2005-06 UTSOA Student, Faculty, and Staff Awards

The School of Architecture recognized the following award-winning students, faculty, and staff at the May 20 commencement ceremony. Congratulations to all.

American Institute of Architects Awards (Lauren Goldberg, AIA, LEED AP, President, Austin Chapter AIA) -- Awarded for scholarship and professional promise to graduating students in first-professional degree programs.

First Award: The Henry Adams Medal

Meredith Nicole Contello, Bachelor of Architecture
Catherine Grace Craig, Master of Architecture

Second Award: The Henry Adams Certificate

Jessica Megan Frick, Bachelor of Architecture
Sarah Pollard Gamble, Master of Architecture

American Society of Interior Designers Award (presented by Marilyn Roberts, ASID, RID, President-Elect, Texas Association for Interior Design) -- Awarded for academic excellence and service to the profession.

Sung Mi Kim, Bachelor of Science in Interior Design
Katherine Anne Wooley, Bachelor of Science in Interior Design

Alpha Rho Chi Medal -- Awarded to a graduating student in Architecture who has shown ability for leadership, performed willing service for the School, and has promise of professional merit.

Meredith Nicole Contello, Bachelor of Architecture

Oglesby Prize -- Travel fellowship awarded each year to a professional degree candidate in Architecture for distinction in architectural design.

David Edward Bench, Bachelor of Architecture

Community and Regional Planning Outstanding Student Awards -- Awarded to graduating students in Planning who have exhibited the best overall achievement in the classroom and in service to the School.

Devin Elijah Culbertson, Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning
Juchul Jung, Doctoral Program in Community and Regional Planning

Certificates of Achievement -- Awarded to degree candidates in recognition of outstanding scholastic achievement.

Carolyn Christina Campbell, Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning
Catherine Grace Craig, Master of Architecture
Megan Lynn McGehee, Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning

Outstanding Professional Report/Thesis/Master's Design Study/Awards -- Awarded to graduating students whose terminal research project deserves special commendation.

Kate Meredith Bushman, Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning
Ely M. Merheb-Emanuelli, Master of Science in Historic Preservation
Robert Edward Gay, Master of Architecture
Melinda Rebecca Nettles, Master of Science in Sustainable Design
Dylan Rachel Siegler, Master of Science in Sustainable Design

School of Architecture Outstanding Teacher Award (studio), Ulrich Dangel

School of Architecture Outstanding Teacher Award (lecture), Anne Beamish

School of Architecture Outstanding Service Award, Michael Benedikt

School of Architecture Outstanding Scholarship Award, Anthony Alofsin

Texas Excellence Teaching Award, Judith Birdsong

Texas Excellence Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants, Amy Elizabeth Wynne

School of Architecture Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards, Scott Vandever

School of Architecture Outstanding Staff Award, Raquel Elizondo

Venice Biennale Exhibit Update

Led by Associate Professor of Architecture Nichole Wiedemann and Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture Jason Sowell, a team of 8 graduate and undergraduate students of The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture will exhibit "Resilient Foundations: The Gulf Coast after Katrina," in the 10th Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, the premier international design exhibition in the world, which will run from September 10 to November 19, 2006. The exhibition will focus on post-Katrina reconstruction plans for the Gulf Coast including New Orleans, with particular attention given to both the natural and cultural systems that constitute the unique character of the area.

In creating the exhibit, the School of Architecture will act as both curator and contributor, enabling the international public to view a wide range of responses, including our own. There are many thoughtful solutions to the problems now posed, many of which are largely out of the public eye. As a curator, we will present some of the powerful work being done in this area and project its significance.

As a contributor, we will offer a unique set of environmental, regional planning, urban design, and infrastructure requirements that will provide a viable path for the future of the region. Our design research analyzes the natural and cultural systems in order to establish "resilient foundations" as principles of reconstruction. In many instances, we are addressing issues that have been ignored for the past 100 years and are now overshadowed by the next hurricane.

In studying the natural systems (river, wetlands, barrier islands, gulf, lake, land), we reveal the codependence of man and nature through infrastructure, rather than the optimistic and impossible imposition of man on nature. Likewise, the close analysis of cultural systems (education, demographics, religion, entertainment, industry, transportation, housing) reveals great successes and failures prior to the devastating hurricanes of last year.

We would like to thank generous alumni, Mike McCall [M.Arch. '80] of McCall Design Group and Fred Clarke [B.Arch. '70] of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, for their support of this important educational mission. We are additionally grateful to Mike for his leadership with this fundraising effort. For more information on how you can support "Resilient Foundations: The Gulf Coast after Katrina," please contact either Mike McCall at mike@mccalldesign.com or Kris Vetter, Assistant Dean for Development at 512-471-6114 or kmvetter@mail.utexas.edu.

Summer Academy in Architecture

Now in its 25th year of operation, UTSOA's Summer Academy in Architecture is bigger than ever, providing a unique insight to its students on an architectural education and the architectural profession. The Academy enables high school students, college students, people pondering a career change, and people returning to work after a hiatus to answer the question: Should I pursue an education in architecture? Professor Kevin Alter returns this year as Program Director, with Christine Wong as Program Coordinator and Lisa Jones as Administrative Assistant. This year's Academy runs from June 5 to July 7.

The five-week course focuses on a series of individual design projects that introduce students to many of the important aspects of architecture and encourage personal exploration. The identity of a place--what it feels like and what it means to us--arises from qualities that are both visual and non-visual. Under this premise, the Academy encourages design solutions that are grounded in an investigation of experience and perception.

Academy students are provided individual studio space in which to work. Particular attention is paid to introducing and developing skills in drawing and modeling designs, and students are encouraged to explore other means of representation such as photographic processes, painting, writing, and full-scale constructions.

The Summer Academy has more than doubled in size over the past few years, with current enrollment at an all-time high of 85 students, for whom we've hired seven studio instructors--Brien Strelau, Tom Cox, Nick Brinen, Allison Hsiao Gaskins, Ely Merheb, Jonathan Pearson, and Amy Wynne--all either recent graduates of the School's post-professional program or students in advanced standing. We've also hired four teaching assistants--Jared Sada, Michelle Slattery, Leyla Shams, and Kate Schwamb--all current UTSOA students at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

We are proud that this year's student population is largely diverse, ranging in age from 16 to 45 and hailing from Texas to Boston, to Mexico and Panama. Furthermore, this year we were able to offer several students financial assistance to attend the Academy, with help from the School's Advisory Council and Friends of Architecture.

Faculty Scholarship and Awards

Community and Regional Planning Assistant Professor Elizabeth Mueller recently attended the annual meeting of the Urban Affairs Association in Montreal, Canada, where she and CRP doctoral student Tommi Ferguson presented their paper titled "Raising the Bar or Shifting the Discussion: Local Housing Politics in a Weak State Context." The paper presents preliminary findings from their research on the use of housing report cards as a strategy to put affordable housing needs on the local political agenda in Texas' cities.

Dr. Mueller also attended the annual meeting of the American Planning Association in San Antonio, Texas, April 24, where she made a presentation on "Housing Needs of Hurricane Evacuees in Texas" as part of a panel on Katrina and Affordable Housing.

Assistant Professor Smilja Milovanovic-Bertram was awarded a Graham Foundation Grant for an exhibition, "Lessons from Rome: The Work of Paul Lewis, Thomas Phifer, and Tod Williams." The mission of the Graham Foundation is to nurture and enrich an informed and creative public dialogue concerning architecture and the built environment. Graham Foundation Grants are offered to individuals and institutions in support of activities focused on architecture and the built environment; generally activities that lead to the public dissemination of ideas through publication, exhibition, or educational programming.

Anthony Alofsin, Roland Roessner Centennial Professor, has been named a Fellow of the MacDowell Colony (http://www.macdowellcolony.org/). He will be in residence for part of the fall semester. The MacDowell Colony, the oldest art colony in the U.S., was founded in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 1907. The Colony's mission is "to nurture the arts by offering creative individuals of the highest talent an inspiring environment in which to produce enduring works of the imagination."

More than 400 people were on hand to witness the presentation of the first Envision Central Texas (ECT) Community Stewardship Awards at an Austin Hyatt Regency luncheon on Wednesday, May 17. Professor Sinclair Black received the "Pioneer" Award, recognizing "an individual, company, organization, or governmental entity that has left familiar territory and taken a different path that reflects the ECT Vision."

For 35 years, Professor Black has been "making a difference where he lives" through teaching architecture at UT-Austin; writing; practicing architecture at Black + Vernooy; and involvement in civic initiatives such as the Downtown Austin Alliance, Trust for Public Land, and Urban Land Institute. Professor Black has long advocated compact communities with dense, mixed-use, walkable districts based upon rail transit as the alternative to endless sprawl. His contributions include, "Austin Creeks," the well-received open space study, the "Great Streets Master Plan," and tireless efforts to preserve the Seaholm Power Plant for future civic uses.

The recipient of the first ECT W. Neal Kocurek Legacy Award was Patricia Hayes, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Seton Healthcare Network. The keynote speaker for the luncheon was Robert D. Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association.

For more information on the 2006 ETC Community Stewardship Awards, visit: http://www.envisioncentraltexas.org/.

Alumni Updates

A project by James Richards [M.Arch. '02] was highlighted in the spring 2006 issue of InStyle Home magazine. The article, published in April, featured an apartment renovation that he designed for Tony Award-winning actor Liev Schreiber in Manhattan. The project called for combining the actor's existing one-bedroom loft with the neighboring duplex he had recently acquired.

Michael Lingerfelt [B.Arch. '80] has accepted a position as Senior Project Director for Bermello Ajamil & Partners, Inc. He will be based in the firm's Orlando office and will manage projects in Dubai and other areas. In his new role, he will have responsibility for project delivery, staff development, client development, marketing, and financial performance. He will also be responsible for implementing a quality control program for the architecture projects.

Graham B. Luhn, FAIA [B.Arch. '60] of Houston has been appointed to the Advisory Council for the Center for Heritage Conservation at Texas A&M University and a Professional Fellow.

James Linville, [B.Arch. '82], Lina Husodo, and their architectural firm, Studio H+L, are featured in the latest issue of Austin Magazine (issue 2, May/June 2006). The issue includes two articles -- one featuring a new residential design by Studio H+L on Lake Austin, and a second article focusing on Mr. Linville and Ms. Husodo professionally and personally.

IN MEMORIAM

Lennart George Aldeen [B.Arch. '58] passed away on May 30, 2006. Services were held in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We encourage all alumni to share news with us by submitting updates to Stephanie Palmer at stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu. In addition, if you know of other alumni who may not be receiving this or other SOA publications, please forward their information to Stephanie or encourage them to contact her.

Friends of Architecture

Michoacán, Mexico
August 8-14, 2006

Reservations are now available for Friends of Architecture's summer tour, "Michoacán--Soul of Mexico." FOA member Cyndy Severson has organized a memorable visit to this central Mexican region. Steeped with rich cultural history and beautiful colonial architecture, Michoacán is often referred to as the "soul of Mexico." FOA's exclusive tour will include stays in the cities of Pátzcuaro and Morelia, where our days will be filled with visits to 17th and 18th century chapels, breathtaking private residences, and local artisan studios and markets. In your leisure time, you'll find yourself traversing charming cobblestone streets and historic plazas, savoring Mexico's amazing cuisine, or perhaps enjoying a long siesta. Space on the tour is limited. To request a tour itinerary and registration details, contact Friends of Architecture Director Stephanie Palmer at 512-471-0617 or stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu.

For information on Friends of Architecture membership or tours, visit us online at soa.utexas.edu/foa/intro.

Dean's Journal

While in Tempe attending my son Andrew's graduation from the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State, I visited the Decision Theater on May 12. As an Arizona State faculty member, I helped conceive the Decision Theater (http://dt.asu.edu/), so it was gratifying to experience the result. Our concept was to provide a three-dimensional representation of the Phoenix metropolitan area and generate scenarios for possible futures. ASU President Michael Crow calls it "a tool to break down disciplinary boundaries." The theater features seven screens that are viewed through 3-D glasses. The project has attracted considerable funding from the National Science Foundation and private donors. Since opening a year ago, the theater has also drawn over 5,000 visitors and entered into several partnerships with state and local governments. For example, the Decision Theater has enabled City of Tempe officials to visualize the consequences of various heights of proposed skyscrapers in its downtown. ASU's Decision Theater provides a model for applying university research through civic engagement.

Back in Austin, I participated in various University and community meetings, including the Hill Country Conservancy, the Heritage Society of Austin, and Envision Central Texas. On May 17, Envision Central Texas held its first Community Stewardship Awards Lunch, organized by Advisory Council member Jay Hailey and Tom Yantis [M.S.C.R.P.'95] of the City of Georgetown. Regional Plan Association President Bob Yaro gave the keynote talk. An independent jury selected Professor Sinclair Black for the first Envision Central Texas Community Stewardship Pioneer Award. (See related story above.)

On May 19, Associate Professor Dean Almy, Assistant Dean Kris Vetter, and I flew to Dallas for the first meeting of the Dallas Urban Lab selection committee. Held at the offices of Good Fulton & Farrell, we explored various options for next spring's studio.

On May 23, Pete Walker updated UT-Austin President Bill Powers and other University officials on the progress of his Speedway Boulevard and East Mall landscape plan. Walker's plaza design for the new Blanton Museum of Art has been warmly received. Speedway and East Mall will be transformed into significant pedestrian corridors as a result of the design of Pete Walker and his colleagues.

Following graduation, I took some time off to visit Civil War battlefields in Virginia. I photographed several major battlefields. The preservation and land-use conflicts around these historic sites interests me greatly. The National Park Service does a brilliant job with the preservation and interpretation of the battlefields themselves. However, with increased suburbanization, landscape integrity is being compromised. In addition, significant urban renewal opportunities are not being realized in cities like Richmond and Petersburg and even small towns like Appomattox. History contributes much to the design and planning professions.

We have hired two new faculty members who will strengthen our history and historic preservation offerings. Mirka Benes has accepted a position as an associate professor in our landscape architecture program. Formerly at Harvard University, Professor Benes is a leading landscape historian who earned her Ph.D. at Yale where her dissertation advisor was Vincent J. Scully. She is the co-editor (with Dianne Harris) of the influential book Villas and Gardens in Early Modern Italy and France, Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Michael Holleran has accepted a position as an associate professor and director of our historic preservation program. Previously, he held a similar position at the University of Colorado's College of Architecture and Planning. Professor Holleran is a well-regarded preservation scholar who earned his Ph.D. at MIT. He is the author of Boston's "Changeful Times:" Origins of Preservation and Planning in America, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

In addition to the direct benefits to the landscape architecture and historic preservation programs. I expect Professors Benes and Holleran will make many important School-wide contributions.

During the past two weeks, the new PBS-BBC six-part series "Design e2: The Economics of Being Environmentally Conscious," narrated by Brad Pitt, began airing nationally. The first episode, called "The Green Apple," included Pelli Clarke Pelli's Solaire project in lower Manhattan. The second episode, called "Green for All," features the work of Visiting Associate Professor Sergio Palleroni in Mexico and East Austin. The latter is supported by a major grant by the Henry Luce Foundation. In addition to Sergio, Professor Steven Moore and students Ann Tucker and Jack Sanders are interviewed. According to Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, the series is "an engaging overview of the most prominent players, recent breakthroughs, and stiffest challenges in sustainable architecture." The next episode is scheduled to air in Austin on July 9 at 5:00 p.m. (KLRU-G) and on July 16 and July 30 (KLRU Basic) at 2:30 p.m. Check http://www.klru.org/Schedule/ViewSeries.asp?SeriesID=14302 or local listings for programming updates. This series will also be replayed in its entirety this fall.

On July 20, there will be a ceremonial opening and showing of the first two episodes, "The Green Apple" and "Green for All" (our segment), at the National Building Museum (NBM) in Washington, D.C., hosted by the NBM, the U.S. Green Building Council, the Center for American Progress, and the National AIA.

—Fritz Steiner

Events

EXHIBIT

February 1 - August 4
Into the Light:
A Sampler of Alternative
Photographic Processes
Visual Resources Collection
Sutton 3.128 (Monday-Friday, 8-5)

The exhibit "Into the Light: A Sampler of Alternative Photographic Processes" presents work produced by way of alternative means in the Photo Union Darkroom, a facility available to all currently enrolled architecture students for a nominal fee. Pinhole, Cyanotypes, and Polaroid transfer prints represented in this exhibit serve to illustrate that in this age of digital perfection, there is a growing body of individuals returning to historical methods to hand-craft photographic images. Alternative photographic processes, such as the ones represented in this exhibit, result in unique and compelling images.

Contacts

UT-Austin School of Architecture
soa.utexas.edu

Architecture and Planning Student Council + AIA Students
studentorgs.utexas.edu/apscaias/

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 Undergraduate Programs
Jeanne Crawford, 512-471-0109, jcraw@mail.utexas.edu

Assistant Dean for Development and External Relations
Kris Muñoz Vetter, 512-471-6114, kmvetter@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

Director of Photography
Charlotte Pickett, c.pickett@mail.utexas.edu

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 School of Architecture
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station B7500
Austin, TX 78712-0222