Dean's Journal
On March 2, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Goldberger presented a lecture based on his book Up From Zero. Now dean at Parsons School of Design, Goldberger called rebuilding Ground Zero “the first great urban design challenge of the 21st Century.” He noted that after the loss of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, “people began caring about the skyline as an object, … as buildings became martyrs.” Goldberger called the September 11 events, “an attack on modernity.” He identified the “Listening to the City” gathering, which attracted some 4,000 participants, “a turning point in American planning.”
Following the lecture, AIA-Austin hosted a reception at the home of Dennis Karbach, designed by Tim Cuppett [B.Arch. ‘84]. AIAS organized a book signing, which created an opportunity for students and others to interact with Paul Goldberger.
The next day, we presented our “Designing for Health” symposium, which is our second “Future of the Texas City-Regions” event. Organized by Assistant Professor Tracy McMillan and Stephanie Palmer, the symposium addressed design at scales from interior spaces to the city.
We established three goals for this symposium:
- To expand the knowledge of public health within the professions of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and community and regional planning.
- To bring public health professionals closer to those engaged in creating the built environment.
- To raise public awareness about how our built environments affect our health and well-being.
Professor Larry Frank, the J. Armand Bombardier Chairholder in Sustainable Transportation in the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, was our keynote speaker. The co-author of Health and Community Design:The Impacts of the Built Environment on Physical Activity and Urban Sprawl and Public Health, he focused on recent work that illustrates the relationship between walking and our weight. He stressed the importance of connectivity in urban design to improve opportunities for walking.
His presentation was followed by three panel discussions. The first addressed “Healthy Places” and featured Assistant Professor Jeff Siegel from the College of Engineering, School of Architecture Lecturer Wendy Dunnam [B.Arch. ‘98], and Bob Shemwell [M.Arch. ‘86] of Overland Partners. Professors Siegel and Dunnam focused on the health of indoor environments, which is where we spend most of our lives. Mr. Shemwell asked, “How are we going to influence the world in a positive way through design?”
The second panel addressed “Healthy Spaces” and included marathoner Amby Burfoot, executive editor of Runner’s World; architect Andrew Brown of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and Tracy McMillan. Mr. Brown called our current culture “a society of nomadic consumer-gatherers.” Professor McMillan focused on the transportation needs of children and older adults.
I moderated the final “town hall” panel, which featured Judge Sam Biscoe of Travis County; Dr. Pat Hayes, Executive Vice President and COO, Seton Healthcare Network; and Paul Carrozza, CEO and President of RunTex, and Member, President’s Council of Physical Fitness and Sports. We fielded questions and comments from the audience. By the time we adjourned after lunch, there was a positive feeling that the symposium had achieved our goals.
Designing for Health Symposium, "Town Hall" Panel, Paul Carrozza, Pat Hayes, and Judge Sam Biscoe. Photograph by Charlotte Pickett.
Designing for Health Symposium, "Healthy Spaces" Panel Jeff Siegal, Wendy Dunnam, and Bob Shemwell. Photograph by Charlotte Pickett.
That evening, I spoke to the Austin City Council in support of proposed commercial design standards. Several other individuals also offered comments including Girard McKinney [B.Arch. ‘78] and Kathy Zarsky [B.S.A.S. ‘94].
On Friday evening, March 4, we held a dinner recognizing our Urban Land Institute (ULI) Gerald Hines Urban Design Competition teams. The lovely evening was sponsored by the Cogburn family. Meg Cogburn Wilson [B.Arch. ‘98], Mike Cogburn, and Robert Wilson attended the dinner and, along with Assistant Professor Dean Almy, presented the students with awards for their participation and achievement.
Receiving their ULI awards are members of the national finalist team, Brian Richey (planning), Catherine Craig (architecture), Meg Cogburn Wilson, Mike Cogburn, Teddy Dykoski (business), Daniel Sharp (landscape architecture), Justin Sabatini (architecture), and Teddy Dykoski (business). Photograph by Charlotte Pickett.
"Fishy Tees." Co-Coordinator of the School's Explore UT activities, Dan Leary poses for Expore UT organizer Susan Clagett, Associate Vice President, Office of Relation Management and University Events, with a hand-printed fish t-shirt created by children attending the event.
The next day was the annual Explore UT open house. Associate Professor Dan Leary and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs Jeanne Crawford did a terrific job organizing this year’s activities, which attracted large crowds of people of all ages. Many contributed to this successful day including faculty and staff members Dean Almy, Sheila Balog, Anne Beamish, Mike Farmer, Janine Henri, Russell Krepart, Steve Ross, and Nichole Wiedemann, graduate students Greta Goldberg and Jason Reyes, and other student assistants.
That evening, we held our second annual All-Class Reunion. Despite the rain, the evening attracted more than 100 alumni and friends. We mounted an exhibition of alumni work, which attracted considerable interest, and ate delicious food to a backdrop of the South Austin Gypsy jazz of Django’s Moustache (http://djangosmoustache.com/djangohome.htm). Also, in honor of their twentieth anniversary, the Class of 1985 held several additional activities.
Alumni from years ranging from 1950 to 2004 attended the second annual All-Class Reunion, along with current and emeritus faculty. Photograph by Charlotte Pickett.
On Monday, March 7, I attended the lecture by Franz Romero and Markus Schaefle of Romero & Schaefle Architekten, Zürich. Their talk is part of the O’Neil Ford Chair series organized by Lecturer Barbara Hoidn and Professor Wilfried Wang. The talk focused on several small-scale urban interventions in Zürich.
On Tuesday, I held a “Dean Speak” with our students. These events do not have an agenda, and I field questions and comments from the students. Associate Dean Louise Harpman, Assistant Professor Billie Faircloth, and Assistant Dean Jeanne Crawford joined me for this wide-ranging discussion. The students are concerned about rising costs and the recent jump in growth in our graduate programs. The latter resulted from both a growth in graduate applications and an increased yield of those accepted selecting our School. The students also expressed an interest in more research opportunities within the School.
After the Dean Speak, I attended a ULI-sponsored dinner at the Headliners Club to discuss the proposed commercial design standards and to prepare for a lunch panel the next day. That March 9 panel was moderated by Michael Beyard of ULI’s Washington, D.C., headquarters and included Austin City Council member Brewster McCracken; Tom Terkel, President of Cencor Urban; Milo Burdette of Barshop & Oles, and me. The event was attended by the crowd of around 200 and generated spirited discussion.
Also on March 9, I met with Texas State Representatives Mike Kruse and John Langmore about the Envision Central Texas (ECT) Land Use and Transportation Committee. We discussed the design and planning challenges presented by the State Highway 130 corridor. ECT will organize a trip for local leaders to visit other transportation corridors that are well designed. We plan to develop a tool box of best practices to assist communities to plan growth along the 55-mile corridor.
On Thursday, March 10, I met with Arthur Andersson, Chris Wise [B.Arch. ‘87], and Anthony Iannacci of Edizioni Press. Edizioni is preparing a book on Andersson-Wise, and they invited me to write the introduction. The book will focus on Andersson-Wise’s work over the past five years. We discussed the concepts and the schedule for the book. Edizioni is also publishing a book about Professor Larry Speck’s work titled Technology, Sustainability and Local Culture and due out in June.
At the Center Forum on March 11, graduate students Nick Brinen, Jack Sanders, and Anne Tucker shared their experiences with Visiting Associate Professor Sergio P. Palleroni’s design-build studio in Sonora, Mexico. Over the holiday break 39 of our students spent two weeks with Professor Palleroni and Associate Professor Steven Moore building homes for single mothers, who are Yaqui Indians. The students established four, broad sustainable design criteria for the project relating to regional studies, renewable energy resources, environmentally sound materials, and appropriate architecture. They presented their successes and challenges, which will be written as a case study. The case study will become part of the UT Center for Sustainable Development’s new planned working paper series.
That afternoon, I participated in Assistant Professor Billie Faircloth’s mid-term jury. She is working with the Cornerstone Research Group of Dayton, Ohio. This company has developed new “shape memory polymers.” Professor Faircloth’s studio is exploring how these new materials may be used in building design.
On Saturday, I visited the Browning Ranch near Johnson City with Louise Harpman, Assistant Professor Hope Hasbrouck, Lecturer Jason Kentner, and Anna Steiner. We discussed the Ranch’s ongoing restoration collaborations with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and future landscape studies. We also visited the Design>Build>Texas house on the ranch, where Lecturers Russell Krepart and Ernesto Cragnolino were hard at work on finishing construction on the project.
Over spring break, I traveled to the Flight 93 Memorial site in western Pennsylvania, participated in regional planning activities in Cleveland, and attended the annual American Planning Association conference in San Francisco. My visit to the Flight 93 site was an attempt to get my feet on the ground. Monday, March 14, was a clear cold day with temperatures hovering about 25° F. The sharp wind and snowy ground made it feel even colder. The long views interspersed with woody enclosed spaces will contribute to a fitting memorial on this ground ripped open by strip mining.
Island Press and the George Gund Foundation sponsored my visit to Cleveland as part of Island Press’s effort to engage various communities around the nation with its authors. A greenway is being built through the Cuyahoga Valley from Cleveland to south of Akron. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park is the centerpiece of the greenway. It is now the third most visited national park in the United States. In addition to the river, the Ohio & Erie Canal is an attraction and significant cultural resource. The goal of the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative is to restore this “forgotten valley” through urban Cleveland and its suburbs. Faced with a declining population and economic base, local leaders ask: “How can we make the Cuyahoga Valley so compelling that people won’t want to leave?”
Their answer is to embrace what is before moving on to what could be. The Cuyahoga Valley Initiative works with six “organizing ideas,” including the creation of a healthy valley, the encouragement of business innovation, the transformation of the Cuyahoga Valley into a destination, the development of art and design, the celebration of a working river, and the enhancement of community capacity for innovation. I visited several groups, such as the Kent State Urban Design Center in downtown Cleveland.
On Wednesday evening, March 16, I gave a lecture “Regional Planning in the First Urban Century” at the Stokes Auditorium in the Cleveland Public Library (designed by Hardy Holtzman Pfeiffer Associates) to an audience of around 120. Afterwards, I signed books and continued discussion with about 25 people who had attended the lecture.
After a quick visit with my family in Dayton, I flew to San Francisco on Friday, March 18, to attend the 2005 National Planning Conference hosted by the American Planning Association (APA).
In Sunday’s keynote address, former University of Pennsylvania president and current Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin addressed the rediscovery of the urban campus in the 21st century. She discussed the importance of higher education and medical institutions, “eds and meds,” to urban vitality and knowledge generation. Dr. Rodin used the West Philadelphia Initiatives to illustrate how Penn helped transform the quality of life and economics of communities surrounding the campus.
Later that day, I participated on a panel “Navigating the Public Process.” My fellow panelists were John Czarnecki, acquisitions editor of architecture and design books of Wiley & Sons; Barbara Faga, chair of the board of EDAW; and Fred Yalouris, a director of architecture and urban design with the Massachusetts Highway Department. Ms. Faga and Mr. Yalouris discussed their work with the “Big Dig” project in Boston and how public participation shaped the resulting design. I explored how the public process can be taught in planning and urban design process.
Professor Patricia Wilson and Assistant Professor Barbara Parmenter also attended the APA conference. I enjoyed meeting many Texas planners, colleagues from other universities, and former students in San Francisco before returning to Austin on Monday, March 21, and teaching my “Environmental Readings” seminar on Tuesday.
I had lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday with several employers participating in our annual job fair. Organized by Career Services Director Sheila Balog, this year's 2-day event, called CareerAlliance '05, was held in the Ford Career Center and in Royal-Memorial Stadium's sky boxes. Thirty-two firms were represented, and 220 students participated in the process.
Tuesday evening, we held a second Dean Speak, mostly focused on graduate student issues. Also attending were Associate Deans Kevin Alter and Louise Harpman; Graduate Advisor Professor Larry Speck; Professors Anthony Alofsin, Richard Cleary, Nancy Kwallek, Billie Faircloth, and Steven Moore; Assistant Dean Jeanne Crawford; and Graduate Program Coordinator Rosemin Gopaul. We discussed ways to improve graduate faculty advising and communication within the School. The students offered several excellent suggestions, which we will explore.
—Fritz Steiner
