Giambologna's, "Rape of the Sabine Woman," 1583, Florence, Italy. Photograph by Fritz Steiner. A collection of photographs, titled "Frozen Notes," by Dean Fritz Steiner is showing at the Center for American Places Online Gallery at http://www.americanplaces.org/CAPgallery/bob.html.
8 April 2005
Dean's Journal
During the past two weeks, two stimulating publications appeared in the School. The first is our new student-edited ISSUE: When the graduate students first approached me about a design-based publication, I was skeptical. Over the past few years, I wanted to build on our successful planning student annual Planning Forum and to create such a publication featuring student design work. However, the idea did not find student support.
But when this group proposed a design annual, they were enthusiastic and persistent. They formed an advisory board including Associate Professor Richard Cleary, Assistant Professor Billie Faircloth, and Associate Dean Louise Harpman. In addition, they secured funding from several organizations, including Friends of Architecture, AIA-Austin, and our Career Services Office, as well as faculty support from Professors Larry Speck and David Heymann to get the project underway.
Ten architecture graduate students formed an editorial collaborative that they imbued with considerable wit and imagination. The student editors include Travis Greig, Jesse Hager, Sheryl Jordan, Rea Koukiou, Meeta Morrison, Andrea Schelly, Sam Schonzeit, Adam Schreiber, Elpitha Sifantonakis, and Andrew Torres. These students collected work from vertical and advanced studios, design-build projects, theory and research, and exhibitions. In addition to design work from architecture studios, the editors included projects from our new Master of Landscape Architecture program. Each student responsible for the specific project is identified, and their mentors are credited as well. As ISSUE: gains momentum in following years, they also hope to include projects and work from the School's sustainabliity, historic preservation, interior architecture, and community and regional planning programs.
Between March 21 and April 1 ISSUE: occupied the Mebane Gallery in Goldsmith Hall. ISSUE: installed its own office in the space, with the editors staffing the desk to take applications, hold interviews, and take suggestions. ISSUE: was hoping to raise awareness, as well as recruit staff for the following year. For those two weeks, the Mebane took on an atmosphere of the office lounge or cafe, complete with free coffee during office hours. Photographs by Elpitha Sifantonakis.
The first issue of ISSUE:. Cover photo is a self-portrait by Sam Schonzeit.
The result is a visually stimulating documentation of the past year. ISSUE: reveals much about our student and faculty passions. Design occupies center stage with considerable interest displayed for issues concerning sustainability, materials, site, and construction. ISSUE: also displays the international reach of our School with work represented from Portugal, India, Germany, Mexico, and China. For information about how to obtain a copy of ISSUE:, write to: ISSUE@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
The second new publication is Centerline 1: Dance Halls of Central Texas, edited by Associate Dean Kevin Alter and published by the Center for American Architecture and Design. The publication features the photographs and drawings of Krista Whitson, with an essay by Professor Stephanie White of the University of Calgary.
Dance Halls of Central Texas documents a significant cultural tradition and a fascinating building type. These buildings were constructed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, primarily by Czech and German immigrants to further their dancing and music traditions. For information about obtaining Dance Halls of Central Texas, contact The Center for American Architecture and Design via phone at 512-471-9890, fax to 512-471-7033, or email at caad@lists.cc.utexas.edu
Kevin Alter and Professor Michael Benedikt produced Dance Halls of Central Texas as the first of the new Centerline series. The Centerline series joins other Center for American Architecture and Design programs such as its Friday Lunch Forum Series.
A Center Lunch Forum is the source of a new online exhibition of my photographs. Michael Benedikt asked me to talk about photography, a topic that I’d never previously spoken about publicly. I wrote a talk titled “Frozen Notes,” which accompanies the photographs. Organized by the Center for American Places Online Gallery, the exhibition can be viewed at http://www.americanplaces.org/CAPgallery/bob.html.
I hope you enjoy those images, as well as the inaugural ISSUE: and Centerline. Together, they provide a window into the creative energies in our School.
—Fritz Steiner
Events
LECTURE
April 8
Thomas Phifer
Ruth Carter Stevenson Professor
Thomas Phifer and Partners
New York, New York
HRH 2.104, 5 p.m.
Thomas Phifer received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Architecture from Clemson University. He was a Senior Associate at Gwathmey Siegel and Associates from 1979-1985 and a Design Partner at Richard Meier & Partners from 1986-1996.
Mr. Phifer was awarded the Rome Prize and was a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome in 1995-1996. He established his own office in 1996 and has since received major public and private commissions. Among these are such completed projects as the Workstage office complex for Steelcase in Grand Rapids, Michigan (2000); the Taghkanic Residence in Taghkanic, New York (2001); and the Spencertown Residence in Spencertown, New York (2001).
In 2004 Mr. Phifer was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest award given to an individual or firm, from the New York chapter of the AIA.
LECTURE
April 13
Kevin Alter, Ernesto Cragnolino, and Russell Krepart
alterstudio
GOL 3.120, 12:00 noon
This will be the final lecture of the "lecTOUR" series. The AIAS lecTOUR series identifies outstanding practitioners in the Austin area and invites them to the School to talk about their work. Invited lecturers discuss the philosophy of their practice, their firm's history, and give a detailed presentation of a chosen project for which a tour will be given.
A tour of the Wildcat Hollow Residence with Professor Alter is scheduled for Saturday, April 16, at noon. For more information and to reserve a space on the tour, contact Greg Esparza at gmesparza@mail.utexas.edu.
LECTURE
April 13
John Maeda
MIT Media Laboratory
Cambridge, Massachusetts
ACES 2.302, 5 p.m.
Lecture: "In Search of Simplicity"
Mr. Maeda has pioneered the use of the computer for people of all ages and skills to create art, and is currently spearheading a new research initiative to "redesign technology" so that it consistently makes sense, is fun, and keeps us coming back for more. He is director of the Lab's design-oriented Physical Language Workshop and co-directs SIMPLICITY, a new research program aimed at redefining users' relationships with technology in their daily lives. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. in design from Tsukuba University Institute of Art and Design in Japan.
Co-sponsored with the Design Division at the Department of Art and Art History.
LECTURE
April 20
Ivan Amato
Author, Super Vision: A New View of Nature
Silver Spring, Maryland
GOL 3.120, 5 p.m.
Lecture: "Beyond Vision"
A reception in the Materials Lab will follow the lecture.
Mr. Amato is an associate editor of Science News magazine, editor of the "Global Voices of Science" series for Science magazine, and a freelance writer for Fortune, Technology Review, U.S. News & World Report, and other magazines. His awards include the Grady-Stack Award for communicating chemistry and the Foresight Communications Award for writing about nanotechnology.
In his lecture, Mr. Amato will discuss "the limitations of our sensory abilities to discern the world's phenomena, then take a tour across 40 orders of spatial magnitude, which illustrates how scientific instruments enable us to transcend those limitations in ways that are both enlightening and aesthetically delightful."
LECTURE
April 20
Joseph P. Riley
Mayor, Charleston, South Carolina
GOL 3.120, 2 p.m.
Mayor Riley is a leading expert on urban design and livability issues and is a frequent speaker across the country on these topics. First elected mayor in 1975, Mayor Riley is serving an unprecedented eighth term. Under his leadership, Charleston has increased its commitment to racial harmony and progress, achieved a substantial decrease in crime, experienced a remarkable revitalization of its historic downtown business district, seen the creation and growth of Spoleto Festival U.S. A., built the beautiful Waterfront Park, developed nationally acclaimed affordable housing, and experienced unprecedented growth in Charleston's size and population. Newsweek named Mayor Riley one of the twenty-five most dynamic mayors in America.
LECTURE
April 22
Mayer Rus
Design Editor, House & Garden
New York, New York
GOL 3.120, 5 p.m.
Image courtesy of William Menking.
EXHIBIT
April 4-27
Dodici Citta Ideali / Twelve Ideal Cities
Mebane Gallery, Goldsmith Hall
EXHIBIT
January 27 through August 12
Visual Resources Collection's Inaugural Image Exhibition:
"Lensless Photography: The Art of the Pinhole"
Visual Resources Collection, Sutton 3.128
The exhibit showcases black and white pinhole photographs taken by students in Lecturer Russell Krepart's fall 2004 Vertical Studio. Various locations, from sites in Marfa, Texas, to a bathroom in Sutton Hall provided a variety of different lighting conditions challenging the students to experiment with pinhole technology and film exposure times. The photos were printed in the School of Architecture's Photo Union Darkroom (http://web.austin.utexas.edu/architecture/facilities/sutton/vrc/photo.html) by class participants. The pinhole cameras constructed by the students will also be displayed.
CENTER FORUMS
The Center for American Architecture and Design hosts a Friday Forum Series from 12:00 to 1:30 in Battle Hall Reading 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. Topics are announced approximately one week before each forum.
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.
Lecture titles will be posted on the Center website (http://www.utexas.edu/architecture/center/lunch_forums/index.html) a week prior to each event date.
CITY FORUMS
The Community and Regional Planning Program hosts a "City Forum Series," where urban planners and design professionals discuss aspects of contemporary metropolitan development. The events are held on selected Fridays from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Texas Union, Board of Directors' Room, 4.118 (on Guadalupe Street between 22nd and 24th Streets). The final City Forum for the spring 2005 semester is:
- April 15, Tracy McMillan, "Public Health and the Built Environment"
A complete City Forum schedule is available at: https://webspace.utexas.edu/ejm1209/www/spring2005program.htm. For more information on the City Forum Speaker Series or to be added to the email list, contact Mark Yznaga at markyznaga@austin.rr.com.
Website Redesign
The School of Architecture is redesigning our website, and we want you to join in.
Just go to the Website Suggestion Form at http://www.utexas.edu/architecture/suggest and let us know what information, features, and applications you would like to see in the new School of Architecture website.
And it's all public, so even if you don't have a suggestion, go see what people are saying about the site.
Scholarship and Awards
Over spring break, March 13-19, Assistant Professor Ming Zhang presented two talks at MIT. The first talk was given at a transportation seminar jointly offered by the Department of Urban Studies & Planning and the Center for Transportation and Logistics. Professor Zhang shared the podium with Professor John Pucher of Rutgers University and presented his research on the relationship between urban form and nonwork travel through time use analysis. The paper will be published in the Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning in 2005. The second talk was at the Second Annual Meeting of the China Planning Network (CPN), an MIT-Harvard-based group consisting of students and scholars interested in planning and development issues in China. Adele Naude Santos, MIT's Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, gave the opening remarks. For more information about CPN, visit http://mit.edu/dusp/chinaplanning/.
Image courtesy of Danze & Blood Architects.
The Twin Valley House, designed by Lecturers Elizabeth Danze and John Blood, Danze & Blood Architects, was chosen to receive an AIA Small Project Practitioners Knowledge Community Award. The award certificate will be presented at the 2005 AIA National Convention in Las Vegas on May 19. Images of the project will appear in the next issue of the Small Project Practitioners eJournal in June and at a display of winning projects at the AIA Convention.
The project also won an Honor Award last year from AIA-Austin.
On April 4, Associate Professor Juan Miró and his partner Miguel Rivera gave a lecture at the School of Architecture of the University of Tennessee. The lecture, titled "Responsible Architecture," coincided with the closure of a five-week exhibition of Miró Rivera Architects's work at the gallery of the Art and Architecture Building of the University of Tennessee. The exhibition will travel next to the School of Architecture of the University of Puerto Rico, where Mr. Miró and Mr. Rivera will be lecturing on April 25.
Professor Sinclair Black's firm, Black & Vernooy Architects, and Juan Miró's firm, Miró Rivera Architects, have currently on public display at the Austin City Hall their proposals for the development of the Seaholm Power Plant and Block 21, respectively. The city is seeking public input until April 22, shortly before city council's final vote.
Article on luxurious bathrooms designed by alumni in the Austin American-Statesman magazine, "Glossy."
Bathroom "complex" designed by Logan Wagner. Photograph by Kelly West, in the Austin American-Statesman magazine, "Glossy."
Professor Kevin Alter's and alterstudio's Hidden Cove Residence renovation project was published on Friday, April 1, in a new magazine section of the Austin American-Statesman called "Glossy." It features three "luxurious" bathrooms in Austin, including the Hidden Cove project. Alterstudio includes Lecturers Ernesto Cragnolino [B.Arch. '97 and B.S.Arch.Eng. '97] and Russell Krepart [M.Arch. '02], as well as Shawn Peter Keune, Tim Whitehill [B.Arch. '02], and Mariana Moncada [M.Arch. '00].
The two other extraordinary bathrooms featured were designed by alumni John Mayfield [M.Arch. '95] and E. Logan Wagner [M.Arch. '79, Ph.D. in Latin American Studies, with an architectural history concentration, '97].
The results of Visiting Associate Professor Barbara Hoidn's spring 2004 O'Neil Ford Studio, "Museum Courts Berlin," is on exhibit in Berlin's prestigious Pergamon Museum, April 13 through May 5.
The twelve projects designed by students for the future expansion of the Museum Island at the center of Berlin is being shown together with similar projects by students from the Harvard's Graduate School of Design and the Technical University, Dresden. A catalog, including texts by students and by Professor Hoidn, was published in German.
An exhibition of work by Hoidn Wang Partners (Barbara Hoidn and Visiting O'Neil Ford Chairholder Wilfried Wang), as part of Hombroich spaceplacelab, is being shown in Hombroich, Germany, April 10 through June 30. A workshop with public discussion and presentions of individual designs for the new development will take place on June 18 and 19.
The following architects and artists are involved in the Hombroich spaceplacelab (http://www.inselhombroich.de/bien_mani_e.htm) project: Raimund Abraham, Tadao Ando, Rudolf Finsterwalder, Martin Heerich, Thomas Herzog, Hoidn Wang Partners, Per Kirkeby, Krischanitz Frank, Oliver Kruse, Daniel Libeskind, Katsuhito Nishikawa, Frei Otto, and Alvaro Siza. A catalogue with English texts has been published.
Alumni Updates
Elizabeth Chu Richter.
Elizabeth Chu Richter [B.Arch. '74] was selected by a Jury of Fellows from The American Institute of Architects to be among 66 members elevated to its prestigious College of Fellows, recognizing members who have made significant contributions to the profession. Out of a total AIA membership of more than 74,000, there are fewer than 2,500 distinguished with the honor of fellowship. Fellows who are women comprise about one-half of one percent of the AIA members.
Along with her husband/partner David Richter, FAIA [B.Arch. '74], her design collaboration (Richter Architects in Corpus Christi, Texas) has produced distinguished designs that include a 1999 national AIA Honor Award for Architecture for the Brooks County Safety Rest Area, a roadside park born of this design ethic, and the only public-sector project in Texas so awarded in more than 20 years. Other awards include recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts / the U.S. Department of Transportation, two consecutive national awards from the Brick Industry Association, seven Texas Society of Architects Design Awards, and dozens of local chapter awards.
In recent years, she has become an even more influential voice for architecture and urban issues with leadership appointments such as Director to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, San Antonio Branch. In 2001, the American Institute of Architects conferred the Young Architects Award upon Ms. Richter in national recognition of her community-sensitive designs and her leadership role in heightening the public's awareness of architecture and urban issues, characterizing her as "a true renaissance woman." Ms. Richter is also a member of the School of Architecture's Dean's Foundation Advisory Council.
Ms. Richter will be inducted into the College of Fellows on May 20 during the 2005 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Trisha Wilson [BS in Interior Design, '69] is one of three Texas Designers of Distinction who will be honored on April 15 by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) at the ASID Texas Chapter's "Futura Gala" in Dallas. The Gala (to be held at the recently-restored antebellum style estate, Arlington Hall at Lee Park) will honor the Fellows, Designers of Distinction, and Life Members of ASID and celebrate the organization's 30th year anniversary.
Ms. Wilson is president of Wilson & Associates and a 2004 Texas Exes Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient. Funds raised at the Futura Gala will benefit the American Society of Interior Design Student Chapters in Texas. For ticket information, contact the ASID office at txasid@airmail.net.
We encourage all alumni to share news with us by submitting updates to alumni coordinator 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 those alums to contact her.
Class of 1955 Reunion, April 28-29
On Thursday, April 28, and Friday, April 29, the Class of 1955 will reunite on The University of Texas at Austin campus to celebrate a 50-year class reunion. The Texas Exes have planned two days of events and tributes, including a visit to the School of Architecture for our alumni. Official invitations have been mailed. If you did not receive one, or you have questions about the School's reception, please contact Stephanie Palmer at 512-471-0617 or stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu. For information from the Texas Exes, please visit their website at http://www.texasexes.org, or contact Erin Campbell at 1-800-594-3938.
Friends of Architecture
Rome, 1998. Photography by Fritz Steiner.
Roma!
The time to make a reservation for Friends of Architecture's "Roma! Gardens and Villas of Rome" tour is coming to a close. Don't miss this last opportunity to sign up for an unforgettable week-long tour of Rome, led by School of Architecture Dean Fritz Steiner! During May 22-30, 2005, Dean Steiner will treat participants to an incredible Roman experience. Among FOA's exclusive, behind-the-scenes visits will be a tour of the Vatican gardens; an afternoon in the Orto Botanico, containing more than 7,000 plant species from around the world; and a tour and cocktail reception at the American Academy. Participants will also enjoy excursions outside of Rome to visit Villa d'Este in Tivoli, Villa Lante in Bagnaia, and Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati. Complete with leisure time for delectable dining, fine Italian grappa, and exceptional shopping, this is a tour you don't want to miss.
To register for Friends of Architecture's tour of Rome, contact FOA Director Stephanie Palmer at 512-471-0617 or stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu.
Contacts
arch.utexas.edu
Architecture and Planning Student Council + American Institute of Architecture Students website, http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/apscaias/
(area code 512)
Dean's Office, 471-1922, fax 471-0716
Career Placement Director, Sheila Balog, 471-1333, sheila.balog@mail.utexas.edu
Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs, Jeanne Crawford, 471-0109, jcraw@mail.utexas.edu
Graduate Program Coordinator, Rosemin Gopaul, 471-0134, gopaul@mail.utexas.edu
Center for American Architecture and Design, 471-9890, christinewong@mail.utexas.edu
Center for Sustainable Development, 475-8013, utcsd@mail.utexas.edu
Assistant Dean for Development, Kris Muñoz-Vetter, 471-6114, kmvetter@mail.utexas.edu
Publications Editor, Pamela Peters, 471-0154, p.peters@mail.utexas.edu
Friends of Architecture Director and Alumni Coordinator, Stephanie Palmer, 471-0617, stephanie.palmer@mail.utexas.edu
Director of Photography, Charlotte Pickett, c.pickett@mail.utexas.edu
Architecture and Planning Library, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/apl/index.html, 495-4620
Mailing Address
The School of Architecture
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station B7500
Austin, TX 78712-0222
Unless otherwise noted, all photographs by Charlotte Pickett, Director of Photography, School of Architecture.
