (Renewable) Energy
• Anthony Dinolfo, Ryan Santos, and Amy Selvaggio, Point A to Point B
• Ingrid Gonzalez, Sam Grefseng, and Chris Hoal, The Built Environment of Jackson
• Lauren Arrington, Robert Featherston, and Jessica Harkins, Ward 3: Area in Need of Renewal

Jassen Callender also had a chapter, “Sustainable Urban Development,” in International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, published by Elsevier.

Visiting Assistant Professor Jacob Gines and Assistant Professor Hans Herrmann, AIA, are currently collaborating with Mississippi State University Transit to develop a series of pedestrian friendly transit stops and enclosures along proposed bus routes to connect the campus with the city of Starkville, Miss. The work is part of a $2.4 million Mississippi Department of Transportation public transit grant.

Hans Herrmann was also named ‘Emerging Professional’ by the AIA for 2012. His work was included in the annual exhibition, presented at AIA National’s headquarters, the American Center for Architecture, in Washington, D.C.

Alexis Gregory, Assistant Professor, had an article published in the summer issue of AIA Forward journal, Forward 112: Process. Forward, a scholarly journal, is produced by the National Associates Committee to provide a voice for Associate AIA members within the Institute.

Alexis Gregory also received  “The Bringing Theory to Practice Project” AACU 2013 Seminar Grant ($1000 w/ April Heiselt)  “ . . . to help support research on service-learning in architecture.” This grant is supported by the S. Engelhard Center and the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation.

Assistant Professor Justin Taylor had a paper, “Changing the Culture of Do Not Touch,” accepted to The 8th International Conference on Intelligent Environment (IE12) in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Rachel McKinley and Zachary James, students in the School of Architecture, received the Collaborative Project Award from APA MS. The award is for their work done in the Carl Small Town Center’s CREATE Common Ground class last spring, which focused on revitalizing New Albany, Miss. The Collaborative Project Award recognizes research, projects or other activities in which a student has worked collaboratively with practitioners/planners and/or faculty.

Mississippi State’s chapter of American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) participated in the national Green Apple Day of Service on Sept. 29. The group volunteered at the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum.

Mississippi State University’s Alpha Rho Chi fraternity recently raised and donated $1,250 to the Starkville Area Habitat for Humanity. Daniel Torres serves as the fraternity’s fundraising chairman, and Adam Rhoades is the chapter president. Alpha Rho Chi at Mississippi State primarily includes College of Art, Architecture and Design majors. From the fraternity’s inception almost three years ago, members have focused on donating to Starkville Area Habitat for Humanity.

Mack Braden and Michael Varhalla, students in the School of Architecture, won this year’s Brick Industry Association Design Competition. The two received a $1,000 travel scholarship for their achievement. The project was for the design of a culinary arts school in downtown Memphis, Tenn., as part of the spring 2012 third-year design studio taught by Assistant Professor Alexis D. Gregory, AIA, and Assistant Professor Hans Herrmann, AIA. Honorable Mention went to Chelsea Pierce and John Thomas.

Dalton Finch, Anthony Penny, Scott Polley and Colton Stephens, third-year students in the School of Architecture, designed the recently completed Habitat for Humanity house located on Steadman Lane in Starkville, Miss. The students worked on the design as part of Assistant Professor Alexis Gregory’s class that included 11 students working on several design options for the nonprofit organization.

Emily Roush Elliott has been chosen as an Enterprise Rose Architecture fellow by the Carl Small Town Center (CSTC). Elliot earned her Bachelor of Science in Design from Arizona State University and her Master of Architecture from the University of Cincinnati. As a Fellow, she will be able to draw from her work in Tanzania, where she successfully integrated social and environmental sustainability in a similarly rural environment, to establish a redevelopment plan for the Baptist Town community in Greenwood, Miss. The CSTC was one of just four national organizations selected to host a Fellow.

See photos, and read more news from the School of Architecture at Mississippi State University at http://caad.msstate.edu/wpmu/sarcnews/

Auburn University

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Two faculty members from the College of Architecture, Design and Construction will be awarded the Distinguished Design-Build Leadership Award from the Design-Build Institute of America. The co-directors of the CADC’s Masters of Integrated Design and Construction program (formerly the Design-Build program) Paul Holley and Joshua Emig will receive the Distinguished Design-Build Leadership Award in the Faculty category at DBIA’s Design-Build Conference and Expo in Orlando, FL on October 20. Holley, Aderholdt Professor in the School of McWhorter School of Building Science, and Emig, Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture, will be recognized for their work in establishing the collaborative integrated design and construction program at Auburn.

 The Green for Life! project has been added to the National ASLA website as a Case Study for Green Infrastructure and Stormwater Management.  This demonstration project, created by College of Architecture, Design and Construction students, was awarded the Best Community Design Award by the Alabama Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects in Birmingham on March 26, 2011 and received the Outstanding Team Project Award from the Alabama Chapter of American Planning Association in Eufaula on April 1, 2011. Under the direction of Charlene LeBleu, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Rebecca O’Neal Dagg, Interim Dean of the CADC, and Carla Jackson Bell, CADC Director of Multicultural Affairs, the project took a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to solving the Center’s storm water runoff problems and creating a companion watershed education program.

For the final event planned in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of ongoing sponsorship from Alagasco, the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture hosted a two day reunion for Alagasco members and past winners of the Alagasco Student Design Competition.  Festivities began with a dinner graciously hosted by Auburn University’s own President and Mrs. Gogue, and held at the President’s home on Auburn University’s campus.  Activities continued on the following day and included an exhibit of past and present Alagasco Student Design Competition work, followed by lunch and a discussion between current students and past design winners.  The School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture is proud of the long relationship forged with Alagasco and looks forward to 50 more years of involvement.

On October 12 the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture gathered to celebrate the donors of over 30 scholarships along with the student recipients.  

Clemson University

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Two faculty members have joined Clemson University’s School of Architecture as new permanent faculty this academic year, bringing with them a rich and impressive range of experience and expertise.  Sallie Hambirght, AIA, LEED AP, (B.S. In design, Clemson University; M.Arch., Yale University), is a new assistant professor focusing on beginning design and visualization.  Sallie has served as a lecturer at the Clemson Architecture Center in Charleston and at the Georgia Institute of Technology; has worked in the offices of Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Eisenman Architects; and has her own practice in South Carolina.  Ray Huff, AIA (B.Arch., Clemson University), the founding director of the Clemson Architecture Center in Charleston (CAC.C) is now associate professor of architecture and director of the CAC.C.  Ray comes to his position as an award-winning educator and director through a path of exemplary and critical architectural practice, as a principal and partner in the firm of Huff + Gooden Architects LLC, with offices in New York and Charleston.

Keith Evan Green, RA, PhD, Professor of Architecture and Electrical & Computer Engineering, was awarded funding for “architectural robotics” research from the National Science Foundation; and his monograph, Gio Ponti and Carlo Mollino, was recently published in Japanese translation by Kajima Press. Green was awarded $271k as Principal Investigator from the Smart Health and Wellbeing Program of NSF to design and prototype an Assistive, Robotic Table [ART]. A discrete component of an envisioned suite of robotic furnishings, ART is comprised of a novel “continuum robotic” table surface that gently folds, extends, and reconfigures to support work and leisure activities; a smart storage volume that physically manages and delivers personal effects; and an accessorized headboard. These components of ART will recognize, communicate with, and partly remember each other in interaction with users and with other components of the suite. ART is intended to empower people to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. Collaborating on the research are Clemson colleagues in ECE (I. Walker) and Psychology (J. Brooks), as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering of Kaiserslautern, Germany. The prototype will be tested in the research team’s home+ residential lab within the Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center (see www.IMSA-Research.org). The theoretical underpinning for ART and other applied “architectural robotics” projects by Green is his monograph, Gio Ponti and Carlo Mollino, which has just been published in Japanese translation by Kajima press. Through the case of these two architects and friends, Green’s monograph explores how architectural artifacts might be rendered “nearly alive” by their designers and users.  

Florida Atlantic University

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Florida Atlantic University School of Architecture (FAUSoA) is pleased to announce that the National Architectural Accrediting Board has granted a full 6-year accreditation term to the FAUSoA Bachelor of Architecture Program.

FAUSoA is also pleased to announce that Keith Van de Riet (PhD Candidate) will be joining the faculty in the Fall semester of 2012. Keith Van de Riet comes to FAU from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and The Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (CASE). Prior to joining RPI and CASE, he worked in construction and architectural practice in Kansas and New York on projects that integrated green roof and photovoltaic technologies, with emphasis on the interface between building envelope and environmental context.

Keith has particular interest in the use of integrated bioremediation strategies to address the environmental challenges of large-scale urban development. He is working in the Tropical Coastline Remediation research area with faculty at CASE and in collaboration with international biologists, ecologists, geotechnical and structural engineers, and experts in ecosystem modeling. Keith received a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from The University of Kansas in 2004 and has a Master’s in Science of Architectural Science from the Built Ecologies program at Rensselaer.

Anthony Abbate AIA, NCARB has been promoted to Professor at the School of Architecture and Associate Provost for the Broward Campuses at Florida Atlantic University.  Mr Abbate, Rosemary Kennedy, Senior Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology (Australia) and Kasama Polakit, Ph.D. Assistant Professor at FAU School of Urban and Regional Planning have co-edited the Proceedings from the biennial international conference, Subtropical Cities 2011, held in Fort Lauderdale last Spring.

Associate Professor Francis Lyn has been appointed Director of the Broward Community Design Collaborative (BCDC). The mission of the BCDC is to build interdisciplinary collaboration to develop smart urban design oriented solutions at multiple scales, with the objective to address the global challenges of climate change, help build healthy communities in south Florida that are walkable, livable, and equitable. While the focus of our efforts is on the local context, the geographic center of a metropolitan region with a population of approximately 6 million, our academic mission is to look at sustainable design solutions within an urban and suburban sub-tropical setting.  Mr. Lyn has also been appointed as Thesis Phase Coordinator for the School of Architecture.

Associate Professor Philippe d’Anjou has recently published a series of articles in three prominent journals.   These include: “An Alternative Model for Ethical Decision-Making in Design: a Sartrean Approach” in Design Studies; “An Ethics of Authenticity in the Client-Designer Relationship” in The Design Journal; and “An Ethics of Freedom for Architectural Design Practice” in Journal of Architectural Education. These articles are part of professor d’Anjou’s ongoing research in design philosophy and ethics that aims at articulating new theoretical foundations of design and architecture.

Assistant Professor Henning Haupt has received a grant from Broward County to realize an installation of his research.  This Color-Space Construction will be installed in January of 2012.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

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Patrick and Nancy Latrop Professor Emeritus Dayton Gene Egger was inducted into the university’s “Virginia Tech Academy of Professors Emeriti and Emeritae” earlier this year. He also received the “Career Achievement Award” of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies in 2011. Professor Egger was been a faculty member since 1969. Despite his offical retirement in 2010, he continues to be engaged in the nurishment of students and faculty colleagues of the School of Architecture + Design.

Professor Scott Poole, AIA, Director of the School of Architecture + Design from 2004 until 2011, is the new Dean of the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee. Professor Poole has been a faculty member at Virginia Tech since 1986. The School of Architecture + Design wishes Scott Poole the best of luck and success with his new responsibilities.

LumenHAUS, the Virginia Tech solar house, a project led by T. A. Carter Professor Robert Dunay, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, Associate Professor Joseph Wheeler, AIA, and Professor Robert Schubert, and created by hundreds of students across many disciplines, is currently situated on exhibit with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, the twentieth-century masterpiece of modern architecture in Plano, Illinois. Citing the Farnsworth House as precedent for its pavilion type design, the LumenHAUS / Farnsworth House Exhibition in runs through October 23, 2011. Previously, the LumenHAUS was on exhibit at the National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., on the National Mall in Washington D.C., on Times Square in New York City, on Millennium Park in Chicago, and in Madrid, Spain where it won the international Solar Decathlon Europe Competition.

Professor Dr. Charles Steger, FAIA, President of Virginia Tech, hosted an event to help build corporate partnerships through School of Architecture + Design’s Center for Design Research in conjunction with the Farnsworth House / Virginia Tech LumenHAUS exhibition. Present were Joel Bagnal and Dean Kershaw representing L-3 STRATIS, Bob Gunn from Clark/Nexsen, Kristine Fallon of Kristine Fallon Associates Inc., Robert Turner, former partner at SOM, Reynolds Metals Professor of Architecture Jack Davis, FAIA, Dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, and T.A. Carter Professor of Architecture Robert Dunay, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, Director of the Center for Design Research.

T. A. Carter Professor Robert Dunay, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, Associate Professor Joseph Wheeler, AIA, and Visiting Instructor Andrew Balster led a team of the School of Architecture + Design’s Center for Design Research to form a research collaboration focusing on the development of high density, net-zero residential housing with SOM, Chicago. The workshop aimed to initiate the next frontier of design research after LumenHAUS, the Virginia Tech Solar House.  The research team worked with the partners of the firm as well as staff experts in the fields of planning, high-density residential housing, structure and environmental design to develop an innovative concept for the future of housing.  This effort begins a strategic partnership between the academy and profession.

 G.T. Ward Professor of Architecture Donna Dunay, FAIA, Chair of the International Archive of Women in Architecture and T.A. Carter Professor of Architecture Robert Dunay, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, directed and taught inside Architecture and Design, offered by the School of Architecture + Design at Virginia Tech this summer. In its 15th year, inside Architecture has served over 1000 high school students. For individuals seeking an insight into the world of design, this year’s course of 100 participants offered workshops, lectures and seminars across an interdisciplinary spectrum of interests.

G.T. Ward Professor of Architecture Donna Dunay, FAIA, and Associate Professor Kay Edge travelled to Tokyo in June to install the exhibit “For the Future: Pioneering Women in Architecture from Japan and Beyond,” a collaborative effort of The International Archive of Women in Architecture Center (IAWA) with the International Union of Women Architects (UIFA) Japan. The exhibition is shown at the Architectural Institute of Japan and it features international pioneering women in architecture.   The materials are drawn from the IAWA Center collections held at Virginia Tech along with additional early Japanese women pioneers. A special section of the exhibition was devoted to IAWA founder Professor Emeritae Dr. Milka Bliznakov, Ph.D., who passed away last year. Professor Edge delivered the Exhibition Opening Lecture “Overlaps and Parallels.” Professor Dunay gave the Annual UIFA Japon Lecture “For the Future:” delivered at the Campus Innovation Center, Tokyo. Later this Fall, the exhibition will be mounted at two additional locations in Tokyo, UIA 2011 TOKYO (International Union of Architects) 24th World Congress of Architecture at the Tokyo Forum and the Gender Equality Center, Chiba Ward, Tokyo.

Professor Dr. Mehdi Setareh, Ph.D., P.E., has had the following papers published: “Vibration Serviceability of A Building Floor Structure – Part I: Dynamic Testing and Computer Modeling” and “Vibration Serviceability of A Building Floor Structure – Part II: Vibration Evaluation and Assessment” in: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities of the American Society of Civil Engineers, December 2010 Edition; “Vibration Studies of A Cantilevered Structure Subjected to Human Activities Using A Remote Monitoring System” in: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities of the American Society of Civil Engineers, April 2011 Edition; “A Study of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Movements During A New York City Marathon” in: Journal of Bridge Engineering of the American Society of Civil Engineering, February 2011 Edition. Professor Setareh also presented the following papers at the Sixth International Structural Engineering Construction Conference in Zurich, Switzerland: “Structural Behavior of Double-Layer Braced Barrel Vaults” and “An Analytical Study of Steel Flat Double Layer Grid Spatial Structures.”

Professor Scott Poole, AIA, T.A. Carter Professor of Architecture Robert Dunay, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor and Reynolds Metals Professor of Architecture Jack Davis, FAIA, Dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, initiated and led this year’s International Architecture and Design (IAD), a study abroad/continuing education course for senior level practitioners, a study of Alvar Aalto, Finnish and Scandinavian architecture. The program is in its 15th year. Professor Dr. Charles Steger, FAIA, President of Virginia Tech, joined the group of distinguished architects.

The School of Architecture + Design has appointed Associate Professor Dr. Markus Breitschmid, Ph.D., S.I.A., to be chair of the Bachelor of Architecture’s Core Professional Program beginning with the academic year 2011/12.

The following faculty members have been appointed into a tenure-track appointment:

Dr.-Ing. Dipl. Ing.-Arch. Christian Gänshirt, Ph.D., a registered architect in Germany and an architecture historian, is joining the faculty on the rank of associate professor on tenure-track. He studied at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, from where he received his master degree, the École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and the University of Cottbus, Germany, from where he obtained his doctorate. He has previously taught at the University of Hannover, the Berlin University of the Arts, the University of Kassel, and at the University of Cottbus, all in Germany. Before returning to obtain his doctorate, Gänshirt practiced architecture for several years. Among other engagements, he was an executive project architect for Alvaro Siza in Oporto, Portugal, for three years. Gänshirt is the author of Tool for Ideas. An Introduction to Architectural Design (Basel: Birkhäuser 2007). He will offer courses in history, theory and design.

Aki Ishida, AIA, a graduate from the University of Minnesota and Columbia University, is joining the faculty as a tenure-track assistant professor to offer courses in architecture design, building construction technology and building materials. She has practiced architecture for fourteen years, among other offices, at I.M. Pei Architect, James Carpenter Design Associates, and Raphael Vinoly Architects. Previously, she has taught at Pratt Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Parsons School of Design. 

Paola Zellner Bassett is a registered architect in Argentina, where she has been graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires. She obtained her graduate degree at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Zellner Bassett is new on a tenure-track assistant professor appointment after she has taught at Virginia Tech as a visiting faculty for the previous three years. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, she had academic appointments at the University of Michigan and at Woodbury University. Zellner Bassett will offer courses in architecture design, building materials, and building construction.

The following faculty members have been newly appointed as visiting faculty:

Robert Holton, RA, a graduate of the University of North Carolina and Columbia University, joins the architecture program on a two-year visiting appointment. He has practiced architecture for fifteen years, among other offices, at Bernard Tschumi Architects in New York and Paris for five years. Previously, he has taught at Pratt Institute and Florida International University. 

Erin Putalik, RA, a graduate from Brown University and the University of Michigan, joins the architecture program on a two-year visiting appointment from practice. She has worked for Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects since 2007.

Tim Frank, RA, a graduate from Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech, joins the architecture program in a two-year visiting appointment. He is the Principal of Tim Frank Architecture in Atlanta and he has been teaching at Georgia Institute of Technology during the past six years.

Benjamin Rice, a graduate from Southern California Institute of Architecture and Princeton University, joins the architecture program on a one-year appointment from practice. He most recently worked for Reiser + Umemoto in New York City.

Christopher Pritchett, a graduate from Virginia Tech, rejoins the architecture program on a one-year visiting appointment. Pritchett returns from Scandinavia, where he studied ecclesiastical architecture.  

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