Dewey Thorbeck, Adjunct professor of architecture and director of the Center for Rural Design: Thorbeck’s book Rural Design: A New Design Discipline was named by Routledge as one of its 15 best selling architecture books in 2012. The book formed the basis for a Rural Design Exhibit displayed in the College of Design at the U of MN that will be transformed into a pop-up traveling exhibit. Thorbeck has also been invited to speak about rural design at the University of Manitoba School of Architecture; Manitoba Planning Conference in Winnipeg; Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio; and the American Planning Association national conference in Chicago.

Associate Professor John Comazzi (architecture) published a book on the life and career of Balthazar Korab, one of the most prolific and celebrated architecture photographers working in the second half of the twentieth century. The book, Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012), gives a detailed account of Korab’s circuitous path from his roots in Budapest Hungary, to his migration through war-torn Europe and his eventual move to the United States (1955) to work as designer and photographer in the office of Eero Saarinen and Associates (1955-58). The images in the book feature numerous portfolios of mid-century modern architecture and previously unpublished images of industrial and vernacular architecture from around the world. The book was partially funded by a Graham Foundation Grant and was recently listed by the Guardian UK in their list of “Best Architecture Books of 2012”

Architecture Faculty Awarded Imagine Fund Grants: Numerous members of the Architecture Faculty at the University of Minnesota secured Imagine Fund Grants of $5000 for research and project development. Below is a list of awardees and their grant titles:

Assistant Professor Blaine Brownell (Architecture) – Architectural Frontiers in China
Associate Professor Arthur Chen (Architecture) – Typological Study of Swahili Public Squares
Professor Renee Cheng (Architecture, Head) – Architecture in Modern China: Lost Art or Strong Tradition?
Assistant Professor Greg Donofrio (Architecture) – Market Forces: The History Behind the Infrastructure of What We Eat
Assistant Professor Benjamin Ibarra-Sevilla (Architecture) – Stonecutting Indigenous Artistry: the Sixteenth-Century Ribbed Vaults of la Mixteca, Mexico
Professor Lance LaVine (Architecture) – Analysis of Architectural Design Constructs 1927-Present
Assistant Professor Ozayr Saloojee (Architecture) – Constructing Muslim Space and Image in Cape Town (1794-1868)
Associate Professor Marc Swackhamer (Architecture) – Var Vac Wall System: an Installation in the School of Architecture

The School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota will celebrate the centennial of its founding. As we look past over our 100 years of education, we will also look forward to the next century of achievement and development. Weekend events will include architecture tours, lectures, exhibitions, and time to catch up with friends during celebration activities both on and off campus.

The College of Design at the University of Minnesota will host Public Interest Design Week – March 19-24, 2013 – set to take place on the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus. The University’s College of Design, in conjunction with Design Corps and PublicInterestDesign.org, announced last month what will be one of the largest gatherings public interest design advocates. In addition to keynotes by thought-leaders such as New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, D-Rev: Design Revolution CEO Krista Donaldson, and Liz Ogbu of California College of the Arts’ Center for Art & Public Life, among others, the inaugural Public Interest Design Week will feature a variety of events, symposia, and workshops.

The School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota launched a new MS in Research Practices Degree Program. Starting this spring, the School of Architecture will offer a new concentration in research practices within their master of science in architecture degree (MS-RP) for students starting the fall of 2013. The program aims at halving the amount of time from high school to licensure for architects–from an average of 14.5 years to 7. By offering this model, the School of Architecture nudges the profession toward true culture change, one that expects all students to be licensed upon graduation, regardless of their final career choices. It also takes advantage of recent changes to the National Council of Architectural Registration Board’s Intern Development Program and Architect Registration Examination, and leverages the historically strong connection between practice and academy in the Minneapolis/St Paul community. The new MS-RP was recently featured in articles that appeared in both Architect Magazine and Design Intelligence (written by Department Head, Renee Cheng).

The Architecture program at the University of Minnesota hosted another round of its yearly Catalyst program during the Spring Term 2013. The Catalysts program is an innovative feature of the School’s graduate M.Arch curriculum during which professional degree students in architecture step out of the day-to-day curriculum to work with small teams of faculty that encourage high-risk work. Each workshop is led by a host UMN faculty member in conjunction with an invited guest instructor from outside the University. The visiting faculty help provide novel insights and techniques for students, and they are typically recognized leaders within their field or specialty. Each guest also delivers a public lecture during the week.
This year’s Catalysts are organized under the broad theme of “”1913/2013/2113.”” The theme is inspired by the School’s upcoming Centennial in 2013, and guests included:
1. Daniel S. Friedman, Ph.D., FAIA, Dean of the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington
2. Nathan Miller, Director of Computational Design at CASE
3. Kiel Moe, Assistant Professor, Harvard GSD
4. Billie Faircloth,  AIA, Research Director at KieranTimberlake
5. Karen Lewis, The Ohio State University
6. Barry Kudrowitz, Assistant Professor of product design, University of Minnesota

This spring the College of Design at the University of Minnesota expanded its program in Istanbul, Turkey to a full-semester course. Architecture and landscape architecture students, led by Associate Professor Ozayr Saloojee (Architecture) and Lecturer Brad Agee (Landscape Architecture), spent their first 5 weeks in Rome, Italy, after which they will travel to Istanbul, where they’ll spend the next 11 weeks exploring the architectural and landscape fabrics of the vibrant, historical city.
In development since 2006, the program’s evolution into a full-semester was made possible with gifts from Mark and Nedret Butler (both B.Arch ’72), Peggy and Dave Lucas, Paul and Mary Reyelts, Ertugrul and Karen Owen Tuzcu, Vickie Abrahamson, and Dan Avchen (B.Arch ’72).