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Washington University in St. Louis

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Internationally acclaimed landscape architect Rod Barnett has been appointed chair of the Master of Landscape Architecture program in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. He will join the program Aug. 1.

A noted theorist and scholar, Barnett has designed landscapes in New Zealand, Australia, China, the Pacific Islands and the United States. He is the author of “Emergence in Landscape Architecture” (2013), which utilizes contemporary systems theory to explore how relatively simple interactions, filtered through continual processes of adaptation and evolution, create larger environments of dizzying complexity.

“Rod Barnett is one of the most interesting and original thinkers in landscape architecture today,” says Bruce Lindsey, dean of architecture and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Community Collaboration. “He is an innovative educator whose experiments with self-organization and nonlinear systems are grounded in a deep knowledge of art, history, philosophy, science, and design. We are delighted to welcome him to the faculty.”

“I am excited about the breadth and depth of experience Rod brings to the school,” says Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts. “During this important phase in our expansion of the landscape architecture program, his leadership will guide and strengthen our efforts in the areas of recruitment and program development, attracting the best students both nationally and internationally.” 

Barnett’s minimalist design for Lumley Plaza in Auckland City incorporates stone, water and evergreens — the essential elements of a Japanese stroll garden. The project won a Gold Award for commercial landscape design from the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects.  

Washington University in St. Louis

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On April 26, 2014, Dean and Professor Emeritus Constantine E. (Dinos) Michaelides participated as a keynote speaker in a seminar organized by the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and the Natural Environment (ELLET – NGO) and the School of Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. The seminar took place on the island of Hydra. Titled “The Study of Hydra, Fifty Years Later” Michaelides’s presentation focused on both the Greek and US roots of the original study as well as subsequent publications on the development of the island town during recent decades.

AGENCY partners Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller have been selected to contribute to the United States Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale as an OFFICE US Outpost Architect.  The mission of OFFICE US is to “critically reflect on the production of US architectural firms abroad, while simultaneously projecting a new model for global architectural practice open to all of us.”  Commissioned by Storefront for Art and Architecture and curated by Eva Franch i Gilabert, Anna Miljacki, and Ashley Schafer, the US contribution will collaboratively research, study, and remake projects from an onsite archive‘ of 1,000 buildings designed by US offices over the last 100 years.
AGENCY is one of 90 architects worldwide who will collaborate with the eight OFFICE US partners headquartered in the US Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale to collectively redefine architectural production.

Washington University in St. Louis

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Robert McCarter, Ruth and Norman Moore Professor of Architecture, had his monograph on Alvar Aalto published by Phaidon Press in June 2014. McCarter lectured on “The Architecture of Carlo Scarpa” at the University of Virginia (March 2014), Dalhousie University Halifax (April 2014), and the University of South Florida Tampa (May 2014). McCarter lectured on “The Houses of Frank Lloyd Wright” and “Wright at the Start: The Prairie Houses as Origin of Wright’s Ordering Principles” at Dalhousie University Halifax (April 2014), the University of Oregon (April 2014) and for the FLW Gordon House Conservancy in Portland, Oregon (April 2014). McCarter lectured on “Taking the Book to the Light: Louis Kahn’s Evolution of the Library in Three Designs” in the SOM New York Professional Development lecture series (February 2014). McCarter was appointed as a member of the Executive Committee of the Washington University interdisciplinary journal, The Common Reader, and as a Founding Member of the International Advisory Council for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize.

Washington University in St. Louis

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Assistant professor Catalina Freixas will present “Eco-urbanism: Sustainable Strategies for Vacant Land in St. Louis” at 1p May 29 as part of EDRA45NewOrleans. Co-authored by senior lecturer Pablo Moyano, the paper introduces WUSTL’s Sustainable Land Lab initiative, which showcases strategies that can transform vacant land into assets that advance sustainability. Specifically, the paper looks at the five projects that have been implemented, as well as HUB: Hybrid Urban Bioscapes, a finalist proposal focused on a synergistic approach to eco-urbanism.

Assistant professor Chandler Ahrens (SlrSrf Residence) was featured in the 2014 AIA Center For Emerging Professionals Annual Exhibition, which promoted the compelling work of the rising generation of architects and designers.

Assistant professor Catalina Freixas was among the presenters at The Mediated City conference in London, which examined the city as a virtual, filmic, social, political, and physical construct. Freixas shared the paper “Shrinking Cities: A Sustainability Assessment of Eco-Urbanism Strategies,” which she authored with senior lecturer Pablo Moyano. 

The keynote speakers for this year’s St. Louis Earth Day Symposium included John Hoal, associate professor and chair of the Master of Urban Design program, and Derek Hoeferlin, assistant professor. In addition, as part of the Biodiversity session April 1, senior lecturer Pablo Moyano presented on Eco-Urbanism in a Shrinking City: A Quantitative Sustainability Assessment, a paper he co-authored with assistant professor Catalina Freixas, and adjunct lecturer Mikey Naucas, BS03, MArch/MLA12, co-presented on A Tree Master Plan for Washington University in St. Louis: Maintain, Enhance, Transform.

Professor Stephen Leet’s work was featured in an installation titled dec*o*ra*tive dip*tychs, trip*tychs, and an arm*co  : sophisticated wall art for the swank modern home at Centro Modern Furnishings in St. Louis. “Drawing on the artist’s experience as a former auto body painter and his contact with Arte Povera, conceptual, process and minimal art while at NSCAD in the 1970s, [professor Stephen] Leet’s most recent works are formally rigorous and knowing mash-ups of diverse influences from both high and low culture. Formats are drawn from diptych/triptych medieval altarpieces, renaissance proportion systems, Bach, 12 bar blues, and the repetitive patterns of window openings on walls. The various arrangements of alternating vertical color bars and intervals between panels recall post-war abstract parallel stripe painting, nautical signal flags, the universal barcode, gestalt figure/ground reversals, military campaign ribbons, and regiment neckties.” –Edoardo Persico, Avalanche.

Assistant professor Kees Lokman has been shortlisted for the 2014 Prix de Rome Architecture, the oldest and largest Dutch prize for architects and visual artists under the age of 40. In putting together this shortlist, the international jury considered the quality of the work and its potential to grow and make an important contribution to architecture in the Netherlands. Each of the nine nominees receives a budget and is given three months in which to devise and work out an assignment given by the jury. 

Eleven artists/artist groups–including assistant professor Chandler Ahrens and Aaron Sprecher–transformed Indianapolis Art Center’s ArtsPark into an outdoor gallery through the creation of temporary installation art for Installation Nation. Designed by Ahrens and Sprecher, “White out” explored the idea of difference and singularity through the process of embedding disparate geometries and objects under a homogenous white skin. The perception of difference is transformed when multiple unique geometries push and deform the surface while the white elastic skin attempts to pull the parts back into a cohesive singular object. The result starts to white out or reduce clarity of difference, similarly to overexposure in photography.

A commemorative piece by assistant professor Patty Heyda is included in a book that has been published on the life and work of her former mentor in the Czech Republic, architect Jiri Stritecky of Atelier 8000, who died in 2012. The book was launched together with a retrospective exhibition of his work that opened April 30 at Jaroslav Fragner Gallery in Prague.

Associate professor Zeuler R. Lima delivered a series of lectures about his book Lina Bo Bardi, the first comprehensive monograph about the work and life of the Italian-born Brazilian architect. Venues included Museo Marino Marini (Florence, Italy), Istituto Universitario di Venezia (Venice, Italy), Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (Rome, Italy), and The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands).

John Hoal, associate professor and chair of urban design, and Derek Hoeferlin, assistant professor, are co-principal investigators for “Climate Adaption Performance Model for Fluvial Zones along the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers in the Midwest,” which has received $26,600 in funding from Washington University in St. Louis’ International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES). The research project is an extension of work they initiated for MISI-ZIIBI: Living with the Great Rivers. Hoal and Hoeferlin are looking to develop a Climate Adaptation Performance Model (CAPM) to be the framework for future multidisciplinaryMISI-ZIIBI workshops that will continue collaborations with numerous partners.

Rod Barnett has been appointed chair of landscape architecture in the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design and Washington University in St. Louis, effective July 1, 2014. Barnett is a noted scholar, educator, researcher, and designer. He was recently chair of the graduate program in landscape architecture at Auburn University, and before that held similar positions at Unitec in Auckland, New Zealand. He teaches studio and courses in theory, history and drawing, and was selected as one of the top twenty design educators by DesignIntelligence in 2012. He received his PhD from the University of Auckland, where he researched the potential of nonlinear dynamical systems science to inform landscape architectural design and practice. As part of his studies he developed a self-organizing approach to urban development called Artweb, a multidisciplinary design and planning strategy that focuses on marginalized and underutilized urban terrains to create a network of arts and science projects throughout the city. Barnett has written extensively on themes developed from his work in nonlinear design, including re-examinations of historical landscapes such as the sacred groves of ancient Greece, and reinterpretations of art-historical tropes, such as the medieval garden of love. He also has studied landscape systems as emergent conditions in sites as far-flung as the coastlines of Fiji and Tonga, the Mississippi Delta, and the stone alignments of Carnac in Brittany, France. Although he has spent many years in practice, developing projects both large and small, public and private, he now maintains an experimental practice that culminates in competitions and exhibitions. Recently he published Emergence in Landscape Architecture (Routledge, 2013).

 

 

Texas A&M University

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Texas A&M environmental design students presented five design concepts for two state-of-the-art hospitals proposed as part of a giant medical complex to be located in an underserved region of Nigeria at an April 28 event attended by Nigerian investors and dignitaries at Legacy Hall in the Jon L. Hagler Center.

The architecture-for-health studio project, including designs for a an 800-bed adult specialty hospital and a 400-bed mother/child hospital, was undertaken during the spring 2014 semester in collaboration with HKS Inc., the Dallas-based international architecture firm that is working with Thompson & Grace Investments of Nigeria to develop a world-class 100-acre medical service and research complex to be known as the Thompson & Grace Medical City.

The five dual-hospital concepts unveiled at the April 28 gathering were designed by five, four-student teams in a studio directed by George J. Mann, the Ronald L. Skaggs, FAIA Endowed Professor of Health Facilities Design.

A master plan for the multi-use development, created in fall 2013 by three Texas A&M landscape architecture students directed by Chanam Lee, associate professor of landscape architecture and presented to investors last February, also includes a medical school and research institute, conference center, buildings for office and residential use, an elementary school and an artisan village.

In 2014,Texas A&M’s “The Big Event” went worldwide. Numerous public spaces in Europe received “facelifts” from College of Architecture students in three study abroad venues as a “thank you” to their host communities — mirroring the annual Big Event tradition in Bryan/College Station in which students perform volunteer community-beautifying tasks including cleaning, planting, painting and yardwork.

A total of 122 students in Barcelona, Spain; Bonn, Germany; and Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy muddied their boots, turned earth and wielded hammer, nails and other tools. “We are very proud of our College of Architecture students studying abroad this term who have transported the Aggie “Big Event” tradition around the world,” said Elton Abbott, assistant dean for international programs & initiatives. “It’s a great way to show the Aggie spirit to our global partners.”

Design for Pediatric and Neonatal Critical Care, a new book aiding clinicians tasked with planning new pediatric and neonatal intensive care environments, authored by Dr. Mardelle McCuskey Shepley, FAIA, director of Texas A&M’s Center for Health Systems and Design, is receiving favorable reviews.

“Planning for a new pediatric or neonatal ICU is daunting for most clinicians,” said Bob White, director of the Regional Newborn Program at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Ind. “Few have prior experience, and the skills needed are far different from those they use on a regular basis,” Shepley’s book, he said, “fills this void in remarkable fashion.”

A professor of architecture who joined the Texas A&M faculty in 1993, Shepley is a member of the American College of Healthcare Architects’ Council of Fellows. She published influential books in the healthcare field, such as Health Facility Evaluation for Designing Practitioners (2010) and Design for Critical Care: An Evidence-Based Approach (2009, co-authored with Professor Kirk Hamilton).

The Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University held the 3rd annual Celebration of Excellence on May 9, 2014 at the College Station Hilton. This event, a sequence of presentations and selections from the completing Master’s thesis projects, culminated as a whole-day jury with five student finalists presenting their thesis projects to the entire school. Awards were presented to top students and faculty of the year during the event.

The jury of 2014 consisted of:

  • Velpeau Hawes, Jr. ‘58, head of Hawes Consulting, a member of the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows;
  • Smilja Milovanovic-Bertram, associate professor of architecture, University of Texas;
    • Jeff Potter ‘78, former president, American Institute of Architects, member of the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows, and
    • Bijan Youssefzadeh, director of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington.

“These awards recognize not only our most promising students and their individual accomplishments, but also represent the level of excellence of all our students,” said Ward Wells, head of the Department of Architecture. “The recognition of students and faculty is truly a cause for a celebration of excellence.”

The event is a project of the department’s Council of Excellence, an elite group of department friends and former students committed to supporting and enhancing architecture program excellence, building relationships with students and bridging gaps between the academic and professional worlds.

University of Texas at Austin

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On April 10, 2014, the Trustees of the American Academy in Rome announced the winners of the 118th annual Rome Prize Competition at a prize ceremony in New York City. Associate Professor Vincent Snyder received the James R. Lamantia, Jr. Rome Prize, awarded in the architecture discipline.

Wilfried Wang, O’Neil Ford Centennial Professor in Architecture, co-organized two discussion sessions at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, on the future of the Kulturforum Berlin.

Stephen Sharpe’s thoughtful article, “Headspace: Psychology and Architecture,” in aia.org’s Practicing Architecture column looks at how design affects the psychological outlook of people experiencing their built environment. The article focuses on the ongoing collaboration between Associate Dean Elizabeth Danze, FAIA, and Professor Stephen Sonnenberg, M.D., who organized the Space+Mind Symposium and co-edited the book Space & Psyche, published in 2013 by the Center for American Architecture and Design.

Associate Professor Allan W. Shearer presented the paper, “Mid-Century Modernism and the Invention of ‘Microclimate'” at the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland.

Assistant Professor Benjamin Ibarra Sevilla opened his exhibition, “Mixtec Stonecutting Artistry,” at the Centro Cultural Clavijero in the World Heritage City of Morelia, Mexico. The exhibition is displayed in one of the magnificent rooms of the eighteenth-century Palacio Clavijero, located in the core of the historic center of Morelia.

Assistant Professor Gabriel Díaz Montemayor presented a talk at the “Urban Space and Climate Change” Colloquium organized by the School of Architecture of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Mexico, in Culiacán. Additionally, Díaz Montemayor presented talks on professional and academic works to the Municipal Planning Institute of Culiacán, the Planning Council of Culiacán (composed of representatives of various government levels, universities, developers, and commerce-industry associations), and the staff of Culiacán’s Botanical Garden.

Assistant Professor Clay Odom made two presentations at the 2014 Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Annual Conference, held in New Orleans. He was awarded the 2014 IDEC Creative Scholarship Award, Best In Category Design as Interior for his presentation of work titled “Temporary Atmospheres: Installations for the Experience of Sound and Light.”

 

 

University of Kansas

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The University of Kansas School of Architecture, Design & Planning hosted a 3-day symposium on “Water”, that included: an all-School design charrette, a round table discussion on the future of water and climate change moderated by Hadley and Peter Arnold, Ward Lyles, assistant professor of urban planning, and Steve Padget, associate professor of architecture, and a keynote presentation by Peter and Hadley Arnold of the Arid Land Institute. Sixty students participated in the charrette, in which collaborative teams composed of students from the departments of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning developed highly water-efficient, prototypical designs to respond to future conditions that could include both drought and flooding. The KU campus was chosen as the site for these projects. All the events were open to, and well attended by, members of the School, University, and the community.

A gateway designed and built last spring by Dirt Works Studio – a design-build studio, led by assistant professor Chad Kraus – has earned two awards. The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture gave it its Design-Build Award: https://www.acsa-arch.org/docs/default-source/13-14-award-winners/-prairie-earth.pdf?sfvrsn=0. And, the Architect’s Newspaper just gave the structure an honorable mention in the student-built work category of its Best Of Design Awards: http://www.archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=7072. Sixteen third-year students completed the gateway in May. The structure is located at the Field Station’s research and operations center and Armitage Education Center. It fulfills a key wayfinding function for visitors attending special events and for visiting researchers. This is the second structure at the Field Station built by Dirt Works Studio. The first, the Stanley D. and Janet B. Roth Trailhead, built in 2012, won two awards from the American Institute of Architects. The gateway is the fourth project commissioned by the Kansas Biological Survey at the Field Station through the KU School of Architecture, Design & Planning.

Professor Dan Rockhill has been named a 2013-2014 ACSA distinguished professor for his outstanding contribution to advancement of architectural education through teaching and design scholarship. Professor Rockhill established “Studio 804” in 1995, a not-for-profit committed to the continued research and development of sustainable, affordable, and inventive building solutions. In collaboration with the University of Kansas School of Architecture, Design and Planning, Studio 804 offers a yearlong design-build studio for the final year students of the Masters of Architecture program. Over the past 20 years Studio 804 has received multiple national awards, pioneered new technologies, and advanced construction techniques, including four LEED Platinum projects completed to date. 

A drawing by Anne Patterson, assistant professor of architecture, has been given an award of excellence by the American Society of Architectural Illustrators. It will be shown in the ASAI’s 29th annual Architecture in Perspective exhibition, Oct. 14-19 in Dallas. It will also be published in the society’s annual. The drawing was named after Patterson’s home, “1142 Rhode Island Home.” She drew it in a notebook in about 50 minutes using a ballpoint pen. It is one of approximately sixty pieces, chosen from hundreds of entries from around the world, which will be displayed at the show.

The Resilient Lifestyles Lab, a collaboration of the School of Architecture and the Gerontology Center at the University of Kansas led by Associate Dean Keith Diaz Moore, has recently received two grants. One, from the Alzheimer’s Disease Center, is to retrospectively examine the correlates between objective characteristics of neighborhood and selected health outcomes in older adults that are pre-clinical dementia.  The other is a grant from the Reeve Foundation to develop an informational tool to enhance visitability in residential environments.  The Lab is also spearheading an international collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, the Centre on Ageing and Supportive Environments at the University of Lund and the Institute on Gerontology at Simon Fraser University to examine residential accessibility and its disparate impact on health outcomes in minority populations.

This fall a team that includes associate professors of architecture Shannon Criss and Nils Gore received a $29,000 Tier II Research Grant from the Office of the Provost to build what they call a Mobile Collaboratory for Civic Engagement, or MoCoLab. KU’s Research Investment Council made the award. A used Airstream trailer purchased in September is the starting point for the project. During the spring semester Department of Architecture students will transform it into a community-room on wheels to “take scholars to the people.” The MoCoLab will be a resource that researchers and faculty can check out for specific projects, and driven to and set up in Kansas communities for any number of purposes: needs assessments, the seeking of opportunities, or to devise and initiate projects that hopefully will prove to be transformative. In addition to Criss and Gore, research participants include Andrea Witczak, director, Center for Civic and Social Responsibility; Vicki Collie-Akers, assistant research professor, Life Span Institute; Marilu Goodyear, director, School of Public Affairs and Administration, and Yo Jackson, associate professor, Applied Behavioral Science.

Check out their website at: http://bit.ly/18lM59u

University of Texas at Austin

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The T3 Parking Structure by Danze Blood Architects (Associate Professor Elizabeth Danze, FAIA, and Senior Lecturer John Blood, AIA) is one of five finalists in the parking garage category of the Architizer A+ Awards, a global awards program with over 1,500 project entries from more than 100 countries.

Dean Fritz Steiner has been appointed to the Urban Committee of the National Park System Advisory Board.

Assistant Professor Robert F. Young‘s article “Planting the Living City,” published by the Journal of the American Planning Association in 2011, is on the current top ten list of the journal’s “most read” articles. 

Assistant Professor Junfeng Jiao has co-authored an article, titled “Access to Supermarkets and Fruit and Vegetable Consumption,” in the American Journal of Public Health. 

Assistant Professor Igor Siddiqui spoke to Artforum about his latest innovation, the use of bioplastics in creating his architectural work, which is the focal point of his “Protoplastic” exhibition, recently displayed at TOPS Gallery in Memphis.

 

University of Texas At San Antonio

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A number of faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio Department of Architecture have recently published books, curated exhibitions, engaged in leadership roles in professional organizations, led innovative graduate design studios, and received design awards for built work.

Dr. Antonio Petrov, Assistant Professor has published, New Geographies 5: The Mediterranean, (Harvard University Press, 2013) that recasts the region as a contemporary phenomenon; making spatial its formation as a larger geographic entity and challenging the conventional boundaries between cities and hinterlands. Dr. Angela Lombardi, Assistant Professor has coedited Lima, The Historic Center: Analysis and Restoration/ Centro Histórico. Conocimiento y restauración / Centro storico. Conoscenza e restauro, (Peru: Patrizia / Rome: Gangemi editore, 2012), that identifies and evaluates the endangered architectural heritage of Lima, Peru and was published in English, Spanish, and Italian. Edward Burian, Associate Professor has had his forthcoming book, The Architecture and Cities of Northern Mexico from Independence to Present, (University of Texas Press, 2015) that explores the undervalued architectural culture of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, Sinaloa, and Baja California, accepted for publication and is currently in production.

Ian Caine, Assistant Professor had his research on urban morphology and sprawl, Traveling on Fredericksburg Road: 120 Years in 12 Miles, exhibited at the Institute for Texas Culture from September 19th-December 15th 2013 and was also discussed the exhibition on public radio. From the Dept. of Urban Planning, Dr. Maggie Valentine, Professor has published, John H. Kampmann, Master Builder: San Antonio’s German Influence in the 19th Century,” (Beaufort Books, 2014) that explores Kampmann’s architectural legacy that transformed 19th C. San Antonio, TX . A recent symposium and exhibit Walter Eugene George and the Cultural Legacy of the Rio Grande examined the work of retired UTSA faculty member Eugene George who recently passed away, that was held at the Institute for Texas Culture on Feb. 1st-28th 2014. George held the first San Antonio Conservation Society Endowed Professorship and during his career he generated some 500 drawings and 16,000 collected photographs focusing on the “Rio Grande Corridor” between Eagle Pass, TX and Brownsville, TX.  William Dupont, FAIA, Professor and and Dr. Angela Lombardi, Assistant Professor recently participated in a program in Iraq to train historic conservationists sponsored by World Monuments Fund, the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Embassy.

Kevin McClellan, Adjunct Professor, was featured in Texas Architect, (March/April 2014)  for his innovative work with TEX-FAB, http://www.tex-fab.net/, a nonprofit organization that connects professionals, students, and the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry to advance the discipline of architecture in its adoption of digital fabrication.

Noted Mexico City architect Javier Sánchez http://jsa.com.mx/ was the initial Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Critic for 2013. His graduate studio examined Col. Atlampa, the last remaining parcel of underutilized urban land in the central core of Mexico City, and the studio produced an urban design proposal and mixed use projects. Andrew Kudless of MATSYS in Oakland, CA http://matsysdesign.com/ will be the Dean’s Distinguished 2014 Visiting Critic, teaching a graduate studio focusing on digital fabrication.

Finally, Candid Rogers, AIA, Adjunct Professor, and Diane Hays, FAIA, Senior Lecturer and Interior Design Coordinator, won 2012 San Antonio AIA Design Awards. Rogers received a merit award for his “Dos Diez” residential extension to an 1872 stone cottage in San Antonio, TX; while Hays received an Honor Award for her two UTSA Dept. of Architecture design-build studio projects at Bexar County’s Raymond Russell Park in San Antonio, TX. For further information on these news items and other recent news see the UTSA Dept. of Architecture website at http://architecture.utsa.edu/academic-programs/department-of-architecture/.

University of Minnesota

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2013 marks the Centennial Celebration for the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota. Since 1913, the University of Minnesota School of Architecture has been building a vibrant legacy.  Over its first century, the collective impact and achievements from this program in the College of Design have been both significant and extensive. The School of Architecture Centennial Celebration was a two-day tribute to how this remarkable school—as a nexus for students, educators and practitioners—has been shaping spaces and the future of architecture through its educational vision. On October 25-26, classmates and colleagues celebrated 100 years of education and shared ideas and dreams for the next century of achievement. Events began Friday evening with a Centennial Reunion Party at Ralph Rapson Hall and culminated Saturday evening with a Centennial Gala at the Historic Train Depot in downtown Minneapolis.
Blaine Brownell, Associate Professor of Architecture: Blaine Brownell’s fifth book, Material Strategies: Innovative Applications in Architecture was published by Princeton Architectural Press last year. He continues to teach studios and seminars with a focus on emergent materials and applications at the University of Minnesota, where he was promoted to associate professor with tenure last spring. Blaine’s recent pedagogical collaborations include an international workshop with Kaori Ito at the Tokyo University of Science, a biomimicry studio with Marc Swackhamer at Tianjin University, the Transmaterial Research Symposium with Tim Schork and John Sadar at Monash University in Melbourne, and a responsive architecture studio with Billie Faircloth and Ryan Welch (KieranTimberlake) at the University of Minnesota. His work was recently featured in the Architalx Voices of Design exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art and the Hello Materials exhibit at the Danish Design Center. Blaine co-directs UMN’s M.S. program in Sustainable Design, serves on the editorial board of the National Institute of Building Sciences’ journal JNIBS, and recently completed a three-year term on the editorial board of the Journal of Architectural Education. He also writes a monthly print column and biweekly online article for Architect magazine entitled “Mind & Matter.”
John Comazzi, Associate Professor of Architecture: In July 2013, Professor Comazzi lectured and participated in a panel discussion (with Will Miller) on the Miller House and Gardens in Columbus, Indiana. The program was part of the Member’s Weekend for members of the Association of Architecture Organizations, and Professor Comazzi’s lecture focused on the collaborative practices of design that produced the Miller House and Gardens based on archival research he has been conducting at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Eero Saarinen Archive at Yale University. This Fall, Professor Comazzi and colleague Marc Swackhamer (Associate Professor, University of Minnesota) completed a design-build project for the redesign of the front offices in the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota. The two faculty worked with three graduate students and utilized the digital fabrication lab at the University to complete the project. Also, in May and June of 2013, Professor Comazzi led a group of 10 undergraduate students (8 architecture, 1 landscape architecture, and 1 interiors), on a program abroad in Florence, Italy. The program explored the development of the city’s urban morphology, building typologies, and landscapes, in a hands-on active learning experience.
Thomas Fisher, Dean and Professor: Dean Fisher gave a talk “Cities and the Survival of the Species” at the Future Cities, Livable Futures conference in Cincinnati; has written a chapter “The Performance of Buildings, Architects, and Critics” for a forthcoming book Architecture Beyond Criticism; and has written a chapter “Variability in Fracture-Critical Systems” for a forthcoming book Sources of Variability in Human Performance.

R.T. Rybak, Distinguished Visiting Professor:  Outgoing Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak will become a distinguished visiting practitioner, with a joint appointment at both the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and the College of Design. Rybak will teach one course this spring, titled “Mayor 101”, in which he will explore the political, administrative, design and bureaucratic challenges of running one of the largest and most dynamic cities in the United States. The course will be open to both undergraduate and graduate students. Under the auspices of the Humphrey School and the College of Design, Rybak will also plan and host a conference for faculty, students, and civic and policy leaders, focusing on the key challenges facing urban areas in the United States. He will teach two additional courses, one in fall 2014 and one in spring 2015.

Marc Swackhamer, Associate Professor of Architecture: Professor Marc Swackhamer and his HouMinn Practice partner, Blair Satterfield from the University of British Columbia presented their research on variable vacuum forming in October at the annual ACADIA Conference (Association of Computer Aided Design In Architecture). Their paper, titled “Breaking the Mold: Variable Vacuum Forming,” focused on a renovation project in Minnesota’s School of Architecture main office. The space was re-skinned with a new programmatically-tuned, adaptive surface as part of the School’s Centennial celebration in late October. Professor John Comazzi from Minneosta’s Architecture program was also a designer and adviser on the project, along with a group of Masters of Architecture students. 

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