UTSOA SCHOOL-WIDE CHARRETTE
Winning "UTSOA Coffee Shop" charrette entry, "Bean 3," by Jeff Finn and Chad Gnant.
Last weekend, The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture held a charrette for all students enrolled at the UTSOA. The topic of the design inquiry was how to better the environment of the School of Architecture, and more specifically, how to implement a small coffee shop into the School. It is the hope that this charrette will result in a real project for the School of Architecture.
On Monday morning, March 26, Dean Fritz Steiner, Professor Larry Speck, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Danze, and Associate Dean Kevin Alter judged the charrette and had a lively discussion about it.
There were 26 entries that were the combined work of 54 students at the School of Architecture. Students came from the undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture, the interior design program, and the landscape architecture program.
A wide array of work was submitted. In addition to the exuberance and interest one gleans from the collection, the entries also revealed students' criticisms of the School's facilities, as well as what they liked. In part, the charrette allowed the judges the opportunity to see the School through the eyes of the students.
While most of the proposals were serious proposals for how to improve the School's facilities through the implementation of a coffee shop, there were entries with other agendas, as well. The jury saw and appreciated a lot of humor throughout the entries, as well as a series of entries that focused more on needs and changes that UTSOA might consider, than on the actual program the charrette called for. Giving the students the opportunity to consider the site for this project became a vehicle to look at the entire School and consider its strengths and opportunities.
Winners:
Jeff Finn and Chad Gnant, "Bean 3"
Jurors' comments: This entry was the unanimous choice of the jury. The critics praised the proposal's flexibility and ability to be discrete when not in use. We were mostly impressed with the proposal's form and material presence. The choice of an abstract form of stainless steel that unfolds was very well received and worked especially well in contrast to the weightiness of Goldsmith Hall. The committee praised the scheme's thoroughness and quality of presentation. It proposes a careful scheme in an underutilized space and makes the most of it. The proposal would also create a good interface with the campus, as it would connect the School with the larger constituency of UT through opening to the public space between Goldsmith and the West Mall Office Building. The jury also really appreciated this project's architectural ambition to make a seemingly perfunctory project something very special. Similarly, the jury appreciated the inclusion of greening of hard spaces.
Honorable Mentions:
Team #18 Doug Campbell
Team #25 Ross Weinert
Team #8 Kimberly Tseng and Adam Martin
Team #21 Andrew Danziger, Craig Reid, and Sourav Biswas
The winners and honorable mentions will receive certificates. The winners will also receive a $100 gift certificate for books, and the honorable mentions will receive $20 coffee cards. The charrette was sponsored by the Sid W. Richardson Centennial Professorship and the Summer Academy in Architecture.
CLASS OF 1957 REUNION
Bill Booziotis (left) and Pat Holden (right), Class of 1957 reunion co-organizers, pictured in the 1957 Cactus yearbook.
Bill Booziotis [B.Arch. '57] and Pat Holden [B.Arch. '57], School of Architecture co-chairs for the Class of 1957 reunion, invite all who graduated in or near 1957 to join them for an unforgettable 50th anniversary celebration. Events will kick off on Wednesday, April 25, with a pre-reunion cocktail reception at the Hotel San José at 6:00 p.m. On Thursday, April 26, participants will join all University classes for a full day of tours and events, including lunch with University President William Powers and Dean Fritz Steiner. Following lunch, School of Architecture alumni will be treated to a walk down memory lane at the Alexander Architectural Archive. They'll also have the opportunity to see the ever-changing campus with tours of some of our newer facilities and a special viewing of Peter Walker and Partners Landscape Architects' model for a proposed redevelopment of Speedway and the East Mall into a more student friendly, visual, and green space. On Friday, April 27, at the conclusion of University-wide tours and events, alumni will join the meeting of the School of Architecture Advisory Council for presentations by UTSOA faculty, a lecture by Tim Blonkvist [B.Arch. '81], Overland Partners, and dinner at the Moore/Andersson Compound.
50-YEAR REUNION SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Wednesday, April 25
6:00 - 9:00 p.m. Pre-reunion cocktail reception, Hotel San José
Thursday, April 26
7:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Welcome breakfast, followed by offerings of tours and classes
12:15 p.m - 2:00 p.m. Lunch with President Powers and Dean Steiner, Texas Union Ballroom
2:00 - 3:30 p.m. School of Architecture tours
6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Dinner and entertainment, Alumni Center
Friday, April 27
8:15 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Breakfast, offerings of tours and classes, and lunch with Dr. John Silber
2:00 - 5:00 p.m. School of Architecture Advisory Council activities
5:00 - 6:00 p.m. Lecture by Tim Blonkvist, Overland Partners
7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Dinner with School of Architecture Advisory Council at the Moore/Andersson Compound
For additional details, visit the Texas Exes website at http://www.texasexes.org, or contact Stephanie Palmer at stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu or 512-471-0617 with questions.
Events
LECTURE
Thursday, April 12
Angelo Bucci
São Paolo, Brazil
Goldsmith 3.120, 4:00 p.m.
Sponsored by O'Neil Ford Chair.
Lecture Title: "Recent Projects by SPBR"
Angelo Bucci has been the named architect with the University of São Paulo since 1987 and the founder and principal in charge of SPBR Arquitetos since 2003. In addition, he has been a professor at the University of São Paulo, FAUUSP; and visiting professor at the Andres Bello University in Santiago, Chile; Cuenca University in Cuenca, Ecuador; University of California Berkeley; Arizona State University at Phoenix; and Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2006, he won first prize for the competition for the New Library of PUC University in Rio De Janeiro.
LECTURE
Friday, April 13
Sean Godsell
Sean Godsell Architects
Melbourne, Australia
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.
Lecture Title: "The Australian Myth"
The myth of the Australian outback underpins but at the same time masks the reality of Australia in the twenty first century—more a multi-cultural melting pot of South East Asia than remote colonial outpost.
Sean Godsell graduated with First Class Honours from the University of Melbourne in 1984 and spent much of 1985 traveling in Japan and Europe. From 1986 to 1988, he worked in London for Sir Denys Lasdun. In 1989, he returned to Melbourne and worked for The Hassell Group. In 1994, he formed Godsell Associates Pty. Ltd. Architects.
Godsell received a Masters of Architecture degree from RMIT University in 1999. His work has been exhibited in Denmark, London, and Switzerland. In 2000, he won the RAIA Award of Merit (residential new) for the Carter/Tuck House, and his work was featured in the ABC-TV documentary "In the Mind of the Architect." His "Future Shack" modular house received a commendation award at the 2001 RAIA awards. In July 2002, the influential English design magazine wallpaper* listed him as one of ten people destined to "change the way we live." He was the only Australian and the only architect in the group. He has lectured and taught in the U.S. and at the RIBA in London. His work has been published in the world's leading architectural journals including Architectural Review, Architectural Record, Domus, A+U, Casabella, GA Houses, and Architecti. In Copenhagen, in November 2002, he received the AR+D award for emerging architects for his Peninsula House, which also received an RAIA Architecture Award in 2003. His Woodleigh School Science Building received the RAIA William Wardell Award for Institutional Buildings and Commendation RAIA national award for Public Buildings in 2003.
"BOOKS & BUILDINGS" SYMPOSIUM
Cover of Professor Steven Moore's new book, Alternative Routes to the Sustainable City.
Wednesday, April 18
2:00-5:00 p.m., presentation and responses
Prothro Theater
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
21st & Guadalupe Streets
Reception will follow in the North Atrium.
Book:
Alternative Routes to the Sustainable City: Austin, Curitiba, and Frankfurt
by Steven A. Moore
Guest Commentators
Barbara Allen, Associate Professor, Virginia Tech
Michael Oden, Associate Professor of Community and Regional Planning, UT-Austin
SPACE + MIND SYMPOSIUM:
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Architecture
and Architectural Perspectives on Psychoanalysis
Friday, April 20, and Saturday, April 21
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Mebane Gallery, Goldsmith Hall
Dream homes? Is your home a symbol of yourself?
Buildings are not just things we live in. They are things that enter our deepest consciousness and make us feel certain ways. They stand for us, as well as stand up for us. Psychoanalysts are interested in the kinds of places that have significance in our lives, places that enter our psyche not just because significant things happened to us in them, but because our dreams and thoughts are full of images that might be seen as architectural and spatial at the core: images of safety, exposure, danger, permanence, history, elation, enclosure, special views, reflections, rooms, and so forth. At the same time, architects have to care about people’s identities and memories, hopes and dreams. They want to know how spaces and minds interact, in schools that help learning, in homes that help families be whole, in workplaces that help give us dignity, and so forth.
Come and hear psychoanalysts and architects explore these themes together at the Space + Mind Symposium at The University of Texas at Austin.
Event Organizers: Elizabeth Danze, Michael Benedikt, Stephen Sonnenberg
Event Coordinator: Christine Wong
Invited Speakers:
Esther da Costa Meyer, Ph.D., Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University
Ellen Handler Spitz, Ph.D., Honors College, Professor of Visual Arts, University of Maryland
Peter Loewenberg, Ph.D., Modern European Culture and Intellectual History, UCLA; New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles
Nancy D. Olson, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology, Muriel Gardiner Program in Psychoanalysis and the Humanities, Yale University
Joseph Rykwert, Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
John Shannon Hendrix, Department of Art, Architectural Design and History, Roger Williams University; Rhode Island School of Design
Mark D. Smaller, Ph.D., Director, Neuro-Psychoanalysis Foundation, Chicago
Sponsored by The Center for American Architecture and Design. Please call 512-471-9890 or email caad@lists.cc.utexas.edu for further information.
LECTURE
Wednesday, April 25
Eric DeLony
Historic American Engineering Record
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.
Sponsored by Cathedral Stone Products.
LECTURE
Friday, April 27
Tim Blonkvist
Overland Partners
San Antonio
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.
LECTURE
Monday, April 30
Patricio Mardones
São Paolo, Brazil
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.
EXHIBIT
April 16 through May 4
Four Chilean Architects
Patricio Mardones
Mebane Gallery, Goldsmith Hall
EXHIBIT
Confucian Temple, Beijing, China, September 2005. Photograph by Fritz Steiner.
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:
- April 6, Lynn Osgood, "Democracy, Doodads & Design: Public Design Meets the Virtual Age"
- 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.
FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
The Friar Society at The University of Texas at Austin announced Thursday, March 29, that Professor Lawrence Speck is the recipient of the 21st Annual Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship. The FCTF Selection Committee believes that Professor Speck exemplifies the criteria given by the Friar Society to select a professor who, first and foremost, has attained distinction in the teaching of undergraduates, as well as made a significant contribution to the University of Texas. The fellowship is the largest award for undergraduate teaching excellence at the University.
Professor Speck has been teaching undergraduates at The University of Texas at Austin for over 30 years. Since 1975, he has touched the lives of thousands of students through his mentorship, leadership, and teaching. His lower-division course, "Architecture and Society," is a landmark class at the University that inspires many undergraduates to transfer to the School of Architecture. Professor Speck has done much to develop the School of Architecture, having served as Assistant Dean for two years and Dean for nine. Professor Speck has already been recognized with a myriad of awards, including the Chancellor's Council Teaching Award and the Outstanding Teaching Award in the School of Architecture; he was made a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 2004.
The Friar Society, established in 1911, is the oldest honor society at the University. Its members, who include many of the state's most prominent business persons, academics, professionals, and public officials, contributed the funds necessary to endow the Centennial Teaching Fellowship and obtain matching centennial funds from the Board of Regents.
University administrators and students met at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, March 29, to surprise Professor Speck in his 12:30-2 "Architecture and Society" class in Homer Rainey Hall. Class was interrupted by five members of the Longhorn Band playing "The Eyes of Texas," and the award was presented. Professor Speck dismissed the class early.
Professor Speck is the second from the School of Architecture to receive this honor. Professor David Heymann was the recipient of the 17th Annual Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship in 2003.
Miró Rivera Architects' "Guest House" Project. Photograph provided by Miró Rivera Architects.
The Guest House and the Pedestrian Bridge projects of Associate Professor Juan Miró/Miró Rivera Architects are featured in the April edition of Architectural Digest. The article, "A Natural Accord," describes how the lakeside setting influenced and inspired the architects' design of both structures. The photography captures the home as a respectful object in the landscape, co-existing with the existing vegetation and wild life.
Professor Patricia Wilson recently completed her year-and-a-half-long action research project on participatory recovery planning for post-Katrina New Orleans. Her project covered early grassroots neighborhood recovery planning, the Duany charrette, the city-sponsored participatory planning efforts in flooded neighborhoods, and the city-wide Unified New Orleans Plan. She received a $20,000 research grant from AmericaSpeaks for an evaluation of the UNOP community congresses, involving over 3000 New Orleanians in four diaspora cities and New Orleans itself. Directing a team of 15 researchers, Dr. Wilson completed a written report with her original research on the participatory process and its implications for resilient communities that will be submitted for publication.
This spring Dr. Wilson received a Fulbright senior specialist award, along with a Hogg grant and a Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) grant, to launch her new study of resilient communities with a focus on rapid growth settlements in ecologically fragile lands in Peru. She began her field work over spring break, with field work in new squatter settlements on the outskirts of Piura, a coastal city subject to flooding from El Nino. With the grant from LLILAS, she organized an international research symposium on resilient communities held at UT-Austin on March 30. She invited three colleagues from the Graduate School of Architecture and Planning at the Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria in Lima to speak at the symposium and spend a week at UT for collaborative research.
Professor Anthony Alofsin has been named a Fellow of the Bogliasco Foundation and invited to work for a month at the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities outside Genoa, Italy, during the fall of 2007.
ALUMNI NEWS
ALUMNI RECEPTION AT THE AIA CONVENTION
Thursday, May 3
Lucifer Lighting Company
3720 IH 35 North
San Antonio
5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Sponsored by Lucifer Lighting Company.
This year, the American Institute of Architects will host their national convention in San Antonio, Texas. Dean Fritz Steiner invites all alumni of the School of Architecture to attend a cocktail reception on Thursday, May 3, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Lucifer Lighting Company will host the reception at their new, meticulously renovated headquarters at 3750 IH 35 North.
We hope you will join us for this opportunity to reminisce with fellow alumni and for an exclusive look inside Lucifer Lighting Company—a significant redesign of the former Pace Foods manufacturing facility. Working with Jackson & Ryan Architects, Houston, and Gensler, Dallas, Lucifer Lighting Company helped to reinvent the facility that was originally designed by Ford Powell and Carson. The renovation created an inviting, healthier, and more efficient office environment that they hope will allow them to achieve a LEED Silver certification. In recognition of their efforts, AIA has even made Lucifer Lighting Company one of their featured tour offerings during the convention.
If you have questions or would like to RSVP, please contact Stephanie Palmer at 512-471-0617 or stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu.
Even if you will not participate in the AIA convention, you are welcome to join us!
ALUMNI UPDATES
Frank Moreland [B.Arch. '63] has designed a series of earth-bermed and earth-covered homes throughout Texas and served as contractor for their specially designed concrete structures for more than 20 years. His dwellings have been featured in newspapers, magazines, and television. A former professor of architecture, Mr. Moreland has published studies on earth-covered buildings for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. His eight books on Earth-Integrated buildings and dwellings can be downloaded free of charge at http://moreland-usa.com/.
Marc Cucco [B.Arch. '06] was admitted to Yale School of Architecture for the M.Arch. II program for fall 2007.
Lisa Pauli [B.S.I.D. '04] was admitted to the M.Arch. program at MIT for fall 2007.
FRIENDS OF ARCHITECTURE
French Quarter, New Orleans, 2007. Photo courtesy New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Friends of Architecture presents
"Re-New Orleans"
May 25-27, 2007
The Crescent City is back, and Friends of Architecture is prepared to show you New Orleans like you've never seen it before! With the guidance of renowned architectural commentators, educators, and local residents, FOA's exclusive tour will provide members with a first-hand account of the extensive impact Hurricane Katrina had on one of the nation's most unique coastal cities. The effect on this city's distinctive architecture can be felt from the most devastated areas that are still struggling to get back on their feet, to neighborhoods that were comparably untouched. Reed Kroloff [M.Arch. '86], Dean of the School of Architecture at Tulane University, has designed a comprehensive tour of the broad spectrum of New Orleans' architecture and design. FOA's weekend will include visits to the Garden District, the Ogden Museum, and several remarkable private residences. In addition, we will look at extraordinary post-Katrina designs by students of the UT-Austin School of Architecture and of Tulane University. And of course, there will be private cocktail receptions and plenty of traditional French Quarter dining and entertainment!
You won't want to miss this tour! To inquire about additional details or Friends of Architecture membership, contact FOA Director Stephanie Palmer at stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu or 512-471-0617. To pay a deposit, guaranteeing your space on this exclusive tour, visit http://utdirect.utexas.edu/txshop/item_details.WBX?cart_id=0ATSYMPOS&dept_
prefix=AT&item_id=26&cat_seq_chosen=02&subcategory_seq_chosen=000&r_
cust_service_url=
DEAN'S JOURNAL
Spring is in the air. Blooming "saucer" magnolia trees, Goldsmith Hall courtyard. Photograph by Marsha Miller.
On Friday, March 23, I attended the University Development Board meeting at the Pickle Research Campus. UT-Austin President Bill Powers updated the Board on the current Legislative Session. The University's research accomplishments were emphasized. In order to expand research across the University, more support for faculty and graduate students is necessary. The deans worked with the Development Board on strategic planning to enhance the University's human capital.
On Sunday afternoon, March 25, I attended a reception for John King, the urban design reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. Mr. King was in Austin for a lecture at the College of Communications. He was interested in design and planning issues facing Austin.
The next morning I participated in a jury reviewing the results of a charrette organized by Associate Dean for Graduate Students Kevin Alter. The student charrette involved the design of a coffee bar for the School. Fellow jurists Professor Larry Speck and Assistant Professor Elizabeth Danze joined Kevin and me on the review of 25 entries from 54 students. The designs displayed considerable humor and thoughtful criticism. The entries revealed cherished places and underused spaces in the School.
That afternoon, I participated in a "Books & Buildings" symposium recognizing Larry Speck's new Technology, Sustainability, and Cultural Identity [Edizioni Press]. Larry recounted the influence of his teachers at MIT and noted that the book seeks to explain "why I approach architecture the way I do." He described his evolution from reading, traveling, and studying on to expository writing; then dialogue about ideas with colleagues and students; which resulted in writings about his ideas; and the influence on his design and building. Larry observed that he rethinks and rewrites constantly.
Tulane Dean Reed Kroloff [M.Arch. '86] followed Larry's introduction. Reed described the importance of the School's journal, CENTER, both on Larry's evolution as an architect, as well as the School's influence. According to Reed, the critical regionalism advocated by Larry possesses seven characteristics: (1) context is critical; (2) history matters; (3) history matters, but style does not; (4) craft matters; (5) no building is an island; (6) modernism is good; and (7) but postmodern is good, too. Reed concluded that Larry's philosophy can be summarized as follows: "an architect must bind people to place in some fundamental way, a regional modernism that is practical."
Elizabeth Danze followed Dean Kroloff. As a former student of Larry's, who also worked in his firm, Elizabeth noted: "Larry's love for architecture comes out of his teaching."
University of Oklahoma Associate Professor Hans Butzer [B.Arch. '90] came next. Professor Butzer described the humility, clarity, and calm in Larry's architecture, observing that "his work has moved from regionalism to critical regionalism."
After discussion among panel members and between the panel and the audience, Larry described four new explorations that currently engaged him, including materials and details, buildings in landscapes, skins, and radical mixed uses.
On Wednesday morning, Associate Dean for Research and Facilities Kent Butler, Assistant Dean for Administration Jeff Evelyn, Design Workshop Supervisor Mike Farmer, and I met with Vice President for Employee and Campus Services Pat Clubb, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Hegarty, and Executive Vice President & Provost Steve Monti about School space and facilities planning. Among other topics, we discussed the approaching 100th anniversary of Battle Hall in 2011 and its need for renovation.
Afterwards, Pat Clubb and I met with University of Texas System and University of Texas at Dallas representatives about the Dallas Urban Lab. From that meeting, I went to lunch with Vice President for Development Rick Eason, Associate Vice President for Development Phil Oswald, and Assistant Dean for Development Julie Hooper. We discussed development and fundraising strategies for the School.
On March 28, Kent Butler, Professor Sinclair Black, and I met with Gabriel Báez [B.Arch. '74] who is director of urban planning for Santo Domingo Norte in the Dominican Republic. He is interested in tools to improve planning in his homeland.
That evening, I attended the Co-op's Hamilton Book Awards, which recognizes books and research accomplishments of the university faculty. Elizabeth Danze's book, Psychoanalysis and Architecture (edited with Jerome A. Winer and James William Anderson and published by Mental Health Resources), was nominated. Other School nominees included Professor Anthony Alofsin for outstanding career research accomplishments and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies Louise Harpman for best research paper of the year.
The next morning, I attended an "Eggs and Issues" breakfast organized and hosted by the Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA). Associate Dean Louise Harpman and Assistant Professor Jason Sowell are working with graduate student Brett Koenig on a site study for Wooldridge Park. This funded research project specifically addresses the past, present, and future uses of the historic park. Harpman and Sowell introduced the morning's special guest, Willis C. Winters, AIA [B.Arch. '80], who is the Assistant Director of the City of Dallas' Parks and Recreation Department. He is in charge of all capital projects for that City's park system and specifically described the City of Dallas' Park Pavilion Program. Funded by Dallas city bonds, this program is part of a comprehensive restoration of the park system. The Pavilion Program engages architects and landscape architects in new and renovated pavilions throughout the Dallas park system.
Later that day, I attended lectures by Andres Duany and John Norquist in the Lone Star Room at the Frank Erwin Center. Among other things, they promoted the Congress for New Urbanism meeting scheduled for Austin in April 2008.
On Friday morning, I participated in a breakfast meeting organized by Assistant Professor Anne Beamish and Lecturer Lynn Osgood. They have organized a team of students and faculty to develop a Public Design Lab that would fit within the Center for Sustainable Development. We discussed similar efforts underway at other schools, including the University of Pennsylvania's Praxis (http://www.sp2.upenn.edu/~restes/praxis.html ) and the University of Georgia's Center for Community Design, Planning and Preservation at the College of Environment and Design (http://www.sed.uga.edu/pso/).
At noon on Friday, I witnessed the unveiling of the Presidential Medallion for former UT-Austin President Larry R. Faulkner at the Texas Union Presidential Lobby. The Presidential Medallion Project was instituted in 2002, continuing a tradition left dormant for over 60 years, when the University Co-operative Society Board of Directors generously agreed to fund the creation of medallions of University presidents and to provide funding for an endowment that will ensure the creation of future presidential medallions. Sculptor David L. Deming will sculpt fourteen new medallions.
On Monday, April 2, the School's administrative committee met with Dean Haifa Jamal, Ph.D., and H.R.H. Princess Noura bint Turki Al Faisal Al Saudof of Effat College in Saudi Arabia. They have created a new landscape architecture degree for Saudi women and were interested in exploring possible collaborations. They were especially interested in our studios and facilities, so Associate Professor Chris Long provided a tour that concluded in Louise Harpman's third-year studio.
Yesterday, I flew to Healdsburg, California, for a megaregion conference, organized by the Regional Plan Association and the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy. Assistant Professor Ming Zang and I presented a paper we wrote with Kent Butler about the Texas Triangle. We were joined by other invited participants from the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, the Public Policy Institute of California, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Michigan, Loughborough University (UK), and the Young Foundation.
—Fritz Steiner
FLOPPY: IN MEMORIAM
Floppy pictured in a poster made by Lecturer Russell Krepart when he was a student in Professor Udovicki's studio in 1999.
A much-loved member of the UTSOA family, the English cocker spaniel, Floppy, passed away peacefully on March 29 in the arms of Associate Professor Danilo Udovicki-Selb. It was his seventeenth birthday.
Floppy was featured three times in the Daily Texan as the mysterious little dog you could see everywhere on campus going about his business or eating outdoors near the Texas Union. He once appeared in the Texan photographed with three students who were being interviewed about an upcoming referendum. The next morning, Danilo reports, "as we were coming to School, Floppy and I were greeted across the West Mall by a policewoman who shouted, 'I read his comments!'" On another occasion, as his identity gradually became more known, he was interviewed and photographed for Orange magazine.
He followed Professor Udovicki everywhere. He waited patiently in front of stores, restaurants, or Goldsmith Hall. He was always there, says Professor Udovicki, "quietly dozing at my feet, in all my seminars, studios, and at colleagues' studio reviews, and even in some committee meetings. When Lecturer Russell Krepart was my student in his first vertical studio, he always reserved a place for Floppy in juries, posters, and studio announcements."
Floppy was an institution. Many students, visitors, alumni, and faculty knew him and will miss him.
SUPPORT UTSOA
Help send the BLOOMhouse to Washington, D.C.! The BLOOMhouse is UT-Austin's entry to the 2007 national Solar Decathlon competition. The Solar Decathlon is a competition in which teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar powered house.
The UT-Austin Team has already won (for the second year in a row!) an internal design competition sponsored by BP Solar. But, we still need funds to help us compete with other universities on the National Mall in Washington this September. You can make a donation online and learn more about "living life with solar" at http://www.ar.utexas.edu/utsolard/.
Everyone can be a philathropist. It's easier than ever to support Solar Decathlon and other School of Architecture programs and centers. Please visit our secure online giving page at:
https://utdirect.utexas.edu/nlogon/vip/ogp.WBX?menu=AT.
For more information, contact Assistant Dean for Development Julie Hooper at jhooper@austin.utexas.edu or 512-471-6114.
ERRATUM
The editors of eNews wish to correct an error in the "Design Build Challenge 2007—New Orleans" section of the March 22, 2007, edition. The Design Build Challenge was actually sponsored by Project Locus, not CITYBuild. You can read more about Project Locus and the Design Build Challenge 2007 at: http://www.projectlocus.org/.
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@austin.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
