Professor Alfredo Fernandez-Gonzalez was selected to receive the 2012 UNLV Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award. He was also chosen by the UNLV Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award Committee to be UNLV’s nominee for the 2012 Nevada Regents’ Teaching Award. The Regent’s Award is Nevada’s most prestigious teaching recognition and the sole nomination to this award constitutes a great honor.
Jose Sanchez, assistant professor of architecture has just joined USC coming from The Bartlett, UCL in London where he formerly taught. He will be exhibiting the ‘Bloom’ project, designed and developed for the 2012 London Olympics the 5th of September at the new Frac building for the Archilab opening in Orleans, France. Later in the year he will be presenting his paper ‘Gamescapes’ in Acadia 2013 in Waterloo, where he develops a framework for using game mechanics as a design heuristics. Additionally, he will be presenting his paper ‘Hacklikes’ in the TxA conference in Texas taking place the 7-9 of November of 2013. His paper connects ideas of gaming, design and object oriented ontology. Jose, director of the Plethora-Project (www.plethora-project.com), is currently working with the support of Soomeen Hahm on the translation the over 120 videos of online teaching, his current public repository, into Chinese language, attempting to open the field of computational architectural design via online teaching to China
DSH // architecture, the firm of Adjunct Associate Professor Eric Haas, was named a finalist in the 2013 Spark > Spaces Design Competition for the Para Los Niños Family Center in downtown Los Angeles. The firm also recently completed the renovation of Welton Becket’s 1955 New York Life building to house a 500-student charter middle & high school.
Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA and his firm Brooks + Scarpa received six 2013 American Institute of Architects California Council (AIACC) Design Awards. He also chaired the 2013 Monterey Design Conference held at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA. His building, Metalsa Center for Manufacturing Innovation was published in The Plan, Architect Magazine, Architectural Review and several other books and journals.
Principals of Ehrlich Architect Steven Ehrlich, FAIA and Takashi Yanai, AIA were speakers at the 10th annual Reinvention Symposium produced by Residential Architect Magazine. The symposium, held in San Francisco October 9-11th, was focused on Resilience and how architects can lead the way as change agents for near- and long-term shifts in the environment, demographics, economics, technology, and much more.
Victor Regnier FAIA, Professor of Architecture and Gerontology is continuing his exploration of the hybrid housing/service model “Apartments for Life” (A4LIFE); that uses universal design principles, adaptable physical adjustments and technology to maintain older frail people in normal purpose-built independent housing. He has just completed a 56 page monograph that chronicles the work of his Spring graduate studio–a 60 unit project on the northwest corner of the USC campus. The project integrates an emeriti center, USC civic engagement, 14 classrooms, an auditorium, café and coffee house in a moderate-density mixed-use setting. Copies of the publication entitled USC Apartment for Life are available from Blurb, Inc. for $80. http://www.blurb.com/search/site_search?search=USC+Apartment+for+Life&filter=bookstore&commit=Search(ISBN#978-0-578-12743-9) OR you can request a FREE PDF by emailing him directly at regnier@usc.edu.
Professor Regnier has made presentations in the last year to the University of Iowa Medical School, the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, and carried out discussion sessions at the Hammar Museum and Westside Urban Forum (LA) on this topic. He will continue to present A4LIFE ideas at a symposium at the University of Kansas in November, a Healthcare Forum in Michigan in the Spring and a soon to be scheduled seminar at Clemson University in their healthcare Architecture program. An article reviewing the history and future trajectory of this concept will appear in the ASA (American Society for Aging) journal in the Spring. A Q+A on the studio can be downloaded at http://asaging.org/blog/life-way-we-want-it-conversation-gero-architect-victor-regnier-faia
Jennifer Siegal, Adjunct Associate Professor and Principal of Office of Mobile Design, was recently featured by international Swedish filmmaker, Jesper Wachtmeister, in his documentary film Microtopia — an examination of modern alternative dwellings and mobile lifestyles. The film profiles Siegal’s first prototype for prefab dwelling: “Joshua Tree PreFab”, a fully functional mobile dwelling that also embodies responsible, sustainable, and aesthetically beautiful design. The film has received international attention and acclaim, drawing attention to current trends in dwellings and use of space, as well as looking to the future for the impact and influence design will have on lifestyles and resources. Siegal will be lecturing this Fall at RTKL’s Corporate Officer’s Meeting and at Texas Tech College of Architecture El Paso, in partnership with the El Paso Museum of Art and the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
Professor Schierle added iconic structures to his web site http://www.usc.edu/structures (click the tent icon) OR the direct link: http://www-classes.usc.edu/architecture/structures/Projects/Iconic%20Projects.htm.
Todd Gish, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, is part of the local committee working to bring the national conference of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History to Los Angeles in 2015.
Ken Breisch is the General Chair for the Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians to held in Austin, Texas, in April 2014, and recently served as the Moderator for a Panel Discussion Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the re-opening of the Los Angeles Public Library Central Building.
Emily Gabel-Luddy, FASLA, lecturer, elected Mayor of Burbank for FY13-14, addressed the State of the L.A. River Watershed Symposium along with Mayor Eric Garcetti held October 10 in Downtown Los Angeles. Several landscape Architects attend the conference including Esther Margulies of AECOM also a lecturer. In September Mayor Gabel-Luddy lead a Burbank Delegation to Incheon, Korea for a Sustainable Cities Conference.
Joon-Ho Choi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Building Science at USC was invited by the Philips Research Center, located in Briarcliff Manor, New York in August to talk about one of his recent research work, entitled “Human-Building Interaction: Potential Use of Human Bio-Signals for Building Environmental System Controls”, and part of the work will be presented at the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers – Indoor Air Quality (ASHRAE-IAQ) Conference held in Vancouver, Canada on October 15 through 18, titled “Human-Environment Interaction: Potential Use of Pupil Size for Visual Environmental Controls.”
Peter Simmonds and Pavel Getov presented a workshop titled “EPIDERMIS/HYPOTHALAMUS: BUILDING ENVELOPE AS A FACTOR CONTROLLING OCCUPANT THERMAL COMFORT” at the AIA Monterey Design Conference. There were more than 150 attendees.
Lecturer Scott Uriu‘s work will be exhibited in two upcoming Architecture and Design events in Santa Fe; Design Santa Fe – DesignLAB Next Nest at the SITE Gallery sponsored by Metropolis Magazine, and the Life Support: Art<->Design Sustenance exhibition to be held at the David Richard Gallery, both opening November 1st. Uriu’s Lima Project has been featured in the September issue of Green Buildings Magazine, Mark magazine #40, and the August issue of Urbanista. Uriu’s Firestone Project has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Architecture Record, and The Architects Newspaper regarding its inclusion in the Neverbuilt exhibition. Uriu’s Keelung Project has been featured in the July B1 Magazine, and Future magazine #39/40, and his firm (Baumgartner+Uriu) has been featured in the Hindu Newspaper June 15th. In April 2014 Baumgartner+Uriu will be exhibited in the SciArc Main Gallery in Los Angeles. In October, Baumgartner+Uriu has been chosen by the Santa Cruz Metro Transit Authority as the Architect for the Watsonville Transit Center.
Kyle Konis, Ph.D, AIA, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Southern California, was invited by the City of Los Angeles Department of Urban Planning and the Office of Science and Technology at the Embassy of Austria to speak at a conference entitled “The Urbanization Challenge –Smart City Solutions from Austria and California,” at LA City Hall on October 11. He will speak on the topics of high performance buildings and resource efficient development.
Travis Longcore, Associate Professor (Research) of Spatial Sciences and Lecturer in Landscape Architecture was guest editor of a special issue on human-caused mortality of birds in Canada, published in the journal Avian Conservation and Ecology. His guest editorial noted the need to adopt best management practices to reduce mortality such as bird-safe building design to reduce collisions with windows.
Assistant Professor Alvin Huang has been awarded a 2013 AIA|LA NextLA Design Award for the Pure Tension pavilion, a portable tensile membrane solar-powered charging station for the new Volvo V60 plug-in hybrid, which launches on October 10, 2013 in Rome, Italy. He will be giving a lecture of his recent work on October 7, at the Aura Magna Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bologna, Italy. Additionally, professor Huang has been appointed Program Director for the newly launched Architectural Association Globabl Visiting School Los Angeles, taking place in Summer 2014.
Laurel Consuelo Broughton and her studio WELCOMEPROJECTS’ installation, Black Holes opened at the Santa Monica Museum of Art as part of their Wall Works Series and runs through January 12, 2014. A play on words, in Black Holes over five hundred kindergarden through twelfth grade students interpret ideas about abstract space through drawing inside of blank Tetra Pak milk cartons. Installed all together, the group produces a part to whole simultaneity. On November 1,2013 Laurel will lecture on her work at Cal Poly Pomona as part of their Fall lecture series.
Associate Professor Christopher Domin was a featured speaker at the East-West Dialogues Symposium held November 16 and 17 at the University of Miami School of Architecture. The symposium was a forum to investigate the built work of Florida’s modernist architects.
Associate Professor Beth Weinstein’s paper “High and Dry: Performances Around Water’s Absence” was accepted by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and will be presented at the 101_1 Waste(lands)+Material Economies / Less is More: Creativity Through Scarcity paper session during the ASCA annual meeting this coming March in San Francisco.
November 14th is the anticipated book launch date for Ground|Water: The Art, Design and Science of a Dry River, co-edited by Associate Professor Beth Weinstein, Ellen McMahon (Fine Arts) and Ander Monson (creative writing). The book collects critical and creative work of faculty and students in the arts, design, architecture, and the sciences reflecting on the impact of climate change upon Tucson’s local waterways. The projects, seminar, and studios documented in the book, and the book’s production were primarily supported by a grant from the UA Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry. Ground|Water will be distributed by the University of Arizona Press.
Associate Professor Beth Weinstein’s exhibition, The Collaborative Legacy of Merce Cunningham has been installed at the Ecole Speciale d’Architecture in Paris.
Assistant Professor Susannah Dickinson’s paper “Sustainable Design Processes” has been published as part of the International Passive and Low Energy Architecture Conference Proceedings (PLEA 2012) recently held in Lima, Peru. The paper describes biomimetic and parametric design strategies used in a recently completed studio.
Dr. Linda C. Samuels joins the faculty of the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA) as the new Project Director for the Sustainable City Project, a research, teaching, and outreach effort collaboratively supported by CAPLA; the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS); and the Institute of the Environment (IE). The Sustainable City Project is a think tank, make tank, say tank and do tank committed to research, design innovation, boundary-free collaboration, urban activism, intellectual interchange, and inclusive outreach. It is housed in the new UA Downtown location, the historic Roy Place Building. Samuels recently received her doctorate in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Eve Edelstein, MArch, PhD (neuroscience), Assoc AIA, F-AAA, Research Fellow (Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture), and former faculty member at the NewSchool of Architecture & Design (San Diego) as well as a former Senior Research Specialist at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, will be joining the CAPLA faculty in the Spring. She will be working in collaboration with Esther Sternberg to start a new center for Place and Well-being.
Adjunct Lecturers Luis Ibarra and Teresa Rosano, AIA LEED AP, of Ibarra Rosano Design Architects, have a project in Architectural Record’s online article, “Featured Houses, September 2012: Volumes in the Landscape.”
Adjunct Lecturers Luis Ibarra and Teresa Rosano’s Levin Residence is featured on the fall 2012 cover of LUXE interiors + design magazine, Arizona edition. They are also published in World Interior Design: Glamourous Living Space” by Phoenix Publishing. In addition, Ibarra Rosano’s first project, the Garcia Residence, made Architizer’s list of Top 10 Desert Dwellings.
Associate Professor Martin Despang´s post-fossil (Passive House standard) kindergarten for the University of Göttingen has been published in the 6.2011 issue of the international AIT / Architecture Interior Technology magazine. He has also been published in the Frechmann Kolón book, Wood Houses (2010), for Despang Architekten’s renovation of the half-timbered farm house “Voges Redux.”
Associate Professor Christopher Domin, Master of Architecture Program Chair, presented applied building skin research developed in CALA’s Materials Laboratory at the World Sustainable Building Conference in Helsinki, Finland. Another joint research investigation into Regional Technology issues was presented at the International Passive and Low Energy conference in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium over the summer. This work was co-developed with Professor Larry Medlin along with advanced graduate and undergraduate CALA students.
The College of Architecture & Landscape Architecture initiated an interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Heritage Conservation in conjunction with the UA School of Anthropology and Department of Materials Science & Engineering. The program is coordinated by Professor R. Brooks Jeffery and focuses on a service-learning model of education. More information is on the program’s website, http://cala.arizona.edu/heritage.
Assistant Professor Beth Weinstein has been invited to join the Design Committee of the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE). Since 2009, she has served as a member of the JAE’s Editorial Board and Reviews Board.
New members of the Architecture Faculty, Luis Ibarra + Teresa Rosano, have won their 7th Southern Arizona Home of the Year Award for a house designed for Patagonia, Arizona.
Adjunct Lecturer Wil Peterson, has been named one of five finalists in the furniture category of the ACADIA 2011 Design + Fabrication Competition.
Adjunct Lecturer Mark Ryan has won the competition for Avendia Rio Salado / Broadway Road (ARS) in Phoenix, AZ. The proposal for an 8-mile stretch of the Broadway Road will create a series of Community Beacons that will be visible day and night, acknowledging the historic diversity of agriculture and industry between two adjacent village neighborhoods. The installations will also function as passive cooling towers and drinking fountains.
Diane Ghirardo‘s new book, Modern Architectures in History. Italy, appeared in January from Reaktion Press, and Tsinghua University Press just published a second Chinese edition of her 1996 book, Architecture After Modernism as part of a series of five books on the subject of modern architecture in the west.
Assistant Professor Alvin Huang and his firm Synthesis Design + Architecture have received first prize in the invited design competition for the 180,000sqm Shanghai Wuzhou International Plaza. Additionally, construction was recently completed on the SDA designed 7,500sqm facade and 20,000sqm interior for the CentralPlaza Lampang in Thailand. Finally, the SDA designed Chelsea Workspace project is one of 24 projects shortlisted out of 233 submissions for the Architects Journal Small Projects Award 2013. The winner of the award will be announced in February.
Lawrence Scarpa and his firm Brooks + Scarpa has won the commission for the new $23 million Southern Utah University Center for the Arts. The project includes the 22,000 sf Southern Utah Museum of Art, a 33,000 sf Shakespeare Theatre and a 26,000 sf Artistic Production and Educational Center.
Adjunct assistant professors Christopher Warren and Mario Cipresso received a special mention in the category of ‘social infrastructure’ in the d3 Unbuilt Visions Competition for their project, the Taiwan Center for Disease Control Complex. Christopher is also leading a study abroad studio in Rome this spring, focusing on an urban intervention in the Ostiense area south of the city center.
Associate Professor (Research) Travis Longcore is appointed in the Spatial Sciences Institute and teaches in Landscape Architecture. His recently released research on the species composition of birds killed by communication towers was featured on ABC’s Good Morning America and Smithsonian’s blog.
An article entitled “Tree Huggers” by Warren Techentin was recently released in the book Infrastructural City – a book of essays edited by Kazys Varnelis and published by ACTAR which look at infrastructure and networks in Los Angeles.
Adjunct Assistant Professor Eric Haas, AIA lectured on “Syntax and Sensation” at the NewSchool of Architecture + Design, as part of the FSDA lecture series.
Lecturer Scott Uriu‘s firm B+U will be included upcoming show at THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES (MOCA), A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture from Southern California”, with its project the Frank Kim Residence, exhibited in Model and other media. The show will run from June 2, 2013 through September 2, 2013. Other participants include AC Martin Partners, Atelier Manferdini, Ball-Nogues Studio, Belzberg Architects, Bestor Architecture, Brooks + Scarpa Architects, Coscia Day Architecture and Design, Coy Howard & Company, Daly Genik Architects, Eric Owen Moss Architects, Franklin D. Israel Design Associates, Gehry Partners, Greg Lynn FORM, Hodgetts + Fung, JOHNSTONMARKLEE, Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, MAKE Architecture, Mark Mack Architects, Michael Maltzan Architecture, Morphosis Architects, Neil M. Denari Architects, P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S, Patrick Tighe Architecture, Predock Frane Architects, Randall Stout Architects, RoTo Architects, Saee Studio, Studio Works Architects, Tom Wiscombe Design, Touraine Richmond Architects, VOID, Warren Techentin Architecture, and XTEN Architecture.
Jennifer Siegal’s thesis students installed Prefab House on the USC campus, view at http://arch.usc.edu/notes/prefab-house-timelapse. She is the Keynote Speaker for the Atmosphere 5 Ecology and Design Conference, University of Manitoba, and a speaker for the Prefab Architecture symposium at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Associate Professor Eve Edelstein, joins CAPLA and the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona as Deputy Director of Research. Dr. Edelstein is developing curricula for students and professionals in research-based design, and is currently teaching an interdisciplinary seminar on Neuro-Architecture, revealing how architecture, planning and landscape architecture influences the brain, body and biosphere. Dr. Edelstein was an invited speaker at the Glass Mind Workshop in London UK where the international faculty discussed the application of neuro -architectural concepts and 3D virtual reality immersive CAVE techniques to explore how natural and architectural surfaces impact perception and actions by measuring neural and psychophysiological responses. Dr. Edelstein is participating in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Summit on Green Building & Human Health to promote recognition of the connection between sustainable building methods and human health in order to advance and development practices and policies for improved outcomes.
Associate Professor Beth Weinstein, Ellen McMahon, and Ander Monson, editors of the recently published book Ground/Water: The Art, Design and Science of a Dry River will hold a signing and take part in “Bat Night and the Rillito River Project”: A discussion with Creative Director of the Rillito River Project Ellen Skotheim, bat expert Yar Petryzyn, UA Professors Gregg Grafin (Institute for the Environment) and Beth Weinstein (School of Architecture) focusing on the art, design and science collaborations done for Bat Night 10.
Adjunct Lecturer Brian Andrews’ new book Architecture Principia: Architectural Principles of Material Form has just been published by Pearson. The 600-page reference guide was co-authored with Gail Peter Borden of USC and “provides a comprehensive look at the foundational themes of architecture. Simultaneously fundamental and advanced, the text employs comparative precedents, case studies from across the history of architecture, consistent and clear graphic language, and a parallel visual and textual presentation of each architectural principle. Written by designers, for designers, the text is intended to serve as an analytical handbook of the concepts behind these diverse, formal principles as viewed through the history of architecture.”
UH MANOA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE STUDENT WINS SECOND PLACE IN INTERNATIONAL DESIGN COMPETITION
University of Hawai‘i at M_noa School of Architecture graduate student Sofija Kavcic took second place in the International Council for Caring Communities (ICCC) Student Design Competition.
The contest, titled Integrated Communities: A Society for All Ages, challenged students to explore solutions that integrate older persons into the fabric of the community. Winners were announced recently in Naples, Italy and included students from eight countries including China, Guatemala, Ireland, Sudan, South Korea, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and the United States – Kavcic is the only winner from the United States.
“The student designs succeed on several levels: their thoughtful research and responsiveness to the needs of older persons; the balance of creativity and practicality and ultimately, their youthful optimism which will benefit us all,” Professor Dianne Davis, founding president of the ICCC. “The fast approaching ‘agequake’ makes it vital that this phenomenon of aging be studied and approached by students in a pro-active manner.”
Kavcic’s design, Kakaako Building Blocks, envisions a vibrant multi-generational neighborhood fused by functional city blocks that keep families close. Daycare for seniors and young children is combined and contained within a common living area. Facilities for recreation, exercise, education, public services, retail and health care are all accessible via walkable pathways within a city block.
Kavcic explains, “The flexibility of the architectural programming is ensured by the use of modularity. The typical unit assembly system resembles the building blocks toy assembly system, hence the name Building Blocks.”
As a winner, Kavcic will present her design at United Nations’ headquarters in New York City on October 1, 2012 as part of the UN World Habitat Day.
“This award comes as the result of the education and research I have done during my doctorate studies at UH. The trip to New York is a great opportunity for me to present my project and represent the School of Architecture,” says Kavcic. “United Nations Ambassadors and officials, world leaders, private sector and related experts will also be presenting at the high-level session, so I feel honored to be invited. It’s certainly a confirmation that my choice of UH was the right one.”
Professor Spencer Leineweber, FAIA, Chair of Professional Programs at the School of Architecture, served as mentor to Kavcic on the project. Prior collaborations also resulted in awards for Kavcic, but none as prestigious as the ICCC contest.
“She has provided tremendous support to me throughout my studies and on this particular project,” says Kavcic. “She helped me crystallize ideas and pull it all together. I couldn’t have done it without her.”
Kavcic is enrolled in the D Arch program at UH Manoa’s School of Architecture – the only NAAB accredited Doctor of Architecture in the United States and Canada. She holds a Dipl.-Ing. (M.S. equivalent) diploma in Architecture from the University of Belgrade. After graduation she plans to specialize in designing high-profile urban dwellings.
More information about this year’s contest and awards can be found at http://www.international-iccc.org/studentdesign.htm
Michael Hricak, FAIA, has been appointed a Regional Director for the AIA College of Fellows, using his strong ties with the profession and education to promote licensing and participation in the Intern Development Program (IDP).
Heritage conservation program director Trudi Sandmeier curated a tour of ‘70s and ‘80s architecture in Venice, CA as part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. programming. She also recently helped to establish the new docomomo_US/Southern California chapter.
New appointments in Landscape Architecture include Alexander Robinson and Alison Hirsch as tenure track Assistant Professors and Charles Anderson and Aroussiak Gabrielian as visiting faculty.
Landscape Architecture Graduate Student Tina Chee has been named one of four 2013 National Olmsted Scholarship finalists. She earned this honor in 2012 as well and thus has the distinction for both years of her MLA degree program.
DSH // architecture, the firm of Adjunct Associate Professor Eric Haas, received 1st Place for small educational facilities in the Modular Building Institute’s 2013 Awards of Distinction for the St. James’ Preschool.
Adjunct Assistant Professor Valery Augustin, AIA, was a panelist at a symposium titled “Does Architecture Matter?” at the Getty Center. A series of Valery’s drawings were selected for the d3:Sketch exhibition at The Lincoln Center Center Gallery in New York.
Assistant professor Alvin Huang was awarded the 2013 AIA Comittee on Design Scholarship to attend the AIA Regional Modernism Conference in Palm Springs, and the 2013 Dale Taylor Visiting Lectureship at the University of Calgary Faculty of Environmental Design which included an exhibition, a lecture, and a 1 week design/build/fabricate student workshop focused on emergent design technologies.
Alexander Robinson was recently appointed a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Southern California. Also, as part of his on-going research on landscape infrastructures, he led a team proposing summer parks in the LA River that is currently a finalist in a $100k grant and ideas competition.
Tom Marble’s work has appeared in The Architect’s Newspaper, MONU Magazine, LA Times Magazine, and Metropolis; his After the city, this (is how we live) was published by the LA Forum for Architecture & Urban Design in 2008; he led an urban design studio Urban Successionism in Colorado Springs, at Colorado College Spring 2012; and he is at work on The Expediter, a multi-media urban noir to be completed in late 2013.
Adjunct professor Lorcan O’Herlihy’s firm, LOHA, is currently designing housing projects that will serve UCLA and UC Santa Barbara students and faculty. Lorcan has been honored with nominations for the 2013 Marcus Prize in Architecture and the 2013 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, and his past work will feature in spring exhibitions at the A+D Museum and MOCA. In addition to his teaching, Lorcan will lecture this fall at the Otis College of Art and Design, the AIA Arizona State Conference, and the AIA Colorado Design Conference.
Lecturer Scott Uriu‘s work is in the Exhibitions: Never Built, Architecture and Design Museum (A+D Museum), opening July 2013. Baumgartner + Uriu, (B+U) exhibition, INCITE, Bangalore India, Opening June 8th 2013. Archilab 2013, FRAC center, Orleans, France, opening September 2013. Uriu’s work is also included in the Publications: Equalbooks-B+U Frank and Kim residence Peakpack, April 2013, DE Architect– B+U animated Apertures, April 2013, Concept magazine- B+U rethinking the window DNA, April 2013, FUTURE magazine- B+U Keelung harbor Cruise ship terminal competition, April 2013 and B1 magazine– B+U animated Apertures, April 2013. Uriu’s office has received an Architizer A+ Award February 14th, 2013 for “Animated Apertures” Special Mention in the Architecture +Sustainability category.
Professor G. Goetz Schierle was invited to design fabric structures and teach a seminar at Xian University of Architecture and Technology.
Karen M. Kensek has won the USC Mellon Mentoring Award. The award is given annually to honor individual faculty for helping build a supportive academic environment at USC through faculty-to-student and faculty-to-faculty mentoring.
Joon-Ho Choi is an Assistant Professor of Building Science. Prior to taking the position, he worked as an assistant professor in the Dept. of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Choi’s primary research interests are in the areas of advanced controls for high performance buildings, bio-sensing controls in the built environment, smart building enclosure, passive building strategies, and human-centered building environmental control. Six research papers have been published in prestigious journals, such as Building and Environment, and Energy and Buildings, based on his work for recent three years. As an interdisciplinary researcher, he has participated in multiple research projects sponsored by governmental agencies, industry partners and research grant programs including General Services Administration (GSA), Boston Society of Architects/AIA, Green Building Alliance (GBA), ALCOA, SIEMENS, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and UNEP. His research outcomes have been published on prestigious international journals including “Building and Environment”, and “Energy and Buildings”. He is currently a technical committee member of American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), and is an active member of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality (ISIAQ), and Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA).
M. Brian Tichenor AIA has just completed the restoration of a four-acre Thomas Church garden in Pebble Beach, and is in the final stages of planning for the first large residence built to Passivhaus standards in Monterey County.
Adjunct Associate Professor, Gerdo Aquino, is President of SWA, and Principal at the Los Angeles studio. He recently co-authored a book, published by Birkhauser/Actar, entitled Landscape Infrastructure: Case Studies by SWA. For the fall/winter of 2011 he lectured at GSD Harvard, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the University of Virginia on “Transportational Futures” and Landscape Infrastructure. He has recently been awarded the 2011 Westside Prize Merit Award, Open Space Category for Milton Street Park, Marina Del Rey, CA. He is currently working on the recently awarded Shanghai Disney Project (Residential, Dining and Entertainment Area), a pedestrian streetscape in El Paso, Texas, and a linear urban park along Ballona Creek in Marina Del Rey. Gerdo will be speaking on a panel on October 28th at the ULI Conference entitled: From Eye Sore to “A Must See:” Creating Urban Parks from Thin Air and Adding Real Estate Value.
Visiting Assistant Professor Ying-Yu Hung is Managing Principal of SWA Los Angeles, and co-founder of the Infrastructure Research Initiative (I.R.I.S.), recently co-authoring the book “Landscape Infrastructure: Case Studies by SWA”, published by Birkhauser/Actar. She was a finalist for the 2011 ULI Awards for Excellence: Asia Pacific Competition for Gubei Pedestrian Promenade in Shanghai, China. Hung is an active lecturer and recently presented a panel on the topic of landscape infrastructure at this year’s National American Planning Association conference held in Boston and CELA in Los Angeles. In the fall/winter of 2011 she lectured at GSD Harvard, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the University of Virginia on “Transportational Futures” and Landscape Infrastructure. In August, SWA Los Angeles won 2nd Place in the 2016 Rio Olympic Competition in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. Her current projects include the Fuyang Riverfront Concept Master Plan in China.
Adjunct Assistant Professor Eric Haas, AIA received a Preservation Design Award from the California Preservation Foundation for the restoration of R.M. Schindler’s Bubeshko Apartments. He also presented the project on the panel “Renovating an Icon” at Dwell on Design 2011 in Los Angeles.
Professor Marc Schiler tested and evaluated the reflective and specular implications of using a foamed aluminum material on the exterior of the LUMA Foundation in Arles, France, designed by Frank Gehry. Gehry continues to push the envelope in using new materials. Professor Schiler also documented the interesting instances of solar convergence over the span of a day at the Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas, designed by Rafael Vinoly. Preliminary results were presented at the Facades Tectonics conference at USC.
Visiting Assistant Professor Kristine Mun has been invited to participate in the LA Downtown Artwalk event from October 13-18, 2011. She will be showcasing her Studio402 projects, entitled “Architecture and the Logic Machine: Behavior and Material Application”
Assistant Professor Karen M. Kensek is organizing the sixth annual BIM conference to be held in Los Angeles on July 13, 2012.
Faculty members Doris Sung and Rob Ley were awarded the 2011 AIA National Upjohn Grant to support ongoing research that their respective design offices have engaged dealing with responsive materials within architecture. Both Rob and Doris have separately received support from previous Upjohn Grants, this year’s award marks the first time that they will be working together on a new project.
Lecturer Carlo Aiello co-edited the new book ‘Evolo Skyscrapers’ which is an investigation on the future of vertical density. The publication was presented last September at the 2011 Interior Design Show West (IDSWest) in Vancouver. It received instant praise by the public and critics.
Assistant Professor Ken Breisch has been asked to join the “Los Angeles Architecture, 1940-1990″ Exhibition Advisory Committee for the Getty Research Institute, as well as the Los Angeles Arboretum Preservation Advisory Group, and the Survey LA Review Committee.
Adjunct Professor Veronica G. Galen, Assoc. AIA, IES, LEED AP BD+C, designed the lighing for the Silver Award winning Dream Home 2011 Custom Contemporary Home of the Year and Best Whole House Remodel for residential projects with Kollin Altomare Architects, and was part of the team awarded an Illuminating Engineering Society of North America Award of Merit for the lighting design of Chase Bank Colorado Boulevard.
Adjunct Professor Regula Campbell AIA authored a presentation in June at the International Federation of Landscape Architecture World Congress: “Scales of Nature”, Zurich, Switzerland on the topic: Biodiversity in the City: Enrichment for Urban Life and Work – “Making It Personal, Making It Real”.
Adjunct Professor Doug Campbell ASLA will be recognized by the Government of Hangzhou, China this October for his contribution to the region’s “Quality of Life” through his design of a recently completed sustainable new town re-visioning a former industrial site in the City’s northern district.
An exhibition featuring design work addressing the proposed USC/Hybrid High Charter School by School of Architecture Associate Professor Chuck Lagreco’s 2011 spring topic studio students will be on display at a reception in the new Rossier School of Education Computing Center – part of a continuing collaboration on educational facilities by the two schools focusing on the neighborhoods around the campus.
Studio work on the Owens Lake dust mitigation project influenced the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to hire three local landscape architecture firms to be part of the current phase of design and construction for over 2.7 square miles of the lake. He has also joined the team in an advanced research capacity.
Architecture Lecturer, Christine Lampert’s firm, Lampert Dias Architects, Inc. has just finished the construction administration phase for the 8000 square foot San Clemente Senior’s Community Center that they designed in downtown San Clemente. The Center officially opened on Monday October 3, 2011.
Cory Ticktin, A.I.A. who is a Design Principal with AECOM in Los Angeles currently oversees the Studio’s International work in Asia. Mr. Ticktin is currently working on a number of projects in Asia including a 130,000 M² Mixed-Use commercial development in Bangkok, Thailand currently under construction, a 45,000 M² Corporate Headquarters for Unilever also in Bangkok, an 80 meter tall office tower in Bangalore, India, two 130 meter tall residential towers also in Bangalore and a 100 meter tall residential tower in Pune, India.
Associate Professor Trudi Sandmeier is the new Director of USC Graduate Historic Preservation Programs. She recently curated an L.A. Food Noir film event at the historic Orpheum Theatre and will be both a panelist and moderator for the upcoming Historic Preservation Symposium at Cornell University.
Ed Woll reports that construction is substantially complete for Young Burlington Apartments (affordable supportive housing for young people) in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood and 60% complete for Jovenes Houses (transitional housing for disadvantaged youth) in East Los Angeles. Projects on the boards include developments in Eagle Rock and in Pomona providing affordable supportive housing for families, seniors and homeless veterans. The projects in Eagle Rock and Pomona will have substantial urban-farming components.
Victor Regnier FAIA, Vice Dean + Professor of Architecture will present the keynote address for the 14th Annual Sarnat Symposium on Geriatric Care in Los Angeles, CA. In November, he will keynote the Caser Foundation International Conference on Architectural Design and Long Term Care in Madrid, Spain.
Gary Paige’s architecture project, “Type Variant Houses” and artwork, “Ruled Surfaces” is the subject of an exhibition entitled “Other Works” at the School of Architecture at UC Berkeley, along with architects Wes Jones and IDEA Office partners Eric Kahn and Russell Thomsen.
Michael Hricak, FAIA, Adjunct Associate Professor, served as a panelist and presented a talk on urban design and public health to a gathering of elected leaders, city managers and agency officials and staff from 88 municipalities and at the Los Angeles 2011 BIKE SUMMIT, sponsored by LA County Department of Public Health, and hosted by the City of Long Beach.
Professor James Steele is organizing a Symposium called the “Critics Forum” about the History of USC School of Architecture, which will also appear as a book in a years time, and he is eagerly anticipating the publication of a monograph on Sidney Eisenshtat that he edited for the USC School of Architecture Guild Press, in May.
Vinayak Bharne has been named a contributing editor of Kyoto Journal in Japan. He will serve as the south Asian commentator providing perspectives on architecture, urbanism & cultural anthropology. He is also contributing a chapter in the forthcoming book “Planning Los Angeles” (APA Planners Press 2012).
Lecturer Mina Chow, AIA, NCARB, dZI Media, Inc. have completed their “rough cut” for a new web series on innovative architecture. The series was created with the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s office with Prof. Jim Steele and Getty Research Institute Wim de Witt as humanities advisors. You may view the “rough cut” at: http://vimeo.com/29752344
Assistant Professor Victor Jones and the Watts House Project were awarded a 2011 Graham Grant to complete work for the Watts House Project’s Platform fence, pocket park, and façade improvement. He will be a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome in December to pursue research on the Italian Structural Engineer, Sergio Musmeci. He delivered a project presentation “Cultivating Cultures” at the 2011 ACSA Fall Conference / Houston entitled “Local Identities Global Challenges”
Douglas Noble, FAIA, Ph.D., is organizing the 8th FACADE TECTONICS conference, to be held in Los Angeles June 28-July 1, 2012. The Call for papers is at: http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~dnoble/facadetectonics8.htm
Adjunct Associate Professor Michael Hricak, FAIA, and his Venice based design firm recently received city approval for an innovative hotel and conference center to be built in Redondo Beach, California which promises to set new standards for design and sustainability in this beachside community.
Prof Graeme M. Morland recently delivered lecture demonstration entitled, “SKETCHING WITHOUT FEAR” on the occasion of USC’s “GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY with the ARTS” annual event. For many people, picking up a pencil to sketch what they see is intimidating and disappointing as the resultant image bears little resemblance to the subject before them. Invariably, this moment of frustration is translated as failure and they are persuaded that they cannot draw. This “crash course” was designed to alay these fears by demonstration and guidance, walking novice students through the process of constructing a drawing, establishing “datums”, understanding the rudiments of perspective, the limits of “vision”, graphic heirarchy, and the basics of skiagraphy.
The work of lecturer Rebecca Lowry will be on display at Los Angeles Gallery g825, opening October 15, and at Cain Schulte Gallery in San Francisco, opening November 3. The LA show will present a new body of work, focussing on representations of music, while the SF show will present a broad sampling of work from the last three years.
Visiting Professor Jennifer Siegal was awarded a Visions and Voices grant to produce the symposium Motopia: A New Age for Modular Construction to be held at USC on November, 2, 2011. Find out more at http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/893725.
UCLA Architecture Distinguished Professor Thom Mayne Awarded AIA Gold Medal
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design distinguished professor, Thom Mayne, has received the 2013 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal, considered to be among the profession’s highest honors an individual architect can receive. Mayne will be honored in March 2013 at a special event in Washington, D.C. as well as at the 2013 AIA National Convention in Denver.
Gold Medal recipients are individuals “whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture.” Mayne, known for his government and institutional projects, has brought his desire to push the definition of architecture and its role in a community to his UCLA students for more than 20 years.
“I connect research to my professional practice by engaging the UCLA students in real world projects that allow them to apply their intensive research and interact with professionals in the field,” Mayne explained.
Under Mayne’s direction, UCLA students have worked on innovative projects for the contemporary city covering the urban landscape of Los Angeles, profound growth of Madrid, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and integrating public policy and urban studies with contemporary culture in “Culture Now.”
Through Professor Mayne’s groundbreaking studios, outcomes have resulted in the 2005 Progressive Architecture Award for “L.A. Now: Volume Three and Volume Four” and the creation of the Float House in New Orleans – the first floating house permitted in the United States and an affordable, sustainable housing project for Brad Pitt’s Make It Right developed in collaboration with Mayne’s firm Morphosis.
In 2012, Thom Mayne established the Now Institute, which is embedded in UCLA Architecture and Urban Design. The Institute confronts the paradigm shift occurring at this moment in the field of architecture and on the constantly changing constitutions of cities and regions. Through yearlong studios, the Institute provides graduate students the opportunity to engage with government agencies and community partners in city-scale research and urban implementation.
Through the Now Institute, Mayne’s current research studio, Haiti Now, seeks to discover what urban planners and architects can do in the long-term rebuilding and recovery effort following the January 2010 earthquake. In November, Mayne and Now Institute director, Eui-Sung Yi, traveled to Haiti with nine UCLA graduate students to explore the role of culture in the reconstruction and community resilience.
In 2013-2014, Mayne, along with world-renowned architects and UCLA faculty Greg Lynn and Frank Gehry, will lead the first set of new SUPRASTUDIOs. Mayne’s studio builds on his previous UCLA research initiatives and will be the investigation of urban strategies to complex problems in modern, advanced metropolises and informal settlements, encompassing cities affected by the challenges of resilience, culture, sustainability and mobility.
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design (A.UD), part of UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture, pursues issues confronting contemporary architecture and urbanism through its bachelor’s of arts program in architectural studies and its four advanced degree programs: the master’s of architecture I, master’s of architecture II, master’s of arts in architecture and doctorate of philosophy in architecture. The programs’ primary focus on advanced design is complemented by concentrations in technology and critical studies of architectural culture.
Founded in 1912 by 10 charter members, ACSA is an international association of architecture schools preparing future architects, designers, and change agents. Our membership includes all of the accredited professional degree programs in the United States and Canada, as well as international schools and 2- and 4-year programs. Together ACSA schools represent some 7,000 faculty educating more than 40,000 students.
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