Events
EXHIBIT
February 19 through March 9
[FAKE] FAKE Estates
Martin Hogue
Mebane Gallery, Goldsmith Hall
LECTURE
Wednesday, March 21
Scott Specht and Louise Harpman
Spect/Harpman
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.
Sponsored by Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum
LECTURE
Wednesday, March 28
Charles Gwathmey
Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects
University Teaching Center, 7:00 p.m.
LECTURE
Monday, April 2
Billie Faircloth
UT-Austin
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.
Sponsored by Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum
SYMPOSIUM
March 2, 2007
Sanctioning Modernism:
A Symposium on Post-WWII Architecture
Keynote Speaker
Dennis Doordan
Professor and Chair, Department of Art,
Art History and Design
Professor, School of Architecture
University of Notre Dame
The history of modernism in architecture has been told many times over. While reductive partisan histories have been subjected to rigorous critique, a fuller picture has emerged only to result in a multiplication of modernisms--canonical, alternative, regional, and otherwise. The very conception of modernism as a historical phenomenon remains unclear. Ever present, however, is the issue of identity.
It is our conviction that the interrelation between modernism and identity--including the production, development, and interpretation of each--is in need of focused and systematic study. The years following the Second World War constitute a distinctively rich period for such study.
The symposium will address three specific settings of sanctioning modernism:
- political appropriation of modernism in official institutional architecture
- religious appropriation of modernism in ecclesiastical architecture in light of liturgical reform and theological modernism
- consumer appropriation of modernism in middle class residential architecture and furnishings
The symposium will be free and open to the public. For more information, visit: http://soa.utexas.edu/sanctioningmodernism or contact Timothy Parker at tkparker@mail.utexas.edu.
EXHIBIT
January 26 through August 24
Visual Resources Collection
Sutton 3.128 (Monday-Friday, 8-5)
"Frozen Notes: the Photography of Frederick R. Steiner"
This exhibit features a selection of black and white photographs printed from 35mm Scala slides taken by the School of Architecture's Dean Frederick Steiner. Regarding his photographic pursuits, Dean Steiner says, "I seldom think about taking pictures, it is something I just do. Through my camera, I am an observer of the contemporary urban condition. Mostly, I take pictures of buildings and landscapes. I suppose my pictures might be viewed as abbreviated forms of architecture."
Dean Steiner is the Henry M. Rockwell Chair in Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin. During his tenure as a National Endowment for the Arts Prize Fellow in Rome in 1998, his love for photography was rekindled, and he has been photographing ever since.
CENTER FORUMS
The Center for American Architecture and Design hosts a Friday Forum Series from 12:00 to 1:30 in the Center's Battle Hall Conference Room (room 101).
Throughout the fall and spring semesters, faculty, visitors, and graduate students at the School of Architecture offer their latest work up for freewheeling discussion and debate, with subjects varying from architectural practice, design, design theory, to the arts, planning, and the politics and economics of development.
The idea is for faculty and students to meet in an informal atmosphere to debate and freely discuss topics "hot" on the minds of the speakers. Forum topics/titles are confirmed a week prior to each forum date. Visit the Center website (http://www.utexas.edu/architecture/center/lunch_forums) for updates. The remaining spring 2007 schedule includes:
- March 9, Chris Long
- March 30, Lynn Osgood
- April 13, Mirka Beneš
- April 27, Dennis Doxtater
- May 4, Smilja Milovanovic
The Friday Forum is also webcast live (visit the Center's web address above), and you are invited to call in live with questions or comments during the discussion at 512-471-9890.
CITY FORUMS
City Forum is an urban issues speaker series hosted by the School's Community and Regional Planning Program. The bi-monthly program features discussions of contemporary urban issues with national and local perspectives. During the spring of 2007, the program will be held on selected Fridays from 12:00 noon until 1:30 p.m. in the Texas Union Board of Directors Room, 4.118 (on Guadalupe Street between 22nd and 24th Streets).
- March 2, Michael Gatto, Foundation Communities, "Connecting the Dots: Planning for Affordable Housing in Texas Cities."
Michael Gatto [M.Arch. '01] is an intern architect at Foundation Communities and President of the Austin Community Design and Development Center. Foundation Communities is an Austin-based non-profit regional affordable housing provider whose mission is to create housing where families succeed. Michael joined Foundation Communities as a Rose Architectural Fellow in 2003 with the intent of adding a sustainable design focus to their building projects. In addition, he recently founded the Austin Community Design and Development Center, a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for all by providing sustainable design, development, and planning services to low and moderate-income individuals, families, and neighborhoods. He will discuss his experiences as a Rose Fellow and the synergies and challenges of designing and building sustainable affordable housing.
The City Forum schedule is available at: http://www.utcityforum.org. For more information on the City Forum Speaker Series or to be added to the email list, contact Sungmin Lee at sungminlee@mail.utexas.edu.
FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
It was recently announced that Lecturer Joyce Rosner has been awarded the 2007 Gabriel Prize. Each year, the Western European Architecture Foundation awards the Gabriel Prize—a $17,500 grant for the study of classical architecture and landscape in France. Prize winners embark on a three-month itinerary of their own devising. While abroad, Gabriel laureates focus on a particular aspect of French architecture.
Prize winners spend much of their sabbatical sketching, measuring, and, in the course of three months, producing three large renderings. In the process, each laureate comes to know some of the masterpieces of France.
The Gabriel program reflects the vision of its extraordinary founder, George Parker, Jr. Parker was an American patriot, a Texan, and a Francophile. He believed passionately in the humanizing power of classical architecture and strove to find some way to bring its spirit back to the United States. The Foundation and the Gabriel Prize are the fruits of that effort.
Visiting Associate Professor Sergio Palleroni is among nine artists recently awarded fellowships by the Smithsonian Institution to conduct research at Smithsonian museums and research facilities as part of a new Artist Research Fellowship Program.
Professor Palleroni conducts architectural design-and-build workshops around the world in marginalized communities. Collaborating at the Smithsonian Photography Initiative, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Museum of African Art, Palleroni will research design that can benefit communities in need throughout the United States.
"We know that plantations were often built and designed by the slaves that would work on them and that there is a rich tradition among the Amish, Quakers, and other early Pennsylvania groups in community barn raising," said Palleroni. "These are a few examples (of design) that illustrate a rich and diverse tradition and a range of ethnicities and cultures that make up this country.
"My hope is to begin to create an autobiography of our experience in this country—which is, in a sense, the roots of my own work teaching design-and-build studios."
The artists were selected from a pool of 27 nominees by a panel of art curators and administrators from the Smithsonian and from various other institutions. The paid fellowships amount to $5,000 a month for up to six months.
Lecturer Rachael Rawlins's article, "Institutionalizing Mitigated FONSI's, A Precautionary Tale," was accepted for publication in the Environmental Law Reporter.
A session topic proposed by Assistant Professor Ulrich Dangel was recently accepted for inclusion in the 2008 ACSA Annual Meeting in Houston. Together with Department Head and Associate Professor Christine Theodoropoulos from the University of Oregon, he will be hosting a paper session titled "Architecture Among Disaster."
Dr. Nancy Kwallek, Director of Interior Design, is chairing the 44th Annual International Conference of the Interior Design Educators Council, with co-chair Associate Professor Carl Matthews, at the Hilton Austin, March 6-11. An opening reception will be held in the Goldsmith Hall atrium the evening of March 7. The conference theme is "Design and Social Justice" with keynote speaker, Bryan Bell of Design Corps. The closing keynote is by Sam Davis, University of California at Berkeley. Sam has written three books on housing: Form of Housing, The Architecture of Affordable Housing, and Designing for the Homeless.
Lecturer Nik Nikolov just returned from the "Symposium on Architecture for the 21st Century," which was held at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, February 21-23. He gave a lecture on the construction of meaning in architecture and popular myth. By looking at a series of film exerpts, the discussion focused on how space can be used to one's advantage and how one can use architecture in an empowering way—to get satisfaction and to gain control.
Professor Michael Garrison also attended the "Symposium on Architecture for the 21st Century." He gave a talk on the evolution of the UT SolarD houses of 2002, 2005, and the forthcoming 2007.
ALUMNUS RECOGNIZED FOR PHILANTHROPY
"Everyone Can Be A Philanthropist." Howard and Rosalyn Parker in the March/April 2007 issue of Alcalde.
You can be a philanthropist, too. Howard Parker [B.Arch. '53] and Rosalyn Haney Parker are featured in the March/April 2007 issue of Alcalde, UT-Austin's alumni magazine, published by TexasExes http://www.texasexes.org/alcalde/#). They met as UT students in 1949 and married two years later. Howard was studying architecture and Rosalyn radio-television.
Howard launched his career as an architect with support from his mentor and former professor, Joseph Robert Buffler. Later he joined with a partner to start their own firm in Dallas.
Now the Parkers are honoring Buffler by creating opportunities for other aspiring architects. They have established a bequest for a scholarship in Buffler's name that will help UT architecture students visit and study the world's architectural wonders.
"In a book, you don't see changing shadows, you see lines. When you see a building in three dimensions, you see real architecture. That's a valuable and exciting experience for students," says Howard.
It's easier than ever to support the School of Architecture and our many programs and centers. Please visit our new, secure online giving page at:
https://utdirect.utexas.edu/nlogon/vip/ogp.WBX?menu=AT.
ALUMNI NEWS
CLASS OF 1957 REUNION
Title page of the 1957 UT-Austin yearbook, Cactus. The theme was the "Greatest Show on Earth."
On Thursday, April 26, and Friday, April 27, the Class of 1957 will reunite on The University of Texas at Austin campus to celebrate a 50-year class reunion. The Texas Exes have planned two days of events and tributes, including a visit to the School of Architecture for our alumni. Bill Booziotis [B.Arch. '57] is representing the School of Architecture on the reunion committee, and he and other UTSOA alumni are planning an exciting extended menu of events.
Official invitations have been mailed and additional details will be announced soon for School of Architecture activities. If you did not receive an invitation, or you have questions about the School's reception, please contact Stephanie Palmer at 512-471-0617 or stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu. For details regarding the entire schedule of events, visit the Texas Exes website at http://www.texasexes.org, or contact Whitney Airaudi at 1-888-628-0003.
FRIENDS OF ARCHITECTURE
French Quarter, New Orleans, 2007. Photo courtesy New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Through unique tours of architecture and design, Friends of Architecture members have the opportunity to advance their architectural appreciation and knowledge, while directly supporting excellence at the School of Architecture. FOA is organizing another exciting year of architectural adventures, including "Rebuilding New Orleans," which due to unforeseen circumstances must be rescheduled from its original date in March. Tour guide Reed Kroloff, Dean of the School of Architecture at Tulane University, is organizing exclusive visits to both the important architecture that was spared by Hurricane Katrina and an introduction to new and emerging designs. Dates for New Orleans and FOA's other upcoming tours will be announced soon, and the latest tour and membership information is always available at http://www.friendsofarchitecture.org.
Friends of Architecture's upcoming tours include:
- Rebuilding New Orleans - late May/early June 2007
- Modernist Palm Springs - early November 2007
- Austin, Texas - February 2008
- Seattle, Washington - July 2008
DEAN'S JOURNAL
During the past two weeks, I have devoted considerable time to the Sustainable Sites Initiative and Envision Central Texas. In addition to serving on the overall Product Development Committee, charged with coordinating the effort, I am on the Soils Technical Subcommittee. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the American Society of Landscape Architecture are staffing the Sustainable Sites Initiative, developing LEED-like standards for landscapes.
In addition to executive committee meetings, the whole Envision Central Texas board gathered on February 21. Highlights of the meeting included updates of Austin's Sustainable City Initiative by planning commission chair Cid Galindo and an overview of rural concerns by Caldwell County Judge H. T. Wright. On Friday, February 23, I participated in an Envision Central Texas breakfast update presentation to Hays County leaders at the San Marcos Activity Center.
James Charnley House, Chicago, Illinois. The additional bay on the right side was added to the originally symmetrical façade after the demolition of the adjacent building. Photograph courtesy of Historic American Buildings Survey, U.S. National Park Service.
On February 16 and 17, I attended in the Center for American Places Board Meeting at the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) headquarters in Chicago. We met at the Adler and Sullivan-designed James Charnley House (1892). We discussed our ongoing book publishing projects with SAH as well as the university presses of Chicago, Virginia, and Georgia. We also reviewed the progress toward merging the Center with Columbia College Chicago and establishing a new editorial board for our book publishing activities.
On Monday, February 19, the UT-Austin Deans' Council met in the Stark Library of the Main Building with President Bill Powers and Provost Steve Leslie. We continued discussion about development and facilities. President Powers provided an update on legislative activities affecting the University. We also reviewed progress being made for a National Research Council (NRC) assessment of doctoral programs. The NRC review will include Community and Regional Planning for the first time as an "emerging field."
Later, the School faculty met to discuss graduate programs in interior design. We approved amending our existing M.S. in Architectural Studies degree to add an Interior Design concentration. This MSASID will be research based. We continued to refine ideas for a design-focused Master of Interior Design, which will be a professional degree.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C. Photograph courtesy of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall web page, operated by the 4/9 Infantry Manchu (Vietnam) Association.
The next day, February 20, I met at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to discuss implementation of our gardens master plan. The author of that plan, landscape architect Gary Smith, worked with Wildflower Center and University staff on the first two elements of the plan--a children's garden and a Texas arboretum.
On Thursday, February 22, I gave a lunch talk to a delegation from the Boise Chamber of Commerce. Boise calls itself "the little Austin." Civic leaders reported that they visited Austin to learn from its "big brother" about our planning, design, and development initiatives. Later in the day, I was joined by Associate Dean Kent Butler and Lecturer Elizabeth Danze from the School and City of Austin Mayor Will Wynn at a reception for the Boise visitors.
Yesterday, February 28, I attended George Sexton's lecture on lighting and architecture. His Washington, D.C.-based firm has contributed to 150 art museums, including the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth. Mr. Sexton also described his work on a wide variety of projects in North America and Europe. He illustrated the principle that "buildings should act as lanterns" through projects like the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Munich. Mr. Sexton's portfolio includes many landscape projects, such as his relighting of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial so that the names on the black granite could be read at night. He noted that often the "best lighting for a project was less lighting," a principle derived from the Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows (1933). Mr. Sexton described how his work increasingly considers energy conservation and how important lighting design is for reducing energy consumption.
—Fritz Steiner
CONTACTS
UT-Austin School of Architecture
soa.utexas.edu
Dean's Office
512-471-1922, fax 512-471-0716
Center for American Architecture and Design
512-471-9890, christinewong@mail.utexas.edu
Center for Sustainable Development
512-475-8013, utcsd@mail.utexas.edu
Assistant Dean for Development
Julie Hooper, 512-471-6114, jhooper@austin.utexas.edu
Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs
Jeanne Crawford, 512-471-0109, jcraw@mail.utexas.edu
Graduate Program Coordinator
Rosemin Gopaul, 512-471-0134, gopaul@mail.utexas.edu
Publications Editor
Pamela Peters, 512-471-0154, p.peters@mail.utexas.edu
Friends of Architecture Director and Alumni Coordinator
Stephanie Palmer, 512-471-0617, stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu
Career Placement Director
Carrie O'Malley, 512-471-1333, carrie.omalley@austin.utexas.edu
Materials Lab
http://soa.utexas.edu/matlab, 512-232-5969
Architecture and Planning Library
www.lib.utexas.edu/apl/, 512-495-4620
Director of Photography
Charlotte Pickett, c.pickett@mail.utexas.edu
Webmaster
Christopher Rankin, crankin@mail.utexas.edu, 512-495-4620
UTSOA Mailing Address
The University of Texas at Austin
School of Architecture
1 University Station B7500
Austin, TX 78712-0222
