Ed Akins II selected as Interim Chair of Architecture

The College of Architecture and Construction Management is proud to announce Associate Professor Ed Akins II as the Interim Chair for the Department of Architecture. Professor Akins will assume this role on July 1, 2020 at which time Dr. Rizzuto will return to full-time teaching. The department is at a critical point in its development as we prepare for an upcoming NAAB accreditation visit while balancing the temporary transition to remote learning due to COVID-19. Continuity in strong leadership is needed and Professor Akins is well-capable of providing such.

Ed Akins II, AIA, LEED AP, graduated with a Master of Architecture Degree in 1996 from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has worked locally with Atlanta communities to achieve LCI grants and with the Architecture firms Thompson Ventulett Stainback and Smith Dalia Architects.

From 2002 to 2009, he taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology and at Kennesaw State University (KSU).  In 2009, he began full-time instruction within the Architecture department at KSU and is currently an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Integrative studios.

Ed was a lead partner for the Atlanta Sustainable Building Ordinance (ASBO) in 2009 and the moderator for Atlanta’s AIA+ARCH2030 Sessions in 2011. He has received multiple certificates of service from AIA and was the recipient of the Emerging Professional Award in 2007 from AIA Georgia, the Emerging Voices Award in 2008 (from AIA Atlanta’s YAF chapter), and the recipient of AIA Atlanta’s John A. Busby Medal in 2010.  In 2018, he was awarded the R.C. Paul Excellence in Sustainability Award for his outstanding efforts toward promoting environmental sustainability in the educational and operational practices of the Kennesaw State University (KSU) campus community.

Ed has served as Co-Chair and Chair on the President’s Commission for Sustainability at KSU and has taught Ecological Urbanism within the USG European Council Paris program.  He was chosen as KSU Sustainability Fellow for the 2016-2017 Academic year and was chosen to attend the 2017 EAO Workshop in Germany focused on the topic “Sustainability – Challenges for the World of Tomorrow.”  Ed is currently an active board member of the Architecture Design Center (ADC) of Atlanta and is a registered Architect, practicing in the Atlanta area.

He continues to involve students in the process of design inquiry seeking ecologically sensitive building design and technologies that respond to the needs of human comfort and site priorities. His passion to infuse practice within the explorative environment of academia produces a dynamic and fruitful environment for student and faculty growth.

Please join me in welcoming Professor Akins as Interim Chair.

Kathryn Bedette, AIA to serve as Associate Dean for Student Success and Accreditation

Kathryn Bedette, AIA, is an award-winning architect in the State of Georgia and an Associate Professor of Architecture at Kennesaw State University.  Professor Bedette has extensive experience coordinating across the curriculum of KSU’s Bachelor of Architecture degree program, having coordinated First-, Second- and Fifth-Year Architecture Studios, as well as the program’s Architecture History and Theory course sequence.  She also served as the Architecture Department’s first Academic Engagement Coordinator.  Her professional experience includes a broad range of institutional projects as well as adaptive reuse office, retail and high-rise mixed-use projects and her design studios have prioritized the cultivation a meaningful and responsible built environment by foregrounding interrelationships between architectural technologies and program in design advocacy and posthumanist design.

Kathryn has an accomplished record of advocating for the profession of architecture and the built environment through her work as Advocacy Chair on the AIA Georgia Board of Directors and served as the 2018 President of AIA Georgia.  As President, she led a successful national campaign to create a new leadership development pipeline that encourages a range of ethnically diverse women to pursue national AIA leadership positions.  She has also made a positive impact on the profession in multiple national professional service leadership roles and currently serves as the NCARB Architect Licensing Advisor for Georgia and as a Subject Matter Expert for ArchiPrep, the AIA’s ARE study platform.

Professor Bedette was awarded the 2003 Emerging Voices Award from the Young Architects Forum of AIA Atlanta for her built design work and the 2016 AIA Atlanta James Gant Fausett, FAIA, Service to the Profession Award for her advocacy accomplishments.  In 2018, Kathryn was named one of Engineering Georgia’s  “100 Influential Women to Know” and her work and scholarship have been exhibited in multiple venues and presented internationally.  Professor Bedette earned her B.S. in Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she studied abroad at the Ecole d’Architecture Paris-Tolbiac, and her Master of Architecture from Arizona State University, where she studied abroad at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany.

Bedette will serve the college by focusing administrative efforts on all things related to student success. Her immediate focus will be on establishing the CoACM Center for Student Success which will house all academic advising services and provide workshops and training on student related issues and aid in developing meaningful pathways to graduation. Bedette will also be the point of contact for all accreditation and assessment processes.

Please join me in welcoming Professor Bedette to this role.

KENNESAW, Ga. — Kennesaw State University President Pamela Whitten and Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kathy Schwaig have named Andrew Phillip Payne as dean of the College of Architecture and Construction Management, effective January 1.

As dean, Payne will provide academic and scholarly leadership for the College of Architecture and Construction Management. He will also work with faculty and staff to advance the goals of the College and its reputation at the local, state, and national level. Reporting to the Provost, Payne will lead external funding efforts and further relationships within the architecture and construction management professional communities.

“With this position, we sought someone who could bring a bold vision for the College and a commitment to fostering an inclusive learning environment for our students, all of which have been demonstrated by Dr. Payne,” Whitten said. “We believe his extensive industry experience and strong research background will galvanize our mission of becoming a top R2 institution, and we are excited to have him join the University.”

Payne currently serves as chair and professor at Indiana State University’s Department of Built Environment, positions he has held since August 2013. At Indiana State, Payne worked extensively with the Department of Built Environment’s assessment and accreditation process, earning recognition for his university service and community engagement in the classroom with the 2019 College of Technology Faculty Service Award. With more than 12 years of professional experience in architectural design firms across the Southeast, Payne has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences and has contributed to several written bodies of work.

Prior to joining Indiana State, he served as an architecture professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, teaching and serving as a graduate and undergraduate coordinator while researching building materials and construction.

“I am pleased to have Dr. Payne lend his leadership and experience as dean of our College of Architecture and Construction Management,” Schwaig said. “We were impressed by his student-first approach to academe, which will undoubtedly make a profound impact on our students’ educational journeys and eventual careers in and around the built environment.”

Payne earned a Bachelor of Environment Design, Master of Architecture and Ph.D. in Design from North Carolina State University’s College of Design. His academic research centers around visually impaired pedestrians’ ability to navigate their environments. Payne also specializes in campus planning and design, human use of space and accessibility. He is an honorary member of construction management honors fraternity Sigma Lambda Chi and has received the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) National Educator Honor Award.

“Kennesaw State’s College of Architecture and Construction Management is well known across the region for the quality of its graduates, and I am overjoyed to play a role in supporting our faculty and staff in bolstering this first-class educational experience for our students,” Payne said. “The built environment is ever-growing and the demand for professional architects and construction managers remains unquenched. It is my goal to ensure KSU is at the forefront of meeting that demand.”

Promotions:

Professor Tim Frank has been tenured and promoted to Associate Professor of Architecture. Professor Frank currently teaches Architecture Studio, Design Communication II, and Thesis Research in addition to working as Design Communication Coordinator. He teaches a responsibility to serve both society and the environment and believes that architectural education should prepare students for a practice where social, environmental, and material factors are work hand-in-hand within a cohesive building domain. In addition to his work at Kennesaw State, he also owns a nationally recognized interdisciplinary architecture studio in Atlanta. He has also had work published in several publications such as the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Journal of Technology, Architecture, and Design.

Professor Arief Setiawan has been tenured and promoted to Associate Professor of Architecture. He teaches in the areas of design and architecture: history, theory, and criticism (HTC), teaching Architecture Studio I and II, Introduction to Architecture, and courses in architecture history. He serves as the coordinator of the First-Year Design, developing a design pedagogy based on the notion of thinking through making. He integrated the First-Year course and studio through Learning Community: Fundamental in Design Thinking. Professor Setiawan has been researching design pedagogy and HTC focusing on the questions of modernity and identity, which he has presented and published in conferences. He helped lead the Architour program taking students around the country to experience masterful work in architecture and urbanism. He hopes to expand and develop further his teaching and research.