In the five years since a massive earthquake rocked the island nation of Haiti, UT faculty and students have helped the country’s rebuilding efforts by designing a secondary school, housing, and a clinic that are now in various stages of construction.
Next up: the design of preschools to address the education needs of the country’s youngest citizens.
“Since 2010, UT’s Haiti projects have given students hands-on experience in creating designs for real spaces and real people that bring about change,” said Ali Alsaleh, a fifth-year architecture major who took part in a fall 2014 Haiti studio class. Today marks the fifth anniversary of the earthquake.
“In architecture and design studios, our clients are usually hypothetical,” said Alsaleh, who helped design one of the preschools that will be built.
He traveled to Haiti in the fall with a UT team to learn more about the country and its needs.
“Our involvement in Haiti has actually had real outcomes. We got to speak to the actual people who will be using our buildings. It made me realize that architecture can help rebuild a community and refocused my passion for architecture as a humanitarian field.”
The UT Haiti Project, led by the College of Architecture and Design and a collaboration between various UT programs, has made students more sensitive to cross-cultural differences, how to respond to the needs of others, and how to work well across disciplines, said Architecture Professor John McRae, who helped launch the project.
“That’s important in their overall professional development,” he said.
UT has partnered with the Haiti Development Fund and its executive director, Jean Thomas, on all its projects. The organization pays for the construction of the buildings, and members of the UT Haiti Project provide some oversight, McRae said.
Knoxville nonprofit HaitiServe helped defray the cost of travel for UT faculty and students.
A look at the UT-designed Haiti projects and their status:
L’Exode Secondary School: UT faculty and students in spring 2011 designed a three-phase school master plan, which will serve students in grades seven to twelve. The first phase of construction— five first-story classrooms, restrooms, and the cafeteria-meeting hall—was completed in 2012, and the school welcomed its first students that fall. The school is in Fond-des-Blancs, seventy miles outside the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.
This month, construction begins on the second phase of the school—an outdoor athletic stadium. The school will eventually include more classrooms, a library and dormitories. It currently has 100 students and will eventually serve up to 500 children.
Housing: In spring 2012, the UT Haiti Project designed fourteen houses for the Fond-des-Blancs community. So far, one has been constructed. The home currently houses participants of the Caleb Fellows Program, which trains young men and then sends them out into the community to provide leadership and be catalysts for change.
Medical clinic: In spring 2013, the College of Architecture and Design, in partnership with the College of Nursing, US organization Friends of Fort Liberte, and Knoxville architect Chris King, designed an addition and the complete overhaul of a medical clinic in Fort Liberte, a community about eleven miles from the Dominican Republic border. Funds are currently being raised for the work.
New gate: In spring 2014, the Haiti Project designed a new steel gate for the L’Exode Secondary School. Local artist Preston Farabow built it, and he and McRae will go to Haiti in May to install it.
LIFEHouse guidebook: UT created the book to address the urgent need for adequate building standards in the country and emphasize the lesser-known relationship between housing design and disease prevention. The book will be translated into French, English, and Creole, and will showcase how Haitians can build secure and healthy homes using local materials and methods.
Preschools: In fall 2014, the Haiti studio designed a preschool for Fond-des-Blancs that will serve up to 450 youngsters. A group of architecture students and faculty, along with Robyn Brookshire, director of the UT Early Learning Center, traveled to Haiti to learn more about the country’s early childhood education system to help them come up with the design. Based on the work done in the fall 2014 studio, students in a fall 2015 studio course will design more preschools for rural Haitian communities.
Haiti disaster response master’s thesis: A master’s thesis project by Mallory Barga proposed new direction for rebuilding and transitional housing in the country. Barga’s project, which won the College of Architecture and Design’s top award in spring 2014, provided input for the work done in the Haiti studio in fall 2014. A copy was sent to the Haiti Development Fund.
“We’ve tried to capture the vision of what everyone hopes is a new Haiti,” McRae said.
Learn more about the Haiti Project on its website.
This spring Kevin Erickson was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
The urban design work of Associate Professor Erik Hemingway was a Selected Featured Project for the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennial, Open Professional Category International Competition. Hemingway’s residential design work was 1 of 54 International projects selected for the publication Global Architecture Houses Project 2014 A.D.A. Edita, Tokyo. His project was also featured in the exhibition at Global Architecture Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. Erik Hemingway’s creative design work on four Modernist Residences [3 built and 1 un built] located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Urbana; will be featured from January 30 through May 2015 in a solo exhibition at the Light Court in the Krannert Art Museum adjacent to the Galley of the traveling exhibit MetaModern. As a digital Multi Media Exhibition of these spectacular renovated Mid Century Modernist Residences first designed by A. Quincy Jones; Robert Anshen; Mies van der Rohe, and John Replinger, this exhibit of Erik’s preservation and rehabilitation work to the general public will be instrumental in raising the value and potentially saving lesser known modernist homes and the history of their design importance.
Professor and dF Chair Jeffery Poss, and Visiting Instructor David Emmons won two national awards for the Folding Farm II produce transport vehicle and a deployable farm stand. It received First Prize in ‘Services: Personal Transportation’ in the 2013 Green Dot Awards™, which strive to reward and promote forward-thinking businesses that create environmentally friendly products or services, and to reward revolutionary green proposals. The jury selected winners from thousands of entries from over 25 countries.
Folding Farm II also received an Honorable Mention in the AIA 2014 Pop Up Project Design Competition. The design jury commented that Folding Farm II was…”Very cool looking and a truly local producer. Could be a mobile suite for a larger farmer. Sellable and familiar, but for a boutique seller. Beautiful story or hyper local vendor.” The digital Fabrication Laboratory, “dF LAB,” received grants from the University Provost, the College of Fine and Applied Arts, and the Illinois School of Architecture for state-of-the-art equipment to expand digital fabrication capabilities.
Joy Monice Malnar, AIA was invited by the Scent Marketing Institute (an international organization of perfumers) to present in June a keynote address on scent and architecture at their New York ScentWorld 2014 conference. In May, Malnar presented “New Housing on Indigenous Lands,” at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas. She presented “New Architecture on Indigenous Lands: Cultural & Environmental Sustainability in Tribal Communities,” at the June AIA 2014 National Convention and Design Exposition in Chicago, for 1.5 Health Safety and Welfare Learning Units. And in August, she presented “Architectural Museum Design for Living Artifacts,” to museum curators at The Inclusive Museum 7th Annual Conference, Los Angeles. Her article co-authored with Frank Vodvarka “Architectural Design for Living Artifacts” was published in Multi-sensoryMuseum: A Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on Touch, Sound, Smell, Memory, and Space, edited by Dr. Nina Levent, former executive director of Art Beyond Sight and Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). She is currently a member of the Advisory Board of The Senses & Society journal.
Chicago Studio –Growing from outreach efforts with the City of Chicago Mayor’s office and Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, the Urbanism Program Area has launched the Illinois School of Architecture’s inaugural Chicago Studio this Fall, 2014. The Chicago Studio is located at 224 South Michigan Avenue, collaborating with VOA Associates Inc., and offering graduate students the opportunity to study, live and work for one semester in Chicago’s loop. These graduate students take studio, seminars and a professional development course. The studio is focused on an urban design project determined in conjunction with the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. The professional development course engages Chicago’s architectural offices to understand each firm’s ideology and their methods of delivery for both clients and the general public. The Chicago Studio’s goal is to immerse students as fully as possible in Chicago’s architectural offerings. To facilitate this goal, each firm supplies one or more professional mentors to enable each graduate student to have a mentoring relationship for the semester with a Chicago professional. The students are also linked to the Chicago Architecture Foundation where they volunteer several times during the semester. Participants engage with the Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate at Roosevelt University (current ISoA faculty involved: Kevin Hinders, Coordinator and Brian Hammersley).
Over the summer, Lee W. Waldrep, Ph.D. moderated the session: Architects and Beyond: Career Opportunities Abound at the AIA Convention in Chicago. As well, the third edition of his book, Becoming an Architect was published by Wiley; in all, the book through its first two editions has sold more than 20,000 copies. Waldrep also served as the author of the chapter – The Career Paths of an Architect, for the AIA Handbook of Professional Practice.
Associate Professor Abbas Aminmansour has been elected for a two year term as the Vice Chair of the Chicago Committee on High Rise Buildings.
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students will host the largest architecture student conference of the year in Nashville this winter.
Architecture students from around the country will attend workshops and seminars led by professionals, lectures by world-renowned guests and networking events that will help them better prepare for the profession. AIAS is an independent nonprofit student-run organization dedicated to providing programs, information and resources on issues critical to architectural education. It has been in existence for six decades.
This is the first time the forum is being held in Tennessee.
“This year, AIAS Forum will put the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the city of Nashville in the spotlight,” said Breanna Weaver, forum conference chair and former UT AIAS chapter president. “I think it’s hard for us to mask our pride and enthusiasm as we prepare to present our school and the region to the rest of the architecture community. We’re making our mark on a tradition that has spanned almost 60 years.”
The 2014 theme is Reverb, a play on the spirit of the Music City. Selection to host the forum was competitive. It required a formal bid, a vote by AIAS members; financial backing from the home university; and a presentation to the AIAS’s National Board of Directors, the Council of Presidents and the AIAS general body at the 2012 forum.
The AIAS Forum will showcase the architectural side of Nashville and Tennessee through city walks, architecture firm visits and museum tours. It also will feature a New Year’s Eve Beaux Arts ball.
“UT students have been working on this for over two years, so we are more than ready to get people registered and let the fun begin,” Weaver said.
The conference also will mark the 10th anniversary of AIAS’s philanthropy, Freedom by Design, which provides accessibility solutions for community members with disabilities. All projects are completely designed, planned and constructed by AIAS members. The UT Freedom by Design chapter is one of the most widely regarded programs in the country and just completed its third major project this past spring.
More information about the AIAS Forum is available through at http://www.aiasforum2014.com or on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for “AIASForum2014.”
UT Architecture and Design Improving Facilities with $2.5M Dedicated to Updated Labs, New Building
The College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is improving its facilities over the next year through renovations and upgrades to the Art and Architecture Building and its newly acquired facility in downtown Knoxville.
A total of $2.5 million is being dedicated to mechanical upgrades, design lab equipment and state-of-the-art digital fabrication tools to create new collaborative environments throughout the Art and Architecture Building. It will feature study areas for students, lighting upgrades, updated restrooms, a redesigned Student Services Center, upgraded student breakout labs and state-of-the-art digital panel displays for group projects, as well as two new kitchenettes designed by students.
Advanced design laboratories, or studios, will feature 400 new student work stations to replace decades-old equipment. Each student will have a work space with a new desk, chair, storage system, lighting and computer monitors for design projects.
“Through our exceptional faculty and their nationally recognized work, our college is emerging as a leader in the areas of sustainability and urbanization,” said Scott Poole, dean of the college. “Our goal is to create the best teaching and learning environments for our students and faculty through new spaces and equipment on par with contemporary design practice. We want our students to be excited, inspired and proud of our facilities.”
The College of Architecture and Design is home to three disciplines—architecture, interior design and landscape architecture. This fall, the college will welcome its most diverse incoming class in recent years with students hailing from 12 states and five countries.
As part of the renovations, $250,000 of the total sum will go toward a new design laboratory for the incoming Governor’s Chair—a research team led by Phil Enquist from internationally recognized architecture, engineering and design firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP. Over five years, the team will investigate regenerative energy strategies and urban density through a joint appointment between UT and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The Governor’s Chair work will occur in the college’s recently acquired 20,000 square-foot fabrication facility and design studio at 525 N. Gay St., referred to as the Fab Lab. The facility will have more than $600,000 in new equipment, including computer-aided design and manufacturing machinery such as computer numerically controlled mills, laser cutters, 3D printers and robotics. High-performance metal fabrication materials including digital lathes and mills will complement the college’s existing wood shop equipment in the Art and Architecture Building.
“Our new facilities provide us with the capacity to realize projects that were beyond our reach in the past,” Poole said. “I am excited by the possibilities. We are convinced that our new facilities will enable our faculty and students to achieve new levels of excellence.”
The improvements are part of the changes that have occurred under the college’s new administration, which has been reshaped since 2011. Over the last three years, they have created an office for student services and advising, acquired new furniture and workspaces for students, improved staff work areas, created new spaces for the growing leadership and faculty, removed graffiti in the building and refurbished the building’s primary auditorium.
The college also has helped bring about a research partnership with furnisher Herman-Miller to create an advanced design studio lab for students and established a new gallery with storefront exhibits at the college’s 500 S. Gay Street Downtown Studio.
Jason Young has been named the new director of the School of Architecture of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He becomes acting director on August 1.
Young, a researcher specializing in contemporary conditions of American urbanism, brings over twenty years of teaching experience to the College of Architecture and Design. He comes to Knoxville from the University of Michigan, where he was an associate professor in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
“We are very excited by the appointment ofJason Young,” said Scott Poole, dean of the College of Architecture and Design. “He has a strong national reputation, and brings a breadth of experience from one of the top architecture programs in the country.”
In addition to teaching at Michigan, where he was named the Helmet F. Stern Professor by its Institute for Humanities, Young was, in fall 2013, the Howard A. Friedman Visiting Associate Professor of Practice at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior, he taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Schwerpunkt Holz in Murau, Austria, and Catholic University of America.
“I am excited for the opportunity to lead the School of Architecture into the future, taking the strong foundation established by dedicated students, faculty, and administrators as a starting point for advancement,” said Young. “In relationship to the larger context of the university and state, I look forward to making contributions to the intellectual environment at the university and advocating for architecture and design excellence in Tennessee.”
The UT School of Architecture is home to professionally-accredited undergraduate and graduate architecture programs. It is frequently cited as one of the best schools for architecture in the South, achieving national acclaim and research funding for such projects as its Living Light Solar House, Appalachia Project, Green Oak Project, and New Norris House, winner of numerous national awards including the prestigious ‘Top 10 Green Project’ from the American Institute of Architects Committee for the Environment in 2013.
“Director Young comes to our college at an exciting time in its history,” said Poole. “We recently established an unprecedented partnership between industry, research, and academia – the Governor’s Chair in Energy and Urbanism – with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and SOM, one of the largest and most respected design firms in the world. We also are kicking off the new year with $2M in facilities upgrades, including a new fabrication laboratory in the heart of downtown Knoxville.”
As a licensed builder in Michigan, Young is the founder ofYARD,a design and build practice with “a nice collection of built work with close attention to detail,” said Young. Before founding YARD, Young was co-founder and partner of WETSU, a design and build practice in Ann Arbor. WETSU received an Honorable Mention in Interior Design Magazine’s Design Review in 2001, was recognized by Wallpaper* magazine as one of twenty-five notable emerging practices worldwide in 2003, and received an Honor Award from Contract Magazine in 2005.
Young earned his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1990, and Master of Architecture from Rice University in 1992.
To learn more about Director Jason Young and the UT School of Architecture, please visithttp://archdesign.utk.edu/.
Mark DeKay was promoted to Full Professor of the School of Architecture.
Katherine Ambroziak was promoted to Associate Professor of Architecture by the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees.
Lisa Mullikin was named the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Research of the College of Architecture and Design.
Associate Professor Mohamed Boubekri was selected as a 2014-15 Fulbright Scholar. He will be working in building technology at Arel University in Turkey.
Assistant Professor Kenny Cupers has authored/edited two new publications: Use Matters: An Alternative History of Architecture (Routledge, 2013, ed.); and The Social Project: Housing Postwar France (University of Minnesota Press, 2014, author).
Assistant Professor Kenny Cupers also received full funding from the Campus Research Board for six-weeks of summer travel for his continued research on “Architectural Modernism and Environmental Science in Imperial Germany.”
Associate Professor Lynne Dearborn has received the 2013-2014 Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement in recognition for her work of many years with public and community organizations in the Midwest and internationally, including the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance in St. Clair County, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, and the Olivette Park Neighborhood Association. In addition, she has been invited by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture to be the lead instructor in the ACSA Haiti Design Challenge International Service-Learning Studio in the summer of 2014.
Assistant Professor Kevin Erickson was recently invited by actress Bette Midler and her non-profit organization the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) to participate in a design competition for a boat storage facility and outdoor classroom in Sherman Creek Park along the Harlem River in Upper Manhattan, along with eight other emerging New York based architects. In addition, Kevin was also invited by Winnipeg-based 5468796 Architecture to collaborate in their Canadian Prix de Rome Prize Project “Table for Twelve,” a traveling research project that invited prominent voices in eight international cities to discuss the factors that create a strong commitment to architecture in these places. Kevin hosted the NYC dinner along with Kyle May, editor of CLOG Journal.
The urban design work of Associate Professor Erik Hemingway was a Selected Featured Project for the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennial, Open Professional Category International Competition. Hemingway’s residential design work was 1 of 54 International projects selected for the publication Global Architecture Houses Project 2014 A.D.A. Edita, Tokyo. His project was also featured in the exhibition at Global Architecture Gallery, Tokyo, Japan.
Associate Professor Paul Kapp was selected as a 2013-14 Fulbright scholar. He is currently completing his resident research at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Associate Professor Paul Kapp was also the keynote speaker at the Sixth International Conference on Industrial Heritage at the University of Rijeka in Rijeka, Croatia on April 25, 2014.
Associate Professor Joy Malnar’s co-authored book New Architecture on Indigenous Lands (University of Minnesota Press, 2013) was reviewed by Choice and the Art Libraries Society of North America. It was also listed on A Daily Dose of Architecture as one of John Hill’s select group of recommendations for the 2013 year. During the 2014 summer she will be giving presentations on her book at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas and at the AIA 2014 National Convention in Chicago. Her article, “Architectural Design for Living Artifacts,” was published in Multi-sensory Museum: A Cross-disciplinary Perspective on Multiple Modalities of a Museum Experience edited by Dr. Pascual-Leone and Dr. Nina v. K. Levent (AltaMira, Press, 2014). She will be presenting material from this chapter at the The Inclusive Museum Conference in Los Angeles. Her book, Sensory Design (University of Minnesota Press, 2004) was the topic of Cyrus Stuart Kerr’s paper, “A review of the evidence on the importance of sensory design for intelligent buildings,” in the journalIntelligent Buildings International, 2013 Vol. 5, No. 4, 204–212. She will be a keynote speaker at the ScentWorld conference in New York.
Associate Professor Heather Minor has been awarded full funding from the Research Board for summer research for her project entitled “The Art of Winckelmann: Preliminary Research.”
Professor and dF Chair Jeffery Poss, received a Mies Van Der Rohe Special Recognition Award for his project Meditation Hut III “Victor” in the 2014 AIA Honor Awards. The design award recognizes innovation in overall concept design or detail.
The Nathan Clifford Ricker Award recognized Assistant Professor Mark Taylor, Associate AIA, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for his dedication and talent as an AIA Associate member architecture educator in Illinois. A large component of Taylor’s humanitarian work in Haiti and in the agricultural U.S. has an educational component, and he often brings his research into the classroom where he hopes to inspire the next generation of architects to work with underserved communities. His students at the University of Illinois welcome the opportunities he provides to use their skills in real-world situations, such as an assessment of a hospital partially destroyed by the 2010 Haitian Earthquake and the development of a new master plan. Taylor also aims to reach a wider audience through online open source resources and informative videos.
Assistant Professor Mark Taylor was recognized at the 2014 AIA Illinois Honor Awards and received the Nathan Clifford Ricker Honor Award for his dedication and talent as an AIA Associate member architecture educator. He consistently brings his humanitarian work in Haiti and in the agricultural U.S into the classroom, to inspire the next generation of architects to work with underserved communities. Taylor also aims to reach a wider audience through online open source resources and informative videos.
Assistant Professor Therese Tierney has received Honorable Mention award from the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) Prizes for her research entitled “Reappropriating Social Media: Internet Activism, Counterpublics & Implications”, April 8, 2014.
Assistant Professor Thérèse Tierney also had an Invited Interview: “Is Paris a Smarter City than New York?” PRIME HubTech, August 23, 2013.
Assistant Professor Marci Uihlein has received full funding from the Campus Research Board for her research on “The Structural Engineer as Designer: Architecture’s Creative Partner.”
Assistant Professor Marci Uihlein received the 2013 Building Technology Educators’ Society (BTES) Emerging Faculty Award. This national award recognizes a “rising educator in building technology education who has demonstrated particular excellence in teaching and innovation during the formative years of their architectural teaching career.”
On the Urbana campus, Lorado Taft’s Alma Mater bronze sculpture has been restored and re-dedicated. For the school’s contribution to the dedication time capsule, Visiting Instructor Brian Vesely designed a “Primitive Hut” artifact of hydraulic cement cast into a 3D printed mold. The surface articulation on the sides of the artifact is binary code – a protruding sphere indicating 1, and a subtracted sphere indicating 0. The binary code describes the School’s Spring 2014 Lecture Series.
Heritage Architecture, China’s first ever multi-disciplinary journal on historic preservation, has named ACSA Distinguished Professor James Warfield as featured columnist for the quarterly publication. “Value in the Vernacular” will begin “The Warfield Column” in the premier issue of the journal in Summer 2014.
A group of students and faculty from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has won the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s P3: People, Prosperity, and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability.Their project will receive up to $90,000 in grant funding to turn the designs into real-world applications and implement them in the marketplace.
The UT Green Oak Project developed oak construction techniques that use undried oak, which is known as “green” oak, as an energy-efficient and carbon-friendly wood product. The project received $15,000 in the first phase of the competition to investigate the material. Associate Professor Ted Shelton of the UT School of Architecture is the lead principal investigator on the project.
University projects from across the country competed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. from April 25 to 27 as part of the National Sustainable Design Expo. UT’s team was one of seven winners selected by a panel of experts from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was the only project in an architecture-related discipline to claim a prize.
Philip Enquist, partner in charge of urban design and planning and leader of the City Design Practice at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, has been named the 16th University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill is one of the world’s leading urban planning, architecture and engineering firms.
Enquist and a select research team will serve as Governor’s Chair for High Performance Energy Practices in Urban Environments and will be affiliated with and administer projects through the UT College of Architecture and Design.
The Governor’s Chair team will be a research partnership among many designers at the firm who specialize in sustainable urbanism and high-performance buildings. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill’s City Design Practice is the world’s most highly awarded urban planning group.
The contract between ORNL, UT and the design firm is pending.
“This position will surely lead to innovative discoveries and enhance our reputation as a leader in the field of design and urban environments,” said UT Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “This is yet another step toward our university becoming a Top 25 research institution.”
The Governor’s Chair was selected following a national search. Only those candidates from firms with a research division and capable of providing a collaborative team as part of their appointment were considered.
“Enquist and his studios have improved the quality and efficiency of city living on five continents,” said Scott Poole, dean of the College of Architecture and Design. “Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has erected the tallest man-made structures in the world, created advanced building technologies and material systems and been central to the planning of cities across the world.”
Funded by the state of Tennessee and ORNL, the Governor’s Chair program attracts top researchers to broaden and enhance the unique research partnership that exists between the state’s flagship university and the nation’s largest multi-program laboratory.
Poole noted that by 2015, more than 80 percent of the U.S. population will be living in urban areas. This creates multiple environmental challenges that will be solved by a combination of cultural shifts and technological advances in the fields of regional planning, architecture, engineering and the building sciences.
“High-performance buildings in dense urban settings will be a key feature of a better, more secure energy feature, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill is a world leader in this area,” Poole said.
The Governor’s Chair will use ORNL’s Build¬ing Technologies Research and Integration Center. The center aims to push new energy-efficient building products to the market.
“The creation of this position is further evidence of the commitment Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee have to lending their nationally recognized expertise to advance sustainability on a local and global scale,” said Martin Keller, ORNL’s associate lab director for energy and environmental sciences.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and its team of designers will promote innovative energy practices for new and existing buildings in urban areas, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, create the foundation for new UT graduate programs and develop new models for the contemporary construction industry.
Enquist is an authority on holistic city building. His global experience includes city revitalization throughout China, the Canary Wharf Master Plan in London and National Planning Development Strategies for the Kingdom of Bahrain. Enquist leads SOM’s pro bono initiative, begun in 2009, to develop a 100-year design vision for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River region.
In the U.S., his work includes numerous planning strategies for leading universities, the Chicago Central Area Plan, the Millennium Park Master Plan in Chicago and the District of Columbia Height Master Plan Modeling Analysis.
“The new Governor’s Chair will be a catalyst for change, bringing new re¬search in emerging clean energy technologies and sustainable practices to traditional urban design practices,” Poole said. “The Chair will lead the development of new forms of urban design practice. Its applied research will be a powerful contributor to urban development and economic growth of the state of Tennessee and the region. “
UT Knoxville currently has 14 of the 16 positions in the statewide program.
First Endowed Professorship Named in UT College of Architecture and Design History
The at the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has named Lawrence Scarpa, an internationally celebrated architect, as its BarberMcMurry Professor, the first endowed professorship in the college’s history. Scarpa, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), will teach a design studio and seminar during the 2014 spring semester. Following the 2014 studio, Scarpa will give a UT student an internship or full-time position at his Los Angeles-based firm, Brooks + Scarpa.
Scarpa will also deliver a lecture and exhibit his work during the UT Church Memorial Lecture Series. A publication documenting the seminar will be produced.
As the design principal in charge, Scarpa leads an architectural practice that has received more than 50 major design awards. They include the National Firm Award from the AIA in 2010, and five AIA Committee on the Environment-Top Ten Green Building Project Awards. Scarpa also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Interior Design Magazine in 2009.
The BarberMcMurry Professorship was established to promote design excellence through teaching by a visiting professor, an internationally or nationally recognized practicing architect. It is the result of two gifts—a bequest from Charles I. Barber, one of Knoxville’s most respected architects, and another from his firm, BarberMcMurry architects. In 2011, the firm’s leaders, Kelly Headden and Charles Griffin, UT architecture alumni, matched the Barber gift to produce the $1 million endowment.
The position is also part of Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek’s vision to create more endowed chairs and professorships across the UT campus.
In the last two decades, Scarpa has taught at several universities. He currently is a professor of architecture at the University of Southern California, where he was named the John Jerde Distinguished Professor in 2011. In 2012, he was a visiting professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Through the Smart Communities Initiative, UT will partner faculty and students with cities, counties, special districts, and other municipal groups to engage in real-world problem solving aimed at improving the region’s economy, environmental sustainability, and social integrity.
The goals of the SCI are to help students gain real-world experience and make valuable contacts in the community. It will be a component of UT’s new Quality Enhancement Plan, which in turn is an important part of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commissions on Colleges reaccreditation process.
The city of Cleveland, Tennessee, has been chosen as the first partner city for UT’s new service-learning program, the Smart Communities Initiative. The partnership begins this fall.
The University of Tennessee is investing in downtown Knoxville by renovating and furnishing a historic North Gay Street property for a new fabrication lab, studio, and gallery.
UT is leasing the 20,000-square-foot building known as the Jewel at 525 North Gay Street for several College of Architecture and Design programs. The building’s glass storefront will house a new studio and gallery, and two floors of industrial space will be designated for a fabrication laboratory known as the UT Fab Lab.
The first year will involve $680,000 in renovations and the installation of equipment and furnishings.
“Our new space on North Gay will allow us to continue to have a presence in downtown Knoxville during this exciting moment in the city’s revitalization,” said Scott Poole, dean. “We hope that our college can partner with the city and together envision a more beautiful, more ecologically balanced, and more livable urban environment.”
The building is just two miles from the campus and is accessible to students by public transportation. The project will serve as a living example of architectural preservation and sustainable urbanization.
“The skylighted space beyond the storefront is ideal for our new state-of-the-art fabrication facility that will feature 3D printers, laser cutters, and robotics in addition to standard metal and woodworking equipment,” said Poole. “The new technologies, in particular, will allow our students to work with 21st century tools, discovering both their limitations and the hidden potential of this equipment.”
This initiative is part of a comprehensive effort to improve the college’s learning and teaching environments.
Numerous college faculty have been involved in regional forums and development plans, including those for the Plan East Tennessee (PlanET) Consortium, an initiative supported by a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In Clay County, Kentucky, flooding or ice frequently blocks access to emergency services. If a tornado hit the area, shelter would also be hard to find. A group of UT faculty members and students is trying to change this situation.
The effort known as Appalachia UTK is made possible through a $1.5 million grant over three years from the US Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
Over three years, the group aims to have a comprehensive assessment of the community’s health status, living conditions, and disaster readiness and vulnerability; an enhancement of overall wellness, including structural safety of homes and buildings; and the development of a community that has sufficient disaster preparedness training and resources. The project members will write grants to pay for costly updates and work with UT students and volunteers to implement solutions.
Clay County is an isolated area ranked 119th out of 120 Kentucky counties on major health indicators. Much of the population is ill-equipped to deal with a disaster because of poor housing, few shelters, inadequate sanitation, limited public resources, poverty, and lack of disaster education and essential reserves of food and water.
Participants from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Architecture and Design are John McRae and J. David Matthews.
Tricia Stuth, who was instrumental in the design of a nationally recognized energy sustainable project, the New Norris House, has received the James R. Cox Professorship.
The three-year award provides Tricia Stuth a stipend to be used at her discretion. Stuth is an associate professor in the College of Architecture and Design. She is a licensed architect.
The award is named for Knoxville native James R. Cox, whose gifts to the university through his sister and nephew, Charlotte and Jim Musgraves, helped establish the professorships in 2002 for faculty in the arts, theater, biological and physical sciences, architecture, and forestry studies. Recipients are chosen by a committee for their excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.
Stuth led the design, construction, and evaluation of the New Norris House, which is now one of the most energy-efficient homes in Tennessee. It recently was named one of the nation’s top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE).
The New Norris House is also one of the first in Tennessee to earn the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Homes platinum certification from the US Green Building Council. The house was developed by UT students in conjunction with Stuth and other UT faculty members.
Stuth and her husband, Ted Shelton, an associate professor of architecture, also have designed and built two homes in North Knoxville and preserved a third.
The project, Ghost Houses, drew the attention of international architecture and design publication Dwell. The homes were featured in the magazine last year. The project also received an American Institute of Architects National Small Projects Award.
Stuth is director of her college’s Design/Build/Evaluate Initiative (DBEI), a multi-disciplinary learning program. She spearheaded successful efforts last year for the initiative to be co-funded by the UT Office of Research.
Over the last three years, Stuth and her collaborators have received national awards including the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s National Design/Build Award and an honorable mention for the main award given by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. She also received the New Faculty Teaching Award given jointly by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the American Institute of Architecture Students.
Thomas K. Davis, an associate professor of architecture, has received a national award for his exemplary engagement and outreach scholarship. This was one of eight granted in the nation.
Thomas K. Davis’s program, which focuses on outreach partnerships in greater Nashville, was selected by a panel of university engagement administrators through the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Award and the Engagement Scholarship/W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award program. The awards program seeks colleges and universities that have redesigned their learning, discovery, and engagement functions to become more involved with their communities.
Davis received a plaque at the National Outreach Scholarship Conference and was recognized during the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities’ annual meeting.
This is the third consecutive year UT has received an exemplary proposal award.
The first initiative of the partnership was producing “The Plan of Nashville,” a two-and-a-half-year project that developed a community-based vision and design principles for metropolitan Nashville’s urban core. The plan has been extended through Davis’ urban design courses, which, to date, have enrolled more than 200 students in addressing civic design issues in Middle Tennessee. The work was centered through the UT College of Architecture and Design’s partnership with the Nashville Civic Design Center.
First Endowed Professorship Named in UT College of Architecture and Design History
The at the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has named Lawrence Scarpa, an internationally celebrated architect, as its BarberMcMurry Professor, the first endowed professorship in the college’s history.
Scarpa, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), will teach a design studio and seminar during the 2014 spring semester.
Following the 2014 studio, Scarpa will give a UT student an internship or full-time position at his Los Angeles-based firm, Brooks + Scarpa.
Scarpa will also deliver a lecture and exhibit his work during the UT Church Memorial Lecture Series. A publication documenting the seminar will be produced.
As the design principal in charge, Scarpa leads an architectural practice that has received more than 50 major design awards. They include the National Firm Award from the AIA in 2010, and five AIA Committee on the Environment-Top Ten Green Building Project Awards. Scarpa also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Interior Design Magazine in 2009.
The BarberMcMurry Professorship was established to promote design excellence through teaching by a visiting professor, an internationally or nationally recognized practicing architect. It is the result of two gifts—a bequest from Charles I. Barber, one of Knoxville’s most respected architects, and another from his firm, BarberMcMurry architects. In 2011, the firm’s leaders, Kelly Headden and Charles Griffin, UT architecture alumni, matched the Barber gift to produce the $1 million endowment.
The position is also part of Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek’s vision to create more endowed chairs and professorships across the UT campus.
In the last two decades, Scarpa has taught at several universities. He currently is a professor of architecture at the University of Southern California, where he was named the John Jerde Distinguished Professor in 2011. In 2012, he was a visiting professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
The state of Tennessee is selling one of the greenest homes in the state – the New Norris House.
The American Institute of Architects and its Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE) named the New Norris House one of the nation’s top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design in 2013. It also is one of the first buildings in Tennessee to earn the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Homes Platinum certification, the highest standard for sustainability.
The New Norris House has received other recognitions, including a 2013 Design Build Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, a 2012 Residential Architect Merit Award for Single-Family Housing, and the 2011 Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education from the National Council of Architectural Registration Board. It also won the 2009 Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet Sustainable Design Competition
The house is a technologically advanced reinterpretation of the historic homes first built by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 as part of the Norris Dam project. It has become a nationally recognized model for efficient and sustainable living.
The UT College of Architecture and Design led the project, which was executed in cooperation with the community to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Norris community. Four other UT departments and a variety of corporate and industry partners supported the project. The project was launched with support from a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability.
Julie Beckman, the award-winning designer of the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial and the Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial, has been appointed director of student services for UT’s College of Architecture and Design.
In her new role, Beckman will provide leadership for essential student academic services that align with national best practices. She will be charged with developing partnerships with various industries to facilitate opportunities for students to gain practical experience. Beckman also will teach lower-division courses as needed.
She is a founding partner of KBAS with husband, Keith Kaseman. The firm’s awards include the Project of the Year from McGraw Hill Construction Magazine, a National Honor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies and the Philament Award from the Illumination Engineering Society of North America, all in 2008. The firm also received a Design-Build Excellence Award from the Design-Build Institute of America in 2011 and a National Medal of Service from the American Institute of Architects in 2012.
She comes to UT from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a lecturer in the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Beckman earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Bryn Mawr College and Master of Architecture from Columbia University.
Thomas K. Davis, an associate professor of architecture, has received a national award for his exemplary engagement and outreach scholarship. This was one of eight granted in the nation.
Thomas K. Davis’s program, which focuses on outreach partnerships in greater Nashville, was selected by a panel of university engagement administrators through the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Award and the Engagement Scholarship/W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award program. The awards program seeks colleges and universities that have redesigned their learning, discovery, and engagement functions to become more involved with their communities.
Davis received a plaque at the National Outreach Scholarship Conference and was recognized during the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities’ annual meeting.
This is the third consecutive year UT has received an exemplary proposal award.
The first initiative of the partnership was producing “The Plan of Nashville,” a two-and-a-half-year project that developed a community-based vision and design principles for metropolitan Nashville’s urban core. The plan has been extended through Davis’ urban design courses, which, to date, have enrolled more than 200 students in addressing civic design issues in Middle Tennessee. The work was centered through the UT College of Architecture and Design’s partnership with the Nashville Civic Design Center. In Clay County, Kentucky, flooding or ice frequently blocks access to emergency services. If a tornado hit the area, shelter would also be hard to find. A group of UT faculty members and students is trying to change this situation.
The effort known as Appalachia UTK is made possible through a $1.5 million grant over three years from the US Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
Over three years, the group aims to have a comprehensive assessment of the community’s health status, living conditions, and disaster readiness and vulnerability; an enhancement of overall wellness, including structural safety of homes and buildings; and the development of a community that has sufficient disaster preparedness training and resources. The project members will write grants to pay for costly updates and work with UT students and volunteers to implement solutions.
Clay County is an isolated area ranked 119th out of 120 Kentucky counties on major health indicators. Much of the population is ill-equipped to deal with a disaster because of poor housing, few shelters, inadequate sanitation, limited public resources, poverty, and lack of disaster education and essential reserves of food and water.
Participants from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Architecture and Design are John McRae and J. David Matthews.
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