FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP

Associate Professor Elizabeth Mueller has been elected to serve a three-year term on the governing board of the Urban Affairs Association (UAA). Dedicated to creating interdisciplinary spaces for engaging in intellectual and practical discussions about urban life, the UAA is the international professional organization for urban scholars, researchers, and public service professionals.

The University of Texas Athletics Department honored Professor Juan Miró at the women's UT vs. University of Kansas basketball game, Wednesday evening, February 20, at the Erwin Center.

Athletic directors Chris Plonsky and DeLoss Dodds congratulated Miró on his accomplishments during the halftime ceremony.

In its third year, the Academic Accolades program is designed to highlight UT's colleges and schools by paying tribute to a significant program or academic accomplishment. The program hopes to honor individuals who make it their daily mission to educate young people, who then move forward and help change the world.

Dean Fritz Steiner was on a panel of professors from both sides of the Pacific talking about the amazing cultural exchange happening between American and Chinese universities and the rising stature of landscape architecture in China.

The discussion took place via Skype and is featured in the February 2013 issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine.

In addition to Steiner, the panelists included Ron Henderson, FASLA; Jeff Hou, ASLA; Jie Hu, International ASLA; Chuo Li; Binyi Liu, Honorary ASLA; Daniel Jost, ASLA; Zhifang Wang; and Kongjian Yu, FASLA.

Read the discussion on Landscape Architecture Magazine's website.

ALUMNI CONNECTIONS

ALUMNI UPDATES

The Dallas Park and Recreation Board voted unanimously on January 24, 2013, to name Willis Winters, FAIA [B.Arch. '80], the new director of the Park and Recreation Department.

Willis is a twenty-year veteran with the department and since 1998 has been assistant director responsible for planning and capital development for one of the largest park systems in the nation. He was the co-project director for the department's visionary and nationally recognized long-range development plan, A Renaissance Plan, in 2002. Under Winters' direction, the department has developed a new downtown park system, implemented the city-wide trail network master plan, renovated and expanded numerous recreation centers, developed new exhibits at the Dallas Zoo, planned and implemented recreational amenities within the Trinity River Corridor, formulated the Park Pavilion program, and guided the restoration of the National Historic Landmark architecture at Fair Park.

Willis Winters' appointment followed a three-month, nation-wide search conducted by the Park and Recreation Board. Park Board president Max Wells stated, "Willis brings the right combination of expertise and leadership to the position. He will serve the city, the department, and the citizens well."

A UTSOA alum and native Dallasite, Winters has been recognized by Preservation Dallas, Preservation Texas, and the Greater Dallas Planning Council with their highest awards for public service. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and is the author of six books, including Fair Park in 2010 and a forthcoming publication on the history of Dealey Plaza.

Specht Harpman's "Manhattan Micro Loft" project is a nominated finalist for an Architizer A+ Popular Choice Award in the "Living Small" category. Specht Harpman includes Sheryl Jordan [M.Arch. '05], Brett Wolfe [B.Arch. '07], and former UTSOA associate dean for undergraduate programs Louise Harpman.

Nominated in the "Urban Transformation" category is the "BLDG 92: Brooklyn Navy Yard Center" project by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP. The firm includes James Shepherd [M.Arch. '94] and Diana Tracey [B.Arch. '75] in the. Washington, D.C.-based office.

Cast your vote for your favorite architecture in over 50 categories.

Scott Biehle [MLA '07] and former UTSOA interior design faculty member Carl Matthews just won First Place in the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) National Creative Scholarship competition for their "Palo Verde" project. The renovation/restoration of a farmhouse and acreage in Austin was a study in the linkage between man, house, gardens, and horses.

Biehle and Matthews are faculty members at the Fay Jones School of Architecture, the University of Arkansas. Biehle is a lecturer in landscape architecture and designer at the Community Design Center. Matthews is a professor and coordinator of the interior design program.

Snøhetta and Lake|Flato Architects are included in Fast Company's 2013 "World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Architecture." The list is an impressive compilation of firms working on innovative projects at all scales.

Snøhetta is cited for "aspiring to reunite New Yorkers with Times Square by reconfiguring the messy pedestrian plaza." Led by senior partner and principal Craig Dykers [B.Arch. '85] with senior architect Elaine Molinar [B.Arch. '88], the design firm's success with its opera house in Oslo—famous for a slanted roof that provides a welcoming seat for visitors—also helped it win a bid for a waterside opera house in Busan, South Korea.

Lake|Flato was founded in 1984 by David Lake, FAIA [B.S.A.S. '77], and Ted Flato, FAIA. The two principals and six partners create teams that lead each project from beginning to completion. The firm was cited for "designing the new Texan landscape." In addition to Lake, twelve UTSOA alumni work at the firm including partners Karla Greer [B.Arch. '79]; Andrew Herdeg [M.Arch. '92]; and Greg Papay [M.Arch. '93], FAIA; associate Brian Korte [M.Arch. '94]; and architectural staff members John Byrd [B.Arch. '05]; Rebecca Bruce [MSCRP '95]; Brantley Hightower [B.Arch. '00]; Laura Kaupp [B.Arch. '98]; Trey Rabke [B.Arch. '02]; Brandi Rickels [B.Arch. '96]; Jonathan Smith [B.Arch. '03]; and Vicki Yuan [B.Arch. '05].

View Fast Company's 2013 "World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Architecture."

IN MEMORIAM: MAGDALENA JOSEFINA LEYENDECKER ZUNIGA

Magdalena Josefina Leyendecker Zuniga [B.Arch. '57] passed away on January 9, 2013. She was preceded in death by her estimable parents, Maria Estella Palacios and Alfonso A Leyendecker; her only brother, Alfonso A. Leyendecker, Jr.; her loving husband, Roberto Zuniga, Jr.; her infant children, Maria Zuniga and Jaime Zuniga; and her daughter, Magdalena Elvira Zuniga Degetau.

Zuniga was born on March 13, 1935. She attended Laredo's Ursuline Academy and was the very first student enrolled at the new Ursuline School on Galveston Street—a fact that the nuns always made a fuss about as her father had been the architect of the new school building and had himself attended Ursuline as a child when it was on Convent Street.

After graduating from Ursuline in 1953 as valedictorian, Zuniga attended The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, graduating in 1957, one of only two female students in her class.

After graduation, she worked as an architect with her father on several projects, including the gymnasium at Ursuline Academy. Later, Zuniga worked as a design and interiors consultant with Casa Ambiente in Mexico City, something she enjoyed and pursued with passion.

For many years, she did volunteer work in a cause very close to her heart with the charity Santa Isabel de Hungria, which supports the education and health of women and children in need.

Zuniga lived much of her adult life in Mexico City, and later in Malinalco, Mexico.

She is survived by her four adoring sisters Ethel Leyendecker Arguindegui, Maria Estela Leyendecker Boudreaux, Victoria Leyendecker Duffield, and Lucia Leyendecker Curtin; her proud and caring children Maria Cecilia Zuniga Valencia, Roberto Zuniga, Lucia Zuniga Cogodran, Laura Zuniga Pineda, and Jose Iganio Zuniga; as well as numerous grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

EVENTS

Events are subject to change—for the full schedule and latest updates, check the online UTSOA Calendar.

View the spring 2013 lecture & exhibition poster.

CSD LUNCH TALK

Monday, March 4
West Mall Building, room 4.118
12:00 noon

Liz Ogbu

"Repositioning Design: New Ways for Creating Impact"

The Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) is pleased to announce that designer and social innovator Liz Ogbu will be giving a brief and informal lunch talk. Ogbu is a designer, urban strategist, social innovator, academic, and expert on sustainable design and spatial innovation in challenged urban environments globally. From designing shelters for immigrant day laborers in the U.S. to a water and health social enterprise for low-income Kenyans, Ogbu has built an extensive career in social impact design.

She has her own multidisciplinary consulting practice and serves as the first-ever scholar-in-residence at the Center for Art & Public Life at California College of the Arts. She is also on the faculty at the d.school at Stanford University. Previous roles include innovator-in-residence at IDEO.org and a design director at Public Architecture.

Ogbu's work has been featured in several museum exhibitions and received numerous design awards globally. She is a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council and a 2012 Next American City Vanguard. She earned architecture degrees from Wellesley College and Harvard University.

LECTURE

Wednesday, March 6
Goldsmith Lecture Hall, Room 3.120
5:00 p.m.

Gregg Pasquarelli
Principal, SHoP Architects
New York City, New York
In conjunction with the UTSOA Professional Residency Program

Design think tank SHoP Architects has pushed the architect's realm past form making and into software design, real estate development, emergent construction research, and the co-development of new sustainable technologies. Gregg Pasquarelli's commitment to challenging the entire process of building has made a convincing argument to a generation of architects that beauty and tehnological proficiency are not mutually exclusive.

CENTER LUNCH FORUM SERIES

Roughly every other Friday during the fall and spring semesters, The Center for American Architecture and Design hosts a Friday Lunch Forum Series. The aim of the series is for faculty and students to meet in an informal atmosphere to debate topics and to share ideas about history, practice, theory, and new directions for architecture.

All Center Lunch Forums take place at 12:00 noon (CST) in Battle Hall, Room 101, and via LIVE WEBCAST.

Visit the Center website for updates and to access the live webcast. Remaining forums on the spring 2013 schedule include:

• March 8, Larry Doll
• March 22, Carmen Garufo
• April 12, Elizabeth Danze, John Blood, and Stephen Sonnenberg
• April 26, Smilja Milovanovic-Bertram

EXHIBIT

January 22 – March 8
Mebane Gallery, Goldsmith Hall

"Cockroach 44"

This exhibit presents six projects containing forty-four separate framed drawings by Brian Delford Andrews, adjunct lecture at the University of Arizona.

The work investigates dark matter, that side of the architectural universe that architects don't see and choose not to acknowledge: loss, war, murder, abandonment, annihilation. Most of the work was executed in the past three years while Andrews was the Hyde Chair at the University of Nebraska. The projects explore a connection between image and text as they investigate the connection between dark events and the place in which they were situated.

LECTURE

Monday, March 18
Goldsmith Lecture Hall, Room 3.120
5:00 p.m.

Mack Scogin & Merrill Elam
Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia

Firm philosophy: "Transcending the basics, touching on the extraordinary, allowing the idea of the artful to enter the process, weighing the specific against the generic, pushing the edges, relishing the challenge of "now" conditions, recognizing cultural forces and influences, and searching for the broader meanings in architecture are the phenomena of architecture that continue to fascinate us. While our work reflects these interests and may appear extreme, the spaces of our projects are paradoxically peaceful."

LECTURE

Wednesday, March 27
Texas Union Ballroom (new venue)
5:00 p.m.

Amy Weisser
Director of Exhibition Development, National September 11 Memorial & Museum
New York City, New York
In conjunction with Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture

View article on Amy Weisser and her reflections preparing for the opening of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

LECTURE

Monday, April 1
Goldsmith Lecture Hall, Room 3.120
5:00 p.m.

Bjørn Sletto
Associate Professor
School of Architecture
The University of Texas at Austin

Bjørn Sletto received a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from Cornell University. He has a master's degree in geography from the University of Kansas and a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Minnesota. A native of Ål, Norway, Sletto's research focuses on indigenous land rights, social justice, and environmental planning in Latin America. He is particularly interested in the dichotomies and tensions between local knowledge and traditional environmental management systems, and formal planning and management approaches.

During the past decade, Sletto has lived and worked in indigenous villages and border cities in Venezuela, investigating environmental conflicts and land rights struggles and conducting participatory mapping projects with the Pemon in the Gran Sabana and Yukpa in the Sierra de Perijá. As the director of the Institute of Latin American Studies' (LLILAS) Research Initiative in Participatory Mapping, Sletto works closely with partner institutions in South America to further international scholarship on representational politics and social justice in vulnerable communities. Closer to Austin, Sletto is concerned with the relationship between pedagogy, planning practice, and environmental and social justice in low-income communities in Texas.

EXHIBITION

April 1 – May 1
Mebane Gallery, Goldsmith Hall

1 + 1   Sletto | Urban think Tank

LECTURE

Wednesday, April 17
Goldsmith Lecture Hall, Room 3.120
5:00 p.m.

Alfredo Brillembourg
Urban Think Tank
Offices in Caracas, São Paulo, Brazil, New York, and Zürich
National Organization of Minority Architecture Students Lecture

LECTURE

Monday, April 22
Goldsmith Lecture Hall, Room 3.120
5:00 p.m.

Michael Maltzan
Founder and Principal, Michael Maltzan Architecture
Los Angeles, California
The Goldsmith Society Lecture

Michael Maltzan, FAIA, is the founder and principal of Michael Maltzan Architecture. His work fully engages our contemporary world through an architecture that is a catalyst for new experiences and an agent for change. Through a deep belief in architecture's role in our cities and landscapes, he has succeeded in creating new cultural and social connections across a range of scales and programs.

Maltzan received a master of architecture degree with a letter of distinction from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He holds both bachelor of fine arts and bachelor of architecture degrees from Rhode Island School of Design, where he received the Henry Adams AIA Scholastic Gold Medal. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a GSA Design Excellence Program Peer.

Founded in 1995, Michael Maltzan Architecture is committed to the creation of progressive, transformative experiences that chart new trajectories for architecture, urbanism, and the public realm.

The Los Angeles-based practice is dedicated to the design and construction of projects which engage their context and community through a concentrated exploration of movement and perception. The practice's intensely collaborative studio culture is focused on developing partnerships across disciplines to integrate sustainability and architectural form.

CURTAINS

Friday, October 18
Time and location TBA
Sponsored by the Center for American Architecture and Design

CURTAINS is a multi-site installation, exhibition, and publication event designed to explore the use of fabrics in contemporary art and architecture—not in the form of rigid tensile structures, nor in the form of cladding or upholstery, but in their more relaxed, natural forms—curtains associated with windows, yes, but also defining and activating spaces indoors and out, billowing overhead as canopies, catching and using wind like sails, creating shade, diffusing light, holding color in their folds, filtering views, absorbing sound, showing the wind, and making theater of the everyday.

The organizers will invite up to four artists/architects who choose a UT location to fabricate and install their proposals. A larger selection of the proposals received, considered solely on their artistic merits, will be published in the 19th volume of the award-winning book series CENTER: Architecture and Design in America, as well as exhibited at the Mebane Gallery of Goldsmith Hall on The University of Texas at Austin campus titled "Curtains." The launch of CENTER 19: Curtains and the opening of the CURTAINS exhibition, with a keynote address by the artist Christo and an address by designer Petra Blaisse, are scheduled for October 18, 2013.

Visit the CURTAINS website for information on registration and the call for proposals.

EXHIBIT

Through August 16
Visual Resources Collection (VRC)
Sutton Hall 3.128 (Monday-Friday, 8:00-5:00)

"Visual Transpositions: A Photographic Dialog Between Austin Past and Present"

The images in this exhibit highlight Austin's Congress Avenue, with streetscapes captured in the 1950s and 60s alongside scenes of Congress and its environs as they stand today.

The exhibit's historical images are available from the "Texas Architecture: A Visual History" web site and the VRC's online image collection. Contemporary images were shot by VRC staff members and developed and printed in the UTSOA Darkroom, a resource managed by the VRC and available to all UTSOA students.

UTSOA lecture and exhibitions generously funded by: Brightman/York Endowed Lecture Series in Interior Design, Edwin W. and Alyce O. Carroll Centennial Lectureship in Architecture, Bluford Walter Crain Centennial Endowed Lectureship, Gensler Exhibitions Endowment, Herbert M. Greene Centennial Lectureship in Architecture, Wolf and Janet Jessen Centennial Lectureship in Architecture, Karl Kamrath Lectureship in Architecture, Jane Marie Tacquard Patillo Centennial Lectureship, Edwin A. Schneider Centennial Lectureship in Architecture, School of Architecture Exhibitions Fund, and Wilsonart Endowed Lecture Series in Interior Design.

FRIENDS OF ARCHITECTURE TOUR TO BRAZIL

There is still time to register for an exclusive architectural tour of Brazil, the location of the next World Cup and Summer Olympics.

June 1 to June 11, 2013, Friends of Architecture tour participants will visit São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Ouro Preto, Inhotim, and Rio de Janeiro, and will have access to private homes designed by some of Brazil's preeminent architects, such as Angelo Bucci, José Carlos Teixeira, and Carla Juaçaba. Guests will escape the Texas heat for a nine-day, eight-night, five-city design excursion in the world's fifth-largest nation, known for its remarkable history, food, fascinating culture, sports, exotic landscape, and great architecture.

In addition, a two-day, two-night extension to Brasília will be offered. Located on a plateau, Brasília has a dry, temperate climate which is pleasant for most of the year. Oscar Niemeyer designed the new capital in a futuristic style, with gardens and wide avenues. After the extension, guests may return to São Paulo for the 2013 Latitudes Symposium.

This exclusive tour will be led by Assistant Professor Fernando Lara, a Brazilian native and member of the Brazilian Institute of Architects, who holds degrees from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (B.Arch., 1993) and the University of Michigan (Ph.D., 2001). Lara's presentations and intimate knowledge of the region will allow the group to see and experience a side of Brazil not readily available to the general traveler.

For more information or to register for the trip, visit the FOA Brazil tour web site. Questions? Contact Dhruv Singh at dhruv_singh@austin.utexas.edu.

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 not only to share your stories, but also to keep us up-to-date so that we can share our stories with you. Please send your news and contact updates to Communications Coordinator Pamela Peters at p.peters@utexas.edu.

Dean's Office
512.471.1922, fax 512.471.0716

UTSOA Mailing Address
The University of Texas at Austin
School of Architecture
310 Inner Campus Drive B7500
Austin, TX 78712-1009