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University of Texas at Austin

The faculty, students, and staff of the The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture are deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend  Former Dean, Hal Box, who passed away on Sunday, May 8, 2011. Box was recognized for his prolific career and long and distinguished tenure as dean with the naming of the Goldsmith courtyard the “Eden & Hal Box Courtyard,” honoring his service and the support of his wife, Eden. He learned at the dedication reception that he had been named dean emeritus, a title held by only a handful of individuals at the university.

The faculty, students, and staff of The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture are grieving the loss of a friend, colleague, and mentor, Associate Professor Kent Butler. Kent died in a tragic accident while hiking in Yosemite National Park on Friday, May 13, 2011. Dr. Butler had been with the School of Architecture since 1978. He was most recently serving as Associate Dean for Research and Operations and as the program director and associate professor for the Community and Regional Planning Program.

Associate Professor Mirka Benes and Michael G. Lee edited the recently published book, Clio in the Italian Garden: Twenty-First-Century Studies in Historical Methods and Theoretical Perspectives (Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.; and Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass). On March 12, Benes presented a paper titled “Gardens and the Larger Landscape, Real and Imagined, in the Rome of Claude Lorrain,” at the University of Tennesse Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies’ annual symposium, “Gardens, Real and Imagined.”.

Assistant Professor Allan W. Shearer and P.H. Liotta contributed a chapter: Environmental Security and Ecoterrorism edited by Hami Alpas, Simon M. Berkowicz, and Irina Ermakova, and published last month as part of the NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2011).
 
Dean Fritz Steiner contributed a commentary, titled “Planning and Design: Oil and Water or Bacon and Eggs?,” in the Summer 2011 edition of the Journal of Planning Education and Research, published by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.

University of Texas at Austin

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has recognized Professor Juan Miró with the 2011-2012 ACSA Distinguished Professor Award.

Associate Professor Lois Weinthal has been selected as the 2012 faculty recipient of the Texas Exes Teaching Award for the School of Architecture.

The Cliffs of the Neuse State Park Visitor Center and East District Office, a project of Gomes + Staub Architects with Assistant Professor Francisco Gomes as the designer and project architect, has achieved a LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Associate Professor Hope Hasbrouck has been appointed to the City of Austin Design Commission. The Design Commission’s purpose is to provide advisory recommendations to the city council as requested by the council to assist in developing public policy and to promote excellence in the design and development of the urban environment.

Senior Lecturer and 2007 Gabriel Prize winner Joyce Rosner gave a lecture on December 14 at the American Institute of Architects’ space at the historic Pearl Brewery campus in San Antonio. The lecture was presented in conjunction with the “Masterwords of the Gabriel Prize” exhibit, sponsored by the Texas Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art and the San Antonio Chapter of the AIA.

Dean Fritz Steiner‘s book, Urban Ecological Design: A Process for Regenerative Places, has just been published by Island Press. Co-written with Danilo Palazzo, Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, the book presents an interdisciplinary method of transforming urban spaces that considers issues of ecology and sustainability alongside urban form.

University of Texas at Austin

On February 3 and 4, Professor Juan Miró, FAIA LEED AP, participated in the Mayors’ Institute on City Design Southwest Regional Session in Houston. His lecture, titled “Landscape City: Nature and the Regeneration of American Cities,” discussed strategies to integrate higher density in American cities, while embracing their unique relationship to nature.

Assistant Professor Matt Fajkus‘ essay, “Marking the Land,” about The University of Texas at Austin Landmarks Public Arts Program, appears in the March/April 2012 edition of Texas Architect.

On Friday, March 16, Assistant Professor Fernando Lara was a keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Colombian Association of School of Architecture (ACFA) in Cartagena de Las Indias.. Lara’s presentation (delivered in pure Brazilian Spanish) was an overview of architectural education in Brazil since 1816, “Desarollo ins ir al Grano, 200 anos de ensenanza de arquitectura en Brasil.” 

Assistant Professor Talia McCray has been selected to receive a 2012-2013 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program grant to the United Kingdom.

Associate Professor Mirka Benes has received a 2012-2013 Fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., where she will be in the Center for Landscape and Garden Studies. 

Assistant Professor Allan Shearer has been recognized for his superior performance by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) with a 2012 Excellence in Research & Creative Works Award (junior level).

Dean Fritz Steiner and UTSOA Fulbright Senior Visiting Scholar/Researcher Ayman G. Abdel Tawab are scheduled as program presenters at the 2012 US/ICOMOS International Scientific Symposium: “Confluence of Cultures: World Heritage in the Americas,” to be held May 31 through June 2, in San Antonio. The symposium is an official event of UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention 40th Anniversary Celebration. Associate Professor Michael Holleran, director of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, serves on the Scientific Committee planning the symposium and co-editing the book expected to come from it.

Jason Sowell, Assistant Professor in landscape architecture, had his essay, “systems | site | program | place,” recently published in Representing Landscapes, an edited collection of essays and student representation models from over twenty landscape programs around the world. Compiled by Nadia Amoroso, Ph.D., the work discusses and illustrates relationships between pedagogy, communication, and techniques within contemporary landscape representation.

 

 

 

 

University of Texas at Austin

Hal Box [B.Arch. ’50], former dean of the School of Architecture and professor emeritus, received dual honors from The University of Texas at Austin on April 8.

While attending a reception in the newly named “Eden & Hal Box Courtyard” at Goldsmith Hall, the influential scholar was informed he had been named dean emeritus, a title held by only a handful of individuals at the university.

Dean Fritz Steiner’s latest book, Design for a Vulnerable Planet, was released this month by University of Texas Press.

On April 1, 2011, Dr. Nancy Kwallek, director of the UTSOA Interior Design Program and the Gene Edward Mikeska Endowed Chair for Interior Design, was honored by her alma mater, Kent State University, with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her career of interior design teaching, research, and service. The event took place at the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative during a Senior Interior Design Exhibition and Awards Ceremony under the auspices of Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

Assistant Professor in Architecture Michael Leighton Beaman and former materials lab curator Zaneta Hong’s non-profit design firm <http://gacollaborative.org/>General Architecture Collaborative (GAC) is sponsoring and curating Art = Relief, an exhibit and benefit for Japanese relief efforts. The exhibit is being held at Columbia University’s Studio X in New York. Over thirty acclaimed and emerging artists and designers have generously donated their work to contribute to the relief effort in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the country on March 11, 2011.

Wilfried Wang, O’Neil Ford Centennial Chair in Architecture, presented a lecture at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, on April 17, 2011, on the subject of “Judging Architecture.”

Larry Speck, W. L. Moody, Jr. Centennial Professor in Architecture, is featured on the university’s KNOW website as part of the series of features about the humanities written by professors from across campus. <http://www.utexas.edu/know/2011/04/11/humanities_speck/>Speck writes on “Confessions of a Biography Junkie.”

University of Texas at Austin

On April 26, Pecan Street Project announced that it has acquired a site and will soon begin construction of a smart grid interoperability research facility. Researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will lead the programming and technical specification development for the facility, which will be located in Austin’s Mueller community. Supported by a large demonstration grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Pecan Street Project is a “smart grid” initiative led by a team of researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the Environmental Defense Fund to develop and test an integrated clean energy smart grid in Austin. Construction is scheduled to begin in September 2011 and active operations to commence in March 2012. Pecan Street Project has contracted with Austin-based custom homebuilder The Muskin Company to construct the Home Research Lab. The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture Assistant Professors Ulrich Dangel, Matt Fajkus, and Tamie Glass have developed a schematic design for the architecture and interiors of the project in collaboration with Department of Architectural and Environmental Engineering Assistant Professor Atila Novoselac. Austin-based Michael Hsu Office of Architecture will serve as the architect of record. Over the next five years, this Pecan Street Project team will deploy and test a smart grid infrastructure in 1,000 residences and 75 businesses in the new Mueller mixed-use urban village in central Austin.

Dean Fritz Steiner contributed a chapter, “Plan with Nature: The Legacy of Ian McHarg,” to the new book, http://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/1893_Regional-Planning-in-America: Practice and Prospect, edited by Ethan Seltzer and Armando Carbonell, published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Assistant Professor Igor Siddiqui’s work is featured in the exhibit “Elemental” at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans. The exhibit, organized by AIA New Orleans as a part of the AIA National Convention, focuses on digital fabrication and includes works by Greg Lynn, http://www.iwamotoscott.com/, IwamotoScott, Elena Manferdini, Florencia Pita, and others.

Siddiqui’s essay, “Surface Fatigue,” is published in the upcoming book, Soft Shells: Porous and Deployable Architectural Screens, by Sophia Vyzoviti (Amsterdam: BIS Publishers).

University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Nancy Kwallek, Director of the UTSoA Interiors program will host the “Textiles Symposium Weaving the Past and the Present,” at the Univeristy of Texas at Austin.

On September 24, Assistant Professor Benjamin Ibarra Sevilla opened his exhibition “El arte de la cantería Mixteca” (Mixtec Stonecutting Artistry) in the Museum of Arts and Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Dr. Mark Simmons, lecturer at the School of Architecture and research scientist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, has received a 2013 Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in the Professional category for his project, “The Lawn is Dead – Long Live the Lawn.”

Assistant Professor Junfeng Jiao—with research assistant at Ball State, Max Dillivan—has just published an article titled “Transit Desert: The Gap between Demand and Supply” in the Journal of Public Transportation, October 2013, Vol. 16.3.

Assistant Professor Dr. Petra Leidl led the Harrington Symposium at the University of Texas at Austin on October 1-4, “EnergyXchange: Munich and Austin: Regional Centers of Sustainable Innovation”.

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture will honor the life and work of Associate Dean Kent Butler at a memorial symposium on October 1 at the UTSOA. Dr. Butler, a long-time faculty member, died during a hiking trip in Yosemite National Park in May.

The Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) is a proud co-sponsor of the 2011 UT Campus Sustainability Symposium September 23, 2011, led by the President’s Sustainability Steering Committee, with support from UT’s Office of Sustainability, the Center for Sustainable Development, the Campus Environmental Center, the Environmental Science Institute, and the UT Energy Institute.

Dean Fritz Steiner will moderate the panel discussion, “How Green is My City?,” at the, http://www.texastribune.org/festival/home/,Texas Tribune Festival, which will take place on September 24 and 25 in Austin.

On Wednesday, November 3, Houston Tomorrow Distinguished Speaker Series luncheon, Dean Fritz Steiner will discuss his latest book, Design for a Vulnerable Planet, and his ideas for a sustainable future based on new regionalism-a theory of design which holds that structure and landscape should be inspired by the surrounding ecosystem. Steiner frequently works with local, state, and federal agencies on diverse environmental plans and designs. He is a member of the Steering Committee of America 2050 and is current president of the Hill Country Conservancy and board member of Envision Central Texas.

Pollen Architecture & Design’s Balcones House will be featured on the 2011 American Institute of Architects <http://www.aiaaustin.org/firm_project/balcones-house>Austin Homes Tour, October 1 and 2. Lecturers Elizabeth Alford and Dason Whitsett [B.Arch. ’95, M.S.S.D. ’05] are principals of Pollen Architecture (with Michael Young).

Associate Dean Kevin Alter was a featured speaker at the American Institute of Architects Arkansas 2011 State Convention in Hot Springs, on September 17, where he presented selected work from his firm, <http://alterstudio.net/>alterstudio architects, llp.

Assistant Professor Fernando Lara recently published two articles. “Incomplete Utopias: Embedded Inequalities in Brazilian Modern Architecture,” appeared in the June 2011 edition of the Architectural Research Quarterly, published by Cambridge University Press. The article, “New (Sub)Urbanism and Old Inequalities in Brazilian Gated Communities,” was published in the August 2011 edition of the Journal of Urban Design, published by Taylor & Francis Group.
Senior Lecturer Joyce Rosner‘s work in the exhibition, “SLICE: Connections and Deviations,” will be displayed at the Kreft Center Gallery, Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan, from October 25 to December 4.. A central theme in Rosner’s  work is the idea of an iterative collection. Through the interplay of hand and material, narrative tension is developed between the subject and its recorded evidence.

Dr. Steven Moore, Bartlett Cocke Regents Professor of Architecture and Planning; Dr. David Adelman, Harry M. Reasoner Regents Chair in Law; and Dr. Barbara Brown Wilson, director of the UT Austin Center for Sustainable Development, have been awarded a National Science Foundation Workshop Grant to host “Sequencing and Targeting Climate Change Policy for Architecture: An Interdisciplinary and International Approach.”

On September 27, Dr. Nancy Kwallek, Gene Edward Mikesa Endowed Chair in Interior Design and Director of the Interior Design Program, presented a lecture on color palettes from the 1950s, in conjunction with Mika Tajima’s exhibition, “The Architect’s Garden,” at the UT Austin Visual Arts Center. Dr. Kwallek used Herman Miller and Knoll as examples to discuss the impact of color on our senses.

Wilfried Wang, O’Neil Ford Centennial Professor in Architecture, led the Quito Travel Studio with 13 students to Ecuador. Besides seeing the impressive work of José Maria Saez Vaquero and Adrian Moreno, both visiting professors at the School of Architecture this semester, the group met José Miguel Mantilla and the office of El Borde: David Barragan and Pascual Gangotena. The students visited a number of outstanding pieces of contemporary architecture, as well as museums with Pre-Columbian art. While in Ecuador, Wang presented a lecture on “Changing Paradigms: The Challenge of Sustainability to Architecture” at the Universidad Católica de Santiago Guayaquil and a lecture on “Judging Architecture” at the Universidad de Guayaquil.

Adjunct Associate Professor Barbara Hoidn was an invited participant in the Jane Jacobs Revisited: A Bellagio Conference” at the Rockefeller Foundation at Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy, which took place from September 29 to October 3, 2011.

University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Steven Moore‘s recent interdisciplinary book, Pragmatic Sustainability: Theoretical and Practical Tools, has been reviewed in the Journal of Planning Education and Research (31:3). The review concludes by saying, “Moore’s useful and timely volume is a welcome contrast to the doom-and-gloom scenarios of environmental damages painted by many environmental writers. Readers are strongly encouraged to carefully read and revisit Moore’s excellent introduction after completing the core chapters of the book. The effort will surely be rewarded with fresh insights and connections on the scientific, technical, and most importantly, the social significance of sustainability as part of an overall ‘discourse through which we might imagine more hopeful futures.'”

Wilfried Wang, O’Neil Ford Centennial Professor of Architecture, presented a lecture at the Modern Art Museum in Stockholm on the “Future of Slussen,” analyzing international trends in urban renewal and evaluating two proposals for the new bridge and public square between the old city, Gamla Stan, and the southern island, Södermalm, by Foster/Berg and Mats Edblom, et al.  Wang was quoted in the national newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet.

Dean Fritz Steiner is included in the author lineup for the 16th Texas Book Festival, which will take place in the Texas State Capitol and in downtown Austin the weekend of October 22-23. Steiner’s featured book, Design for a Vulnerable Planet, was published in April 2011 by University of Texas Press. The Texas Book Festival was established in 1995 by First Lady Laura Bush, a former librarian and an ardent advocate of literacy.

Alterstudio Architects, LLP’s Bouldin House is featured in the October 2011 issue of Dwell magazine in an article titled “This Is It. “Austin Home magazine’s fall 2011 “Design” issue features the firm’s Scout Island House, which will also be on the AIA Austin Homes Tour on October 1 and 2, 2011. Alterstudio includes Associate Dean Kevin Alter, Ernesto Cragnolino [B.Arch. & B.Arch.Eng. ’97], Russell Krepart [M.Arch. ’02], Tim Whitehill [B.Arch. ’02], and Matt Slusarek [M.Arch. ’05].

Associate Professor Carl Matthews and Caroline Hill, an assistant professor of interior design at Texas State University, have published an article, titled “Gay Until Proven Straight: Exploring Perceptions of Male Interior Designers from Male Practitioner and Student Perspectives,” in the May 2011 edition of the Journal of Interior Design.

Assistant Professor Igor Siddiqui‘s work was included in the exhibit, “MATTER,” at the Bakery Design Collective in San Diego, California. The exhibit explores material processes in the work of a group of innovative contemporary artists and architects, including FreelandBuck, Studiomake, and Oyler Wu Collaborative.

Siddiqui’s essay, “Tessellated Floorscape: interior acts of production, siting and participation,” will appear in the upcoming issueIDEA Journal, themed “Interior Ecologies: Exposing the Evolutionary Interior.” The essay describes Siddiqui’s ongoing project, “Tessellated Floorscape,” in relation to the varied contexts within which it has been produced, exhibited, and experienced by the public. The IDEA Journal is one of only two international refereed journals dedicated to the publication of interior design/interior architecture research.

University of Texas at Austin

Vincent Snyder Architects‘ project, Urban Reserve 22, was selected for a Grand Award in the Green Development category from the newly combined Builder’s Choice and the Custom Home Design awards programs which received over 630 submissions.

Alterstudio Architecture‘s Parkside: three buildings on Old 19th Street was selected for the Project of the Year Award from the newly combined Builder’s Choice and the Custom Home Design awards. The houses were designed by Professor Kevin Alter and partners Ernesto Cragnolino [B.Arc.h ’97, BSAE ’97, BA Plan II ’97], Timothy Whitehill [B.Arch. ’02], and senior associate Matthew Slusarek [M.Arch. ’05]. It is featured on the cover of the October 2013 issue of Builder magazine print and online publications.

Anthony Alofsin, Roland Roessner Centennial Professor of Architecture, lectured on “Frank Lloyd Wright and His Taliesin Letters” for the Avery Friends and the Friends of the Columbia University Libraries, New York City, on October 8, and on “Frank Lloyd Wright: Research Initiatives for Scholars and Practitioners,” Buell Center for American Architecture, also at Columbia University, on October 18, 2013.

On October 4, Professor Juan Miró gave a lecture about the work of Miró Rivera Architects (MRA), titled “Construyendo Ideas” (“Building Ideas”), at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus. Several projects from Miró Rivera Architects were featured in recent publications. In the October edition of Architectural Record, MRA’s Circuit of the Americas project is spotlighted in an article titled “Formula for Success.” Two other MRA projects, the Pedestrian Bridge on Lake Austin and the Town Lake Trail Restroom, were featured in the digital publication Arch Daily. In addition, the MRA-designed LifeWorks building—only the fourth commercial project in Austin to earn Austin Energy’s 5-Star Green Building rating—appears in the September/October issue of Texas Architect among the 2013 TSA Design Award Winners.

Associate Professor Fernando Lara was on a rampant lecture series this fall—first in Monterrey, Mexico, at Universidad Autonoma Nuevo Leon on September 4; then in Bogota and Medellín, Colombia, at Pontificia Universidad Bolivariana on September 25-26; and finally at the University of Maryland on October 5. In each of the lectures, Lara spoke about the production of public spaces in the Americas, with a special focus on the protests that took over Brazilian cities last summer. In addition, a new paper published at the Journal of Urban Design (Vol. 18, No. 4, September 2013), titled “Favela upgrade in Brazil: a reverse of participatory processes,” aims to explain the rationale behind such protests.

Assistant Professor Danelle Briscoe has contributed a chapter, titled “Reconfiguring Frit,” in Unconventional Computing: Design Methods for Adaptive Architecture, edited by Simone Ferracina and Rachel Armstrong, to be published by Riverside Architectural Press on the occasion of the ACADIA 2013 Adaptive Architecture Conference, Cambridge, Canada.

Assistant Professor Matt Fajkus, along with James Timberake (of Kieran Timberlake) and Mell Lawrence, was selected to be a juror for the 2013 Fort Worth AIA Awards. The jurors selected winning entries and provided commentary on the merit of each project at the Forth Worth Modern Museum on October 15th.

Senior Lecturer and Conservation Scientist Fran Gale served as a juror for the Washington D.C. Chapter of the American Institute of Architects 2013 Design Awards. Fellow jurors for the Historic Resources category were Robert Loversidge, Jr., FAIA and Don Swofford, FAIA. The Historic Resources category includes preservation or restoration projects, adaptive reuse of existing structures whose overall architectural character is maintained, sympathetic additions to historic structures, and replication or reconstruction of damaged or destroyed structures or elements.

Professor Christopher Long‘s newest book, Paul T. Frankl: Autobiography, was just published by Doppelhouse Press in Los Angeles. Aurora McClain [M.Arch. ’11], master’s candidate in architectural history, co-edited the book with Professor Long. Noted Viennese graphic design Peter Duniecki designed the book.

Professor Long’s two recent books, Paul T. Frankl and Modern American Design and Josef Frank: Schriften/Josef Frank: Writings (2 vols., co-editor, with Tano Bojankin and Iris Meder), have received some nice publicity in the Austrian press. Die Presse, one of Vienna’s leading newspapers, chose the Frank book as one of the five most important architecture or design works of the past year; and Profil, the largest circulation magazine in Austria, just published a three-page feature review of the Frankl book, with quotes from Long.

On October 11 and 12, Assistant Professor Benjamin Ibarra Sevilla taught a workshop on “Thin Tile Vaulting Techniques” at the Architecture Preservation Technology Conference in New York City.

Dean
Fritz Steiner was a keynote speaker at the Geodesign International Conference, held October 28•29, 2013, in Beijing, China. The conference is a joint effort of Peking University and ESRI.

Senior Lecturer Rachael Rawlins has published an article, titled “Planning For Fracking on the Barnett Shale: Urban Air Pollution, Improving Health Based Regulation, and the Role of Local Governments,” in the Virginia Environmental Law Journal (Vol. 31, Issue 2).

Assistant Professor Clay Odom made a presentation titled “Patterning (and) the Interior Design Studio” at the IFI (International Federation of Interior Designers/Interior Architects) Global Interior Educators Open Forum in Sydney/New South Wales University, held October 3–4. 

University of Texas at Austin

The School of Architecture’s Historic Preservation Program and the 2010 and 2011 graphic documentation students won first place in the National Park Service’s Charles E. Peterson Prize competition. The team submitted measured drawings of Austin’s North-Evans Chateau (1874-1960), now the Chateau Bellevue and home of the Austin Woman’s Club, located at 708 San Antonio Street in the Bremond Block National Register Historic District.

 
Lecturer Clay Shortall and Assistant Professor Matt Fajkus were commissioned to design a sculpture in collaboration with Will Meredith of 5 Axis LLC for the President of the United States during his visit to Austin on July 17. The sculpture, titled “8,” featured inspirational words from the president in abstracted Braille on the exterior and large portions of the 2009 inaugural speech etched in the interior. The sculpture was composed of eight building blocks, representing eight administrative principles in the pursuit for equality of opportunity in humanity, and was presented to the president during an evening event. UTSOA graduate students Eliza Bober and Arman Halidou greatly contributed to the digital production, 3D-printing, and processing of the sculpture.

Dr. Nancy Kwallek, Gene Edward Mikeska Endowed Chair for Interior Design, is one of four UT Austin faculty members selected to hold a Dads’ Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Wilfried Wang, O’Neil Ford Centennial Professor in Architecture, was elected to the post of Deputy Director of the Architecture Section at the Academy of the Arts, Berlin. He has also been appointed as the vice chair of the design review board for Munich Airport.


In July 2012, Adjunct Associate Professor Barbara Hoidn and Professor Wilfried Wang were invited to lead a team, which included UTSOA graduate students Melissa Seanard and Lauren M. Vogl, during the 
“Experimenta Urbana 7: Masterplan for the University of Kassel, 2012,” organized by the University of Kassel in Germany.

Additionally, in August 2012, Hoidn Wang Partner were commissioned with the design for an extension of a kindergarten in a Berlin housing settlement originally designed by Walter Gropius—the Gropius Stadt. During the summer, the Berlin Senate launched a city-wide program to make available more spaces in kindergartens, in order to fulfill a recent federal German law to provide a place for each newborn child beginning in 2013. The client is the International Federation, a German charitable society.

David Heymann, Harwell Hamilton Harris Regents Professor in Architecture, has received the Bradford Williams Medal, awarded by Landscape Architecture Magazine (LAM), the magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Additionally, Professor Heymann just returned from a month as a scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy, where he worked on an ongoing series of essays. His essay, “Some Ado About Nothingness,” about the Asia Society Texas Center, was published in the summer 2012 edition of CITE magazine.

Dean Fritz Steiner presented the keynote talk at the 10th International Urban Planning and Environment Association Symposium (UPE10), held July 24 to 27 at the University of Sydney, Australia. UPE10 was co-hosted by the U.S. Studies Centre and the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning. The keynote session topic was “Next City: Planning for a New Energy and Climate Future.”

Assistant Professor Igor Siddiqui‘s work is presented in “Interior Affair: a State of Becoming”, a refereed exhibition of design research that accompanies the Interior Design / Interior Architecture Educators Association symposium in Perth, Australia. This fall, Professor Siddiqui was invited to join the editorial board of ii, the International Journal of Interior Architecture + Spatial Design in the capacity of associate editor.

Dr. Danilo Udovi_ki-Selb was invited by the newly created Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) to participate in the evaluation of the quality of research performed between 2004 and 2010 by researchers of all Italian universities and research institutes.Princeton Architectural Press has invited Udovi_ki to be the editor of and contributor to an anthology titled Architectural Theory: A Global Perspective. He will be responsible for the section on Soviet Modernism, 1900-1991.

Senior Lecturer and Architectural Conservation Laboratory director Fran Gale taught a training course for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration (NCA). Beginning in 2010, Gale worked with Heritage Preservation, a nonprofit organization hired by NCA to coordinate assessments and review treatment proposals for monuments in NCA’s cemeteries and soldiers lots across the country.