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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Professor Gaines Hall, FAIA has been named Associate Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Following retirement from his duties as Vice President of Kirkegaard Associates in Chicago for 21 years, in 2008 Hall was appointed as a full-time tenured professor in the School of Architecture at The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He will continue to hold the title of Professor in the School of Architecture while assuming his duties as Associate Dean in July 2011.

The School of Architecture is pleased to announce the promotion of Assistant Professors Heather Minor (History) and Scott Murray (Design) to Associate Professor with tenure; and Associate Professor Paul Kapp (Preservation) to Associate Professor with tenure. 

The School of Architecture announces the retirements of Professors Mir Ali (Structures), Paul Kruty (History), Henry Plummer (Design), and William Erwin (Structures).

The School of Architecture welcomes new Visiting Professors Susan Johnson-Roehr who teaches 19th and 20th Century Contemporary History, and Camden Greenlee who will be teaching architectural design.  

Assistant Professor Marci Uihlein was awarded the 2011 AIAS Excellence in Architectural Education Award (Illinois Chapter). This award is selected solely by collegiate architecture students to recognize educators who “advocate for students and positively enhance the profession of architecture.”

Associate Professor William Worn, accompanied by two graduate students, participated in the Welsh School of Architecture’s “Vertical Studio” studying narrative and the implications of “Post Industrial Transformations.” Professor Worn will return to Cardiff in November to present a paper on “Post Industrial Transformation and the Obesogenic City.” Both trips are funded by a grant from the UK-US Partnership. 

Assistant Professors Julie Larsen and Roger Hubeli received Third Place in the Young Architects Forum 10Up Design Build Competition in Atlanta, Georgia for their project titled, “[BIO]MASS PRODUCTION”.

Nicholas Watkins, Ph.D. (Architecture, U of I – 2006), Senior Associate and Director of Research for HOK,  assumed the position of Chair of the Board of Directors of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) on August 1, 2011. Nick took over the Chair position from Associate Professor Lynne Dearborn who now has taken on the position of Immediate Past Chair and ex-officio member of the Board during the final year of her four-year term. EDRA is an international, interdisciplinary organization with membership of over 500 academics and design professional. EDRA’s purpose is the advancement and dissemination of environmental design research, thereby improving understanding of the interrelationships between people, their built and natural surroundings, and helping to create environments responsive to human needs.

Assistant Professor John Stallmeyer is leading a studio this fall that will explore the transformational potential of digital technology in the design process from ideation to integration. Working with Phil Bernstein (VP Autodesk) who was a guest lecturer on campus last fall, and with the assistance of Scott Rawlings (VP Wacom), the School of Architecture has provided each student in the studio with a Wacom Cintiq interactive drawing tablet and a suite of software including Autodesk Sketchbook Pro and Autodesk Labs Project Vasari.  Students will investigate the potential of this combination to iterate multiple conceptual designs for a Chicago High Speed Rail Station through digital hand sketching and conceptual massing studies. Stallmeyer will document the student process and outcomes to understand whether and how the Cintiq’s radically thinner user interface influences design process and outcomes.

In May, Symbius participated in the 2011 International Mock Firms Competition in Chicago, Illinois at the Congress Plaza Hotel. Under the faculty supervision of Carl Lewis, Tashio Martinez and Derek Larsen, both graduate students in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois, organized a “mock firm” and designed as a skyscraper located in Stockholm, Sweden. The team was awarded “2011 American Firm Runner-up” and the “Top Building Project” among competition from University of Houston, University of North Carolina – Greensbaro, DIS

Copenhagen, Denmark and Birminghan City University, United Kingdom.

Associate Professor Ralph Hammann has a book soon to be published titled “Creative Engineering”, DOM Publsihers, Berlin, Germany.

The School of Architecture, in conjunction with the School of Landscape Architecture, announces the Fall 2011 Lecture Series. Lecturers include:  Marlon Blackwell, Fred Clarke, Brian MacKay-Lyons, Thomas Woltz, Stanley Saitowitz, Jie Hu, Dorothée Imbert, Jim Cramer, and Chris Sharples. 

University of Tennessee-Knoxville

University of Tennessee
College of Architecture and Design
Open House

November 11, 2011

The University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design is hosting its first college-wide Open House, Friday, November 11, in tandem with university-wide Open House, Saturday, November 12 (http://admissions.utk.edu/undergraduate/). Home to diverse and internationally recognized practitioners, scholars, and teachers, the college offers a wide array of programs: first-professional undergraduate degrees in architecture and interior design, first-professional graduate degrees in architecture and landscape architecture, and post-professional programs in architecture and landscape architecture (http://www.arch.utk.edu/Academic_Programs/academicprograms.shtml). The all-day event begins on the university’s Knoxville campus and includes presentations by faculty and students, tours of our award winning facility and multi-disciplinary design-build projects such as The New Norris House (http://www.thenewnorrishouse.com/) and the Living Light Solar Decathlon House (http://livinglightutk.com/), the historic Norris Dam, and the university gardens. The day will conclude with a talk by local historian and author Jack Neely, and a reception at the university’s Downtown Gallery of art. The event is free of charge but spaces are limited. Please contact Ms. Vanessa Arthur (varthur@utk.edu). For more information consult: http://www.arch.utk.edu/.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

In April, Associate Professor Mohamed Boubekri gave a presentation entitled “Daylighting Design and Users’ Response” at the International Journal of Arts & Sciences Conference in Italy.

David M. Chasco, FAIA, Professor and Director of the School of Architecture was honored by being named a Fellow at the AIA National Convention in Denver in June 2013. The Fellowship program was developed to elevate those architects who have made a significant contribution to architecture and society and who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession.  Election to fellowship not only recognizes the achievements of architects as individuals, but also their significant contribution to architecture and society on a national level.  David Chasco has dedicated his career to promoting a unified profession by fostering design excellence in the academic and public realms, after achieving creative design excellence in the profession.  

Director Chasco is pleased to announce that a final “signing ceremony” to move the Versailles Study Abroad Program to Escola Tecnica Superior d’Arquitectura del Valles (ETSAV) of the Universitat Politècnica de CatalunyaBarcelona TECH will be held October 23 in Barcelona, with the Rector of UPC. 

Assistant Professor Kenny Cupers’ edited volume Use Matters: An Alternative History of Architecture was just published by Routledge (2013).

Associate Professors Lynne Dearborn and John Stallmeyer received the 2013 Achievement Award from the Environmental Design Research Association for their book Inconvenient Heritage in June.  This book examines the processes and products of UNESCO’s inscription of Luang Prabang, Laos as a World Heritage Site, with specific reference to the architecture and form of the city. 

Assistant Professor Kevin Erickson gave a presentation entitled “urban FILTER” at the 2013 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Annual Meeting: New Constellations, New Ecologies in California.

Visiting Lecturer Camden Greenlee and Visiting Instructor Brian Vesely received an honorable mention in the 2013 Tex-Fab competition entitled “Skin – An International Two-Stage Digital Fabrication Competition.”  Their project “Hydromorph” investigates the potential role of the building envelope as a device to mitigate the destructive effects of perennial floods, reflecting the critical thinking applied to real world problems.  http://tex-fab.net/skin-results/.

The Designers and Books website has listed Associate Professor Ralph Hammann’s latest book Creative Engineering, Architecture and Technology (DOM Publishers, Feb. 2013) as one of the ten most notable books on architecture for 2013.

Associate Professor Erik Hemingway gave a presentation entitled: mies [UPGRADE] at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture 101st Annual Meeting; ACSA 101: New constellations/New Ecologies in California in March.

The third edition of the Lisbon architecture Triennale, entitled “Close, Closer” has accepted the work of Associate Professor Erik Hemingway, “Hand_flexivel – €2500” for showcasing during this event.  To be held September 12-December 15, 2013, this event encourages multiple possibilities of architectural output through critical and experimental exhibitions, performances and debates throughout the city for the purpose of examining global spatial practice.

Prof. Emeritus Paul Armstrong and Associate Professor Paul Kapp received the 2013 Historic Preservation Book prize for their text SynergiCity: Reinventing the Postindustrial City.  This award is given by the University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation to a new book which it deems has made the most significant contribution to the intellectual vitality of historic preservation in America.

Associate Professor Paul Kapp was named a Fulbright Scholar for the 2013-2014 academic year.  Kapp will be in residence at the University of Birmingham Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage in the United Kingdom.

Associate Professor Joy Monice Malnar of the Illinois School of Architecture, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Frank Vodvarka, Professor of Fine Arts at Loyola University Chicago, have co-authored the new book, New Architecture on Indigenous Lands, published by the University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN and released in August 2013.  The book positions 56 recent architectural projects for the first time as a significant genre. Daniel J. Glenn points out that the “book recognizes not only the extraordinary new works of architecture just beginning to transform reservation communities but also the significance of making that transformation.”

The AIA Seattle Diversity Roundtable and the University of Washington, Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity invited Prof. Malnar to present a public lecture focused on the release of her new book at their 16th Annual Summer Solstice – Juneteenth Celebration and Scholarship Benefit (Seattle, June 14, 2013). Ten of the Northwest region architects featured in the book participated in a roundtable panel discussion moderated by Malnar. A book signing was sponsored by Peter Miller Architecture & Design, a Seattle bookstore.  Malnar presented an introduction to her book, New Architecture on Indigenous Lands at the National American Indian Housing Council’s (NAIHC) 39th Annual Convention in Chicago (May 22, 2013) The session focused on the new houses and housing complexes recently built to reinforce cultural and environmental sustainability on reservations. Malnar is currently planning a symposium on current American Indian architecture issues to take place in Spring 2014 on the UIUC campus.

Associate Professor Heather Minor was named a Fellow of the National Humanities Center for the 2013-14 academic year.  Her research will concentrate on Giovanni Battista Piranisi.

Associate Professor Heather Minor received an honorable mention for the 2013 Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award given by the Society of Architectural Historians for her book The Culture of Architecture in Enlightenment Rome.  This award was established to recognize the most distinguished works of scholarship in the history of architecture published by a North American scholar.

Professor Jeffery S. Poss, FAIA was invited to give a lecture on his professional and academic work at the University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal in October.  That same week Poss Co-Hosted the Constructed Environment Conference in Lisbon, an Associate Project of “Close, Closer,” the 2013 Lisbon Architectural Trienniale.  Beatrice Galilee, Chief Curator of the Triennale, was plenary speaker.

Associate Professor John Senseney was named an Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Faculty Fellowship for the 2013-13 academic year.

Associate Professor John Senseney was appointed Book Review Editor for Europe, Africa, and Asia pre 1750 for the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, the leading journal on the built environment and spatial practice, which has defined the field of architectural history.

Adolf Sotoca Garcia, Assistant Professor at the DUOT, ETSAV Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya-Barcelona TECH, has accepted an appointment as a Visiting Associate Professor for the 2013-2014 academic year at the Illinois School of Architecture.

Assistant Professor Mark Taylor gave a presentation entitled “Residential Reconstruction in Haiti” at the Residential Building Design and Construction Conference in Pennsylvania in February.

Assistant Professor Marci S. Uihlein gave a presentation entitled “Structural Integration: An Undefinable Idea?” at the 1st Annual International Conference on architecture and Civil Engineering in Singapore in March.

Assistant Professor Marci S. Uihlein was awarded the 2013 Building Technology Educators’ Society’s Emerging Faculty Award. 

Visiting Instructor Brian Vesely received an honorable mention for his entry in the 2013 Burning Man Competition to design a new airport terminal and pilots lounge at the Black Rock City Municipal Airport.  Vesely’s project created a unique design of a fluid space which would accommodate large numbers of airport passengers in comfort and style, using the topography and weather of the area as his inspiration.  http://ecologicdesighlab.com/competition-results/.

In October 2013, Lee W. Waldrep, Ph.D., administrator for undergraduate student services presented on the topic of “Career Designing: Connecting to the Future” at the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) Conference in Indianapolis and “Architecture and Beyond: Opportunities Abound” at the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) Northeast Quad Conference at Keene State College, Keene, NH.  He also recently submitted the manuscript for the 3rd edition of Becoming an Architect: A Guide to Careers in Design.

Allison Warren, Lecturer, has been designated a 2013 University CAEPE Award Finalist for her work in ARCH 576. Since 2009, the annual public engagement and community development seminar called CU-Engage has enrolled over 350 community participants in a variety of field projects. C-U Engage connects the design currency and critical thinking abilities of architecture graduate students to design projects of community partners while developing professional practice skills.

In June 2013, Assistant Professor Therese Tierney was awarded a 2013 Consulate General of France in San Francisco Smart and Digital Cities Fellowship as one of ten participants from academic, public and private sectors to attend the digital world festival Futur-en-Seine in Paris followed by the Innovative Cities Convention in Nice.  Participants were selected based on the quality of their work on the use of new technologies and data to build the next generation of cities.  Prof. Tierney presented a paper in Nice entitled “Cultural Infrastructure: From Museums to Mobile Apps.”

Assistant Professor Thérèse F. Tierney’s book, The Public Space of Social Media: Connected Cultures of the Network Society was published by Routledge as part of their media research series in August 2013. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415635233/

Tierney has two papers recently published by MIT Press:  “Disentangling Social Media: Public Space and Internet Activism” in Thresholds 41: MIT Journal of Architecture, and “Locative Media: A Critical Appraisal and Intervention” in Leonardo: Journal of the International Society for Arts, Sciences, Technology, Issue 46:3.  Tierney also presented a paper, “Urban Culture: From Museum to Mobile App” at the Innovative Cities Conference for Intelligent and Sustainable Cities in Nice, France this summer.

Tierney’s applied research proposal, [i-metro] information commons, will be on display for the Paseo Project International Design Exhibition in Zaragoza, Spain 2013.  [i-metro], an interactive installation for transit riders, contributes to new forms of public engagement by creating socially rich glocal nodes for public benefit by linking the scale of the webpage to that of the city in real time.

Tierney’s article “Architecture of Thought” was just published in “Traditional Dwellings and Settlement Review” vol XXIV.  Her essay “Positioning Locative Media: A Critical Urban intervention” was just published in “Leonardo: Journal of the International Society of Art, Science & Technology.”

Tierney was interviewed about Smart Cities for The TechMap –  “Is Paris a Smarter City than New York?”  It was based on her research experiences documenting sustainable cities this summer as part of an international fellowship. http://thetechmap.org/2013/08/23/is-paris-a-smarter-city-than-new-york/

UIUC Professor Emeritus James Warfield of the Illinois School of Architecture was honored in Shanghai in July at the Tongji University opening ceremonies for the “Warfield Archives of Vernacular Architecture.” The dedication of this remarkable research collection is a milestone in 25 years of collaboration between the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University and the School of Architecture University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Warfield Archives represent 50 years of research in vernacular architecture: field notes, journal entries, photos, on-site sketches and drawings, and journal entries by James Warfield, ACSA Distinguished Professor in Architecture at the University of Illinois. The archives preserve Warfield’s worldwide research conducted in over 60 countries with support from the Graham Foundation, the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship Program, the Carnegie Foundation and, most significantly, the University of Illinois Research Board.

The initial collection, dedicated at the July 5, 2013 Shanghai ceremony, consists of over 20,000 photographic images and written documents. It is anticipated that the archives will grow by 5000 new entries per year with digital records housed and curated by the CAUP Architecture Museum. The complete permanent and updated collection will be available worldwide through links at Tongji University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as the Warfield website www.jameswarfield.us.

In celebration this memorable achievement, Director David Chasco invited a number of international scholars and colleagues to write in regard to Professor Warfield’s work and research collection. The words of Zheng Shiling, Juhani Pallasmaa, A. Richard Williams, Wu Jiang, Chang Qing, Patricia McKenzie, Robert Riley, Robert Mooney, James Knight, and Liu Yuting were included in the dedication day ceremonies. http://www.jameswarfield.us/1/Catalog-for-the-July-5-2013/29162438_X45WXx#!i=2483787152&k=H5bTJmz

Last year Professor Warfield was named to the faculty of Tongji University, and, simultaneously, to the Board of Editors of China’s new professional journal Heritage Architecture. By this appointment, Warfield joined a list of honorary and advisory professors at Tongji that includes: Chinese American architect I. M. Pei; British architect Richard Rogers; Indian architect Charles Correa; former UIUC Plym Distinguished Professor Ken Yeang; longtime Dean of MIT Stanford Anderson; chief conservation architect of the Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris Benjamin Mouton; and Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

Since 1988, Professor Warfield has led the University of Illinois/Tongji University Program in Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning.  The College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) at Tongji University is widely considered the top program in urban planning in China, and ranks first or second among the leading architecture schools.  Throughout his 25 year association with Tongji University, Professor Warfield has fostered the careers of numerous Chinese students and faculty. His former teaching assistants in the Illinois program include professionals of considerable stature: the Vice President of Tongji University; the Head of International Programs at Tongji University; the CEO of the major Shanghai architectural firm UN+ Architects; the Head of the Interior Design Program in CAUP; and the former Vice Mayor of the City of Shanghai in charge of construction.

CAUP Director of the Department of Architecture, Professor Chang Qing, FAIA, stated that Warfield’s faculty appointment was made on the basis of his leadership in this program, the oldest international program in the college, and based upon his 2009 book and major exhibit “Roads Less Traveled” at Kengo Kuma’s Z58 in Shanghai. These works are based upon Warfield’s research, travel journals and photos of vernacular architecture in 32 culture areas around the world.

Warfield is also author of Dancing Lessons from God and The Architect’s Sketch, published respectively in English and Chinese in the USA and China. Warfield has taught for 40 years at the University of Illinois and continues to head a graduate studio in design and a Campus Honors capstone seminar “Architecture as Gateway to Culture.” He also leads a springtime sketch trip to the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini for architecture students in the School of Architecture’s Versailles study abroad program. In China, he writes quarterly essays on vernacular architecture in the “Warfield Column” in Heritage Architecture. In 2002, Warfield was named and ACSA Distinguished Professor in Architecture by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

 

 

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Assistant Professor Thérèse F Tierney’s new book The Public Space of Social Media: Connected Cultures of a Networked Society (Routledge Research Series 2013) will be released in June.  In addition, a number of her essays will be published this spring:  “Disentangling Public Space: social media and internet activism” in Thresholds Journal 41 (MIT Press 2013); and “Synthetic Digital Ecologies” a detailed examination of new parametric software strategies and digital fabrication will be published in TRACE/SF.  Prof. Tierney will be presenting a paper entitled “A Manual of Networked Possibilities: Forward Thinking Interventions for Intelligent Cities” at the upcoming ACSA 101 conference in San Francisco in March. It is part of a panel organized by Jason Johnson of CCA and Carlo Ratti, MIT media lab, titled “Exchange Terminals + Interactive Technologies.”

The winning competition entry under the professional category of the 2009 Hong Kong Biennial [Bring Your Own Booth],face[GUARD], by Associate Professor Erik M Hemingway and Lecturer Allison Warren was published in the first journal of d3, “dialogue:>ASSEMBLE”, International Journal of Architecture + Design, edited by Gregory Marinic & Mary-Jo Schlachter. The 320 pages in full color publication debut was at the Beijing International Book Fair and Frankfurt International Book Fair in Fall 2012.  face[GUARD] was also published in the book Instant Culture, which includes writings and contributions by Shigeru Ban, Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten and many more.  It catalogues the exhibitions and the events including educational tours and forum highlights that took place during the Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/ Architecture located at the future West Kowloon Cultural District.

Associate Professor Hemingway was an invited author to the first issue of “autonomous identities”; International Journal of Interior Architecture + Spatial Design edited by Meg Jackson & Jonathon Anderson. The contents of his submission, mies[UPGRADE] are the design specifications for recent hemingway+a/studio flat pack cnc design/fabrication residential work. He has been engaged in the upgrade of a 1957 Mies van der Rohe space in Chicago in a series of self-deployable and sustainable strategies in unconventional outcomes.  mies[UPGRADE] was also selected along with his International Competition for Helsinki Waterfront, harbor re[FIN]ery both for inclusion to the “101_1 Waste(lands) + Material Economies” topic during the Research + Design Project Session/ Exhibition at the 101st ACSA Annual Meeting, March 21-24, 2013, in San Francisco, CA.

Lee W. Waldrep, Ph.D.has signed a contract with J. Wiley and Sons for the next edition of Becoming an Architect: A Guide to Careers in Design to be published in the spring of 2014.  In addition, Waldrep recently presented at the AIA Illinois Conference and will lecture at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin and the AIA St. Louis Chapter during the spring on the topic of Architecture and Beyond: Opportunities and Beyond.

Botond Bognar, Professor and Edgar A. Tafel Endowed Chair in Architecture has completed three publications, the Post-Bubble Era Japanese Architecture: Its Limitations and Possibilities, which appeared as the entire 2012 No.3 issue of the international architectural magazine Le Carré Bleu; then The Japanese Order of Things, as the booklet accompanying the DVD entitled KOCHUU — Japanese Architecture: Influences and Origins, published as the arquiq/documental 23 in Barcelona (in Spanish) in 2012; and finally the Architectural Guide JAPAN, which just appeared in 2013 as a major book from DOM Publishers in Berlin.

The small studio, an ongoing series of teaching and research projects that focus on detail and tectonics at the School of Architecture of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, received the 2012 Honor Award for Sustainable Design from the Central Illinois Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Studio Critic Professor Jeffery S. Poss, FAIA received the award on behalf of his spring 2012 graduate architecture design studio and summer 2012 research team for their projects with the Sustainable Student Farm on the Urbana_Champaign campus. The jury praised the project for “its holistic approach, lightly treading on the Earth, use of experimentation, and student and community involvement,” and considered it “an excellent example of a farm to market concept.” Thus far the small studio team has completed: 1) graphics and master plan concepts for the farm, 2) a pair of Portable Deployable Farm Stands to transport and display produce and, 3) the first phase of the Wash/Pack Pavilion, a multi_use structure for preparing produce for market, and as a location for the Fresh Press crop waste papermaking startup.

A team of students from Assistant Professor Kevin Erickson’s Fall Graduate Studio received 2nd place in the ‘Water _Works’ international design competition. An exhibition of their work will be on display in New York City later in the year. 

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Assistant Professor Mark Taylor has received $25,000 from the University of Illinois’ Research Board to facilitate collaboration with Elizabeth Hausler of Build Change which will focus on establishing material, component and assembly testing protocols for earthquake-resistant housing in Leogane Haiti.

Assistant Professor Kevin Erickson won first place in the competition “Floornature NextLandmark architecture contest” recognizing built work by designers/architects who graduated after 2000. His project (ROPE pavilion) was on display at the 13th Venice Biennale. Prof. Erickson has also been selected to the 2013 Warming Huts Competition jury.

Associate Professor Kevin Hinders and Visiting Professor Camden Greenlee received an Honorable Mention in the “FIVE Design Challenge Competition” for their project titled “MAKE IT (HAPPEN)!” 

Professor Kathryn Anthony’s new iOS apps, Design Student Survival Guide, and Student Survival Guide, were featured in Hackcollge.com’s article on “10 iOS Apps Every Student Should Download.” HackCollege is a student-powered lifehacking blog/website whose motto is ?Work Smarter, Not Harder.?

 
Associate Professor Scott Murray’s new book, Translucent Building Skins: Material Innovations in Modern and Contemporary Architecture, will be published by Routledge in September 2012. Murray is also the author of Contemporary Curtain Wall Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press).

Associate Professor Abbas Aminmansour organized a student competition titled The Architecture and Engineering of Sustainable Buildings during the Spring 2012 semester.  The completion was open to students in architecture, engineering and construction programs and was conducted by the Association of the Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA).  Sponsors included the National Science Foundation (NSF); School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC); Department of Material Science and Engineering at UIUC; College of Engineering at UIUC; Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill; Perkins + Will; Wiss, Janney, Elstner (WJE); Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM); Thornton Tomasetti (TT) Engineers; Chicago Committee on High Rise Buildings (CCHRB) and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC).  Prize winning submissions will be recognized by ACSA and exhibited at the 2012 ACSA Annual Meeting and at the 2012 AIA National Convention.

Associate Professor Abbas Aminmansour & Dr. Ajla Aksamija of Perkins + Will co-organized a workshop on sustainable design held July 26-27, 2012 at the Chicago office of Perkins + Will.  30 invited architects, engineers, scientists, researchers and students participated in the event for presentations and discussions on the latest in sustainable design with an integrated approach.  The workshop was funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation and supported by Perkins + Will. 

Assistant Professor Mark Taylor spent three weeks in Leogane Haiti during May 2012. During the research trip he oversaw the installation of the roof and final structural elements of the Kay Fanm Yo (Women’s House) he designed. With funding from the University of Illinois Research Board, and in collaboration with Build Change he also conducted preliminary testing of concrete masonry units which are now being produced in large volume in the region. Preliminary results indicate that the majority of producers are not reaching the national guidelines for compressive strength. 

Associate Professor Erik M Hemingway was a panelist with Karen Kice, The Neville Byran Assistant Curator at the Art Institute of Chicago; discussing Aaron Jones Installation work at New Projects in Chicago in April 2012. Erik was selected as Designer and Invited Guest Article for d3:dialogue>blur, International Journal of Architecture and Design, New York; due out later 2012. The article is about three recent hemingway+a/studio flat pack architectural projects he is completing in Hong Kong, Urbana, and Chicago. Hemingway’s professional sponsorship of one of the four Internationally recognized entries from his competition studio in the Fall 2011, was recently published in the May 2012 issue GROUND UP, Landscapes of Uncertainty; by the School of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, University of California at Berkeley.

Allison Warren
, Instructor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s School of Architecture  mounted a solo exhibition entitled “Fallen Hemlock” at Georgetown College, Lexington, Kentucky in Fall 2011. The 4,000 sf exhibition examined the plight of the Hemlock tree in Eastern Kentucky and Northeast region by beetle infestation through the wrapping of a live healthy Hemlock tree in white clothes, similar to mummification.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

A student competition called The Architecture and Engineering of Sustainable Buildings has been organized by Associate Professor Abbas Aminmansour.  The competition is scheduled for the spring 2012 semester and will be conducted by the Association of Collegiate School of Architecture (ACSA) across the United States and Canada.  Visit the ACSA Competition Web Site for more information. 

Associate Professor Abbas Aminmansour presented a paper titled “Tall Buildings and Sustainability – – An Integrated Approach” at the 2011 World Conference by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).  The conference was held in Seoul, Korea October 10- 12, 2011.

Assistant Professor Mark Taylor received the 2011 AIA Central Illinois Outstanding Educator Award.

Associate Professor William Worn presented a paper titled “Post-Industrial Transformation and the Obesogenic City” at a 2-day architectural symposium held at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Britain, on November 22-23, 2011.

Professor R. Alan Forrester, Director of the School of Architecture from 1981-1998, passed away on November 23, 2011. His family is planning a memorial to be announced at a later date. 

Michael J. Plautz, ’67 graduate of the University of Illinois School of Architecture, passed away on January 6, 2012, at the age of 68. 

Assistant Professor Therese Tierney has signed a book contract with Routledge for her book titled Public Space/ New Publics: Connected Culture of the Network Society. Her essay titled “Accessing Urban Information: [i-metro] as a locative media commons” will be published in the Leonardo Journal ISAST: Environment 2.0  in 2012.  Prof. Tierney will also be presenting a paper titled “Intelligent Infrastructure: Mobile Networks as Tactical Transportation” at the ACSA Conference in Boston March 1-3, 2012. 

The School of Architecture, in conjunction with the School of Landscape Architecture, announces the Spring 2012 Lecture Series. Lecturers include:  David Salmela, Salmela Architecs; Brad Lynch, Brininstool + Lynch; Florian Idenburg, Solid Objectives; David Brown, National Trust for Historic Preservation; Rahul Mehrotra, Harvard University; Christopher Leong, Leong Leong Architecture; Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Atelier Bow Wow; Marvin Trachtenberg, New York University Institute of Fine Arts; Craig Schwitter, Buro Happold Consulting Engineers; and Ken Smith. 

Professor Kathryn Anthony has designed two new iPhone apps titled “Design Student Survival Guide” and “Student Survival Guide,” and was featured in an article through the CITES Academic Technology Services website at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign at http://blogs.cites.illinois.edu/cites-ats/2012/02/29/faculty-member-launches-new-iphone-apps/.