Professor Edward Steinfeld was awarded the rank of SUNY Distinguished Professor recognizing his career achievements. Only seven faculty in the entire SUNY system were awarded that rank in 2012. Dr. Steinfeld is internationally known as a lead researcher on accessible environments and inclusive design. Dr. Steinfeld also was a keynote speaker at the Universal Design 2012 Conference in Oslo, Norway, where he spoke on the “Goals of Universal Design.”
Professors Hiro Hata and Harry Warren are one of two finalists in the $100 million Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital reuse competition. They are part of the Chason- Affinity team proposing a new Veterinary School.

Associate Professor Omar Khan and Assistant Professor Laura Garofalo won Second Place in the Second Annual Modern Atlanta Prize Competition/Green Dwelling. Their winning entry was displayed at this year’s “Design is Human Week” in Atlanta, GA. The jury looked for “projects that critically consider today’s notions of sustainability as applied to the modern dwelling…[and] showcase a critical investigation into sustainable design practices …as well as projects that thoughtfully dealt with unique geographical, social, political or cultural conditions.”

Associate Professor and Associate Dean Beth Tauke gave two presentations at June UD 2012: Oslo, an international conference on universal design in public space: “LIFEhouse_: Consumer Preference Study for Universal Design Features” and “Bridging the Gap: Using Architecture and Social Justice to Increase Access to Universal Design.”

Master of Architecture/Master of Urban Planning dual degree students and recent graduates, Courtney Creenan and Michael Moch presented “Inclusive Public Toilet Design,” research, proposals and built work from Beth Tauke’s inclusive design graduate studio in the fall 2011.

Assistant Professor Laura Garofalo’s installation, Buoyant, part of the 13th International Garden Festival at Reford Gardens/Jardins de Metis, opened on June 23rd and will be shown until September 30, 2012.

In June, Assistant Professor Jordan Geiger opened “Beau-Fleuve,” an interactive play structure and workshop for immigrant and refugee youth in Buffalo, as part of the Fluid Culture program of lectures and public arts. The project gathers oral history and maps global paths to an online map with the invisible policies and technologies that attend migration today.

Clinical Assistant Professor Nicholas Bruscia and Assistant Professor Jordan Geiger presented research of the Center for Architecture and Situated Technologies at the Tokyo University of Science’s Digital Studio.  Bruscia and Geiger also organized two exhibitions of their Tokyo-based summer study program at Shibaura House, a new multi-use building for public and cultural events.

Assistant Professor Joyce Hwang participated as a speaker in “Interrogating Green,” a roundtable discussion at Storefront for Art and Architecture which featured a selection of contributors to Praxis 13: Ecologics. The event centered on the interrogation of contemporary approaches to sustainability in architecture: http://www.storefrontnews.org/archive/2010?c=&p=&e=483. She also gave a lecture in July titled “Constructing Wilderness” at the University of Waterloo in Cambridge, Ontario as part of their School of Architecture lecture series.

Assistant Professor Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, Adjunct faculty Curt Gambetta and Assistant Professor Joyce Hwang participated in reviews at the University of Waterloo in July as guest critics for Lola Sheppard’s second-year studio.

A team of graduate students (including Courtney Creenan, Kyle Mastalinski, Daniel Nead, Scott Selin, and Lisa Stern) has completed a project called Elevator B, a collaborative project by graduate students from the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning with the support of Rigidized Metals, a Buffalo based building material manufacturer. The overall goal of the project was to successfully design for the relocation and habitation of a colony of honeybees occupying a building which is scheduled for significant modification at Silo City, a dense cluster of grain elevators in Buffalo, New York.  Elevator B was selected from a group of ten entries by a mixed panel of jurors, who represented Rigidized Metals, the fields of architecture and planning, and the bees: www.hivecity.wordpress.com.

Andrew Perkins and Matt Bain, both recent graduates from the Department of Architecture, SUNY-Buffalo, have been asked and commissioned to work on house in Flint, Michigan as part of the Flint Public Art Project. The invitation was offered because of the thesis that they had recently completed in Buffalo, New York. A more in depth description of the project they’ll be working on can be found at the blog which will cover it:  http://dwellingonwasteflint.blogspot.com/p/about.html . The Flint Public Art Project, which will contain dozens of other installations and performances and constructions:  http://www.flintpublicartproject.com/