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Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw State University (KSU) alumni Christian Fraser, Ryan Horgan and designer Maria Montgomery tour 30-architecture students from Prof. Martin-Malikian’s Environmental Technology class through Perkins+Will Atlanta. The offices were redesigned in 2009 into a high-performance sustainability-focused office building. The project earned LEED Platinum with 95-points awarded, which is the most of any project in the Northern Hemisphere to date under the 2009 version of LEED for New Construction.  This adaptive reuse project is located in the heart of midtown Atlanta across from the High Museum of Art and is the recipient of the Urban Land Institute’s Development of Excellence Award.

Kennesaw State University


Congratulations to the Department of Architecture’s Liz Martin-Malikian, Michael Carroll, and Dr. Miné Hashas-Degertekin, who have each been appointed 2018-2019 Sustainability Faculty Fellowships with the Center for Diversity Leadership and Engagement at Kennesaw State University.

 

Liz Martin-Malikian (left) will be developing a new curriculum in Real Estate Sustainable Development as a campus-wide undergraduate minor to prepare students for careers in the corporate sector, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, or environmental advocacy groups. As proposed, this new minor would be an interdisciplinary one-year program to prepare students to become effective and influential participants in the fields of real estate, finance, design and development. The intent of this undergraduate minor is to not only help students develop a systems-level perspective of the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainable developments, but also raise awareness within the broader campus community.

Michael Carroll’s (middle) academic research focuses on materiality and material expression in contemporary architecture. As Sustainability Faculty Fellow 2018-19, Professor Carroll’s project, entitled “Performative Façades: De-constructing Identity Through Architectural Design”, embraces sustainability from both a technological and a cultural perspective. The proposal centers not only cutting edge innovative materials and performative façade technologies that filter light and air, but also how these can be deployed in the design of a series of façade systems for non-profit groups in Metro Atlanta that traditionally have been under-represented. These façade systems would not only make buildings that house these groups more ecologically sustainable but also positively contribute to the cultural identities of those organizations.

Miné Hashas-Degertekin (right) has been working with various government agencies, non-profit, and advocacy groups including Atlanta Regional Commission, Transformation Alliance, GA Stand Up, ULI-Atlanta, City of Atlanta, and Soccer in the Street, etc. for identifying social, economic and cultural patterns, physical character and place making solutions to challenge anticipated gentrification in West-End Neighborhood. She has integrated various students taking her courses to the projects via internships, research, sustainable urban design proposals and associated community participation processes. Continuing these partnerships and based on the study results, Dr. Hashas-Degertekin will be developing an implementation project addressing the same issues in West-End involving additional faculty and students.

 

Kennesaw State University

The Department of Architecture at Kennesaw State University welcomes Robert P. Alden AIA, LEED AP, NCARB who was appointed as the 2018 Focus Studio Faculty. He is an architect with over thirty years of professional experience on a wide range of project types and scales — including Georgia World Congress Center, 2002 Perimeter Summit Office Tower, the Reno Nv. Events Center, and 12th & Midtown, a 2.4M square foot, $270M mixed-used development in Atlanta. He has also taught at Chattahoochee Technical College in Woodstock, GA in the interior design program. Rob brings real-world insight to his 2018 Focus Studio entitled: Comprehensive Design and Systems Integration.

The Department also welcomes 
Soleen Karimas the 2018 Focus Studio Faculty. She currently works at Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam Architects as a Project Manager; and her project experience ranges from a single family, high-end residential, to civic buildings, urban design and architectural installations, most notably the US Pavilion in Detroit presented at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Soleen graduated from Georgia Tech with Bachelors of Architecture, Masters of Architecture and Masters of City and Regional Planning. Born in a refugee camp in Iran, Soleen combines her passion for social justice with her eye for design through her non-profit, Design4Refugees, Corp, an organization who aids refugees within camps. Soleen’s 2018 Focus Studio is entitled: Childhood Warscape.

Kennesaw State University


Jeffrey Colllins joins Kennesaw State University this fall 2018 as an Assistant Professor in  a tenure track position. Jeffery is a Registered Architect and architectural educator. He obtained his bachelors and masters degrees in architecture from The Ohio State University and is currently pursuing a doctorate in architecture, with concentration in design computation, from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Since 2009, he has taught architecture studio and lecture courses at Georgia Tech, Southern Polytechnic State University, Auburn University, and Kennesaw State University. In 2018, AIA Atlanta and the Young Architects Forum named Jeffrey as their Emerging Voices honoree. 

The Department of Architecture at Kennesaw State University also welcomes Dr. Selen Okcu (PhD 2011, Georgia Institute of Technology), who was appointed a fulltime Lecturer. As a former Research Scientist at NASA and a Design Educator, she has published widely on a variety of emerging architectural topics including culture, perception, and technology. She is the recipient of the King Medal from the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) and the Newman Medal from the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).

Kennesaw State University

Professor Kathryn Bedette Named in “100 Influential Women to Know” by Engineering Georgia Magazine

 

An asset to the design and build profession, Kathryn Bedette has served as the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Georgia Advocacy Director in the past and as the Board President presently. She teaches grassroots-driven architecture advocacy in her role at Kennesaw State University and is credited with aiding the passing of the House Bill 943 Indemnification Bill.

See link (article begins on page 18): 
http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=473308&pre=1#{“issue_id”:473308,”page”:0}

Kennesaw State University

For Fall Semester 2017, the Kennesaw State University Focus Studio Faculty included two visiting faculty: Mostafa W. Alani, AIA Intl. Assoc., LEED Green Assoc focusing on Dynamic Environments; Marcel Cadaval Pereira focusing on The Cultural Work of Architecture; and also one internal professor: Dr. William Carpenter, FAIA with a focus on: Architecture and Film. 

Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw State University, College of Architecture and Construction Management is please to announce the following new faculty as part of to the architecture department:

Assistant Professor Giovanni Loreto, PhD has been appointed to a tenure-track position. Dr. Loreto holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering and also a Master in architectural engineering from the University of Napoli “Federico II”, Italy. Before joining KSU in the Fall 2016, he gained extensive academic experience during his postdoctoral appointments at the University of Miami and, more recently, Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Loreto’s research activity focuses on the advancement of high strength/high performance concrete materials and steel composite (SC) structures. He has conducted research across different disciplines with particular focus on novel construction materials and structural performance evaluation. His research interests include the study of crumbling structural systems and focuses on the need for rehabilitation/retrofit of existing reinforced concrete structure/infrastructure while envisioning next-generation systems.

At KSU, Dr. Loreto’s teaching efforts will focus on the integration of structural concepts within the architectural design process as well as advising thesis students. He is currently teaching courses on structural analysis, design of concrete/masonry/steel structures, and architecture studio design. Furthermore, his hopes are to enhance the architectural learning experience of structures with an overarching goal of bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Assistant Professor Arash Soleimani, PhD has also been appointed to a tenure-track position. Dr. Soleimani holds a Ph.D. in Planning, Design & the Built Environment from Clemson University, a M.Arch. from University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, and B.A. in Architectural Engineering, Isfahan University of Art, Iran. Before joining KSU in the Fall 2016, he gained teaching experience at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Furthermore, he holds a multidisciplinary Ph.D. and Certificate in Digital Ecologies from Clemson University’s School of Architecture in collaboration and partnership with the faculty and researchers in Education, Electrical & Computing Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering and Human Factors Psychology. The objective of Dr. Soleimani’s research is to focus on the design, prototyping and evaluation of “Intelligent Environmental Technologies”; in other words, computation embedded in the built environment along with the development of digital interactions whilst exploring new architectural paradigms.

At KSU, Dr. Soleimani’s teaching efforts will focus on the integration of environmental technology within the architectural design process as well as advising thesis students. He is currently teaching Environmental Technology I: Systems, Materials & Methods and second year architecture studio. His architecture concentrates on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use; it is a concept of futurism through a persistent investigation of the symbiotic potentials in nature and technology.

Kennesaw State University



From 44-architecture students, 9-students were short-listed to move forward to participate in a competition where they presented a 3-minute oration outlining their individual thesis projects with one slide.  As coordinator of thesis prep, research & studio, Liz Martin-Malikian organized the international 3-Minute Thesis Competition at Kennesaw State University School of Architecture. Judges included: Rick Fredlund (Cooper Cary), Alex Paulson (Randall Paulson), Lisa Tuttle (Fulton County Public Arts), 
Julie Newell (KSU) and Todd Harper (KSU). 
  AWARDS ANNOUNCED Finalist: Landon Clark ($1,000); Summer Travel Grants (split): Paa Kwesi Amponsah ($600) and Asta Varneckience ($400); and People’s Choice: Kris Goettig ($200). Sponsored by: Cooper Carry, Inc.; Randall-Paulson Architects; and Tony Rizzuto, Chair School of Architecture.
Photo attached showing architecture student competition participants (left to right): Jonathan McConnell, P.K. Amponsah, Jun Xu, Landon Clark, Asta Varneckience, Kushal Patel, Kris Goettig, Michael Diaz, and James Logan Patterson.