University of Nebraska’s Professor Rumiko Handa recently had a letter to the editor published in the current (Fall 2016) issue of Architecture Boston, a quarterly publication of the Boston Society of Architects (both print and online), and can be found at
https://www.architects.org/architec…/…/temporary-summer-2016.
Handa was invited by the Deputy Editor of the magazine to contribute based on her recent book, Allure of the Incomplete, Imperfect, and Impermanent.
2016/2017 Hyde Lecture Series opens another exciting chapter for the design and planning disciplines as speakers take a fresh, in-depth look at the latest developments in their respective fields.
The College’s Hyde Lecture Series is a long-standing, endowed public program. Each year the College hosts compelling speakers in the fields of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and planning that enrich the ongoing dialog around agendas which are paramount to the design disciplines and our graduates.
Daniel Piatkowski, Assistant Professor of Community and Regional Planning at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, publishes his inaugural book chapter as a CRP faculty member. Piatkowski’s co-authored chapter “Advancing discussions of cycling interventions based on social justice” is the sixth chapter in Bicycle Justice and Urban Transportation published by Routledge.
Piatkowski’s chapter is about laying a groundwork for deciding if and when investing in bicycle infrastructure can forward social justice goals in a city’s transportation system.
Piatkowski and co-authors articulate how often times decisions to implement interventions to promote cycling are done without really examining or thinking about how these changes are realized differently across various populations and geographies and how the importance of one person being able to cycle, weighs against the sacrifices it requires from another. Piakowski’s piece encourages those who promote cycling to challenge and rethink assumptions about the cycling culture, the neighborhood transformation and the planning processes. The authors suggest justifications for advancing efforts should be examined closely as part of the planning process.
“Simply promoting cycling across the board for reasons of health, environment or ‘choice’ often leads to misplaced priorities that do little to address the plight of population groups who are often neglected in transportation planning and could best benefit from more bicycle-friendly neighborhoods and cities.” (Chapter 6)
The chapter was co-authored with Karel Martens (lead author), Kevin J. Krizek and Kara Luckey.
Piatkowski has done extensive research with transportation, particularly focusing on how land use and transportation planning can foster equitable and sustainable communities. He is principally interested in analyzing the effects and community transformations related to walking and bicycling planning. His research has been featured on National Public Radio, the Washington Post, the Atlantic and CityLab’s “Future of Transportation” series. Piatkowski’s work has been published in numerous places including seven peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at 17 national conferences.
Piatkowski explains, his career in community planning didn’t lead him to cycling transportation research but his passion for cycling led him toward a career in planning. One might say, it’s all about choosing the right path.
At UNL, Piatkowski teaches land use and transportation, urban design and research methods.
The College of Architecture announces the hiring of three faculty members: Nathan Bicak, Assistant Professor of Interior Design; Cathy De Almeida, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture; and Daniel Piatkowski, Assistant Professor of Community and Regional Planning.
Before coming to UNL, Bicak served as an assistant professor with the Department of Design at Radford University in Virginia, where he received grant funding to implement an interdisciplinary, tiny house design/build class and established maker spaces across campus. Working collaboratively with the Radford University Environmental Center and an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students, Bicak contributed design, prototype development, digital fabrication and sensor automation to a research project focused on the construction of a food waste bioreactor.
He has presented his work at national conferences including NeoCon, the Environmental Design Research Association and the Interior Design Educators Council. Bicak has spoken on a wide variety of topics, notables include the utilization of drones to enhance construction education and monitoring, residential criteria for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and the efficacy of making and prototyping for the enhancement of spatial understanding in interior design education.
Bicak plans to continue his research studying the social, ecological and economic impacts of small-scale living solutions, particularly through the interdisciplinary design/build delivery method. Possible future projects include an exploration and needs analysis for small-scale, housing in the rural environment.
Furthermore, Bicak gained valuable practical experience as an architectural designer with Narrative Design Studio in Lincoln as well as with Dwellings Co, an affordable housing start-up based in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Bicak will be teaching courses in education design, material application, building codes, construction methodologies and construction documentation.
Before joining the College of Architecture, De Almeida was a landscape architecture lecturer with Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She taught undergraduate and graduate design studios that focused on waste reuse processes in brownfield transformation. The concept focused on the creation of multi-layered, hybrid landscapes that were economically generative, ecologically rich, cultural destinations.
She was also an associate at Whitham Planning and Design in Ithaca, where she worked as a landscape architect and planner on numerous urban infill projects, including the transformation of a deindustrialized, superfund site into a mixed-use district known as the Chain Works District.
De Almeida’s research and design interests focus on material and energy reuse in diversified site programming to promote resilience, adaptation and flexibility in design. She is particularly interested in designing landscapes that allow waste streams from one system to become fuel for other systems. Her landscape lifecycles design-research synthesizes lifecycle approaches with concepts of industrial ecology and urban metabolism. These interests promote the restructuring of local and regional infrastructural systems to reclaim vulnerable sites and territories associated with perceived undesirable conditions, and explore the relationships between environmental justice, waste and brownfields. She is ultimately interested in how humans interact with ecological systems and resources and how design can improve these relationships by establishing symbiotic, hybrid bio-cultural systems. In addition to waste, De Almeida is also interested in intangible and ephemeral forces such as heat, wind and humidity – as media of design.
De Almeida has lectured about her work at Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, SUNY ESF and the DredgeFest: Great Lakes Symposium, and will present a forthcoming paper at the Landscape Architecture as Necessity Conference in September hosted by the University of Southern California.
De Almeida will be teaching materiality, design making and alternative landscape-based design strategies for brownfield redevelopment.
Piatkowski comes from Savannah State University where he was assistant professor of urban studies and planning. Prior to that position he was an NSF-IGERT trainee earning his PhD with the Civil Engineering department at the University of Colorado, Denver.
Piatkowski’s research focuses on how land use and transportation planning can foster equitable and sustainable communities. Piatkowski is particularly interested in the ways in which planning for walking and bicycling as viable modes of transportation can transform communities. Recent work includes: the interaction between “carrots and sticks” in travel behavior decisions, social media tools and equitable community engagement and the phenomenon of “scofflaw bicycling” – why bicyclists break the rules of the road. His research has been featured on National Public Radio, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and CityLab’s “Future of Transportation” series.
Piatkowski has been published numerous times in peer review journals including The Journal of Travel Behaviour and Society, Transport Policy, Journal of Urban Planning and Development, Journal of Transport and Health, Urban Design International, and the Journal of Transportation of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. He has presented his work nationally at the Congress for the New Urbanism, the Transportation Research Board and the International Association of Travel Behavior Researchers. Future scheduled presentations include the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon, where he will present his research on “scofflaw bicycling” and serve as a session panelist for historic preservation and livability.
At UNL, Piatkowski will teach land use and transportation, urban design and research methods.
“We are fortunate to have these three talented individuals join our College, to continue their academic careers and exciting research paths, and to contribute to the rich curriculum and content we provide our students,” commented Katherine Ankerson, College of Architecture Dean.
Ankerson named dean of UNL College of Architecture
Katherine Ankerson, professor and head of the Department of Interior Architecture and Product Design at Kansas State University, has accepted appointment as dean of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Architecture. The appointment, pending approval by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, was announced May 23.
“Katherine Ankerson is a proven administrator, educator and scholar with a track record in elevating programs and encouraging excellence,” Chancellor Ronnie Green said. “She also has a strong vision that understands the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to prepare the next generation of building and landscape architects, interior designers, and community and regional planners. This combination positions her as a transformational leader for our college of architecture.”
Ankerson, who was a professor and associate dean in the UNL architecture college from 1996 to 2011 before her tenure at Kansas State, will assume the dean’s post July 1. “I am honored to be named the dean of the College of Architecture at UNL,” Ankerson said. “I look forward to returning to this great university and leading the College of Architecture into its next era. I am committed to the transformative power of planning and design in our lives and communities and join with our faculty, staff, students and alumni to continue building the college into national prominence.” The College of Architecture’s programs in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and community and regional planning have a tradition of excellence in education, research and service. Its fall 2015 enrollment was 493 students.
“This is an exciting time at the college. Faculty and students are involved daily with work that inspires, with a focus on how architecture and design must confront real challenges in today’s world,” said Marjorie Kostelnik, interim senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, who led the search committee for the position. “We are confident that the college will break important new ground under Katherine’s leadership.”
Ankerson is a tenured full professor and has concluded her fifth year as head of Kansas State’s interior architecture and product design department. A strong proponent of design education, Ankerson said she believes in the potency of interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary engagement, the value of design and making, and embracing new technologies in addition to strengthening traditional design tools.
Ankerson’s philosophy is that design education must prepare global design citizens who take leadership to foster synergy, embrace successful collaboration and recognize interconnectedness, with an awareness of the responsibility of individual and collective actions in personal, social and environmental arenas.
She is an award-winning author, and as lead of the 20th Anniversary Nuckolls Lighting Grant, she worked with nine other educators in architecture, engineering and interior design representing four major universities to initiate and produce the award-winning web-based resource Lighting Across the [Design] Curriculum. Ankerson just completed a three-year term of elected presidential leadership with the North American organization Interior Design Educators Council. She is a CIDA site visitor and the education member of the Nuckolls Lighting Fund board of directors.
Ankerson also held academic positions at Radford University and Washington State University after spending many years as a practicing architect and designer. She received her bachelor of science in architecture and bachelor of architecture from Washington State. She also earned a master’s degree in architecture from Washington State.
By Steve Smith
Students Explore the Future of the Congra Campus
ConAgra, formerly headquartered in Omaha, Neb. moved its headquarters to Chicago. Now the city of Omaha and ConAgra are considering redevelopment. Instructors Emily Anderson and Geoff Deold‘s 411 studio reimagines Omaha’s ConAgra campus and Heartland of America Park as housing, mixed use, and a new anchor tenant. Students were charged with adapting existing urban building typologies to imagine new models of urbanism, adapting form to be responsive to use, context, and public or open space.
The Omaha World Herald picked up the story earlier this week. http://www.omaha.com/money/what-s-next-on-riverfront-uncertain-future-for-conagra-s/article_cd1a3904-7293-5494-a557-3462bfc6fc33.html
Sustainability Energizes Professor Research and Instruction
Gasoline prices have finally started to fall giving many Americans a well-deserved break for their pocket books, but another great way to drive down those energy dollars is within the home or business by reducing energy spending.
Residential and commercial use accounts for 41% of the energy consumed in the United States, according to the National Academy of Sciences.
Building energy-efficient homes and structures has been the driving passion of Associate Professor Tim Hemsath’s career. He has researched, presented, published and taught on this subject, to the point he can probably lecture about this topic in his sleep.
“I’ve always been interested in sustainability. You could say I was raised with those values,” Hemsath commented. “When I was a kid, we would walk to church along the highway and my dad would have the family pick up trash. So before there was an Adopt a Highway program there was the Hemsath program.”
Hemsath explains his desire to make a sustainable impact only intensified in college when he decided to go into architecture.
“I wondered where I could have a measurable impact and how it would affect design. How can we better design our buildings with a greater understanding of its impact, and how can we alter that impact so it creates a positive difference?”
Energy is measurable, so Hemsath knew he could set clear objectives and goals for his designs and his research.
“You can use computer modeling to understand the operational energy consumption of a building and then in theory, design buildings that are more efficient.”
There is no one silver bullet to achieve an energy-efficient building. Hemsath tells his architecture students an efficient building depends on various factors such as climate, its size, the building design, how it is used, etc.
“There are too many factors involved to say this one thing can save you x amount in energy because every place in the world is different, every building is different. What I like to say is you have to understand all your factors before you can make any conclusions.”
Hemsath’s résumé regarding energy-related projects is quite extensive. His research started in 2006 with the College of Engineering on a project developing energy-efficient housing prototypes. He later served as the principal investigator on a Nebraska Research Initiative to increase research capacity surrounding zero-net energy at the University of Nebraska.
Hemsath explains he has seen an upward trend in designing sustainable buildings at the national level.
“I see the use and demand growing,” Hemsath observed. “When I started researching and teaching about sustainability in 2006, only homes were achieving high-efficiency results. Now you see large facilities, campuses and communities also meeting these standards. The capabilities and the technology are all there. It really comes down to market demand and the desire from everybody’s standpoint to make it happen. It’s a matter of the right dominos falling in the right places.”
Many factors are driving this trend including regional and national legislation with energy codes, building standards and emissions restrictions. Furthermore, 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds were tied to local energy code adoptions for its recipients. Also some municipalities such as Minneapolis and Chicago have implemented benchmark ordinances requiring energy consumption reports from commercial buildings. At this point, Hemsath says these reports aren’t used to reduce consumption but if history repeats itself, he can see these established reporting mechanisms eventually being used to for energy conservation similar to the origins of the 1970 Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act.
But even with all these government entities pushing the market to be more efficient, Hemsath believes design professionals have to be at the forefront of that effort.
“We are the ones who design the buildings. We are the doers, the innovators.”
When designing new buildings, to achieve a zero-net energy building, there are three action steps Hemsath recommends:
However the greatest need for energy conservation efforts are actually in established buildings. It is estimated that ¾ of our current buildings will be renovated by 2050. Hemsath says that is an untapped market for innovation. For those looking to improve the efficiency of their home there are key elements he suggests.
Hemsath says if the home owner can only afford to do one thing, he says the number one thing they should do in Lincoln’s climate is improve the home’s insulation or airtightness.
With all his teaching and research experience, Hemsath is often regarded as an expert in his field. He has spoken internationally and nationally on issues of energy-efficient design and using building energy modeling. He has several local engagements this semester including a talk entitled “Zero-net Energy Homes” at the March Nebraskan’s for Solar meeting and then another presentation at the Nebraska ASHRAE Chapter on “Building Energy Modeling in Design,” date to be determined.
Furthermore, Hemsath has several published works on this subject including two recently in Science Direct entitled “Building Design with Energy Performance as Primary Agent” and “Sensitivity Analysis Evaluating Basic Building Geometry’s Effect on Energy Use.” Hemsath will have a book coming out in early 2017 published by Routledge entitled “Energy Modeling in Architectural Design.”
With the outlook of energy consumption projected to increase, Hemsath’s work couldn’t be more important or timely.
Professor Earns Emerging Voices Award
There are certain professional accolades that are more coveted than others. The Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League New York annually recognizes rising stars in architecture and design and is highly sought after. This year’s 2016 Emerging Voices award was given to eight firms including Min | Day and its principals E.B. Min and UNL Architecture Program Director and Professor Jeffery. L. Day.
Min | Day now joins the peerage of others who have earn this prestigious award that has been in existence for over 30 years, firms such as ArandaLasch, David Benjamin / The Living, Neri Oxman, SO – IL, Dlandstudio, el dorado, WORKac, Olson Kundig Architects, Office dA, SHoP Architects, Asymptote Architecture, Michael Maltzan Architecture, Marlon Blackwell Architect, Vincent James Associates, WEISS/MANFREDI, Allied Works, Stan Allen Architect, Morphosis, Steven Holl Architects to name a few.
This award not only recognizes the architectural work of Day and Min through their practice Min | Day but also College of Architecture FACT (Fabrication And Construction Team) students and designs from their furniture company, mdMOD.
Since the Emerging Voices was awarded through a nomination process, that made the honor even more important to Day.
“Only eight offices were recognized for this award and the fact that it’s a nominated award makes it even more satisfying,” Day explained. “This is a big milestone for us, and it’s an award that is only achieved once in a career. It’s a wonderful accomplishment for our firm.”
Min | Day was established in 2003. The partnership emerged from a friendship that began in graduate school at UC Berkeley. After graduation they started collaborating on projects and competitions. Over the years, their partnership evolved, and it was eventually formalized in 2003 when Day relocated to Omaha. Simultaneously, Day started the FACT student design-build program at UNL which is an allied student practice. FACT frequently collaborates with the firm, giving students real-life experiences with creative clients.
Min | Day currently as two locations, one in San Francisco, California, the other in Omaha, Nebraska. Between the two places, they have a full-time staff of 6 people not including the average 15 FACT students working on collaborations.
“A big part of who we are is the fact we have two sites,” commented Day. “It is not common for a firm of our size to have that, but we turned it into an advantage. We founded Min | Day with the belief that establishing offices in these two cities would yield a perspective that transcends the limitations of regional specificity. Our office combines design-research, academic engagement, commissioned work, furniture design, and student design-build projects to create highly refined yet often imprecise and flexible designs that reflect our unusual structure.”
This environment has fostered a design approach that was given Min | Day its unique and emerging voice.
“We promote an approach to flexibility not as the absence of form but as the presence of unique and carefully considered infrastructure, affording individuals the power to manipulate their own environment while simultaneously instilling a distinct personality derived from our design process,” Day said.
He explains they want their work to participate in a culture and help create a culture, not represent a culture in a mode of a disconnected artist or critic.
“If anything is constant, it’s that our designs are always evolving. Every project is different and unique.”
Over the years, Min and Day’s working relationship has transitioned, meliorated and eventually turned into a synergy that’s hard to replicate.
“I think we are a good design partnership, and we have a similar design sensibility but enough difference that the work is dynamic and constantly evolving,” Day commented. “We challenge each other. We are not always in full agreement, and I think that is what takes our work to a higher level.”
When not working at the firm, Day divides his time with the University of Nebraska and Min lectures part-time at the California College of the Arts.
The Emerging Voices award is not only a great accolade for their firm but also for the universities they work with.
“It shows that the practicing faculty are engaged in their field at a high level and are receiving national and international recognition for their work,” Day commented. “It translates into school pride and more students seeking to be a part of a college that affords them the opportunities and recognition that the College of Architecture and FACT provide.”
College of Architecture Students Work with UNMC and MMI on Facility Design Concepts
Nothing is more exciting to a design student than the possibility of their designs actually being used in real-world situations. The work of UNL interior design and architecture students this past semester has set the groundwork for a new facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).
When College of Architecture Instructor Sheila Elijah-Barnwell had heard that UNMC was considering a new facility for Munroe-Meyer Institute (MMI), a healthcare facility that focuses on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, she jumped at the opportunity. She approached Dr. Wayne Stuberg, Professor and Interim Director of MMI, and Ron Schaefer, Interim Executive Director, Facilities Planning & Construction, with a proposal to involve her students in selecting a site and developing design concepts.
MMI welcomed the idea; in fact, a new facility had been on their radar for several years as part of their strategic campus plan and the idea of involving College of Architecture students in their strategic campus plan seemed like a great idea.
“Since we are part of the training institution of Nebraska, this was an ideal way to have UNMC collaborate with UNL on a project that would benefit the students as well as the families we serve,” said Dr. Stuberg.
“The facility is quite outdated, having first been built in the 50s and having been added on to twice,” commented Dr. Stuberg.
The College of Architecture and its students were equally excited, but they had their work cut out for them. This wasn’t just a weeklong project for these students. They spent a great portion of their semester researching multiple subjects related to this project even before developing design proposals.
In the beginning the students got to know MMI, who MMI was, what services they provided and who their clients were.
Next, students worked on site selection. They analyzed the UNMC campus and presented site proposals to the MMI administrators. Feedback from the MMI team was crucial to the students as they developed their preliminary designs further.
“Since we are multi-faceted in what we do, it was important for the students to understand how we should best be position within the new building,” Dr. Stuberg commented. “From these conversations, the students gained an understanding regarding the relationships between the departments and how to strategically locate those areas that shared clients or education and research interests.”
MMI met with the students again to go over their preliminary plans.
“We had some key requirements to be carried through for all conceptual plans such as a central reception area,” Dr. Stuberg said.
A centralized location would allow for multi-disciplinary evaluations and reduce the need for the client to move from one departmental area to the next.
The culmination of the entire process came at last in early December when the twelve teams presented their final proposals to the MMI administrators and directors. MMI representatives were impressed by the teams’ creativity and said they had come a long way during this process.
“They needed to understand the needs of a complex population including the clinicians, staff members, researchers, students, clients and client families,” Elijah-Barnwell explained. “They did a great job of processing all those needs and client requirements and created some -thoughtful design proposals.”
“We hit the ground running with our research,” explained Luke Abkes, fifth-year master of architecture student. Abkes said even before he put pen to paper, he did hours of research on the client and the Institution.
MMI was the ideal partner according to the faculty and students.
“MMI was great with communicating their ideas and giving us feedback; they were very generous with their time,” Abkes added. “MMI was as invested in this project as we were which created a mutual excitement for everything that was going on.”
The students appreciated input from outside of the classroom for a different perspective and experience.
“We were excited to finally have a real client and a real building that we were working on and they were excited because they were getting all of these brand new ideas from students who were thinking outside of the box, where as an architect, that they hire in the future, might be a little more bound by budget,” Abkes added.
Interior Design Instructor Stacy Spale thought having a real “client” pushed the students to excel. “The students did great with the client experience. I think the students always care more when it’s a real client, and it has real potential. In five or six years, some of the ideas our students presented might end up in the real new Munroe-Meyer Institute. That’s really exciting and inspiring. It gave them a since of purpose and direction. It’s not just an academic exercise, it has the potential to really change things.”
The average visitor might not understand the level of planning that goes into designing a building and all the considerations that are taken into account. However, these student teams thought of everything down to every material they chose and the reason for it. For example, they chose clear glass in areas where light can inspire people and open up a space and translucent or opaque glass in other areas where privacy was important.
Ashley Wojtalewicz, fourth-year interior design student and Luke Abkes’ interdisciplinary project partner, said the interior design students were assigned to detail out the recreational therapy area and the main lobby space. Both the architectural and the interior design students placed a great amount of consideration into the needs of MMI’s disabled patient population.
“With our material choices, the concept doesn’t really feel clinical at all but yet it still supports clinical activities, and that’s what we were going for as a team, we didn’t want the clients to feel like they were in an institution,” Wojtalewicz added.
Material choices were important to Wojtalewicz for user comfort. For example, many interior designers chose carpet in appropriate spaces not only for comfort but also the acoustics in the room.
Interior design finish materiality was also useful to guide the user through the facility in an intuitive, seamless way, also known as “wayfinding,” which was a common theme woven into many of the student proposals.
“Using materiality, there are different ways that we can give visual cues to the patient; so if they can’t read, they still know where to go,” commented Wojtalewicz. Wayfinding is spatial problem-solving using landmarks or visual cues. The interior design students used their material selections to intuitively lead patients through the building. In one proposal, all blue lines on the floor lead to the front desk and all red lines lead to physical therapy, etc. In another proposal, all the levels of the building have different wall colors to assist the visitor with wayfinding.
Both Wojtalewicz and Abkes, said their instructors were key contributors to the project’s success.
“My instructor, Stacy Spale, has given us really great feedback as we moved through the process,” commented Wojtalewicz. “She has a great deal of background in healthcare design.”
Abkes concurred and added, “My instructor Sheila is actually an adjunct professor who also works at HDR. She’s very well connected with a lot of the healthcare industry around Omaha. She was able to bring in real-world experience.”
From MMI’s standpoint, “It’s a win-win situation,” Dr. Stuberg said.
The students presented themselves and their ideas well and were very professional through the whole project. Dr. Stuberg admitted at times, the students would bring up ideas that MMI hadn’t even thought of yet. Dr. Stuberg said he can see components of the student designs being incorporated into the final facility. He added that their designs and research will definitely be part of the foundational document they give the contracted architectural firm.
When asked if he would partner with the College of Architecture again given a similar opportunity, Dr. Stuberg responded, “I would do this again in a heartbeat!”
Lecturers Emily Andersen and Geoff DeOld’s firm DeOld Andersen Architecture has speculations on the public right-of-way included in “Public Public,” an exhibition examining pubic space in public places through the lens of art/architectural interventions and investigations.
Professor and Interim Associate Dean Rumiko Handa has contributed a chapter titled “Experiencing the Architecture of the Incomplete, Imperfect, and Impermanent,” in Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality: Essays on the Experience, Significance, and Meaning of the Built Environment. The book was co-edited by Julio Bermudez, Thomas Barrie, and Phillip Tabb, and came out in October this year from Ashgate.
Handa presented a paper titled “W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz: Architecture as a Bridge between the Lost Past and the Present,” at the Reading Architecture Symposium, held in Athens, Greece, in June 16-18, 2015.
Handa also presented a paper titled “Allure of the Incomplete, Imperfect, and Impermanent: Synecdoche, Palimpsest, and Wabi in Architecture of the Everyday,” at the International Conference on East Asian Architecture Culture, held in Gwangju, Korea, in November 10-14, 2015.
MS-ARCH graduate Tshui Mum Ha presented a paper titled “Reuse, Recycling, and Reintroduction of History with Contemporary Eyes through Adaptive Reuse, at the International Conference on East Asian Architecture Culture, held in Gwangju, Korea, in November 10-14, 2015. The paper is based on her Master of Science in Architecture thesis, and Rumiko Handa was her thesis advisor.
Associate Professor Tim Hemsath’s international conference presentation on ‘Building Design with Energy Performance as Primary Agent’ is scheduled to be published in the Energy Procedia Journal. This spring he has been invited to speak at two events. First, on the subject of Zero-net Energy Homes at the Nebraskan’s for Solar March meeting and second at the Nebraska ASHRAE Chapter on Building Energy Modeling in Design. In partnership with the University of Missouri, Professor Hemsath will help lead two student design teams to compete in the national Race to Zero competition sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Energy and held at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Research Support Facility, April 16th to 17th.
Professor Sharon Kuska, was listed as one of Design Intelligence’s 25 Most Admired Educators for 2016.
Assistant Professor Peter Olshavsky, Ph.D. will be presenting a paper on Daniel Libeskind’s “Three Lessons in Architecture” at the Society of Architectural Historians’ conference this coming April. Olshavsky’s essay, “Hidden Multitude: Libeskind’s Three Lessons in Architecture” will be published in the forthcoming peer-reviewed journal Dialectics (University of Utah).
Lecturer Bob Trempe’s work has been selected as one of only two submissions picked from the United States for the Warming Huts: An Art + Architecture Competition on Ice sponsored by The Forks Renewal Corporation. A total of 160 entries were submitted from all over the world as part of this year’s competition. These designs will be installed on the Red River Mutual Trail located on the Assiniboine and Red rivers in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as part of a system of warming huts and ice trails adding to the area’s growing tourist attractions.
Professor and Director Jeffrey L. Day’s firm Min | Day won several awards:
2015 AIA Nebraska Design Awards.
> Honor Award, Architectural Interiors: Bucktown House
> Merit Award, Unbuilt: BART / Muni Market Street Entrances
> Honor Award, Architectural Detail: Dr. No Cabinet
> Merit Award, Architectural Interiors: Spirits Pavilion, Slow Food Nation
AIA Central States Design Awards and from the AIA Chicago:
> Honor Award, Interior Architecture, Bucktown House, AIA Central States Region
> Interior Architecture, Bucktown House, AIA Chicago 2015 Design Excellence Award
Min | Day’s work has been featured in several publications including:
> Omaha World Herald, “Blue Barn Theatre’s new home has slightly larger capacity, one-of-a-kind features,” by Betsie Freeman, September 9, 2015
> Interior Design magazine, “Influence is Immortality” (includes Bucktown House) by Fred A. Bernstein, October 2015 pp162-164
> Chicago Architect magazine, (Bucktown House) Nov./Dec. 2015
Finally, Min | Day has been shortlisted as a finalist of the Architecture League of New York’s 2016 Emerging Voices award and lecture series.
Alumni Kevin Bukowski and Liz Szatko (2015 Bachelor of Science in Design graduates) won two awards for their Air Rights Architecture project in the 2015 AIA Nebraska Design Awards The pair collaborated on this design in Assistant Professor David Karle’s ARCH 410 studio during the fall of 2014. The two awards are:
> Merit Award, Emerging Architects Unbuilt
> People’s Choice, Emerging Architects Unbuilt (this award is determined by popular vote, not jury)
Founded in 1912 by 10 charter members, ACSA is an international association of architecture schools preparing future architects, designers, and change agents. Our membership includes all of the accredited professional degree programs in the United States and Canada, as well as international schools and 2- and 4-year programs. Together ACSA schools represent some 7,000 faculty educating more than 40,000 students.
Enter your name and email below, and we’ll send you the latest ACSA news and events.
© Copyright 2025 ACSA
Study Architecture 
ProPEL 
