DESIGN E2: GREEN FOR ALL

Thursday, November 16
design e²
KLRU's Austin City Limits Studio
Communications Building B
West 26th and Guadalupe Streets
Screening & Panel Discussion, 3 - 5 p.m. Reception, 5-6 p.m.

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and KLRU-TV are hosting a screening of the PBS documentary, "design e²: Green for All." A panel discussion following the screening will further explore opportunities for collaboration and sustainable development in the community. Our distinguished panelists include Visiting Associate Professor Sergio Palleroni, Sustainable Design Program Director Steven Moore, and Architecture for Humanity Executive Director Cameron Sinclair. We are excited to have KLRU's "Austin Now" host Tom Spencer as our moderator.

R.s.v.p. to Annie Laurie Sánchez at annielaurie@mail.utexas.edu or 512-471-6029.

For more information on "design e² please visit: http://www.basicinitiative.org/ and http://www.design-e2.com. Thanks to our generous sponsor, Autodesk.

Events

LECTURE

Monday, November 13
Dietmar Eberle
Baumschlager + Eberle
Lochau, Austria
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.

LECTURE

Wednesday, November 15
Mathias Klotz
Santiago, Chile
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.
Reception at 4:00 in Goldsmith Loggia.

LECTURE

Wednesday, November 15
Nicholas Stanley-Price
Goldsmith 3.120, 6:00 p.m.
Reception at 4:00 in Goldsmith Loggia.
Co-sponsored with the UT-Austin Institute of Classical Archeology

"Should One Reconstruct Excavated Archaeological Sites?"

Dr. Nicholas Stanley-Price (M.A., D.Phil., Oxford University) was educated in the classics and then as an archaeologist, carrying out archaeological research and administration in the East Mediterranean and Middle East for 12 years. He held posts in archaeological administration and research in Jerusalem and the Sultanate of Oman. He subsequently (1982-1986) was on the staff of ICCROM (International Organization for Conservation of Cultural Heritage), the intergovernmental organization founded in Rome by UNESCO in 1956 for the preservation of cultural heritage. Both there and while on the staff of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles (1987-1995), he specialized in archaeological conservation and professional education. After two years as an independent consultant, he joined the Institute of Archaeology at University College London where he taught site conservation and management (1998-2000), introducing a new M.A. program on the topic. From 2000 to 2005, he returned to Rome as Director-General of ICCROM. He is now an independent consultant.

Monday, November 20
Ulrich Dangel
The University of Texas at Austin
Goldsmith 3.120, 5:00 p.m.

Tuesday, November 21
Francisco Mangado
Pamplona, Spain
Location TBA

Co-sponsored by AIA Austin, all lectures and symposia will be eligible for continuing education learning credits.

EXHIBIT

November 8 - December 2
Baukunst
Contemporary Architecture in Vorarlberg, Austria
Mebane Gallery, Goldsmith Hall

Curated by Ulrich Dangel.

EXHIBIT

September 11, 2006, through January 12, 2007
Visual Resources Collection
Sutton 3.128 (Monday-Friday, 8-5)

"Through the Eyes of an Architect:
Images from R. James Coote's Travels"

"Through the Eyes of an Architect: Images from R. James Coote's Travels" features digital prints from selected 35mm slides donated to the Visual Resources Collection (VRC) by Professor Emeritus R. James Coote. Along with almost two thousand slides from his personal collection, Professor Coote provided thorough descriptions of each image facilitating the creation of online catalog records; the entire donation is in the process of being digitized and will be available online for use by the University community.

From 1965-2000, Professor Emeritus Coote taught architectural design and architectural history courses to undergraduate and graduate students at The University of Texas at Austin.

EXHIBIT

Through February 2007
Architecture & Planning Library
Battle Hall

"Landscape Representation and the Education of Landscape Architects"

Selections from the collections of Associate Professor Mirka Benes and the Architecture & Planning Library's Special Collections.

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. Visit the Center website (http://www.utexas.edu/architecture/center/lunch_forums/) for updates. The remaining fall 2006 schedule includes:

• November 10, Simon Atkinson, "Architecture--Toward a Democratic Agenda"
• December 1, Timothy Parker

The Friday Forum is also webcast live from http://www.utexas.edu/architecture/center/lunch_forums/, and you are invited to call in live with questions or comments during the discussion at 512-471-9890.

FALL 2006 FILM SERIES

Nik Nikolov and Studio Cinemarchitecture, in association with the UT-Austin School of Architecture, present the fall 2006 film series. All screenings will take place on Wednesdays in GOL 3.120, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Upcoming films include:

November 29
AMBIVALENT URBANISM: EPISODE I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
dir. George Lucas

TBA
IDEAL DOMESTICITY: THE WOMEN (1939)
dir. George Cukor, prod. design by Cedric Gibbons

TBA
NEOBOURGEOIS SPACE: PLAYTIME (1967)
dir. Jacques Tati, prod. design by Eugène Roman

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP

A video "snapshot" of Professor Steven Moore is featured on the "Take 5: Faculty Insights in Brief" pages of the UT website (http://www.utexas.edu/inside_ut/take5/). The "Take 5" series offers glimpses into lecture halls and labs across campus. Professor Moore explains in the video how sustainable building goes beyond achieving efficiency with the use of green technologies. In 1999, Dr. Moore was appointed director of the Sustainable Design Program, and in 2001 he co-founded of the Center for Sustainable Development. The video may be downloaded and will remain linked on the UT homepage through early spring 2007.

"Wet Land-Neutral Ground," UTSOA's original project for the 10th Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, was selected for exhibition in the 15th Pan-American Architecture Biennale: Visible Cities to be held in Quito, Ecuador, through November. The project, which was directed by Assistant Professor Jason Sowell and Associate Professor Nichole Wiedemann, will be featured in the Urban Ecosystems exhibit, which stresses the integration of ecological systems and urban infrastructure. Assistant Professor Sowell and graduate architecture student Rachel Brown participated as panelists on the UT-Austin McCombs Graduate Business Council's October 5th symposium "Rebuilding New Orleans." Assistant Professor Sowell also presented a project on post-industrial landscape reclamation at the ACSA Central Regional Conference Reconciliation/Remediation: Post-Industrial Transformation, hosted by the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; the project, which proposes scenarios for Milwaukee's Tower Automotive Site, will be featured in Charles Waldheim's upcoming publication, Post-Fordist Public Works.

Anthony Alofsin, Roland Roessner Centennial Professor of Architecture, will be a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy at Rome during the month of November. While in Italy, he will meet with School of Architecture students at our study center, Santa Chiara, in Castiglion Fiorentino.

Associate Professor Lois Weinthal published an article based on her design studio titled "House Lab" in the November issue of the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) on the theme topic of 1:1. An investigation of the house is the focus of this studio that begins with visits to houses that are abandoned, gutted, and braced for moving, revealing a state of suspension between containing the memory of its occupants while offering views into houses that deny occupation. These visits act as a starting point to question the role of nostalgia that is heavily present in order to reinterpret these findings into new constructions. Students construct full-scale projects derived from their observations resulting in experimental walls, rooms, and furniture. The article focuses on five projects based in the interdisciplinary studio that includes students from architecture and interior design: Shara Castillo, Kelly Folk-Rittenhouse, Emily Moore, Maryam Rostami, Brian Salek, and Amy Youn.

The DIIA/~FAST Tex Program awarded Lecturer Nik Nikolov funding and staff to develop an immersive virtual environment as a design and instructional technology. Architecture graduate students Allison Gaskins and Melissa Eckerman will be part of the developing team. The project, titled "The Cinematic Threshold - Virtual Design and Environments," will provide users with the ability to interactively test and/or present design projects in an immersive 360-degree reality simulation environment and is to be delivered May 31, 2007.

The ~FAST Tex Program is offered through UT-Austin's Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment. Faculty And Student Teams for Technology is a grant and support program where faculty are awarded time by tech-savvy students to build instructional technologies for use in UT-Austin courses. The students in the resource pool come from a range of academic disciplines and are appointed, paid, and mentored by ~FAST Tex staff.

Dean Fritz Steiner moderated a panel of industry experts assembled at a recent Urban Land Institute (ULI) forum on excellence in design. He posed the question, "What is the vehicle that connects designers and decision makers?" The forum was convened to provide input for a future ULI book, Return on Perception, to be published fall 2007, on the dividend of good design, and the added value that high-quality design plays in shaping the built environment. Panelists included Mark Johnson, Civitas, Inc.; Dennis Jerke, Carter & Burgess, Fort Worth; Ed Feiner, former chief architect of the General Services Administration; William Morrish, architecture professor at the University of Virginia; Frank Ricks, Looney Ricks Kiss, Memphis; and Susan Maxman, Maxman Partners, Philadelphia.

In June, Associate Professor Juan Miró and Miró Rivera Architects received two design awards in the Texas Society of Architects 2006 Design Awards competition. Each year, selected award recipients are featured in a special edition of Texas Architect magazine. The firm's projects were also displayed during the TSA convention November 2-4, in Dallas.

Jurors for this year's competition were Rodolfo Machado, Machado and Silvetti Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Victor "Trey" Trahan, Trahan Architects in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Frederic Schwartz, Schwartz Architects in New York City.

The jury singled out Miró Rivera Architects' Footbridge for particular praise: "I think this one is as close as one can get to a masterpiece," Machado said. "With all due respect, it's not a word I use too often. I think it is profoundly creative. Very fresh, unique, and memorable. I think it is an exquisite piece of architecture, and I think it's going to last in peoples' imaginations as one of those rare moments when something new and fresh is done. It's superb." Schwartz agreed: "... that this was a project that elevated architecture to art and art to architecture. This is a magnificent project that shows the role of architects in art and infrastructure, architects in the making of art.... This is a project that all of Texas should be proud of. I just think this thing is incredible."

The full article can be read on the Texas Architect website: http://texasarchitect.org/ta200609-ednote.php?sess_id=0fb4521c0a04dad9093d011f24cec20a.

ALUMNI NEWS

Nathan Carruth [B.Arch. '03] has been granted a license to practice architecture in the State of Texas. He is working in Fort Worth with GideonToal. Now that he has finally achieved his childhood dream of becoming an architect, he is not sure what to do next.

IN MEMORIAM

Elvis Wade Wells [B.Arch. '88] died peacefully at his home in New York City on October 28th, having battled an immune system disorder for two years. For the past sixteen years, Wade worked as a lead designer and project manager at Tsao & McKown Architects. His work includes projects in New York, Singapore, and other international cities. Wade's funeral service, in his hometown of Cornett, Texas, was attended by many to whom he was an inspiring talent, dear friend, and an example of grace, capability, and wit. A January memorial service will be held in New York, though a date is not yet set. Contact: Laura Kissack at 915-867-2555.

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.

STAFF NEWS

The School's new Materials Lab Director, Sam Duncan, started work last week. Sam comes to us from Fort Worth, where he worked at the Amon Carter Museum as the technical services librarian. He will be working in the Materials Lab with the three students who have been capably running the Lab since former Director Tara Carlisle left in August. Special thanks to Stephen Balut, Andrea Janusz, and Heather Stapleton for helping out.

Friends of Architecture

Friends of Architecture will be enjoying a scenic drive through the Texas Hill Country this weekend, touring amazing ranch-style architecture along the way. If you missed out on the exclusive "Ranch Roundup II" tour, you will want to be sure to mark your calendar for our February 3 tour of Dallas. To pre-register, contact FOA Director Stephanie Palmer at stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu or 512-471-0617.

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

Dean's Journal

Over lunch on Friday, October 27, we held our second research discussion between Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center staff and School of Architecture faculty. At the first meeting, the Wildflower Center scientists presented their work. This time, the focus was on School faculty. Both meetings generated lots of ideas and broad areas of common interest.

Later in the day, I made a presentation about Envision Central Texas to about 200 participants in the UT Forum at the J. C. Thompson Center. As my year as Envision Central Texas chair concludes, the nominating committee asked me to consider a second year, and I have agreed. I believe we are making progress with the vision, as evidenced by the overwhelming support of the Austin Bond Package on November 8.

On Monday, October 30, former faculty member Ethel Buisson returned to Austin from Paris for a School lecture. With her colleague and co-author Thomas Billard, she discussed her book Promenade Contemporaine Dans Les Case Study Houses. They described four periods of the Innovative California program sponsored by Art & Architecture from 1945 to 1966. They discussed the architects involved, the houses themselves, and the many innovations from open plans to building materials.

The next morning, I participated in a press conference with Austin Mayor Will Wynn and U. S. Congressman Mike McCaul at City Hall. Congressman McCaul is the co-author (with Congresswoman Judy Biggert) of H.R. 6203, the Alternative Energy Research and Development Act. Endorsed by AIA and others, the legislation would create a Green Energy Education Program, if it is also passed by the Senate. The Green Energy Education Program would establish significant funding for research for engineering programs that partner with schools of design, architecture, and planning (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-6203).

Later that day, I participated in the first of two juries, organized by Lecturer Dason Whitsett [B.Arch. '95, M.S.S.D. '05], for the Paco Arumi Sundial Competition. Associate Professor Vince Snyder, Gail Vittori of the Center for Maximum Potential Systems, and Arthur Andersson of Andersson-Wise joined me on the jury. The second session was held yesterday involving UT-Austin Vice President for Employee and Campus Services Pat Clubb, Bill Booziotis [B.Arch. '57], and Associate Dean Kent Butler, and Associate Professor Dan Leary. The jurors were voting to create a short list and will cast their final votes on that short list in the next few days. We will announce the winner next week.

On Thursday, November 2, I flew to Dallas for the Texas Society of Architects conference and for a meeting of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Site Planning Committee. Led by Howard Rachofsky, Deedie Rose, and John Dayton, the site planning committee met all day Thursday to refine concepts and to explore suggestions by architecture critic David Dillon and architect/landscape architect Kevin Sloan. That evening, we hosted a reception for about 100 alumni at the Hyatt Regency.

The next morning, I attended a "Patrons on Beauty" panel moderated by Mark Gunderson. Patrons Rose, Rachofsky, and Ray Nasher discussed their interests in art and architecture. Ray Nasher observed that we "need to consider everything in the built environment from exit signs to landscape architecture." Deedie Rose also stressed the importance of comprehensive interdisciplinary cooperation among graphic designers, architects, landscape architects, planners, and civil engineers, adding "We don't own art or architecture or the land--we're merely caretakers."

Afterwards, Johnson Presidential Library director Betty Sue Flowers gave a TSA keynote talk on "The Future of Beauty in the Economic Myth." She described the differences among the "hero myth" with its aim of excellence, the "religious myth" with an aim of goodness, the "democratic/scientific myth" with its aim of truth, and the "economic myth" with growth as its aim. Dr. Flowers suggested a new "global myth" is emerging with an aim of human dignity and sustainability.

After lunch, Provost B. Hobson Wildenthal, School of Arts and Humanities Dean Dennis Kratz, and Director of Major Gifts Sally Drews of the University of Texas at Dallas and I met with Lucilo A. Peña, president of the Billingsley Company at One Arts Plaza. We are exploring a possible permanent home for our Dallas Urban Lab with our UT Dallas colleagues. We put on hard hats and went up 22 stories of the 24-story building under construction to view the Dallas Arts District.

For Saturday breakfast, I met with other Texas architecture deans and Professor Larry Speck to discuss our "Deans Speak" panel. Larry moderated the panel later that morning which also included Ikhlas Sabouni of Prairie View A&M, Tom Regan of Texas A&M, Andrew Vernooy [M.Arch. '78 & M.S.Arch.Eng. '90] of Texas Tech, Don Gatzke of UT-Arlington, Julius Gribou of UT-San Antonio, and Joe Washburn of the University of Houston. With lively audience participation, we discussed issues such as diversity, funding, pedagogy, interdisciplinary cooperation, research, green design, international travel, design build, and technology.

At the TSA awards lunch on November 4, the School was well represented among the 30 projects selected from almost 300 entries. In addition to numerous alumni, our faculty were responsible for five award-winning projects. Associate Professor Juan Miró's firm Miró Rivera received two awards. Other design awards were received by Associate Dean Kevin Alter and Lecturer Ernesto Cragnolino [B.Arch. & B.Arch.Eng. '97] of alterstudio and Professor Larry Speck of PageSoutherlandPage. Associate Dean Louise Harpman and Lecturer Russell Krepart [M.Arch. '02] received a studio project award for Design > Build > Texas. Former students Sara Fry [B.Arch. '05] and Dale Buehler joined Louise to accept the award.

On Sunday I returned to Austin, and the next morning, the Dean's Council met to discuss several issues and new policies. Yesterday, I returned to Fort Worth for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planners annual meeting, where I participated in four panels and delivered a site visitor report on the MIT planning program to the Planning Accreditation Board.

—Fritz Steiner

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

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