Vincent Snyder Architects‘ project, Urban Reserve 22, was selected for a Grand Award in the Green Development category from the newly combined Builder’s Choice and the Custom Home Design awards programs which received over 630 submissions.

Alterstudio Architecture‘s Parkside: three buildings on Old 19th Street was selected for the Project of the Year Award from the newly combined Builder’s Choice and the Custom Home Design awards. The houses were designed by Professor Kevin Alter and partners Ernesto Cragnolino [B.Arc.h ’97, BSAE ’97, BA Plan II ’97], Timothy Whitehill [B.Arch. ’02], and senior associate Matthew Slusarek [M.Arch. ’05]. It is featured on the cover of the October 2013 issue of Builder magazine print and online publications.

Anthony Alofsin, Roland Roessner Centennial Professor of Architecture, lectured on “Frank Lloyd Wright and His Taliesin Letters” for the Avery Friends and the Friends of the Columbia University Libraries, New York City, on October 8, and on “Frank Lloyd Wright: Research Initiatives for Scholars and Practitioners,” Buell Center for American Architecture, also at Columbia University, on October 18, 2013.

On October 4, Professor Juan Miró gave a lecture about the work of Miró Rivera Architects (MRA), titled “Construyendo Ideas” (“Building Ideas”), at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus. Several projects from Miró Rivera Architects were featured in recent publications. In the October edition of Architectural Record, MRA’s Circuit of the Americas project is spotlighted in an article titled “Formula for Success.” Two other MRA projects, the Pedestrian Bridge on Lake Austin and the Town Lake Trail Restroom, were featured in the digital publication Arch Daily. In addition, the MRA-designed LifeWorks building—only the fourth commercial project in Austin to earn Austin Energy’s 5-Star Green Building rating—appears in the September/October issue of Texas Architect among the 2013 TSA Design Award Winners.

Associate Professor Fernando Lara was on a rampant lecture series this fall—first in Monterrey, Mexico, at Universidad Autonoma Nuevo Leon on September 4; then in Bogota and Medellín, Colombia, at Pontificia Universidad Bolivariana on September 25-26; and finally at the University of Maryland on October 5. In each of the lectures, Lara spoke about the production of public spaces in the Americas, with a special focus on the protests that took over Brazilian cities last summer. In addition, a new paper published at the Journal of Urban Design (Vol. 18, No. 4, September 2013), titled “Favela upgrade in Brazil: a reverse of participatory processes,” aims to explain the rationale behind such protests.

Assistant Professor Danelle Briscoe has contributed a chapter, titled “Reconfiguring Frit,” in Unconventional Computing: Design Methods for Adaptive Architecture, edited by Simone Ferracina and Rachel Armstrong, to be published by Riverside Architectural Press on the occasion of the ACADIA 2013 Adaptive Architecture Conference, Cambridge, Canada.

Assistant Professor Matt Fajkus, along with James Timberake (of Kieran Timberlake) and Mell Lawrence, was selected to be a juror for the 2013 Fort Worth AIA Awards. The jurors selected winning entries and provided commentary on the merit of each project at the Forth Worth Modern Museum on October 15th.

Senior Lecturer and Conservation Scientist Fran Gale served as a juror for the Washington D.C. Chapter of the American Institute of Architects 2013 Design Awards. Fellow jurors for the Historic Resources category were Robert Loversidge, Jr., FAIA and Don Swofford, FAIA. The Historic Resources category includes preservation or restoration projects, adaptive reuse of existing structures whose overall architectural character is maintained, sympathetic additions to historic structures, and replication or reconstruction of damaged or destroyed structures or elements.

Professor Christopher Long‘s newest book, Paul T. Frankl: Autobiography, was just published by Doppelhouse Press in Los Angeles. Aurora McClain [M.Arch. ’11], master’s candidate in architectural history, co-edited the book with Professor Long. Noted Viennese graphic design Peter Duniecki designed the book.

Professor Long’s two recent books, Paul T. Frankl and Modern American Design and Josef Frank: Schriften/Josef Frank: Writings (2 vols., co-editor, with Tano Bojankin and Iris Meder), have received some nice publicity in the Austrian press. Die Presse, one of Vienna’s leading newspapers, chose the Frank book as one of the five most important architecture or design works of the past year; and Profil, the largest circulation magazine in Austria, just published a three-page feature review of the Frankl book, with quotes from Long.

On October 11 and 12, Assistant Professor Benjamin Ibarra Sevilla taught a workshop on “Thin Tile Vaulting Techniques” at the Architecture Preservation Technology Conference in New York City.

Dean Fritz Steiner was a keynote speaker at the Geodesign International Conference, held October 28•29, 2013, in Beijing, China. The conference is a joint effort of Peking University and ESRI.

Senior Lecturer Rachael Rawlins has published an article, titled “Planning For Fracking on the Barnett Shale: Urban Air Pollution, Improving Health Based Regulation, and the Role of Local Governments,” in the Virginia Environmental Law Journal (Vol. 31, Issue 2).

Assistant Professor Clay Odom made a presentation titled “Patterning (and) the Interior Design Studio” at the IFI (International Federation of Interior Designers/Interior Architects) Global Interior Educators Open Forum in Sydney/New South Wales University, held October 3–4.