DESIGNING THE FUTURE

Master of Architecture graduate Meeta Morrison (second from left) with her parents, husband, and children.

Left: Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies Jeanne Crawford and Bachelor of Architecture graduate Ashley Parvin. Right: Master of Architecture graduate Catherine French with her father.

Bachelor of Architecture graduate Xavier Cantu, flanked by family members.

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies Louise Harpman, Master of Architecture graduate Brett Koenig, and spring graduate Travis Greig [M.Arch. '07].

Dean Fritz Steiner, faculty, and staff of the School of Architecture joined with friends and family in congratulating our fall graduates at a celebration dinner on December 8. Dean Steiner presented the following commencement address:

The future of humanity is in peril as a result of our own actions. The current structure of the urban built environment contributes much to global environmental degradation. For the first time in human history, over half of the world's population lives iN urban regions. By mid-century, this will climb to two-thirds of the world's population. Meanwhile, the number of people continues to increase, from 2 billion at the beginning of the 20th century to the present 6.7 billion, with predictions of around 9 billion by 2150.

Urbanization and population growth result in the consumption of vast resources. As cities expand, the countryside and open spaces disappear, replaced by dull suburban sprawl that is expensive to build and to maintain. In the U.S. alone, almost half of all energy use and of the greenhouse gas production comes from buildings. Another 25 percent of both energy use and greenhouse gas production comes from transportation. As a result, approximately 75 percent of energy use and greenhouse gas production in the U.S. is related to the design and planning of the built environment.

According to the Brookings Institution, half of all buildings in which all Americans will live, work, and shop in 2030 will be built after 2000. Clearly, we cannot continue to build in the future as we have in the past.

Texas is on the forefront of these growth challenges. The Texas Triangle with Houston and San Antonio at the base and Dallas and Fort Worth at its apex is one of the 10 fastest growing megaregions in the United States. The Texas Triangle is expected to grow by 10 million people by 2030. As a result, the Texas Triangle offers an ideal laboratory for urban growth and change.

Fortunately, the UT-Austin School of Architecture has significant leadership experience and potential in creating a more sustainable future. Our school initiated a degree in sustainable design in the 1970s and a center for sustainable development in 2002. The school contributed to the development of the City of Austin's innovative Green Building Program, a precursor to the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program. Alumni designed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, now part of the School of Architecture and the College of Natural Sciences. The school and the Wildflower Center are currently working with the U.S. Green Building Council on the Sustainable Sites Initiative, the landscape equivalent of LEED.

The School of Architecture offers a unique range of degree programs dedicated to quality built environment including architecture, community and regional planning, historic preservation, interior design, urban design, sustainable design, architectural history, and landscape architecture. Faculty and students are engaged in affordable housing design, open space preservation, transportation planning, building energy efficiency, the use of sustainable building systems, and regenerative design. From Beijing to Dubai, from Venice to New Orleans, and from Austin to Dallas, we are sought out for our design and planning expertise. The world is already turning to us for direction. Faculty have experience throughout the United States and around the world. The school offers educational experience opportunities in Europe, Asia, and Latin America that have enriched the lives of many of our students.

The prospects for future contributions from the School of Architecture are bright. The school has the potential to help solve the pressing issues facing humanity. The world needs our talents now.

FALL 2007 FINAL STUDIO REVIEWS

Final studio reviews were held during the first two weeks of December for architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture classes. The following distinguished guest critics participated in the reviews.

• Arthur Andersson, Andersson • Wise Architects, Austin, Texas
• Charles Berg
• Lucy Begg, artist and architect
• Jason Buchheit, BOKA Powell, Austin, Texas
• Dr. Joseph Carter
• Cass Cheesar, Cass Cheesar Architects, Austin, Texas
• April Clark, Dick Clark Architecture, Austin, Texas
• Frederick Cooper Llosa, architect, Lima, Peru
• Steve Dvorak, Bottinogrund Architects, New York and Austin
• Edward Ford, Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor, The University of Virginia
• Robert Gay, artist and architect, Austin, Texas
• Cisco Gomes, Gomes + Staub Architects, Raleigh, North Carolina
• Steve Hanson
• Ron Henderson
• Allison Hsiao-Gaskins, architect, Austin, Texas
• Iain Kerr, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Theory and Studio, Maine College of Art
• Samantha Krukowski, Department of Radio Television Film, UT-Austin
• Murray Legge, Legge Lewis Legge, Austin, Texas
• Jacinta McCain
• Santiago R. Perez, University of Houston College of Architecture
• Edward Richardson, Miró Rivera Architects, Austin, Texas
• Wendy Scaperotta, Travis County, Texas
• Kevin Slaney
• Scott Slaney
• Max Underwood, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
• Peter Waldman, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Architecture, University of Virginia
• Wilson Associates
• Chris Wise, Andersson • Wise Architects, Austin, Texas

UTSOA RANKINGS ARE UP

Top U.S. architecture schools, undergraduate programs, Architect magazine, November 2007.

Every year for the last nine years, the Design Futures Council and the journal DesignIntelligence have produced a ranking of the architecture schools that best prepare students for professional practice. The results are determined through a poll of firms and organizations that hire graduates. One hundred thirty office of architecture firms, 46 deans of architecture schools, and 740 students participated in this year's survey. A selection from the ranking and its accompanying survey of deans, practitioners, and students appears in the November 2007 "Education" issue of Architect magazine.

UTSOA's undergraduate program is ranked sixth, up from last year's ninth position. The graduate program also rose this year to tenth place, up from twelfth.

Dean Fritz Steiner is quoted in the Architect report that while every school is jumping on the green bandwagon, Austin was an early incubator. "The Austin Green Building Initiative laid the groundwork for LEED and involved our faculty, students, and alumni," he says, adding that first-year architecture students have the best academic credentials of all incoming UT freshmen.

The article explains, "When our survey asked practitioners if their firms got an infusion of new ideas about sustainability from recent hires, 57 percent say yes, and that response is expected to increase."

Events

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

EXHIBIT

Ghats / Lake Palace, Pichola Lake, Udaipur, Rajasthan, 1746. Photo by Sarah Hill.

September 10, 2007, through January 4, 2008
Visual Resources Collection
Sutton Hall 3.128 (Monday-Friday, 8-5)

"Images of India: Photography by Sarah Hill"

Traveling throughout India for six weeks in summer 2006 with the Advanced Travel India Studio led by Lecturers Pankaj Gupta and Christine Mueller, Sarah Hill was provided with many opportunities to document the visually rich environment. The selection of images in this exhibit represents a small sampling of over 3700 digital images that are now part of the School of Architecture's Visual Resources Image Collection; the images will be available shortly for use by the University community for study, teaching, and research.

Sarah Hill graduated from the School of Architecture in May 2007 with a Master of Architecture degree. This project was supported in great part by a ~FAST Tex Grant from the University's Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment.

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP AND AWARDS

Inside-out, a shed becomes a dining pavilion. Project by Kelly Folk-Rittenhouse and Brian Salek.

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has recognized Associate Professor Lois Weinthal's article, "House Lab: The House as Instigator of Full-Scale Constructions," as the 2007-2008 Journal of Architectural Education Best Design as Scholarship Article Award. Each year, the ACSA and Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) honor an outstanding article published in the JAE. The studio upon which the article is based focuses on interior, memory, and the domestic realm, resulting in full scale constructions and installations by students. Student projects from the House Lab studio published in the article include Shara Castillo, Kelly Folk-Rittenhouse, Brian Salek, Maryam Rostami, Emily Moore, and Amy Youn.

The award will be presented at the 96th ACSA Annual Meeting to be held March 27-30, 2008, in Houston, Texas, in a special plenary Awards Ceremony. ACSA and the American Institute of Architects have joined to publish the ACSA/AIA Architectural Education Awards Book. Recipients of the 2007-08 ACSA Awards, the AIA 2008 Education Honor Awards, and collaborative awards programs will be included in the 2008 publication.

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has recognized Professor David Heymann with the 2007-2008 ACSA Distinguished Professor Award. Each year, the ACSA honors an outstanding individual who has sustained creative achievement in the advancement of architectural education through teaching, design, scholarship, research, or service. The award will be presented at a special plenary Awards Ceremony at the 96th ACSA Annual Meeting to be held March 27-30, 2008, in Houston, Texas.

Each year, the Texas Exes take great pride in recognizing a professor and graduate instructor from each college with the Texas Exes Teaching Awards. The recipients from the School of Architecture this year are Dr. Christopher Long and Ms. Tara Dudley.

Recipients for these awards are chosen solely by the students. These are unique awards based largely on the teacher-student relationship. The presentation of the 2008 Texas Exes Teaching Awards will be Tuesday, February 5, 2008, at 6:00 p.m. at the Alumni Center.

Associate Professor Juan Miró and his partner Miguel Rivera were guest speakers at the School of Architecture, the University of Florida in Gainesville. Their lecture, titled "Responsible Architecture," was delivered on November 5 at the University of Florida's Harn Museum of Art. Professor Miró and Mr. Rivera presented the most recent work of their firm, Miró Rivera Architects.

ALUMNI NEWS

ALUMNI UPDATE

Don Sowieja, AIA, NCARB [B.Arch. '97], joined four others in June as a principal at Myhre Group Architects, Inc., in Portland, Oregon, where he and his wife, Rachel [BSID '99], have lived since they left Texas in 1999. Rachel is also an associate at Myhre Group Architects, which employs 128 people in downtown Portland and provides architecture, interior design, and land use planning services, primarily to private real-estate development clients. The firm has been in existence since 2000, when the three founders left another local firm to forge out on their own. Since joining the firm in 2004, Don has served as a project designer, project manager, associate, and most recently principal.

After graduation, Don worked at Kell Munoz Architects in San Antonio (then called Kell Munoz Wigodsky Architects), most notably working on the La Joya Performing Arts Center in La Joya, Texas, and the Brownsville ISD Natatorium in Brownsville, Texas. After moving to Portland, he joined BML Architects and was responsible for several large-scale residential projects in downtown Portland. Don received his license to practice architecture in Oregon in 2005 and recently gained his Texas license. For more information on Myhre Group Architects and their work, visit their web site.

ALUMNI CONNECTIONS

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, contact preferences, and search for fellow graduates by logging on to the University's online alumni directory. Or, you may always contact Stephanie Palmer, Alumni Relations Director, at stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu or 512-471-0617.

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

MEBANE TRAVELING SCHOLARSHIP MAKES AN IMPACT
ON THE WORLD

Jessica Braun and Tania Garbe with a Mongolian familiy inside their ger (yurt).

The layout of the bedroom will provide children respite and personalized space despite the care center's communal character. Monolithic walls alternate with wooden window seats and shelving to create bed spaces that are both accessible and intimate. In addition to establishing zones of personal and shared space, the angle of these walls serves to shield from wind and dust storms, while allowing views to the stupa (Buddist religious monument) beyond.

A typical Mongolian family with their ger, Russian motorcycle, and dung pile (for burning for heat and cooking). Images provided by Jessica Braun and Tania Garbe.

This past summer, graduate architecture students Jessica Braun and Tania Garbe were recipients of a Mike and Maxine K. Mebane Endowed Traveling Scholarship from the School of Architecture. This award helped them travel to Mongolia and design a child care center for disabled children there.

They spent six weeks in Mongolia as an extended site visit for an independent traveling studio. Their site was in Bayankhongor, Mongolia, on the edge of the Gobi desert, a bumpy 13-hour drive on dirt roads from the capital.

The project began as correspondence with Michael Burden, a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia. His work revealed a lack of resources for the disabled population of the city of Bayankhongor and its surrounding province. Conceived of and driven by the Mongolian organization Association for Parents of Disabled Children, the project called for a care center for disabled children.

Their charge was to design a facility to simultaneously support disabled children and the parents struggling to care for them. The building's design addresses the physical and emotional needs of the children, while both educating and relieving their parents. Countering dust storms, wind, and long winters, the design attempts to mediate the extremes of the Mongolian experience. The intimacy and warmth of the Mongolian hearth offers respite from the harsh Gobi landscape, while vernacular, nomadic building traditions are incorporated into the existing Soviet-influenced infrastructure.

The end product of the studio was a 30-page booklet meant to inform and educate the local population on the design and construction of the proposed building, while garnering international support to fund the project. 

Jessica and Tania's project was exhibited in Goldsmith Hall during November.

SUPPORT UTSOA

Sutton Hall in the snow, early 1900s.

The holidays are here, and as you plan your year-end giving, please consider a gift to the School of Architecture. It's easy and secure to give online, and you can designate your gift for the program of your choice. You can even set up automatic monthly payments using any major credit card.

Click here to begin.

Thank you and best wishes for a happy and safe holiday season!

FRIENDS OF ARCHITECTURE

On February 8-11, 2008, Friends of Architecture, in conjunction with Dallas Architecture Forum, presents "Palm Springs Mid-Century Modernism."

Palm Springs, California, is a desert oasis where world class architects created uniquely important mid-century modern designs for their jet set clientele. Martinis, moonlight, and mid-century modern design, what more could you ask for?

Come and experience desert modernism for yourself! Join UT-Austin School of Architecture Associate Dean Louise Harpman and noted local experts for a Palm Springs adventure unlike any other.

Membership in Friends of Architecture or Dallas Architecture Forum is required. For complete pricing and registration details, contact FOA Director Stephanie Palmer at 512.471.0617 or stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu.

Visit Friends of Architecture online for more information on membership and on upcoming tours.

THE BLOOMHOUSE IS FOR SALE

The BLOOMhouse on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the national Solar Decathlon competition October 12-20, 2007.

The School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin's entry into the 2007 Solar Decathlon, BLOOMhouse, is being offered for sale. Proceeds from the sale will go to help fund the school's next Solar Decathlon entry in 2009.

The house won 10th place overall in the national competition, 2nd place in the "engineering" category, and 3rd place in the "comfort zone" category. See the November 1, 2007, edition of eNews for the post-competition update, or visit the BLOOMhouse web site.

The team has developed a 6.6 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic array with a skin-based design strategy that responds to orientation, climate, and culture. This modular house has a streamlined design that is 14 feet by 50 feet. The energy saving features of the house integrate strategically-placed shading devices, cross ventilation, day lighting, advanced energy star appliances, equipment and fiber optic and LED lighting prototypes, as well as the use of an evacuated tube solar hot water heating system with hydronic floor heating and a 6.6 kW-roof mounted photovoltaic powered system. Because the house was made using lightweight metal-faced R-30 Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) as a single envelope, the infiltration load is reduced to less than one-half of air change per hour and an Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) is incorporated into the house to ensure adequate amounts of fresh air.

Additional information, a detailed spec book, plans, and renderings are available to interested parties by contacting the School of Architecture's Assistant Dean for Administration Jeff Evelyn at jeffevelyn@austin.utexas.edu.

Interested buyers may submit a written offer no later than January 18, 2008, at 5 p.m. Visit the UT-Austin Purchasing Department web site for details.

FOAM SWORD FRIDAY

Foam Sword Friday: It was a hit!

Graduate architecture students Patrick Winn and Josh Conrad recently organized a unique event, "Foam Sword Friday," to "bring a little joy into others' lives and to alleviate some stress for students at the end of the semester!"

The only instructions were:

FOAM SWORD FRIDAY!!!!

...grab a sword...
...kick some crosswalk ass!!...
...put sword back on other side.
...Guadalupe & West Mall crosswalk.

Check out the Foam Sword Flickr site to see all the photos. Another "Foam Sword Friday" is planned for next April.

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 tell us your story. Students, faculty, and staff may send updates to eNews editor Pamela Peters at p.peters@mail.utexas.edu. Alumni, please send your news and contact updates to Alumni Relations Director Stephanie Palmer at stephanie.palmer@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

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

Director, Friends of Architecture and Alumni Relations
Stephanie Palmer, stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu, 512.471.0617

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

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

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