The School of Architecture at the University of Southern California has the luxury of being a large school in a major city. There are several thousand architects living and working near our downtown location. USC thanks our dedicated full-ntime and part-time faculty. There were 128 faculty members teaching in our school for 2013-2014. The photo shows a small group at a faculty retreat in November, 2013.
UCLA A.UD ANNOUNCES 5 NEW POSITIONS AT IDEAS SATELLITE CAMPUS FOR EXPANDED SUPRASTUDIO / M.ARCH.II PROGRAM
Five years ago, the M.Arch. II, Post-Professional Degree Program at UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design (A.UD) was restructured into a research and development based SUPRASTUDIO format, reflecting a new model for Post-Professional architectural education. SUPRASTUDIO is a calendar yearlong integrated curriculum led by a senior member of the A.UD design faculty in collaboration with an industry partner. Thom Mayne, Neil Denari, and Greg Lynn have collaborated over the years with Disney Imagineering, Toyota Motor Sales, Inc., and the National Endowment for the Arts. In August 2012, University of California President Mark Yudof and the University of California Board of Regents announced the conversion of the M.Arch. II program to a self-supporting status. This conversion allows for the ambitious expansion of the program to conduct three separate SUPRASTUDIOs per year at a new offsite facility with an unprecedented Advanced Technologies Laboratory to explore how the next generation will integrate technology into the built environment.
SUPRASTUDIO is located at IDEAS, an off-site location south of UCLA that is a new platform in architectural education to advance cross-discipline research and development with industry and outside partners to expand the future parameters of architectural practice. It will also serve as home to multi-year research initiatives, an ongoing cross-discipline lecture series, and other public programs.
UCLA A.UD seeks to appoint five new faculty and staff for IDEAS and the expanded SUPRASTUDIO program. These positions should be filled before the start of the June 2013 SUPRASTUDIO, and include:
•SUPRASTUDIO Program Director
•IDEAS Technology Director
•Critical Studies Lecturer
•Powerpack Studio Lecturer
•IDEAS Lab Supervisor (Staff Position)
SUPRASTUDIO Program Director
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design seeks to make an appointment of a Program Director for the expanded SUPRASTUDIO program and to oversee the activities at IDEAS.
SUPRASTUDIO will have three studios led by three senior design faculty in partnership with three industry collaborators. The Program Director will report to the Chair of the Department and will be responsible for coordination with the three studios, oversight and coordination of non-studio courses in the curriculum, maintaining ongoing and developing new relationships with industry partners, and teaching.
The Program Director, with the studio assistants, will be responsible for teaching the summer session Pre-Studio for all incoming M.Arch. II students. The Program Director will also coordinate and teach two quarters of a lecture series with invited industry guests in a seminar setting for students and faculty. Additionally, special projects within IDEAS and research and development projects that exceed the rhythm of the SUPRASTUDIO courses to become long-term research initiatives will fall under the purview of the Program Director.
This position is an ideal opportunity for a mid-career professional that’s interested both in teaching and the administrative roles related to program building at the ground level of a dynamic new initiative that will redefine Post-Professional research and teaching of architecture. The candidate must be able to work with senior faculty and world-class industry partners. This position will allow the candidate to integrate into an already established faculty, but with the autonomy of a new program. The ideal candidate will demonstrate vision and a commitment to expanding the role of architectural design and innovation into culture and industry.
The Program Director position provides full benefits. The successful candidate will need to be prepared to make a three-year commitment to the program.
IDEAS Technology Director
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design seeks to hire a Technology Director for IDEAS, a newly established off-campus facility that houses the department’s expanded M.Arch.II/SUPRASTUDIO program. The individual will be responsible for teaching, acquisitions, and research associated with technology initiatives central to the mission of UCLA A.UD, IDEAS and the three SUPRASTUDIOs.
The Technology Director will be responsible for the IDEAS facility as well as the research and development initiatives that take place within it. The Technology Director will be an active partner and liaison between the faculty, students, and industry partners. Teaching responsibilities will include two Technology Lecture courses during Summer session and two Technology Seminar courses taught to a combination of M. Arch. II and M. Arch I Graduate Students throughout the rest of the year. The Technology Director will report to the Chair of the Department.
This position has teaching and program oversight roles and is an ideal opportunity for a mid-career person with vision and expertise on the integration of technology into new environmental approaches and paradigms for research and education with senior faculty and industry partners at the highest level. Candidates must be able to initiate innovative research in either architecture or environments in the public sphere that engage robotics and sensing technology. Some experience with digital fabrication is expected but fabrication should not be the primary focus or expertise for applicants for this position.
An advanced architecture degree is mandatory for this position.
The IDEAS Technology Director position provides full benefits. The successful candidate will need to be prepared to make a three-year commitment to the program.
Critical Studies Lecturer
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design seeks to make an appointment in Critical Studies of a Lecturer eager to contribute to the intellectual and creative culture of the school by teaching a variety of courses in both graduate and undergraduate degree programs. The position offers the opportunity to participate in the launch of several new initiatives, including SUPRASTUDIO at IDEAS, an off-site post professional degree program focusing on architecture and industrial culture. The candidate should be able to teach courses on post-war theories of architecture, advanced formal analysis, architecture and visual culture, and the history of modern architecture. The appointment will also include collaborative academic responsibilities in the Curatorial Project, a recently established center that will be developing exhibitions and publications with an international scope and ambition.
The ideal candidate will have or be working towards a PhD, be able to demonstrate a commitment to advanced architectural ideas and innovative approaches to their dissemination, a strong record of teaching and the promise of producing a scholarly body of work appropriate for a continuing appointment at a top ranking university. The successful candidate will need to be prepared to make a three-year commitment to the program.
Powerpack Studio Lecturer
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design– in conjunction with Gehry Partners and Gehry Technologies – is seeking an exceptional candidate to lead a research studio during the 2013 academic year.
The POWERPACK studio will be lead by Frank Gehry and members of his architectural practice and technology company, in collaboration with UCLA faculty and industry partners. The studio’s mission will be to explore the potential for new, small scale, networked, and intelligent building technologies to radically rethink the modern building and city, at a multiplicity of scales from the micro device to the urban.
UCLA is seeking to fill a one-year lecturer appointment to coordinate this curriculum under the supervision of Gehry Partners and Gehry Technologies to conduct the overall studio and workshop instruction. The ideal candidate will have a wide range of experience in urban and building level design, strong experience as a studio instructor, and significant expertise in technology.
Minimum requirements include:
An advanced degree (MArch or equivalent) in architectural or urban design.
Substantial prior experience as a lead studio instructor or TA.
Strong background in parametric modeling, scripting, BIM or related digital modeling software
Additional experience desired includes the following:
Urban design and related topics such as transportation
Environmental design or building energy systems engineering
Robotics, or micro control systems design and prototyping
The position is a one-year Lecturer position for the period July 2013-June 2014.
IDEAS Lab Supervisor
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design seeks to hire a Lab Supervisor for IDEAS, a newly established off-campus facility that houses the department’s expanded SUPRASTUDIO program.
The individual will be responsible for the physical IDEAS facilities including classrooms, laboratories, studios, offices, exhibition spaces, and shop as well as training and assistance with the students and faculty. The Lab Supervisor must coordinate the technical and research relationships with industry partners as well as the robotic suppliers to the laboratory. The Lab Supervisor will also be responsible for daily operations of the lab and shop and its power equipment, tools, supplies, and student assistants.
There will be several unprecedented robotically controlled machines as well as a sensing laboratory that have never been in any architecture school before. The Lab Supervisor needs to initiate and maintain relationships with the manufacturers, users, and development teams for these machines as well as training the faculty and students in their use.
The Lab Supervisor will work with and report to the IDEAS Technology Director for the acquisition and use of the machines in the labs. As well, they will develop the policies and training for the students and faculty.
Familiarity and experience with industrial robotics, sensing technology and composite construction is a benefit. The operations, maintenance, and safety of the lab are the responsibility of the Lab Supervisor. Several years experience with similar industrial facilities or academic laboratories and shops with similar equipment is a requirement.
An associate degree or greater is mandatory for this position.
This is a staff position with full benefits. The successful candidate will need to be prepared to make a three-year commitment to the program.
HOW TO APPLY
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Candidates to the four academic positions below are requested to furnish a letter of intent with a curriculum vitae, one or two examples of work, with a description of each project (non-returnable), and the names, phone numbers, mail and e-mail addresses of three references able to provide a knowledgeable evaluation of the applicant’s qualifications.
Examples of work should be submitted both digitally at the following links, and as hard copy portfolios to the address below:
UCLA Architecture & Urban Design Attn: “POSITION NAME” Search Committee 1317 Perloff Hall Los Angeles, CA 90095
STAFF POSITION Candidates for the IDEAS Lab Supervisor may apply starting late December at: https://hr.mycareer.ucla.edu/
Application deadline for all positions is February 28, 2013. Review of applications will take place in early March with interviews scheduled later during that same month.
Proof of U.S. Citizenship or eligibility for U.S. Em loyment will be required prior to employment (Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986). The University of California, Los angeles is an Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer.
Patrick Tighe Architecture was awarded 2 Best of Year Awards by Interior Design Magazine. The work of Patrick Tighe Architecture was included in the top 10 list of the best residential projects by Azure Magazine. Patrick Tighe Architecture recently completed a hill side residence featured as cover story in Interior design magazine.
Nefeli Chatzimina recently completed a Flagship store for Orizon Insurance Company in Athens- which has been nominated to enter Phase 2 for the ‘Mies Van Der Rohe Awards 2015‘
The American Institute of Architects California Council (AIACC) has announced the Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, as the recipient of the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Service. This award is the most significant honor presented by the AIACC for service to the profession and is presented to an individual as recognition of outstanding contributions to the improvement of the built environment and contribution to the goals of the architectural profession.
Mr. Scarpa’s record of accomplishments stretching some 30 years runs the gamut, from award-winning design, to outstanding firm leadership, to creative and innovative service. His record of individual design awards is significant by itself, yet Mr. Scarpa has served on countless AIA National, AIACC and AIALA, boards, steering committees, editorial advisory boards, nominating committees, awards juries, etc., for nearly two decades. He has also served on an equal number of significant advisory boards for the Federal, State and Local Governments and several other important and prominent national organizations.
Design Leadership – Having received more than 100 significant design awards including the 2014 Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum Award in Architecture, the 2010 National AIA and AIACC Architecture Firm Award, Interior Design Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award, 14 National AIA Institute Design Awards, 5 AIA COTE Top Ten Green Building Awards and a host of other significant national and international honors including several AIA Presidential Citations, Scarpa has been a internationally recognized leader on design.
Community Impact –A professor in architecture for more than two decades Scarpa is currently on the faculty at USC. He has pioneered new ways of delivering sustainable buildings and affordable housing. His work in this area has received international recognition. He has co-founded Livable Places, The Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute and The A+D Museum, non-profit organizations that have positively impacted the built environment. He has served on several prominent community boards and advisory groups including the US General Services Administration, US Department of State, MacArthur Foundation, Enterprise Community Partners and The Mayor’s Institute on City Design.
Scarpa’s life’s work is exemplified by his commitment to the promotion of architecture and the profession through design excellence, as well as community and professional outreach and education.”
CU Denver offers undergraduate architecture degree in Colorado
DENVER (January 26, 2015) The University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning is pleased to announce the creation of the Bachelor of Science in Architecture program. The new degree is the only program in Colorado to offer architecture specific coursework to undergraduates.
CU Denver received approval from the Board of Regents to initiate a four year BS in Architecture degree program in October 2012. The new program has now completed four semesters and has grown from 32 students in the first semester to 213 in the Fall 2013 semester. The program has also attracted over 35 international students, including a cohort of 23 students from Brazil in an agreement with the Brazilian government, and numerous community colleges and out of state transfers.
As a pre-professional program, the BS in Architecture program prepares graduates to enter accredited professional Master of Architecture (MArch) programs at CU Denver and across the country. Students who complete the BS in Architecture degree and enroll in the MArch program at CU Denver have the advantage of completing the MArch degree in two years instead of the usual three and a half years to complete a Master’s program. _ The MArch degree is the NAAB accredited professional program.
“The CU Denver undergraduate and graduate Architecture programs offer citizens in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain region, and beyond, a clear path to the practice of architecture,” said Program Director Phillip Gallegos. “Students in our BSArch program benefit and learn from close contact with graduate students, practicing architects and other design, construction and real estate professionals working in the field.”
The University of Colorado Denver provides a quality academic experience through engagement with gifted faculty members, exposure to original research and real-world learning. Located in the heart of downtown, CU Denver offers its 14,000 students unparalleled internship, career and networking opportunities. Part of the fabric of the city, CU Denver has evolved into a leading urban public university boasting eight schools and colleges, and offering bachelor through doctoral degrees. CU Denver is a community where students learn with purpose and benefit from a range of opportunities that enhance their lives and careers.
For more information please contact:
Phillip Gallegos, Arch D
Associate Professor
Director, Bachelor of Science in Architecture Program
The Department of Architecture welcomes Robert Alexander to join the faculty as an Assistant Professor Design and Digital Instruction. Robert Alexander, principal of BobCat Studio received his bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona in 2001. In 2005 he received his Masters in Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. In addition to his professional experience on a wide variety of projects with the architecture firms Rafael Vinoly Architects, Behnisch Architekten, and Daly Genik. In 2008, Mr. Alexander won the Cavin Fellowship and received the Boston Society of Architect’s Rotch Scholarship in 2013, which started his current research on the urban effects of large-scale incomplete building projects in Europe.
Associate Professor and Chair, Sarah Lorenzen recently co-curated the widely acclaimed Competing Utopias exhibit at the Neutra VDL House
Professors Lauren Weiss Bricker and Luis Hoyos have contributed articles to the forthcoming catalog Barton Myers: Works of Architecture and Urbanism, which accompanies an exhibition of the same name on view at the Art, Architecture & Design Museum, UCSB from September 12-December 12, 2014. Professor Bricker has also written “Civic and Educational ‘Architecture As Environmental Expression,’” which will be included in the catalog accompanying the exhibition An Eloquent Modernist: E. Stewart Williams, Architect, the inaugural exhibition of the Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center, Edwards Harris Pavilion; the exhibition November 9, 2014-February 22, 2015.
Professor Hofu Wu, recently presented “Outside Forces – Academic Perspective” to showcase the status of the Cal Poly Pomona Healthcare Initiative from the students innovative researches and designs at the American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA) California Health facility Forum in Oakland, CA.
Associate Professor Pablo La Roche recently published an article in the journal Energy and Buildings entitled Comfort and Energy in Smart Green Roofs. He also presented papers at three recent conferences including the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference, and two papers the World Sustainable Building Conference SB14. He has presented eight recent lectures including, the American Solar Energy Society National Conference ASES 2014, the Society of Building Science Educators Annual Retreat, the Instituto de Ciencias de la Construcción Eduardo Torroja, Madrid, the Practica y Enseñanza de la Arquitectura en California International Workshop Sustainability in the Built Environment, Seville, Spain, and the Façade Tectonics Conference at the University of Southern California. He is the current President of SBSE, the Society of Building Science Educators.
Associate Professor Michael Fox recently presented a paper at the 2014 ACADIA, (Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture) conference on the Eco-29 project which is a fully interactive kinetic event Hall in Israel. He also wrote the preface to the conference proceedings and is the current president of the Organization. He recently authored a chapter in the book “Building Dynamics”, by Routledge Press, edited by Branko Kolarevic and Vera Parlac. He also contributed to the book, “Space Architecture: The New Frontier for Design Research” edited by Neil Leach,by AD. He authored a chapter in the journal PAJ 109 on Performance and Architecture, edited by Chris Perry and Catheryn Dwyre.
Associate Professor Juintow Lin recently led an attempt to revitalize the California State Parks system, where 12 Cal Poly Pomona graduate architecture students took on the challenge of redesigning a modern cabin and succeeded. The California Parks Forward Commission is making an effort to reach out to students for creative and innovative ideas, as younger generations are not visiting state parks. The students began their project in spring 2014. The timing was just right for the project because of available funding. The Resources Legacy Fund, a consortium of major foundations in California, funded the project. The 150-square-foot cabin is made from recycled and prefabricated elements. It includes a full-sized bed, a bunk bed, and a bench that can accommodate four people. High triangular windows, French doors, and a sloped roof allows for maximum light to enter the cabin. The first prototype was constructed in 4 days in a factory in Phoenix AZ, by CAVCO.
Lecturer Barry Milofsky was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to the Cultural Heritage Commission of the City of Los Angeles, the five-member commission that considers nominations of sites as City Historic-Cultural Monuments (designated City landmarks) and reviews proposed project work affecting more than 1000 existing Historic-Cultural Monuments. The Commission also serves as the city’s primary forum for the discussion of historic preservation policy. Recommendations of the Cultural Heritage Commission are forwarded to the City Council for their final action. The Cultural Heritage Ordinance also gives the Commission the authority to temporarily delay alteration or demolition of historically significant structures until a proper review can be completed.
Lecturer Katrin Terstegen is a Designer and Project Manager with Johnston Marklee & Associates in Los Angeles, where she recently completed “Various Small Fires”, an art gallery in Hollywood, as well as the “Vault House” in Oxnard.
Lecturer Jose Herrasti’s firm MUTUO is currently working on a 5 acre park in the Coachella Valley in collaboration with KDI, a nonprofit dedicated to the creation of low cost, high impact environments that improve the physical, economic, and social quality of life of under-served communities. MUTUO has also been working with a developer in El Paso, TX to transform an area of dilapidated buildings into a thriving community. They are also beginning construction of a three single family development in the Hollywood Hills and a residence in Cordoba, Mexico.
Alpha Rho Chi (APX) is a national co-ed fraternity for architecture and allied arts. The Andronicus Chapter of Alpha Rho at the University of Southern California has been a fixture of the school from the earliest days of the founding of the School of Architecture. The USC Chapter of Alpha Rho Chi has won many national awards, and the membership represents some of the best students at USC. Each year, the fraternity welcomes new incoming students and hosts educational sessions to help them navigate the program. The Alpha Rho Chi chapter house is a registered landmark in Los Angeles (see photo).
In December 2014, Professor Diane Ghirardo’s edited volume on Aldo Rossi’s Town Hall at Borgoricco was published and launched in the Council Room of the Town Hall. The book is published in both English and Italian, with the title “Aldo Rossi. Il Municipio e Centro Civico a Borgoricco.” Professor Ghirardo was also interviewed by the Italian State Television network, RAI, for a documentary on Lucrezia Borgia, her letters and land reclamation activities.
Prof. Kyle Konis, Ph.D, AIA was recently awarded a $150,000 Energy Efficiency Small Grant (EISG) from the California Energy Commission for an 18-month research and development project entitled: “The Occupant Mobile Gateway.” The California Energy Commission supports academic and industry research that serves the public interest for energy efficiency and environmental quality. The O.M.G. project received the highest-ranking in technical review among all proposals. More details will be posted on the CEC website and here: http://arch.usc.edu/faculty/kkonis
Amy Murphy, Associate Professor, presented her current research on the relationship between contemporary post-apocalytpic cinematic narratives and future urban life at the “New Visions. Cinema and Cinematic Practices in Times of Radical Urban Transformation“ workshop held at the Center for Metropolitan Studies in Berlin Germany, December 2014.
In October and November USC School of Architecture faculty Victor Regnier and Charles Lagreco visited sites in Portugal and Spain to study urban development and housing in the region as part of Professor Regniers year-long Fulbright leave in Portugal.
Hraztan Zeitlian, AIA, LEED BD+C, NCARB, received the Presidential Citation Award from the American Institute of Architects California Council in October 2014. “You have helped confirm the Architect’s Role and responsibility to society on a larger scale”, the Citation read in part. Hraztan Zeitlian directed the design of the Hacienda Heights Community Center at DLR. The Center had a very successful opening in November 2014 and was praised in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
Aroussiak Gabrielian was an invited participant in a cinematic world-building workshop to envision the Downtown Los Angeles Innovation Corridor organized by the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab.
Prof. G. Goetz Schierle is collecting data for his joint venture book: Tensile Structures
Graeme M. Morland, Assoc Professor, is currently preparing a major 50 year retrospective of Architectural drawings and sketches, undertaken from 1965, at the Glasgow School of art, until 2015 BC, (before computer). This exhibit will be at the USC school of Architecture Gallery, Feb 1-15.
Geoffrey von Oeyen’s gallery interview and slide lecture from the 2014 Architectural League Prize has been published on the League website: http://archleague.org/2014/10/geoffrey-von-oeyen-design/. During a residency fellowship to The MacDowell Colony in December 2014 and January 2015, von Oeyen will pursue writings and drawings following his USC School of Architecture event Performative Composites: Sailing Architecture.
Dr. Joon-Ho Choi, Assistant Professor of Building Science in Architecture attended the Defense Energy Summit, held in Austin, TX, and presented one of his research projects, entitled “Bio-Sensing Adaptive Thermal & Lighting System Controls in the Built Environment.” In addition, a research paper, as a
part of the research, titled “Investigation of the Potential Use of Human Eye Pupil Sizes to Estimate Visual Sensations in the Workplace Environment,” has been accepted and will be officially published in December 2014. Another research, “Climate-Responsive Evidence-Based Green Roof Design Decision Support for the U.S. Climate” has been selected to receive a research grant from the Roof Construction Institute Foundation, and the proposed research will be conducted with a financial support for one year in 2015.
The Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) voted today for Ehrlich Architects to receive the 2015 AIA Architecture Firm Award. The firm will be honored at the 2015 AIA National Convention in Atlanta. Ehrlich Architects is renowned for fluidly melding classic California Modernist style with multicultural and vernacular design elements by including marginalized design languages and traditions. The AIA Architecture Firm Award, given annually, is the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture firm and recognizes a practice that consistently has produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years. The work of Ehrlich Architects covers a wide variety of program types (residential, commercial, institutional, educational) and uses a much richer palette of materials and textures than the typical California Modernist-influenced firm. However, they are most distinguished by the subtle and complex way they blend Modernist and multicultural design elements. Before founding his Los Angeles-based firm in 1979, visiting professor Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, spent time working with the Peace Corps in Africa. There Ehrlich gained an appreciation for simple, natural materials and vernacular solutions to energy, sustainability, and building performance challenges. Back in Southern California, Ehrlich found opportunities to renovate properties designed by architects high up in the California Modernist canon (like Richard Neutra, FAIA), which helped him to develop a confident, loose-limbed, but still traditional Modernist aesthetic. But his experiences in Africa, with building traditions created years before Modernism demanded a total rupture with the past, pushed him to develop an architecture that was more inclusive, responsible, and responsive than pure Modernism.
The City of Los Angeles and the USGS have published a report, “Resilience by Design,” this week describing a broad range of actions the city should take to improve its seismic resilience. Assistant Professor Anders Carlson was on the Technical Task Force working directly with Dr. Lucy Jones on the year-long study.
Lorcan O’Herlihy, FAIA, will be a featured participant in an exhibition opening January 31st at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA, titled “Sketch to Structure.” The museum has acquired a selection of O’Herlihy’s sketches and models and, in conjunction with the show, Lorcan will be lecturing and hosting an event at Carnegie Mellon University in March 2015.
Nefeli Chatzimina will be organizing and teaching the international X|A Advanced Architectural Design Workshop, ‘X|Pixelism’ , from 15th – 23rd of December 2014 at the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece.
Adjunct Associate Professor Eric Haas presented DSH // architecture’s rehabilitation of R.M. Schindler’s Bubeshko Apartments at the Getty Center in December, as part of the Getty Conservation Institute’s Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative.
Olivier Touraine reports that the USC school of Architecture Spring program in Italy is invited by the prestigious MaXXi museum to pair with Roma 3 school of architecture in a research project “Roma 20-25”. 20 teams from the worlds’ most prestigious schools of architecture will be pairing with 20 Italian teams. The city of Rome will supervise the projects addressing urban redevelopments in the extended suburbs of the capital city. The 20 projects, each addressing a specific grid area, will be exhibited at the MaXXi museum in Fall 2015.
Sofia Borges, lecturer, published the article “Stromae Navigates the Unnavigable” in the latest issue of Mark Magazine and “Designing Desire” in Amarello Magazine. She released two new books in August. Hide and Seek:The Architecture of Cabins and Hide-Outs and Building Better: Sustainable Architecture for Family Homes are now available on Amazon and bookstores worldwide. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/25/hidden-homes-gestalten-book_n_5846062.html?1411664026
Ted Bosley reports that the School of Architecture has received a $100,000 grant from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation to create a new “contemplative” garden at the Gamble House. Isabelle Greene, FASLA, granddaughter of architect Henry Mather Greene, has designed the proposed garden to resonate with the Gambles’ original cutting garden in the same area, and to give today’s visitors a place to rest and appreciate views of the house. Installation is expected to begin in early 2015.
James Steele was a presenter at the 4 th Annual Cultural Heritage Forum in Abha, Saudi Arabia, from Dec. 8th through 12, as well as presenting and acting as a Session Chair at the IASTE Conference ” Whose Tradition” in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia from Dec.14- 17, 2014. Steele has also been invited to present a paper at The Architectural Forum of Southwest China in Chengdu, January 8-12 2015.
In October Ken Breisch was a speaker at the symposium, “Bakersfield Built: 1930s Architecture,” which was sponsored by the School of Arts and Humanities, California State University, Bakersfield, as part of their celebration of the 75th anniversary of the publication of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.
Assistant Professor Alvin Huang’s Pure Tension Pavilion, a portable solar-powered pavilion for the Volvo V60 electric car made it’s Chinese debut at the Guangzhou Auto Show in November. Huang also gave a lecture on his recent work at the South China University of Technology in Guanzhou. Huang has also recently been announced as a juror for two international awards – the 2014 World Architecture News Colour in Architecture Award, and the ArchDaily + IIDEX Canada Virtual Spaces Design Competition.
Esther Margulies, Lecturer in the Landscape Architecture program has launched a new firm known as The Office of the Designed Landscape. She was recently appointed to the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission and collaborated on The River Art Project, an LA 2050 proposal.
Professor Victor Regnier has received a Fulbright Award to teach and conduct research in the architecture graduate program of the Catholic University in Portugal. He will be giving five topical lectures in the Fall and conducting a studio class in the Spring centered on purpose-built housing for older people. This summer he completed a 74-page monograph entitled “Motion Picture Television Fund Apartment for Life” that chronicles the work of his Spring 2014 402/605 studio in designing a mixed-use, 82-unit housing project for a 3.0 acre site on their Woodland Hills campus–a free pdf is available on request (regnier@usc.edu).
Scott Uriu along with his business partner Herwig Baumgartner have been chosen as one of the 2014-2015 COLA Master Artist Fellowship – Cultural Grant Artists for the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The prestigious City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Fellowships honor a selection of the best of Los Angeles contemporary arts. These awards allow very accomplished artists to focus on creating a new work to be exhibited at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in May of 2015. Uriu and Baumgartner have been chosen as one of the 2014-2015 COLA Master Artist Fellowship – Cultural Grant Artists for the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The prestigious City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Fellowships honor a selection of the best of Los Angeles contemporary arts. These awards allow very accomplished artists to focus on creating a new work to be exhibited at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in May of 2015. Uriu has been selected to be one of the speakers at the TxA Emerging Design + Technology Conference where Baumgartner+Uriu will make a presentation on Responsive Architectural Environments in Houston TEXAS. Baumgartner+Uriu’s installation Apertures uses sensors and sound feedback loops to immerse the visitor in his or her own biorhythms. The TxA Emerging Design + Technology conference Nov7th-8th brings experimental research and exploration among academics and practitioners to a broad audience of designers, practicing architects, construction industry executives, building products manufacturers, students, and other researchers.
USC faculty member Laurel Consuelo Broughton (WELCOMEPROJECTS) presented work and participated in a symposium at Princeton SOA on November 15, 2014, titled “F_i_r_m_n_e_s_s_,__C_o_m_m_o_d_i_t_y_,_ & Delight,” along with Mark Foster Gage (Mark Foster Gage + Associates), Andrew Kovacs (Archive of Affinities), Jimenez Lai (Bureau Spectacular), and Michael Loverich (Bittertang). On November 1st, 2014 Broughton’s project in collaboration with Andrew Kovacs, Gallery Attachment (www.galleryattachment.com) opened in Chinatown in Los Angeles with a corresponding show of drawings, As Builts at Jai and Jai Gallery. In October she released The Miranda, a collaboration with writer, director, and artist Miranda July with a short film that launched on Vogue.com. As well throughout the fall, Laurel was also featured in the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design’s Out There Doing It which invites young architects to present their work in a series of events and discussions.
The University of Southern California School of Architecture announces the appointment of Kelly Shannon as Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture Program and Landscape Architecture Discipline Head, effective January 1, 2015. She joins the USC faculty as Professor of Architecture. Dr. Shannon is currently Professor of Landscape Architecture in the Institute of Urbanism and Landscape of the Oslo School of Architecture. She also holds a part-time appointment as Professor of Urbanism, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Architecture at KU Leuven. “The landscape program at the USC School of Architecture has grown steadily, and with a new director as accomplished as Kelly Shannon, the program is poised for global impact in cross-disciplinary research and cross-territorial practice,” said Dean Qingyun Ma. The USC landscape architecture program has a longstanding commitment to urban and environmental discourse. Its impact has expanded with the leadership of retired director Robert Harris and through cross_-disciplinary connections with the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and the Spatial Sciences Institute of the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. The Master of Landscape Architecture First Professional Curriculum and Advanced Standing Curriculum are accredited by the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board.
USC Landscape Architecture student work proposing new uses for the Santa Monica Airport will be exhibited at the Writers Boot Camp Gallery, Bergamot Station, on Thursday, October 23, 6-9 pm. “Reimagining Santa Monica Airport – Part 1” features work from Christopher Sison, Chen Liu, Zeek Magallanes, and Yongdan Chunyu, all students from a USC graduate landscape architecture studio taught by Aroussiak Gabrielian. The exhibit is sponsored by Airport2Park, a coalition supporting the creation of a park on the land that is currently the Santa Monica Airport. First used informally as a landing strip by pilots flying WWI biplanes, the 227-acre site was the home of the Douglas Aircraft Company, and in the 1970s, it became a general aviation airport, currently serving about 300 people daily who fly privately. As the airport is surrounded on all sides by residential areas, noise and air pollution have long been local community issues. ‘’What is amazing about getting students involved in projects that address sites currently in transition, like the airport site, is the capacity of their visions to affect policy change, as well as provide advocacy of worthwhile community efforts through design speculation,” said Gabrielian.
Dr. David Gerber, Alvin Huang and Jose Sanchez, all Assistant Professors of Architecture at the USC School of Architecture recently co-chaired ACADIA 2014 | Design Agency, ACADIA’s annual conference at USC.
Dr. Gerber published and co-edited a book Titled “Paradigms in Computing | Making Machines and Models for Design Agency in Architecture” with eVolo and ACTAR-D. He was also the first multiple recipient of Autodesk’s competitive IDEA studio research grant. Dr. Gerber is a current editor of two leading design and computing research journals Simulation and the International Journal of Architecture and Computing. Dr. Gerber was the chair of this years’ Simulation in Architecture and Urban design Symposium. Dr. Gerber has published his research this year in eCAADe, CAADRIA, ACADIA, SimAUD and numerous journals including Energy and Buildings, Automation and Construction, and Design Studies as well as been the editor of the proceedings for SimAUD and ACADIA. Dr. Gerber’s Parametric Design course at USC has won research and teaching support from Dassault Systems (3DS).
AIA Los Angeles (AIA|LA) announced the 2014 Design Awards winners on Wednesday evening, October 29, 2014. The annual AIA Los Angeles Design Awards honor excellence in work built by Los Angeles architects (Design Awards) as well as work by Los Angeles designers as yet unbuilt (Next LA Awards). In both the Design and Next LA categories. among the USC Architecture faculty winning awards for built work were Lawrence Scarpa, Lorcan O’Herlihy, Warren Techentin and Alvin Huang:
Lawrence Scarpa (Brooks+Scarpa) for PICO PLACE, a 36-unit affordable housing project in Santa Monica for very low income tenants. The jury appreciated the idea of a certain responsiveness of the overall mass. “The project is cohesive but it has a lot of complexity. There’s an impression of openness from the street-side. Trade of tightness to achieve spaciousness within the public was a challenge.”
Lorcan O’Herlihy for the Edison Language Academy. “The moves of this project are the right moves – said the jury. It’s a simple diagram, it could have been boring, but it adhered to its own principals and articulated in those pieces. It’s hard to do. The designers have created value within limited resources. Very clear ideas organize the whole and make it really easy to understand.”
Warren Techentin for his project “La Cage aux Folles.” Located in the Materials & Applications courtyard exhibition gallery La Cage aux Folles explored the craft of pipe bending and joined form, computational procedures, and fabrication processes in the making of a 17 foot high structure which encouraged informal use and programming throughout its exhibition. This project is in collaboration with USC professor and structural engineer, Anders Carlson. “It’s very original, sophisticated, and elegant project,” said the jury. “It’s very clever. It’s a wonderful folly. It’s magic.”
Alvin Huang of Synthesis Design+ Architecture won an award for unbuilt work for theDaegu Gosan Pulic Library. “The jury applauded this design for challenging the conventions of library typology. It is a very comprehensive and resolute idea, both formally and spatially. The plasticity of the project allows it to reconfigure itself into a terrain for books. The projects articulates a library in the 21st century to accommodate books, data and a variety of elements – and figures out a way to make it seamless and useful.”
In October, the Italian state television network RAI’s documentary on Lucrezia Borgia was televised, for which Prof. Diane Ghirardo was the historian of record. The documentary in part based upon Prof. Ghirardo’s research, addresses Borgia’s entrepreneurial and reclamation activities in 16th century Italy, among other topics. The Portuguese architectural publication, Arqa, published an article by Prof. Ghirardo on the restoration of Modern Movement architecture in the June 2014 issue, and also in 2014, the Polish architectural journal RecyklingIdee. Pismo spotecznie zaangazowane translated and published her essay on Manfredo Tafuri, which originally appeared in Perspecta in 2001. Her edited volume, Aldo Rossi’s Municipio a Borgoricco was published in November 2014 by the town of Borgoricco.
Professors Goetz Schierle, Karen Kensek and Douglas Noble are preparing a book on tensile fabric structures co-edited with other USC faculty.
Hraztan Zeitlian received the AIA California Council Presidential Citation Award on 10/23/2014, for having helped “ . . . confirm the architects’ role and responsibility to society on a larger scale. Your dedication on behalf of the architectural profession, and the future of design is deeply appreciated and recognized.”
Lecturer Andy Ku and his Los Angeles-based firm, OCDC have recently been commissioned to design a 3D printed housing prototype for a Hong Kong-based, consumer goods design and development company. In August, OCDC opened its first satellite office in Hong Kong.
Lecturer Geoffrey von Oeyen is organizing a major event titled “Performative Composites: Sailing Architecture” at the USC School of Architecture on November 3 + 4. Through workshops, panel discussions, and an exhibition that includes the design of Greg Lynn’s new trimaran and the hydrofoil from an America’s Cup catamaran, this event explores how new materials and techniques in sailing, particularly carbon fiber composites, allow for designers to reconsider the multiplicity of spatial, formal, and environmental forces in architecture in important new ways. Presenters and panelists include Greg Lynn, Bill Kreysler, Bill Pearson, Kurt Jordan, Fred Courouble, Lynn Bowser, Bruno Belmont, Neil Smith, and Rick Pauer.
Assistant Professor Alvin Huang and his firm Synthesis Design + Architecture were awarded an AIA|LA NextLA Design Award for their Daegu Public Library Proposal at the annual AIA Los Angles Design Awards on October 29, 2014. Additionally, a 1/2 scale prototype of their Durotaxis Chair, a multi-material 3D printed chair that gradiates from soft to rigid was exhibited at the recent ACADIA Design Agency Conference at USC and has been featured in numerous publications including Dezeen, 3D Printing Industry, Inside 3D Printing, TCT Magazine, and others. Three additional projects (Chelsea Workspace, Daegu Public Library, and Pure Tension Pavilion) were also included in the peer-reviewed ACADIA exhibition, as well as the publication and presentation of a peer-reviewed paper entitled “Nearly Minimal: Intuition, Analysis, and Information.”
Eric Haas, Adjunct Associate Professor, presented his paper “Do We Have to Stick to the Script? : Cities, Surveying and Descripting” at the Mediated City Conference held at Woodbury University in October. Haas’s firm DSH was recently named a finalist in the Spark > Spaces 2014 Design Awards for the Larchmont Charter Lafayette Park school. The firm is beginning work on renovating a 1953 Neutra & Alexander building for use as a preschool.
Jose Sanchez has recently co-chaired Acadia 2014 Conference ‘Design Agency’, with speakers including Zaha Hadid, Will Wright and Casey Reas. In the event, he exhibited ‘Polyomino’, a 3d printed piece sponsored by Stratasys as part of the ‘From gaming to making’ research, connecting gaming technology with the maker movement. Jose will be speaking in Autodesk University in Vegas in a panel dedicated to the future of technology and the integration of gaming in the world of design.
Christopher Warren, and his office, WORD, received an AIA|LA 2014 Design Merit Award for A.P.C. Melrose Place, an adaptive re-use project built for the French fashion label’s Los Angeles flagship store – in collaboration with A.P.C. New York and Laurent Deroo Architecte, Paris.
Douglas Noble and Karen Kensek received the AEP Educator Award from the California Council of the AIA.
Assistant Professor Alison Hirsch will be lecturing on her recent book, City Choreographer: Lawrence Halprin in Urban Renewal America (University of Minnesota, 2014), at the Graham Foundation in Chicago on December 4th (6pm). The event will also serve as a book launch and signing.
Ken Breisch has been named as Co-chair of a Task Force to Develop Guidelines for Evaluating Digital Art and Architectural History Scholarship for Promotion and Tenure. This study is co-sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians and the College Art Association and has been funded with a grant from the Mellon Foundation.
The USC School of Architecture faculty Alvin Huang, Jose Sanchez, and David Gerber hosted and chaired this years’ ACADIA annual conference entitled Design Agency. The event was the most widely attended in history with 545 participants including, students, professionals, and academics from every continent. The conference peer review accepted 74 papers and 50 projects from a very competitive pool. The event had keynote and awardee lectures including Zaha Hadid, Casey Reas (UCLA), Will Wright (of SimCity fame), Neil Gershenfeld (MIT) Nancy Cheng (UofO), Jenny Sabin (Cornell), and Marc Fornes. During the week of events 10 workshops were supported by NBBJ, SOM, Zaha Hadid Architects, Woods Baggot, Autodesk, Formlabs, Marc Fornes, Roland Snooks,and Robots in Architecture. The conference included an exhibition in part sponsored by Stratasys with an amazing collection of 3D prints on display including works from Alvin Huang, Jose Sanchez, and David Gerber. The event culminated with a day long Hackathon lead by Jose Sanchez.
The School of Architecture is pleased to announce that Assistant Professor Dr. Susanne Cowan has joined the faculty at Montana State University. She received her B.A. in Landscape Architecture, and her Ph.D. in the History of Architecture and Urbanism, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the relationship between urban design and the social conditions of cities, particularly regarding participatory democracy as a method for making city planning and policy decisions.
In her dissertation, “Democracy, Technocracy and Publicity: Public Consultation and British Planning, 1939-1951”, Susanne explores how architects and town planners created a forum for democratic debate about new planning policies. She recently completed an oral history documentary film, “Design as a Social Act,” which examines how architects have approached the social needs of users in the design process. In her most recent work, she has been tracing the ways that planning policies in de-industrializing cities have shaped the process of urban decay and gentrification, and what positive or negative impacts urban design interventions have had on social and economic conditions of residents.
Susanne’s interest in participatory design grows from her commitment to professional activism in the design of the built environment, demonstrated in her work as an environmental educator for Americorps, and her training as a facilitator for collaborative policy-making.
Teaching Professor John R. (Jack) Smith, ARCH.D., FAIA, NCARB, received a 2014 Citation Award from the AIA Montana Design Awards Program for his House III project in Hulen Meadows, Idaho and a 2014 AIA Idaho Honor Award.
Associate Teaching Professor Chere LeClair, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP was elected as the Northwest and Pacific AIA Regional Director.
Graduate student, Kluane Weibel, received a Merit Award for her project titled “Artic Dwelling” at the AIA Regional Student Leadership Institute Meeting. Kluane’s advisors were Associate Professors Maire O’Neill and Chris Livingston and Professor Ralph Johnson.
Assistant Professor Bradford Watson, Associate Professor Mike Everts, and Professor John C Brittingham presented at the ACSA International Conference in Seoul Korea. Assistant Professor Watson presented “Displaced Territories with Sean Burkholder from UBC, Associate Professor Everts presented “Creating Hybrid Programs and Predicting Their Evolution Through 4D Parametric Analysis” and Professor Brittingham presented “Unlikely Partnerships.”
Professor Fatih Rifki presented “Genesis and Epicenter of Renaissance: Florence versus Istanbul” at the 4th Annual International Conference on Architecture in Athens, Greece.
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The School of Architecture at the University of Southern California has the luxury of being a large school in a major city. There are several thousand architects living and working near our downtown location. USC thanks our dedicated full-ntime and part-time faculty. There were 128 faculty members teaching in our school for 2013-2014. The photo shows a small group at a faculty retreat in November, 2013.
