Neil Leach has published Digital Workshop in China (Tongji UP, 2013), curated an exhibition on interactive architecture and organised a conference, ‘Interactive Shanghai’, with Philip Beesley as keynote speaker. He also organised a conference, ‘3-D Printing in Concrete’, with Behrokh Khoshnevis and Enrico Dini as keynote speakers.

Assistant Professor Alvin Huang‘s “Pure Tension Pavilion”, a portable solar-powered tensioned membrane charging station, has won the Volvo “Switch to Pure Volvo” Design Competition. The project opens in September 2013. Additionally, his “[C]Space Pavilion”, constructed in 2008, has won a 2013 AIA|CC Design Award for Small Projects.   

Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA and his firm Brooks + Scarpa received six 2013 design awards from the AIA California Council. Their recently completed American Tropical Museum on historic Olvera Street received the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Presidential Award as well as several other local and national historic preservation awards.  Mr. Scarpa has also been named the 2014 Barber McMurry Visiting Professor at the University of Tennessee.

Travis Longcore, Associate Professor (Research) of Spatial Sciences and instructor in the Landscape Architecture program, will be speaking at the Illuminating Engineering Society’s national Street and Area Lighting Conference in Phoenix in September. His invited presentation is “Beyond Turtles and Towers: Outdoor Lighting, Wildlife, and the Environment.” 

Peter Simmonds presented two papers at the Sustainable Energy Technologies conference held at Hong Kong Polytechnic University on August 27^th and 28^th titled “Designing an intelligent building skin to improve occupant comfort “  and “Designing an energy efficient and comfortable building.” Peter also presented a paper at the ASHRAE annual meeting in Denver titled “Designing radiant floors back to basics.”  Together with Pavel Getov, Peter will be giving a workshop on high performance façade design at the forthcoming AIA Design Conference in Monterrey in September.

Professor Victor Regnier has just completed a 60-page monograph entitled USC Apartments for Life: Emeriti Center + Civic Engagement Center that chronicles the work of his Spring 605a students in designing a mixed-use, 60-unit elderly housing project for a 2.5 acre site on the USC campus–free pdf available on request (regnier@usc.edu). 

Assistant Professor Anders Carlson will present structural behavior tools for architectural education that he co-developed with Master of Building Science students he advised at national and international conferences this academic year. He will present “Informing Design through Parametric Integrated Structural Simulation: Iterative Structural Feedback for Design Decision Support of Complex Trusses,” by Michael Makris, David Gerber, Anders Carlson and Doug Noble at the Association for Education and research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe) 2013 conference on computation and performance and “A Low Cost Shake Table and Models for Seismic Education” accepted for the 10^th US National Conference on Earthquake Engineering. 

Victor Jones, assistant professor of architecture has been published in Shaping the City: Studies in History, Theory and Urban Design,  edited by Rodolphe El-Khoury and Edward Robbins.  His essay entitled, ‘New Orleans – Ecological Urbanism,’ contemplates new forms of infrastructure for building sustainable communities.

Tom Kundig, visiting professor and 2013-2014 Jon Jerde Chair, is a principal/owner of Olson Kundig Architects. Kundig is the subject of two monographs, Tom Kundig Houses and Tom Kundig Houses 2, both published by Princeton Architectural Press. In 2011, Wallpaper* listed Kundig as one of 150 people who have most influenced, inspired and improved the way we live, work and travel over the last 15 years. He has been recognized with the National Design Award in Architecture from the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, an Academy Award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters, and 50 AIA awards including 14 National AIA Awards.

Lecturer Rick Gooding is a principal of the award winning firm Chu+Gooding Architects, focusing on projects for arts-related and higher education clients, including MoCA, Hammer Museum, J.Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Southern California Public Radio, Autry National Center and La Plaza de Culturas y Artes. Rick received a M.S.Bldg Design from Columbia University in 1985 and B.Arch from SCI_Arc in 1984 along with the AIA Student Gold Medal. He trained for 14 years as Project Architect or Associate with Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in New York City, Morphosis, Franklin D. Israel, Richard Meier Partners & Johnson Fain Partners in Los Angeles before forming Chu+Gooding Architects with wife Annie Chu in 1998. Rick had a solo exhibit in 2012 at Woodbury University’s Wedge Gallery for his Subterranea series of pencil and graphite drawings and will have a second solo show at Kansas State University’s Chang Gallery in March.

Assistant Professor Karen Kensek hosted the sixth annual BIM symposium, BIM Futures, at USC in July.  Two days of talks featured other professors from around the country and innovative professionals speaking on building information modeling.

Sophia Gruzdys (Lecturer) appeared recently on HGTV: Living Abroad a program about Barcelona. The program featured an interview and a walk-through of her recently constructed house in Begur, Spain.  Additionally, she has written two articles, “Moscow Nights:  Moscow’s International Business Center” and “A New Performance: Amsterdam’s Master Plan for the Eastern Docklands”, published in Outstanding Magazine, which targets different regions in Europe.

Assistant Professor Rachel Berney has just completed an edited volume of forty peer-reviewed papers from the 2011 Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Conference in Los Angeles, CA, titled “Urban Nature”. Her introductory essay, “Challenging City Design Through Urban Nature,” examines ways in which urban nature can inform city design through moves such as “wedging”, “piggybacking”, and “educating” to help us better connect urban nature with city living. Key terms and actions for ecologically focused city design emerge from marrying this desire for legible and beautiful everyday landscapes to the realities of urban development and redevelopment. As well, select work from her Fall 2012 design studio, ARCH 642 “The Mobile City Studio: People, Transport, and Public Life”, co-taught by Oliver Schulze of Schulze+Grassov, Copenhagen, Denmark, is currently on display at Los Angeles City Hall as part of the Landscape Architecture Design Research exhibition presented by the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture and the Master of Landscape Architecture Program.

Alexander Robinson, recently promoted to assistant professor in the USC Landscape Architecture Program, exhibited his research on the Los Angeles River in the Los Angeles City Hall. The work is focused on honing the methodologies of integrating landscape architecture design with hydraulic performance. The research, conducted with a group of graduate landscape architecture students, utilized a large physical hydraulic model and advanced analysis techniques to carefully integrate multiple performance into the design process. The reception, hosted my LA city councilman O’ Farrell was attended by members of the LA City Council, Bureau of Engineering, and other notable and influential members of the city government.

Associate Professor, Discipline Head of Architecture and Director of Graduate Architecture Programs Gail Peter Borden was appointed to the Board of Directors of both the LA Forum and the AIA LA. His fourth book Process: Material and Representation in Architecture is at press with Routledge and will be on shelves in January 2014.

Lecturer Scott Uriu‘s firm Baumgartner+Uriu (B+U), will be shown at the 9th ArchiLab Exhibition at the FRAC Center in Orleans France in the exhibit “Naturalizing Architecture”.   The project exhibited is the housing tower “Animated Apertures” and includes a large scale physical model, drawings, and an animation.   The exhibit opens September 4th and is on show until 2nd of February 2014.    “Animated Architecture” has also been featured in the magazine Green Buildings in the article “House with Cilia” in July of 2013.  In Los Angeles, Uriu’s work can be seen in the current exhibit at the Architecture + Design museum Never Built exhibit in Los Angeles, for the Firestone Office Building; the exhibit includes a physical model, drawings, and an animation of the project.    Other recent publications include B1-  “Cruise ship terminal- the transportation hub design” 4 page article in B1 magazine featuring B+U’s competition entry for the Cruise ship terminal in Keelung, Taiwan, A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture in Southern California Exhibition Catalogue, B+U is featured in this exhibition catalog titled- A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture in Southern California. B1 magazine- Issue 67, “Breaking the Rules- B+U condo tower,” Breaking the Rules- is an 4 page article featuring B+U’s award winning Condo Tower for Lima, Peru., De Architect, “Housing Tower,”  B+U’s award winning design for a housing tower in Lima Peru is featured in this Article by the Dutch Magazine DeArchitect and an article by Marieke de Vries., Concept magazine, “B+U – Condo Tower,” Peru B+U’s award winning housing tower in Peru is featured in this 8 page article., and the book DesignPeakPack Residence space, B+U’s Frank and Kim residence Design is featured in this 3 volume Book set by Equalbooks.

Alison Hirsch joined the USC faculty as Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture. Her book, City Choreographer: Lawrence Halprin and Public Performance in Urban Renewal America (University of Minnesota, March 2014) received a Graham Foundation grant. Princeton Architectural Press will be publishing her co-edited book, The Landscape Imagination (Spring 2014). 

Trudi Sandmeier recently helped to establish the new Docomomo-US/Southern California Chapter, an organization dedicated to the documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement.

Aroussiak Gabrielian joined the Landscape Architecture faculty at USC. This summer, she traveled to Germany to presented her research, “Mediated Visions,” at the Thinking the Contemporary Landscape conference, organized by ETH Zurich.  A recent project by her research practice, foreground design agency, was featured in a special issue of the Journal of Architectural Education, “Architecture and Utopia.”

David Lawrence Gray architects have been honored with a Trends top 50 American homes award for their beach house design in Malibu California.  The house is situated on a 30’ x 150 ‘lot on the ocean.  It consists of two floors of poured in place concrete with caissons drilled into bedrock.

Lecturer Vinayak Bharne was recently an panelist at the Los Angeles Region Planning History Group colloquium “The Use and Abuse of the Urban Block.” His article “Designing the Urban Block: Best Practices in Los Angeles” was also translated and re-published in the latest issue of the China Architectural Heritage journal. 

Mark Gangi, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB is speaking at the AIACC Academy of Emerging Professionals annual conference titled ‘the state of (re)imagining our future’ on September 22. http://aiacc.org/2012/08/15/top-ten-reasons-to-attend-progression-conference/ . Mark serves on the AIA National Center for Civic Leadership Committee.

Ken Breisch was elected First Vice President of the Society of Architectural Historians in April.  His article “Hollywood” was published in American Tourism: Constructing a National Tradition (Columbia College Chicago Press), and in June he delivered the paper, “Adobe or Concrete?” at the annual conference of the Vernacular Architecture Forum.

Jennifer Siegal will serve as a juror for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 in Madrid, Spain. Additionally, she served as a juror for the 2012 AIA Pasadena & Foothill design awards.

David Lawrence Gray Architects  have purchased a 100 year old building near the corner of 4th and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. They are in the process of restoring and adding a 6th floor to be occupied by architects, engineers and post production facilities.

Post-graduate architecture faculty Christophe Cornubert was invited to participate in the opening event of the 13th International Architecture Biennale in Venice,  joining Winy Maas (MVRDV), Clement Blanchet (OMA), Bjarke Ingels (BIG), and Ole Scheeren in discussion about the future of cities and new models of architecture practice.

Professor John Mutlow recently won two awards for his projects.  He received the Los Angeles Business Council “42nd Annual Los Angeles Architectural Awards” for STOVALL VILLA, a four story, 32 unit affordable senior housing project with senior amenities and a subterranean garage, just south of Exposition Park and USC. The project is designed around a central social courtyard. Financed by HUD (the federal government) and LAHD (the City of Los Angeles). Construction completed 2011.  Multow also received the West Side Urban Forum “Westside Prize 2012: for THE COURTYARD AT LA BREA, a four story, 32 unit mixed use and mixed occupancy affordable housing project in West Hollywood, for emancipated youths, AIDS and senior residents. The project is designed to edge the sidewalk and contextually connect to the exuberance of several Art Deco buildings along La Brea, with a major architectural celebration at the entrance. 

Eric Nulman presented a paper at the ACSA International Conference in Barcelona, Spain titled “An Alternative Model For Undergraduate Thesis Instruction: Using Collaborative Full-Scale Design Exercises To Supplement Individual Research Projects”

Douglas Noble and Karen Kensek have hosted more than a dozen architectural licensing study hall sessions in the past year.  These free study hall sessions have been attended by hundredson interns from the Los Angeles region.