Dean's Journal

On Monday afternoon, August 1, David Graeber [B.Arch. '55] stopped by Goldsmith Hall for a conversation about architecture, leadership, Texas politics, and NASA. We discussed The Devil in the White City and author Eric Larson's portrayals of Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. David is interested in mentoring a small group of students on topics such as ethics and practice, strategies for success, and team building during the coming year.

We will celebrate leadership at our annual mini-symposium on September 9 and 10. The exciting roster of speakers includes Augie Garrido, Sarah Weddington, Admiral Bobby Inman, and former City of Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. For information and to register for the symposium, see http://www.utexas.edu/architecture/events/leadership/.

Throughout the past month, I have continued to work on several Envision Central Texas activities. I am especially involved in board meetings and with the Transportation and Land Use Integration Implementation Committee, which I co-chair. Our committee is attempting to bring together the various interests along the State Highway 130 corridor. We are especially interested in the early phases of the corridor, from Georgetown to Lockhart, now under construction. Outcomes of our effort might include a corridor vision plan and a design "tool box" for local communities and developers.

In mid-July, Associate Professor Michael Oden, Ph.D.; Community and Regional Planning Program doctoral students Jin-Oh Kim and Juchul Jung; entering graduate student Sung-Min Lee; and I met with a delegation from Korea. Our visitors included Asan City Mayor Hee-Bok Kang, planning professor Byung Su Kang, and landscape architecture professor Sang-Zoon Kwan. They sought to learn more about Austin and the university. Professor Kwan will spend his sabbatical with us in the coming year.

Also during the past month, I met with several individuals about increasing our interactions with the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London and UT-Austin's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Environmental Studies Institute. Associate Professor Dean Almy, Assistant Dean for Development Kris Muñoz Vetter, and I also continue to work with alumni and friends in Dallas to establish an urban lab focusing on urban design, community planning, and regional research.

Another summer activity has involved service on the City of Austin Bond Advisory Committee. I serve on the open space subcommittee. The committee will work through the fall and prepare a proposal for Austin voters next spring.

On Tuesday, July 26, I met with University of Texas at Dallas Margaret McDermott Professor of Aesthetic Studies Richard Brettel. He shared his new book, Crafting Traditions: The Architecture of Mark Lemmon, which is based on an exhibit at the Meadows Museum. This is the first of four books and exhibits on architects who significantly influenced Dallas. The other three architects include: O'Neil Ford, George Dahl, and Howard Meyer. Professor Brettel also invited our School to participate in a conceptual study for a new humanities building on the UT-Dallas campus. Our colleagues at the School of Architecture, UT-Arlington, might be involved as well.

On July 27, Associate Dean Kevin Alter, Associate Professor Juan Miró, Assistant Professor Hope Hasbrouck, Dean Almy, Assistant Dean Raquel Elizondo, and I met with Mario Schjetnan of Mexico City. He taught at Harvard this past academic year and will join us in the spring as our Ruth Carter Stevenson Chair. We discussed ways to coordinate his studio with our existing Studio Mexico. These two studios will offer exciting prospects for our students in the coming year.

On Thursday, July 28, I met with Texas Architect editor-in-chief Steven Sharpe. He welcomes more educational topics and is especially interested in student contributions. I gave him a copy of our new student publication ISSUE:. (See the April 8, 2005, edition of eNews, http://web.austin.utexas.edu/architecture/enews/archive/2005-04-08/, for more information.) Steven is going to begin a new regular column of criticism, tentatively called "Other Voices." He welcomes ideas and writers for this column.

—Fritz Steiner

Leadership Mini-Symposium

September 9 & 10
Goldsmith Hall

Join UT Baseball Coach Augie Garrido, nationally known attorney Sarah Weddington, and Dave Steakley, the artistic director of Austin's Zachary Scott Theatre Center, as they and other prominent leaders team with Dean Steiner on September 9-10 to examine what it means to lead.

Although the School hosts numerous forums, lectures, and other special events each year, this particular symposium series was launched in 2003, growing out of an idea by Susan Benz [B.Arch. '84], who chairs the School's 45-member external Advisory Council. The objective of the series is to explore a different topic or theme each year that is not strictly about design or planning but is relevant to architects and their work.

"Our work embraces the worlds of creative license and disciplined management," says Dean Steiner. "To have meaningful impact on the built environment, we recognize the importance of strong leadership to ensure the success of our projects. I am excited about this opportunity for the school to bring together leaders from a range of fields, each with a unique perspective."

Like Mr. Garrido, Dr. Weddington, and Mr. Steakley, the other participants in this year's symposium are leaders in their respective fields: Admiral Bobby Inman, USN (Ret.), entrepreneur and professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs; Cynthia Rigby, author and professor at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary; Royce West, Texas state senator representing Dallas County; Kirk Watson, former Austin mayor; and Paul Woodruff, professor of Greek philosophy and director of the College of Liberal Arts' Plan II Honors Program.

The Leadership Symposium will take place over two days in Goldsmith Hall on the UT campus. The cost to attend is $450, which includes dinner on Friday, September 9, and breakfast and lunch on Saturday, September 10. For more information and to register, call Assistant Dean for Development Kris Muñoz Vetter at 512/471-6114, or visit the symposium's web site at http://www.utexas.edu/architecture/events/leadership/.

Events

Two Graham Foundation Grants Awarded

 

The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts has awarded Prof. Anthony Alofsin a grant for a collaborative project with UCLA's innovative Experiential Technologies Center (http://www.etc.ucla.edu/). Headed by Dr. Diane Favro, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, the Center was created to support cross-discipline, collaborative work among students and faculty, both within UCLA and other colleges and universities, as well to provide K-12 outreach programs. The subject of the collaborative study is an exploration of the structure of ornament as it may apply to advanced design methodology. Using innovative software and new methods of analysis, the team will explore the virtual spatial potential of ornament patterns using the full-scale modeling lab and visualization portal of UCLA's Academic Technology Services. The award is the fourth grant the Foundation has provided Dr. Alofsin for his research and publications over the last twelve years.

 

The Center for American Architecture and Design has received a $15,000 Graham Foundation grant to fund, in part, the publication of CENTER, A Journal for Architecture in America, Volume 14: On Landscape Urbanism, edited by Associate Professor Dean Almy and Professor Michael Benedikt.

This volume of CENTER brings together articles written by important and emerging practitioners at the intersection of the disciplines of architecture and landscape architecture whose work focuses on the contemporary urban environment in America. Contributors were invited based on an established reputation within their respective fields as significant or emerging practitioners who have helped to shape the emergent discourse of landscape urbanism.

Within this volume, too, is a reprint series of seminal writings that have helped to shape the discussion. The reprint series was generated from suggestions by the invited participants of the "Symposium and Charrette on Landscape Urbanism," held at The University of Texas at Austin during the spring of 2002, along with those of the journal editors.

The third component of the issue will be a selection of graphics and texts produced during the Landscape Urbanism symposium and charrette event. These projects reveal attitudes and approaches toward the urban landscape as generated by many of the authors of the articles in the journal with student assistance. The intention is to concretize the discussion in a series of proposals that can be read in a comparative way.

Faculty Scholarship and Awards

Image courtesy of Specht Harpman.

 

The work of Associate Dean Louise Harpman's firm, Specht Harpman, is published in the current edition of the journal Praxis. The firm's work is featured as part of an article documenting and highlighting Specht Harpman's proposal for the invited PS1/Museum of Modern Art competition for young architects.

Image courtesy of Specht Harpman.

 

The work of Specht Harpman is also published in the new Russian periodical Architecture + Design. Their work for the New York advertising agency, Oasis, is featured in an article focusing on innovative design solutions for creative companies.

 

Planning Director and Associate Dean Kent Butler won an Innovative Planning Award from the American Planning Association--Central Texas Section, for his research project titled, "Innovative Water Management and Conservation Development." The project was supported by the Lower Colorado River Authority and the Hudson family, and engaged many students in its development. Professor Butler was able to critically evaluate and demonstrate several alternative ways to attain high levels of water savings in new Hill Country communities. The research went on to develop a comprehensive economic cost analysis of the alternatives, showing that dramatic water reductions with the use of innovative technologies and low-impact designs are cost-effective in today's economy and real estate market.

Cover of La Continuita e lo Specchio.

 

Dean Fritz Steiner and Associate Dean Kent Butler contributed a chapter in the recently published book, La Continuita e lo Specchio. Edited by Laura Sasso, with text in English and Italian, the book was based on a conference which took place in Turin, Italy, last February about design in river landscapes. The book and the conference were organized by the Dipartimento di Progettazione Architettonica e di Disegno Industriale of the Politecnico di Torino.

Alumni Updates

Cardio and weight area, TELOS Performance Center, Farmers Branch, Texas. Photograph courtesy of TELOS Performance Center.

 

Hudson Lockett [B.Arch. '78] is the architect for the recently completed TELOS Performance Center in Farmers Branch, Texas, which received the 2005 Nova 7 Award from Fitness Management magazine in the category of Best Innovation in Facility Design, Construction and Decoration. This annual international competition is geared toward various aspects of the fitness industry.

Built as a racquetball club in the early 1980s, the TELOS Performance Center had lost its appeal in the marketplace. Since the name and concept of the facility is derived from Greek (telos: to accomplish one's mission or goal in life; the embodiment of the whole; completeness), facility management decided that the redesign should incorporate Greek and Roman themes.

One major change, called the Coliseum, was once a basketball court, and is now the cardio and weight equipment area. It features color-matched flooring and equipment frames and pads and free-standing mirrors and Greco/Roman finishes. It offers a surround-sound music system, and all cardio equipment is wired for individual entertainment, including a channel for viewing the children's nursery.

Another redesigned area includes new yoga and Pilates studios. They feature a zen rock garden, water fountain, and stone bridge at their entrances, which serve to separate this area from the bustling activity of the other areas. Each room is soundproof, with suspended wood flooring and natural bamboo ceilings. Local Boy Scouts provided the labor to lash and tie the bamboo in place as part of their service and skills requirements. The use of a warm color palette throughout and natural elements of stone, slate, cork, bamboo, wood, and light help create a sense of tranquility and relaxation that is uncommon in most facilities of this type.

Laura Britt's interior design of the 2005 Cooking Light FitHouse was featured in the August issue of Cooking Light magazine.

 

Cooking Light magazine has selected Spanish Oakes, an amenity-rich, 1200-acre master-planned community 15 minutes from downtown Austin, as the site of its 2005 FitHouse. Laura Britt [M.Arch. '00], ASID, of Laura Britt Design in Austin is the interior designer on the project.

Columnist Katy Barron says, in a March 24, 2005, article in the Austin American-Statesman, "Laura Britt was chosen to do the home's interior in part because of her green background. She is a member of the Green Building Program in Austin.[...] Her goal is to make the interior of the home earth-friendly and to create a calm, nurturing environment. She's using locally made products where possible, limiting the use of synthetic chemicals in interior finishes, and choosing natural materials or those with a high recycled content."

Ms. Britt earned a B.S. in Interior Design from Oklahoma State University in 1992. She went on to work for the United States Air Force managing large scale, multi-million dollar interior design and architecture projects. Desiring a deeper contextual understanding of buildings as integrated systems, she enrolled in the UT-Austin School of Architecture and received an M.Arch. degree with an emphasis in sustainable design in 2000. She subsequently worked in high-end restaurant design and architecture in Austin. With a vision to integrate her academic and professional training, Ms. Britt opened her own firm in 2001.

The 2005 Cooking Light FitHouse is featured in a special section in the August issue of Cooking Light magazine (http://www.cookinglight.com/fithouse2005).

 

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.

Winners of Urban Reserve Design Competition for Young Architects Announced

Urban Reserve Design Competition winning project. Image courtesy of Bercy Chen Studio.

 

Urban Edge Developers, Ltd., of Dallas, Texas, has announced the winners of a June competition for the design of innovative, sustainable modernist houses for the new Dallas neighborhood Urban Reserve (http://www.urbanreserve.net/).

Urban Reserve will be a community of 50 modernist, single-family houses individually custom designed by a wide variety of architects. The developer, Diane Cheatham, is well known for her collaborations with leading-edge architects. (She is also a member of the School's Advisory Council and a Friends of Architecture member.) The New Visions Design Competition was conceived to showcase the talents of young architects and architecture students from throughout the United States and encourage their participation in the new project.

The first place winner in the professional category is Calvin Chen [B.Arch. '98] of the Bercy Chen Studio, Austin, Texas. Bercy Chen Studio includes alumni Thomas Bercy [B.Arch./B.Arch.Eng. '00], Thomas Lessel [B.Arch.Eng. '98, M.Arch. candidate Dec. '05], Young-Lan Tsai [M.Arch. '05], and Joseph Winkler [B.Arch. '04].

Sixty-five entries were judged by a panel of noted architects: Rand Elliott, FAIA, of Oklahoma City; Dan Shipley, FAIA, of Dallas; and Eurico Francisco, Associate AIA, of Dallas. Robert L. Meckfessel, AIA, served as professional adviser. Entrants in the professional category were architects within ten years of graduation; current architecture students competed in a student category.

The winners will receive cash awards as well as the possibility of seeing their designs constructed at Urban Reserve, a community to be built just north of Royal Lane and east of U.S. Hwy. 75.

(One of Urban Edge's projects, developed by Diane Cheatham with Dallas architect and UT Arlington architecture professor Edward Baum, is featured in the September 2005 issue of Dwell magazine in an article by Andrew Wagner titled "Developer Does Dallas.")

Urban Reserve Design Competition winning project. Image courtesy of Bercy Chen Studio.

Contacts

UT-Austin School of Architecture website, arch.utexas.edu

Architecture and Planning Student Council + AIA Students website, http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/apscaias/

(area code 512)

Dean's Office, 471-1922, fax 471-0716

Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs, Jeanne Crawford, 471-0109, jcraw@mail.utexas.edu

Assistant Dean for Development, Kris Muñoz Vetter, 471-6114, kmvetter@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

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

Career Placement Director, Sheila Balog, 471-1333, sheila.balog@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, UT-Austin School of Architecture.