Professor Charlene LeBleu, FASLA, has been appointed Interim Program Chair and Interim Graduate Provisional Officer of Landscape Architecture effective August 1 until July 2015.  National Vice President of Research for the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), her primary areas of interest and research have been focused on green building and water quality issues, especially issues related to low impact development design.  

LeBleu replaces Rod Barnett, PhD, who has been appointed chair of the Master of Landscape Architecture program in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

On Auburn’s campus, Professor LeBleu has recently been involved in the restoration Parkerson Mill Creek, a campus project that has incorporated experts in engineering, horticulture, soil science, environmental sciences, landscape architecture and urban planning. Watch a video about the Parkerson Mill Creek restoration here.

The August issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine, the magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects, features the work that Charlene LeBleu, FASLA, and her students have done on a marine spatial plan for Dauphin Island Penninsula. “The Whole Shore,” in LAM’s Foreground NOW section, has an interview with LeBleu, APLA’s interim program chair of Landscape Architecture, beginning on page 22. For more, click here.

The Executive Committee of the Birmingham chapter of the American Institute of Architects recently named architect and Auburn alumni Joel Blackstock, of Williams Blackstock Architects, as its 2014 recipient of the “Birmingham Accolade Award.”  The Award is the highest honor the Chapter can bestow on one of its members, and indicates peer recognition of an exemplary achievement or service to the Chapter, profession or society.

“Through the years of working on projects that have forever changed the City and surrounding areas, Joel Blackstock has earned a reputation for being a visionary for the City, a great listener to his clients’ needs, dreams and desires….a small measure of proof of his passion and influence on revitalizing, restoring and preserving Birmingham can be seen on more than 30 blocks throughout the downtown area.”

Professor Magdalena Garmaz has been named chair of Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design Program (BSEV) in the College of Architecture, Design and Construction. Garmaz, who holds the Ann and Batey Gresham professorship, joined the CADC faculty in 1990 in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (APLA). Her research and teaching has focused on the relationship of architecture and textiles, exploring different textile techniques and their application in the architecture making process. With work featured in Metropolis magazine and in the book Exploring Materials by E. Lupton and I. Alesina (Princeton Architectural Press, 2010), Garmaz has won grants from the Alabama Arts Fellowship and the Graham Foundation and been a visiting artist as the American Academy in Rome, Italy. For more, click here