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University of New Mexico

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Tim Castillo, ARTS Lab Director and Associate Professor, and David Beining, Associate Director of Immersive Media,  lead the Art, Research, Technology & Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) at the University of New Mexico.  Arts Lab is selected as the 2013 recipient of the International Digital Media Association Innovative Program Award from the International Digital Media & Arts Association (iDMAa).  This award has only been bestowed upon four other programs since the beginning of iDMAa in 2004.  

 

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: ACSA BOARD

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2013 Board of Directors
Deadline: October 10, 2012

The ACSA Nominations Committee invites nominations for two national officers two regional director positions and on the 2013 Board of Directors. The offices are President-elect andTreasurer. The two regional director positions are for East Central Region Director & West Region Director.

President-elect
The president-elect will serve a three-year term; one year each as vice president, president, and past president; presiding at meetings of the Association and is responsible for calling meetings of the Board of Directors, preparing an agenda for such meetings, and presiding at such meetings. The president coordinates activities of the board, Association committees, and liaison representatives, provides liaison with the officers of the American Institute of Architects, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the National Architectural Accrediting Board, and the American Institute of Architecture Students, and serves as representative to the Five Presidents’ Council. The president also prepares a brief report of activities of the Association and the Board of Directors during the term of office for dissemination to the constituent associations.

Treasurer
The treasurer serves for a two-year term, and prepares the budget and the financial report of the Association for the approval of the board. The treasurer oversees the financial accounts and the records of the Association, and makes them available once a year for audit by an independent certified accountant chosen by the board. He/she serves as chair of the Finance Committee.

The Nominations Committee is chaired by Judith Kinnard additional members include Lisa Tilder, ACSA Secretary; & Tom Buresh, University of California, Berkeley (outside member) will review nominations for the two national officer positions.

East Central Region Director & West Region Director
Each Regional Director shall be a full-time and/or tenured or tenure-track faculty member of a full member school and shall be on the faculty of a school in the region represented.

The term of office shall be three years beginning July 1, 2013, and extending through June 30, 2016. Regional Directors serve the ACSA in at least three ways – as members of the Board of Directors, on a variety of national committees, and as executive officers of their regional constituent associations. In this latter role, the Regional Director sets the agenda and chairs meetings of his or her regional council. He or she maintains a file of regional records, correspondence, and minutes of regional meetings. The director is responsible for the fiscal affairs of the constituent association and is accountable to his or her regional council for these funds. He or she provides assistance to regional schools and organizations applying for institutional membership. The Director prepares annual reports of regional activities for publication in the Association’s annual report and provides updates to the constituency on both regional and national matters of note. He or she administers the nomination and election of the subsequent Regional Director and performs such other duties as may be assigned by the Board. Regional Directors are required to attend three Board meetings a year: a fall meeting which typically occurs after the Administrator’s Conference, a spring meeting which typically occurs after the ACSA Annual Meeting, and a summer meeting.

Each region will have a Regional Nominations Committee made up of regional constituents that will review applications received and develop a slate of not less than two nor more than three candidates. Ballots will be mailed to all full member schools in the appropriate region by mid-January, 2013. The results of this election will be announced at the ACSA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA in 2013. Candidates will be notified of the results in mid-February.

Electronic submissions are encouraged and can be sent to Eric Ellis at: eellis@acsa-arch.org

Nominations should include a CV, a letter of interest from the nominee indicating a willingness to serve, and a candidate statement. The deadline for receipt of nominations is October 10, 2012.

Nominations should be sent to:
Email (preferred): eellis@acsa-arch.org
ACSA, Board Nominations
1735 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006

Rhode Island School of Design

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Professor Silvia Acosta and her colleagues in the core studio Architectural Design will realize a design/build project for a community garden in Pawtucket, RI, supported by Pawtucket Developer Louis Yip, the Pawtucket Foundation and New Urban Farmers. Clients include members of the Chinese Christian Church of RI, elders from Community Housing., and Heritage Park YMCA. 

Dan Wheeler FAIA, Wheeler Kerns Architects and RISD Architecture alumnus and publisher Lars M_ller were recent lecturers at the Department.  Mr. M_ller also led a workshop with students from the Graphic Design, Digital Media and Architecture departments.  German historian and former curator of Contemporary Architecture at MoMA Andres Lepik was among participants in the symposium Teaching Architecture beyond the Desk-Top Horizon.   Silvia Acosta, Thomas Gardner, Brian Goldberg and Enrique Martinez presented community engagement work completed at RISD in the past five years. 

RISD’s newly formed American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) presented The Façade Media Festival: Playing at Full Scale co-sponsored by art nouveau, curbs & stoops and Group GS.  The event showcased selected student works projected onto the north façade of the architecture building.

Students from Aki Ashida’s course installed Luminous Washi Lantern at the Japan Society in New York as part of a benefit for earthquake victims, which included a day-long workshop on lantern making.  The project was supported by grants from the Japan Society and the Center for Global Partnership.

In April, the Architecture Department launched a new website http://architecture.risd.edu. 

Auburn University

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Long-time faculty member, Bob Faust, and his wife, Sherry, have established the Bob and Sherry Faust Endowed Scholarship for incoming freshmen in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. Bob served on the APLA faculty for forty-two years and is credited with developing Auburn’s highly regarded design-build ethos. He and Sherry wanted to do something meaningful for future architecture students and planned for creating this scholarship upon his retirement.

Lectures and presentations by faculty and alumni from the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture are included in the New Regionalism in North America, a book published by the College of Architecture and Interior Design at the University of San Francisco de Quito. The book compiles the proceedings from the Twelfth International Forum of Architecture at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Quito, Ecuador in November 2011. The Forum was dedicated to the subject of Regionalism: a recurring theme in the architectural landscape of North America and beyond. The event was coordinated by Karen Rogers, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and External Affairs in the College of Architecture, Design and Construction, and brought together eight North American architects. David Hinson, Head of the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture, and Auburn alumni Marlon Blackwell and Daniel Wicke were among the participants.

Students from Auburn University’s Masters of Real Estate Development program are working with business owners in the Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama to explore development potential. The students are looking at two sites in the neighborhood for possible development and investment, and are tasked with documenting the sites’ existing conditions, the area’s market data and the current financial market along with understanding and capitalizing on the sites’ unique history, culture and development process to propose a potential project. The masters program at Auburn consists of 14 graduate students from across the U.S. in their third semester of the Real Estate Development program. Directing this semester’s work is Ben Farrow with Auburn University Building Science Department and Ben Wieseman with KPS Group in Birmingham, AL.

The third issue of StudioAPLA, the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s electronic newsletter, was published last month. The International Issue:  Winter 2013 describes how APLA has provided international learning opportunities for students over 30 years, believing that exposure to new cultures enhances design education and ignites a desire to live and work abroad. The newsletter highlights alumni experiences in other countries and illustrates how APLA is becoming a more connected place as the student and faculty population becomes more diverse in the form of international students and visiting international scholars. To view the newsletter, please visit:  http://studioapla.auburn.edu/

Alabama Innovation Engine, a design-based community and economic development initiative jointly funded by Auburn University’s College of Architecture, Design and Construction, and the University of Alabama, recently received a 2012 Cahaba Vision Award from the Cahaba River Society. Engine, with The Nature Conservancy in Alabama, the Cahaba River Society, and the National Parks Service Recreation, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program, is a member of the Cahaba Blueway Partners. The team was recognized for their work developing the Cahaba Blueway, a project designed to tell the story of Alabama’s Cahaba River while encouraging economic development. Engine is working with the Cahaba River Society and the Nature Conservancy to build community partnerships and to improve access points along the Cahaba to help people discover the river, trails, history and communities of the watershed.

The Rural Studio, an undergraduate program in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture recently launched a new website. Please visit www.ruralstudio.org to learn more about the program, faculty, students, and projects and to explore participating in the Rural Studio’s Outreach Program.

University of Oklahoma

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University of Oklahoma Division of Architecture: September 2013

Associate Professor David L. Boeck was recently appointed the South Central Regional Coordinator for the Design Communications Association (DCA) and elected a board member to the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA).  Professor Boeck presented a co-authored paper entitled “The Healthful and Helpful House in Positive Aging” with Associate Professor Hepi Wachter (Interior Design) and Professor David Moxley (Social Work) at EDRA44 Providence. 

The Center for Middle Eastern Architecture and Culture (CMEAC) at the College of Architecture established Spring 2012 by Dr. Khosrow Bozorgi held the inaugural CMEAC Symposium in March 2013.  The event spanned three days, opening with an art exhibit from renowned Iranian artist and architect Abdolhossein Pazoki and featuring a keynote address by Gisue Hariri, principal of Hariri & Hariri Architects of New York.  The Farzaneh family has granted CMEAC a $350,000 endowment, establishing a Presidential Professorship in Persian Architecture.  For more information, please visit: www.ou.edu/cmeac

Assistant Professor Daniel Butko presented two papers (one coauthored with an undergraduate student) at the ASA/ICA acoustics conference in Montreal, June 2013.  Professor Butko sponsored five undergraduate student research teams at the 2013 OU Honors College Undergraduate Research Day.  One team comprised of Architecture student Peter Mall and Construction Science student Holly Snow won a Distinction in Undergraduate Research Award for their work with Professor Butko and Dr. Lisa Holliday (CNS).  Professor Butko was also recently appointed to the Newman Student Award Fund Advisory Committee.

Assistant Professor Thomas Cline is currently leading a multidisciplinary team consisting of AIAS, Freedom By Design, Sooners Without Borders, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society in building a human waste composting eco-latrine at the OU Kessler Atmospheric and Ecological Field Station.  The eco-latrine is intended to support the research efforts of faculty and students in Architecture, Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, Biology, Geography and Environmental Sustainability, and Meteorology.

Assistant Professor Tony Cricchio was the instructor this year for the annual Playhouse Parade project in which students design and build a playhouse for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Oklahoma County. This is the fourth year the college has been involved in the project. The playhouse was one of three constructs donated by local firms, which were raffled off in late June 2013 to raise money for CASA.  Funds raised goes directly to CASA, which provides trained court appointed volunteers who advocate for the best interests of abused or neglected children in the juvenile court system. The playhouse was designed to be easy to assemble with lightweight materials.  Enrolled students included Aaron Crandall, Victoria Waggoner, Samuel Carpitcher-Sexton, Mindy Gowen, Kristi Epperson, Ninh Ly, and Marina Soares.  Assistance included Gould Hall Building Facility Manager Jerry Puckett and Shop Manager Hunter Roth.  The team was awarded the People’s Choice Award based on the number of ticket sales per playhouse entered.

Dr. Stephanie Pilat has been awarded a Wolfsonian-FIU fellowship, which will allow her to spend three weeks in residence at the Wolfsonian in Miami Beach, Florida Spring 2014.  She will be conducting research on a new project entitled “Shaping the Body Politic: Architecture for Youth and Sports in Fascist Italy.”

The Compressed Earth Block (CEB) research team – consisting of Assistant Professors Daniel Butko (Arch), Dr. Lisa Holliday (CNS), Matthew Reyes (CNS), Scott Williams (LA), Dean Charles Graham, Dr. Kianoosh Hatami (CEES), and Dr. Chris Ramseyer (COE), numerous students, and Cleveland County Habitat for Humanity (CCHFH) community volunteers – is working diligently to complete the CEB residence adjacent to a conventionally wood-framed residence in Norman, OK.  Both houses are on schedule for completion Spring 2014 and comparative data will be collected upon completion and into occupancy.  Photo shows construction progress of both residences as of August 2013. For more information, please visit http://ceb.ou.edu

The Oklahoma City Skydance Bridge, designed by the national competition-winning consortium that includes Division of Architecture Director Hans E. Butzer, Professor in Practice Stan Carroll and College of Engineering Dr. Chris Ramseyer, received the 2013 Excellence in Structural Engineering Award given by the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations. The award was given at the association’s September awards ceremony in Atlanta, GA.

In other student news, the College of Architecture recently awarded over $110,000 in scholarships to students from all disciplines (Architecture, Construction Science, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Regional & City Planning, the Tulsa Urban Design Studio, and Environmental Design.  At the Scholarship Banquet, the College also honored outstanding alumni contributors and educators, including Adjunct Architecture Lecturer Geoff Parker who was awarded the Division of Architecture 2013 Outstanding Adjunct Award.  A series of videos from the 2013 Placemaking Conference, organized by Assistant Professor Blair Humphreys and Adjunct Lecturer Umit Hope Mander of the The OU Institute for Quality Communities (IQC), are posted at http://iqc.ou.edu/

Lawrence Technological University

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Rochelle Martin, Ph.D., passed away on October 8, 2011. Dr. Martin had been with Lawrence Tech since 1986 and was a Professor in the College of Architecture and Design at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Professor Martin received a Doctor of Architecture from the University of Michigan, a Bachelor of Architecture from Lawrence Tech, a Master of Arts in History and Bachelor of Science in Education from Wayne State University. Prior to working at Lawrence Tech, Rochelle was an Assistant Professor at Kansas State University, a Visiting Professor at the University of Nebraska, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Michigan.

In her years at Lawrence Tech, she served on numerous university and college committees, along with founding the university’s Tau Sigma Delta chapter. A published author, she served on many thesis juries and enjoyed researching the impact of film media on architecture.

Rochelle was highly respected and will be greatly missed. She is survived by her daughter Marilee.

Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico

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Dean Carlos E. Betancourt LLambias AIA, and Interior Designer Smyrna Mauras, CODDI, announced the inauguration of the Interior  Architecture Program in the Spring 2013. Dean Betancourt also announced the integration of the Landscape Architecture program to the school of Architecture ARQPOLI.


Professor Diana G. Rivera was appointed as the new Associate Dean of the School of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (PUPR). Professor Rivera has been teaching for seventeen years and has taught design studios at various levels.  Professor Rivera has a B.A. in Environmental Design from the University of Puerto Rico and an M.Arch from Syracuse University.


Professor Jorge Rigau FAIA, received the Distinguished Architecture Professor Award from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico in May 2012.


Professor Miguel Del Río AIA, has been appointed AIA Regional Director for the areas of Florida and the Caribbean.  The appointment took place on July 2012 during the AIA Convention in Palm Beach.


Professor Andres Mignucci AIA, will be lecturing at Tulane School of Architecture, the lecture ‘The City is not a blank slate” will take place this coming month.  Also, Professor Mignucci announced the publication of his next book Contexts: Parque Munoz Rivera and the Supreme Court.


Professor Nadya K. Nenadich mentored second place award winning students Glorimer Anselmi, Nestor Bartolomei, Javier Bidot, Cristhian Cano, Marcos Colón and Janice Quevedo, for the San Juan 3D Competition sponsored by Colegio de Arquitectos y Arquitectos Paisajistas.   Nenadich also gave the lecture “La erosión de la gestión común de lo común” for the Arquitectonics International Workshop “Architecture, Education and Society” at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) on May, 2012.


Professor María Gabriela Flores AIA, gave the lecture “Consideraciones de Diseño para Vivienda en Puerto Rico” as part of the design competition “Nueva Vivienda para Puerto Rico 2012” at the Puerto Rico’s Architects Association (CAAPPR) on May 10, 2012. 


Professor Omayra Rivera, coordinator of the Collaborative Design Studio, is offering a course at Beta Local in Old San Juan in collaboration with the project ENLACE for Caño Martín Peña. Moreover, Prof. Rivera presented the paper “Participatory Analysis of the Living Environment: The Plus Ultra Neighborhood”, together with professors Leandro Madrazo and Angel Martin Cojo from the School of Architecture La Salle in Barcelona at the Association of Collegiate School of Architecture (ACSA) Conference on June, 2012, that took place at the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona.


Professors Yazmín Crespo and Omayra Rivera, together with Andrea Bauzá, presented the work produced by their collaborative studio “Taller Creando Sin Encargos’, at the Puerto Rico’s Architects Association (CAAPPR) on August 16, 2012. They were also guest speakers at the University Radio talk show “Arquitectura de Hoy”.


Professor Yazmín Crespo gave a history and theory of architecture summer course at the Elisava School of Design in Barcelona on June, 2012. 


Professor Vladimir García has joined the ArqPoli faculty. Prof. Garcia, who has a Masters Degree from SCIArc, was recently awarded, together with Doel Fresse, the First Prize from the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture: Galería Espacio Temporal (GET) Design Competition 2011 for the Revuelo installation. Revuelo was selected as one of the projects to represent Puerto Rico in the Third Design Biennial in Madrid on November 2012.  Prof. Garcia gave a lecture about this art-installation at the School of Architecture, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico and at the Puerto Rico’s Architects Association (CAAPPR) on March, 2012. 


Professor Maria Isabel Oliver conducted a Summer Advanced History Course together with the Centro de Estudios Martianos in Havana, Cuba. The project Havana: topologies of a transitional city, examines through videos and urban acoustics, the topological ‘invariances’ of memory, history and identity within the ‘variant’ uses of contemporary society.


Professor Oscar Oliver Didier, together with 16 students, traveled to Berlin, Germany, to conduct the Summer Studio  Berlin: Enduring Impermanence. The project evaluates place and the crisis of permanence. 


The Study Abroad Exhibitions Berlin: Enduring Impermanence and Havana: topologies of a transitional city will be held at the Antiguo Cuartel de Ballaja  in November 2012. 


Dean Carlos E. Betancourt Llambias AIA, announced the production of the third ArqPoli Polimorfo journal edition “Architecture to come” and the ArqPoli deBrief student work catalog, to be released in the upcoming months.

ACSA Seeks Nominations for ACSA Representative on NAAB Board of Directors

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CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
ACSA Representative on NAAB Board of Directors
Deadline: October 10, 2012

The 2013-2014 National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) will comprise thirteen members: three representing ACSA, three representing AIA, three representing NCARB, two representing AIAS, and two public members. Currently Theodore Landmark of Boston Architectural College; Nathaniel Belcher of Pennsylvania State University, Patricia Kucker of University of Cincinnati represent ACSA on the NAAB Board. With the expiration of Ted Landsmark’s term in October 2013, the ACSA Board of Directors is considering candidates for his successor at its meeting this March in San Francisco, CA.

The appointment is for a three-year term (Oct. 2013 – Oct. 2016) and calls for a person willing and able to make a commitment to NAAB. While previous experience as an ACSA board member or administrator is helpful, it is not essential for nomination. Some experience on NAAB visiting teams should be considered necessary; otherwise the nominee might be unfamiliar with the highly complex series of deliberations involved with this position. Faculty and administrators are asked to nominate faculty from an ACSA member school with any or all the following qualifications:

  1. Tenured faculty status at an ACSA full member school;
  2. Significant experience with and knowledge of the accreditation process;
  3. Significant acquaintance with and knowledge of ACSA, its history,
  4. policy programs, and administrative structure;
  5. Personal acquaintance with the range of school and program types across North America.
  6. Willingness to represent the constituency of ACSA on accreditation related issues.
  7. Ability to work with the NAAB board and ACSA representatives to build consensus on accreditation related issues.

For consideration, please submit a concise letter of nomination along with a CV indicating experience under the above headings, and a letter indicating willingness to serve from the nominee, by October 10, 2012.

Nominations should be sent to:
Email (preferred): eellis@acsa-arch.org
ACSA, Board Nominations
1735 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006

University of Calgary

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Professor Graham Livesey – Congratulations to Graham who has been promoted to full Professor effective April 1, 2012.  Well done Graham!

Professor Loraine Fowlow – The Solar Decathlon 2011 project is a finalist for the 2012 Emerald Awards, in the category of “Education: School or Classroom” category.  The Awards will be announced at the Awards ceremony on June 6th.  President Cannon has offered her congratulations to the Team on this accomplishment, saying, “The Solar Decathlon Team exemplifies the University of Calgary’s Eyes High goals to pursue excellence and to forge strong ties with our community.” 

Professor Branko Kolarevic

  • was an invited speaker and a panelist at the “Vectored Resources” symposium held on March 8, 2012, in Toronto. This event was organized by Columbia University from New York as one in a series of global “think tanks” that are part of the “Columbia Building Intelligence Project” (C-BIP).
  • On March 23, Branko delivered the opening presentation (by invitation) at the “Material Intensities” Smart Geometry 2012 conference held at the Rensselear Polytechnic University (RPI) in Troy, NY.
  • will give a public lecture at Université Laval École d’architecture in Quebec City on Nov 8 (http://www.arc.ulaval.ca/).
  • is speaking at the aceBIM symposium in Edmonton on Nov 28 (http://www.acebim.ca/bim-symposium-2012).
  • is one of the keynote speakers at the “Materiality in its Contemporary Forms” conference to be held on Nov 29 & 30 in Lyon, France (http://mc2012.sciencesconf.org/). The conference is organized by École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture (ENSA) de Lyon and École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture (ENSA) de Grenoble. 
  • He was a Technology Theme Co-Chair for the 2012 ACSA International Conference held in June in Barcelona, where he also presented a co-authored paper and co-chaired three paper sessions.
  • Branko also joined the Advisory Committee for the Architectural Technologies Program at SAIT. This fall he will lecture at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Norway and Université Laval in Quebec City. 

Professor Tang Lee won first prize in the International Urban Design competition for the Foshan Chancheng District European Industrial Park, China.  Orianne Berger, an EVDS student, assisted with the competition.

  • Tang Lee won first prize in a design competition for an Ecological Master Plan for a senior’s development in Mengzi City, Yunnan province, China.
  • Five EVDS students, 3 architecture and 2 planning students spend the summer working in China. The students worked on Tang Lee’s projects including the design several high rise apartment and commercial buildings, urban designs, town planning, etc.

 Dr. Brian Sinclair’s

  • Administered the International ARCC King Medal Program for Excellence in Architectural Research (May 2012);
  • Received the UC GSA ‘Teaching Excellence Award’ and was nominated for the ‘Supervisory Excellence Award’ (May 2012);
  • Paper accepted (co-authored; first author S. Mousazadeh) for presentation in the 9th AHRA Conference in UK (May 2012);
  • Submitted invited paper (co-authored; first author S. Mousazadeh) to the Global Built Environment Review (May 2012) | publication pending; 
  • Served on the Scientific and Paper Review Committee for the ARCC/EAAE International Bi-Annual Architectural Research Conference (Cities in Transformation) in Milano; chaired two sessions under the category ‘Housing and the Shape of the City’; and delivered a peer-reviewed paper (published in proceedings) within the category ‘Architecture and Technical Innovation’ at the conference (June 2012);
  • Delivered the invited Keynote Address at the Annual PhD Student Workshop, and moderated & served on the PhD Alumni Panel, at the University of Missouri (June 2012);
  • Paper on ‘Agile Architecture’ accepted for publication in ARCC Journal (June 2012);
  • Travelled to Yunnan Province in China as an government-invited participant, speaker and advisor (together with Professor Tang Lee) in the Honghe Prefecture Sustainable Urban Planning and Design Forum | delivered an address on Holistic Design & Planning at the congress (July 2012);
  • Received a DrHC (Honoris Causa) from the Institute for Systems Research & Cybernetics, at a ceremony held in Germany, in recognition of scholarly work and leadership in the field of Design Education (August 2012);
  • Delivered three lectures at the University of Hawaii’s School of Architecture including the opening invited public talk (Agile Architecture: Considering, Conceiving & Constructing Environmental Design for the 21st Century) for the 2012-2013 Academic Year (August 2012);
  • Received an EVDS Research Funding Award for work on ‘façade plasticity’ (September 2012);
  • Appointed to the Scientific and Paper Review Committee for the ARCC Annual Research Conference to be held in North Carolina in Spring 2013 (September 2012).

 

 

University of Arkansas

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A National Endowment for the Arts grant is a first step toward the revival of the historic, 60-block Pettaway neighborhood in Little Rock, by blending new development within the fabric of that turn-of-the-century urban neighborhood. 

The $30,000 grant, awarded to the University of Arkansas Community Design Center and the Downtown Little Rock Community Development Corp., will fund the creation of the Pettaway Neighborhood Revitalization Plan. 

The grant recipients were among 1,145 nonprofit national, regional, state and local organizations recommended for a grant as part of the NEA’s second round of fiscal year 2011 grants. This design grant was part of the federal agency’s Access to Artistic Excellence Program. In total, the NEA will distribute more than $88 million to support projects nationwide. 

The Community Design Center, an outreach program of the Fay Jones School of Architecture, works to advance creative development in Arkansas through education, research and design solutions that enhance the physical environment. The Community Development Corp. steers investment activity in the Pettaway neighborhood and develops single-family housing in the area. 

The Community Design Center will spend 10 months generating the Pettaway Neighborhood Revitalization Plan. Designers hope to develop methods for urban infill that integrate contemporary innovations – such as green streets, transit-oriented development, urban agriculture, low-impact development live-work housing configurations – with existing historic buildings. They are using models they’ve already developed and applying them at a broader, neighborhood scale. 

“Like all well-established urban areas, the Pettaway neighborhood offers a rich mixture of lifestyle opportunities in the architecture and land uses close to downtown,” Steve Luoni, director of the Community Design Center. 

The plan will combine urban development with affordable housing and public transit planning. Ecological-based storm water management methods will be studied, including green streets, low-impact development, rainwater gardens, bioswales and stream restoration. Designers will propose that the city extend its downtown trolley system into a commuter streetcar system along a trunk line, which will connect the Pettaway neighborhood to the downtown business district and North Little Rock’s downtown. 

Affordable housing configurations with mixed uses will cater to artists and others employed in creative, innovative fields, while serving the neighborhood’s established constituents. The project team will explore an open space and landscape plan that will link underused parks with new pocket parks, drainage corridors, community gardens, recreation areas and pedestrian areas. 

Though the neighborhood is already strongly committed to and supportive of changes, this plan will better guide the development corporation actions. “Something like this can bring the bigger vision for what the neighborhood can be,” said Scott Grummer, executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Community Development Corp. “This, in turn, helps guide the corporation, the neighborhood and other developers in decisions they make for future developments.” 

The revitalization plan will be presented to the Pettaway neighborhood next spring. 

This plan will build on the MacArthur Park District Master Plan – a plan created by the Community Design Center that has won five national and two state design awards. Segments of that plan are slated for construction this year. In that plan for MacArthur Park, which borders the Pettaway area, one of the more visionary options was to build a pedestrian bridge over the interstate, which literally divided MacArthur Park, and reconnect the park and downtown to the Pettaway neighborhood. 

“There’s so much revitalization potential currently being exhibited in Little Rock that will allow it to flourish as a great mid-sized city,” Luoni said. “This plan will return low-density urban neighborhood options to the table, providing a mix of classes with affordable choices for living downtown.” 

For the past two years, the Fay Jones School of Architecture has partnered with the Community Development Corp. to design and build two affordable, sustainable homes in the Pettaway neighborhood. Both homes are located on East Commerce Street. 

Luoni said the school’s design/build program and this new neighborhood plan approach revitalization from different scales. “We’re going to look at the building blocks of good neighborhood development and planning, with an aggregate thinking that exceeds what one can accomplish on a single piece of property,” he said. “The design/build program serves as an exemplary model for what can be accomplished through building typology at the micro-scale. They are building stunning, high-concept houses that are affordable.” 

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