2008-09 ROME PRIZE WINNER

On April 10, 2008, the Trustees of the American Academy in Rome announced the winners of the 112th annual Rome Prize Competition. Assistant Professor Hope Hasbrouck received the Garden Club of America Rome Prize, awarded in the landscape architecture discipline.

Established in 1894 and chartered by an Act of Congress in 1905, the American Academy in Rome is a center that sustains independent artistic pursuits and humanistic studies. Each year, through a national competition, the Rome Prize is awarded to 15 emerging artists (working in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Design, Historic Preservation and Conservation, Literature, Musical Composition, or Visual Arts) and 15 scholars (working in Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and early Modern, or Modern Italian Studies).

From the outset the ideal of community has been fundamental to the American Academy in Rome. Fellowship winners come to Rome to refine and expand their own professional, artistic, or scholarly aptitudes, drawing on their colleagues' erudition and experience, as well as on the inestimable resources of the Italian capital, Europe, and the Mediterranean. Awardees are provided with a stipend, a study or studio, and room and board for a period of 6 months to 2 years.

Professor Hasbrouck's study title is "Interpreting Cultural Landscape through Prospect & Passage." This study seeks to inventory the devices of interpretation used for the reading of cultural sites and territories that focus specifically on the geometries of individual spatial movement. The interpretative devices are selected for their ability to define place and foster historic imagination.

The creation of the inventory will afford a unique opportuniy to probe how both interpretation and actual experience of the user can be accommodated by the special flexibility that is possessed inherently by cultural sites.

Professor Hasbrouck is the fourth Rome Prize winner on the UTSOA faculty. Previous winners include Dean Fritz Steiner and Associate Professors Mirka Beneš and Nichole Wiedemann.

2008 URBAN LAND INSTITUTE GERALD D. HINES STUDENT URBAN DESIGN COMPETITION

On April 7, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) announced the winners in the 2008 Urban Land Institute Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. Of the initial 96 teams representing 29 universities in the U.S. and Canada, a team from The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture was one of four teams selected to present their work in the national finals of the competition. The University of Texas team was a runner-up in the competition and received a $10,000 prize from the Urban Land Institute.

"This [sixth annual] competition aims to give the next generation a better understanding of the challenges involved in urban design, and how the different elements-such as various land uses, public areas, and traffic patterns-all interact to influence how urban areas evolve over time," said competition jury chairman James J. Curtis III, principal, Bristol Group in San Francisco. "It's a major part of ULI's ongoing effort to draw the best and brightest young minds to our industry." The competition has been funded in perpetuity through a $3 million endowment from real estate legend Gerald Hines.

The team includes members from the graduate programs in Community and Regional Planning, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture:

Alexander Kone, MSCRP program
Chad Gnant, M.Arch. program
Ji Zhou, MSCRP program
Michelle Slattery, MLA program
Shawn Strange, MSCRP program

Faculty and professional advisors working with the student team included:

Simon Atkinson
Keenan Smith
Ilse Franke
Dean Almy
David Knoll
Duane Hutson

The team's entry "Cedars: Reconnect, Revitalize," stitches together social, physical, and economic connections from an earlier era. Medium and low-rise uses traverse the spine connecting the Cedars DART stop with Old City Park in Dallas. A diverse mix of families, artists, and professionals forms the core of a neighborhood already taking root. Central to the development theme is the proposed Natural Connections network of multi-modal and sustainable, "complete streets," greenways, and open space.

The Cogburn Family Foundation generously supports our participation in the ULI national competition each year and sponsors our own internal prizes for student teams and an annual dinner.

SUPPORT UTSOA

BARBARA & DONALD PENDER ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

The School of Architecture is pleased to announce a generous donation of $25,000 from Barbara [B.A. '79] and Donald Pender, AIA [B.F.A. '78, M.Arch. '81], to create the Barbara & Donald Pender Endowed Scholarship to benefit undergraduate students in the School of Architecture. As a Principal with LPA, Inc., in Irvine, California, Don is active in recruiting efforts at the School of Architecture.

"Barbara and I have the best memories of the time we spent at the University," said Don. "It has been a privilege to return each year to meet with students from UTSOA who so clearly will be prepared to transform the built environment and the processes that will be used to affect that transformation. We have received so much from the University, and we feel fortunate to have this opportunity to help support the University's mission in this small way."

Although Barbara and Don have lived in Southern California for the last 12 years, they are both native Texans, with deep roots in Texas and a commitment to The University of Texas at Austin. We are extremely appreciative of their generosity and support for the School of Architecture.

FRIENDS OF ARCHITECTURE

Make your reservations now for FOA's upcoming Seattle tour on July 17-20, 2008. Professor Larry Speck will serve as our guide for a walking tour of vibrant and lively downtown Seattle.

The tour itinerary includes:

• The Seattle Art Museum in the first phase of expansion and re-design by Brad Cloepfil from Allied Works
• Olympic Sculpture Park by Weiss Manfredi
• Experience Music Project designed by Frank Gehry
• Seattle Public Library by OMA (Rem Koolhaas) with LMN Architects
• City Hall by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and Bassetti Architects
• St. Ignatius Chapel designed by Steven Holl
• Freeway Park by Lawrence Halprin

Spaces are filling quickly, so log on to the Friends of Architecture website for membership details and tour registration.

Friends of Architecture would like to thank our Corporate Silver members and supporters Curtis & Windham Architects and Lucifer Lighting Company.

STUDIO REPORT: RAMMED EARTH CONSTRUCTION

To introduce a hands-on understanding of materials, 12 advanced design students designed and constructed a rammed-earth bench in the Goldsmith Hall Courtyard. The rammed-earth investigation was one of three class investigations that explored the nature of materials in response to particular sites.

The studio taught by Lou Kimball [BArch. '88] and Nichole Wiedemann is currently exploring the same program, a (hiking) shelter, in two sites, The Big Thicket National Preserve and the Nature Conservancy Davis Mountains Project, to reveal the impact of the environment on all aspects of design, especially materials.

We would like to acknowledge the expert guidance of Shane Holt of Terra Castillo Builders specializing in rammed-earth construction; the great physical efforts of the students (Aaron Albright, Greg Arcangeli, David Bowers, David Branch, Sandy Ewen, Jeff Fain, Sam Gelfand, Dan Hernandez, Liz Jackson, Nik Koenig, Albert Palacios, and Marina Stoynova) and the enthusiasm and generousity of Lou Kimball, AIA, without which this experience, and extraordinary outcome, would never have happened.

Events

For the latest updates, check out the online UTSOA Calendar.

EXHIBIT

March 26 through April 25
Mebane Gallery
Goldsmith Hall

"A.D. Stenger: Designer | Builder"

Arthur Dallas [A.D.] Stenger [1922-2002] was a larger-than-life character who was a developer, architect, and builder in Austin, Texas, beginning in the late 1940s while still enrolled in the University of Texas School of Architecture. A.D. Stenger began building his houses for many of the creative Austinites of the 1950s and 60s, including many UT faculty as well as legendary Austin humorists John Henry Faulk and Cactus Pryor, and movers and shakers such as Sue and Frank McBee, founders of Tracor, Austin's first high-technology company. Stenger found that in order to build for his creative middle class clients, he had to take on the role of developer, architect, and builder, a condition that has recently returned to Austin architecture.

A Central Texas parallel to the work of the California home builder Joseph Eichler, the homes Stenger designed and built had modern sensibilities with "homey comfort," and were a response to a demand for affordable, modern design. The contemporary resurgence of the affordable modern home, not only in Austin, but also across the country, is due to a similar confluence of conditions present in the city in the 1950s. These conditions include the reversal of the American Institute of Architects' policy against architects' acting as both builder and designer, a body of young, energetic, and frustrated architects who use design-build as a way to get their ideas into the world, and a hip, aesthetically conscious middle class clientele looking for alternatives to mass-market homes.

Along with original documentation on several of the Stenger houses, the exhibit features five of his houses with new architectural models and rendered drawings alongside historic drawings, newspaper articles, and photographs, as well as video of Stenger's polar bear hunting expedition to the Arctic Circle.

Presented by UTSOA and the Design Division of the Department of Art and Art History.

Sponsored by Miller Blueprint; The Marye Company; King's Hobby; Jay Farrell, AIA; and the Heritage Society of Austin.

For more information, visit www.austinfieldoffice.com/Stenger or contact Riley Triggs at r.triggs@mail.utexas.edu.

LECTURE

Monday, April 14
Goldsmith Hall 3.120, 5:00 p.m.

Antoine Picon
Cambridge
Sponsored by the Herbert Greene Lectureship

"Learning from Utopia: Architecture and the Quest for Political and Social Meaning"

Antoine Picon will examine what can be learned from the utopian tradition in order for architecture to regain political and social relevance. In this process, the very notion of utopia may need to be redefined.

He is a professor in the history of architecture and technology and chair of the Ph.D. Program at Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is the author of numerous books and articles devoted to the relationship between architecture, science, technology, and utopia.

His publications include French Architects and Engineers in the Age of Enlightenment (1988; English translation, 1992), Claude Perrault (1613-1688) ou la curiosite d'un classique (1988), Les Saint-Simoniens: Raison, Imaginaire, et Utopie (2002), and Marc Mimram Architect- Engineer: Hybrid (2007). In 2003, Picon edited, with Alessandra Ponte, Architecture and the Sciences: Exchanging Metaphors. He has received a number of awards in France for his writings, including the Medaille de la Ville de Paris and twice the Prix du Livre d'Architecture de la Ville de Briey.

He is currently preparing an essay on the new perspectives opened by digital architecture.

CENTER LUNCH FORUM SERIES

The Center for American Architecture and Design hosts a Friday Lunch Forum Series from 12:00 to 1:30 in the Battle Hall Conference Room (room 101).

The aim of the series is for faculty and students to meet in an informal atmosphere to debate topics and to share ideas about history, practice, theory, and new directions for architecture. Forum topics/titles are confirmed a week prior to each forum date. Visit the Center web site for updates. The remaining spring 2008 schedule includes:

• April 19, Keenan Smith

The Friday Forum is also webcast live (visit the Center's web site), and you are invited to call in live with questions or comments during the discussion at 512.471.9890.

EXHIBIT

February 1, 2008, through August 15, 2008
Visual Resources Collection
Sutton Hall 3.128 (Monday-Friday, 8-5)

"Landscape Architecture's History:
Marrying Research and Teaching through the Camera's Eye"

During the course of her academic career, Professor Mirka Beneš has documented a wide range of landscapes and supporting materials such as rare prints, maps, drawings, and written documents. From Professor Beneš' extensive slide collection, a group of almost 8,000 teaching slides--used in support of her two lecture courses in the history and theories of landscape architecture--were selected, cataloged, and digitized by the school's Visual Resources Collection (VRC). The selection of images in this exhibit represents a small sampling of images selected from the group that are available for use by the university community as part of the VRC's online Image Collection.

Mirka Beneš is Associate Professor in the School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin, which she joined in 2006. Her teaching covers the whole history of landscape architecture and gardens, and she publishes on Baroque Rome, Italian and French gardens, agrarian landscapes, and modernist landscape architecture. From 1988 to 2005, she taught at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University.

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP

Assistant Professor Smilja Milovanovic-Bertram's "Lessons from Rome: The Work of Robert Venturi, Tod Williams, Thomas Pfifer, and Paul Lewis" exhibit was at Parsons The New School of Design from March 26 to April 2. She presented a gallery talk there on March 26.

Professor Milovanovic-Bertram presented a paper titled "Work and Pedagogy of the Study in Italy Program at the University of Texas" at the Forum on International Education and Architecture Programs, Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy, on February 24-27, 2008.

Her travels also took her to Atlanta, where she presented a paper titled "In the Spirit of the Texas Rangers" at the 24th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student at Georgia Tech, March 13-16.

ALUMNI NEWS

CLASS OF 1958 REUNION

Come and join your Class of 1958 reunion on April 30-May 2 here on UT campus! The Texas Exes is hosting this three-day event, and registration is already under way. So, log on to the reunion web site to sign up, view and print a schedule of reunion activities, and make your travel plans.

During the three-day reunion, hosted by Texas Exes, you will have an opportunity to visit the School of Architecture, hear updates on the school's programs, and visit with faculty and students.

If you have questions about the 50-Year Alumni Reunion events or haven't received your packet of information, please don't hesitate to contact Whitney Airaudi at 512.471.3808 or toll free at 1.888.628.0003.

ALUMNI UPDATES

Efrain E. Velez [M.Arch. '06] and a group of friends will be showing their work at the International Furniture Show in Milan, April 16-22. They will be showing together as G-LED or Grupo Laboratorio Experimental de Diseño. The Experimental Design Lab (as translated from Spanish) has grown into a design collective open to new members and partners, thus reaching its goal of growing as a team.

In addition to his M.Arch. degree from UTSOA, Efrain has a B.F.A. in Design from UT and a Master's in Industrial Design from the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan, Italy. He is a designer with a broad range of architectural and industrial design experience in the U.S. and abroad and has collaborated in a selection of projects that range in scale from electronic appliances and furniture to large institutional buildings.

This spring, Kelly J. Clifton [Ph.D. CRP '01] was promoted to associate professor with tenure at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she holds appointments in the Urban Studies and Planning Program and the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education.

The last several years, she has been working on several projects that examine the relationship between the built environment, transportation, and health -- specifically, working with interdisciplinary teams of researchers from planning, public health, engineering, and epidemiology to examine how the built environment supports opportunities for physical activity for residents (adults and adolescents) in Baltimore and Montgomery County, Maryland.

Kelly has a specific interest in planning for the pedestrian environment, and with the help of her Ph.D. student Andrea Livi Smith, has developed an environmental audit to assist researchers and practictioners in assessing walkability. Their work was recently featured in Landscape Architecture magazine.

She has also been working with a team from the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland and PBWorld Consulting to develop a statewide transportation model for the State of Maryland. This model will help researchers and practioners assess the transportation need for the state and evaluate the outcomes of various growth scenarios.

ALUMNI CONNECTIONS

We want you to stay involved and connected to the School, so join us for one of our many upcoming Alumni Events:

• 50-Year Alumni Reunion in Austin - April 30 through May 2, 2008
• AIA Alumni Reception in Boston - Thursday, May 15, 2008
• Houston Alumni Reception at The Grove Restaurant - Thursday, October 9, 2008
• TSA Alumni Reception in Fort Worth - Thursday, October 23, 2008

More details will become available on the School of Architecture Alumni web page as the events approach, or if you have questions please do not hesitate to contact Stacy Manning at 512.471.0617 or via email at smanning@austin.utexas.edu.

The School of Architecture is continuing its effort to find (and maintain) the most accurate contact information for all of our alumni. From young alumni receptions to 50-year reunions, and everything in between, we hope you will stay in touch. Would you like to mentor a student? Do you need to hire a fellow Longhorn? Looking for networking or continuing education opportunities? We can help, but we need to know how to reach you!

Alumni may update their records and contact preferences and search for fellow graduates by logging on to the University's online alumni directory.

Thanks for helping us improve our relationship with you. We look forward to hearing from you!

STUDENT HONORS AND AWARDS

Graduate student Stephen Balut is one of seven students nationwide to win a highly competitive 2008 Hart Howerton Fellowship. Awarded annually by Hart Howerton, an Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Planning firm with offices in New York and San Francisco, the Fellowship offers recipients a paid summer internship within the firm's design practice combined with three weeks of self-directed travel. Stephen will be working at Hart Howerton's San Francisco office this summer and travel to Djitumu, Mali. While in Djitumu he will study the infrastructure of the region, note the grouping of structures, the amount of public vs. private space and critically analyze and dissect the community to discover what makes them so strong. For more information on Hart Howerton, please visit their web site..

Alex Kone, a second-year graduate student in Community and Regional Planning, has been selected to participate in the 28th annual EDAW Internship Program. He will participate in a two-week charrette workshop in Los Angeles. This year's project will address key issues facing the city of Los Angeles and challenge all involved to propose a globally original and locally relevant urban design solution in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Following this intensive two-week period, he will travel to Australia for a paid internship in EDAW's Melbourne office.

Doctoral candidate Ahmed Abukhater was just appointed as the Student Representative to the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) National Governing Board, 2008-2010 term. The ACSP is the official consortium of university-based programs offering credentials in urban and regional planning in the U.S. His appointment as one of the two sole ACSP student representatives in the nation, and the first from the UT, connects our University and students with the ACSP and puts us in a remarkable position on the national planning map.

CONTACTS

In this fast-paced world, there's a lot of news to keep up with. We know you are doing great things, and we rely on you to not only share your stories, but to also keep us up-to-date on your contact information so that we can share our stories with you. Alumni, please send your news and contact updates to our new Associate Director of Constituent and Alumni Relations, Stacy Manning at smanning@austin.utexas.edu. Students, faculty, and staff may send updates to eNews editor Pamela Peters at p.peters@mail.utexas.edu.

UT-Austin School of Architecture
soa.utexas.edu

Dean's Office
512.471.1922, fax 512.471.0716

Center for American Architecture and Design
christinewong@mail.utexas.edu, 512-471-9890

Center for Sustainable Development
teresacarr@mail.utexas.edu, 512.475.7995

Assistant Dean for Development
Julie Hooper, jhooper@austin.utexas.edu, 512.471.6114

Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs
Jeanne Crawford, jcraw@mail.utexas.edu, 512.471.0109

Graduate Program Coordinator
Rosemin Gopaul, gopaul@austin.utexas.edu, 512.471.0134

Associate Director of Constituent and Alumni Relations,
Stacy Manning, smanning@austin.utexas.edu, 512.471.0617

Director, Career Services Center
Carrie O'Malley, carrie.omalley@austin.utexas.edu, 512.471.1333

Publications Editor
Pamela Peters, p.peters@mail.utexas.edu, 512.471.0154

Events Coordinator
Barbara Terrell, bdt@mail.utexas.edu, 512.471.8187

Materials Lab
http://soa.utexas.edu/matlab, 512.232.5969

Visual Resources Collection
http://soa.utexas.edu/vrc/, 512.471.0143

Architecture and Planning Library
www.lib.utexas.edu/apl/, 512.495.4620

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