Professor Gaines Hall, FAIA has been named Associate Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Following retirement from his duties as Vice President of Kirkegaard Associates in Chicago for 21 years, in 2008 Hall was appointed as a full-time tenured professor in the School of Architecture at The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He will continue to hold the title of Professor in the School of Architecture while assuming his duties as Associate Dean in July 2011.

The School of Architecture is pleased to announce the promotion of Assistant Professors Heather Minor (History) and Scott Murray (Design) to Associate Professor with tenure; and Associate Professor Paul Kapp (Preservation) to Associate Professor with tenure. 

The School of Architecture announces the retirements of Professors Mir Ali (Structures), Paul Kruty (History), Henry Plummer (Design), and William Erwin (Structures).

The School of Architecture welcomes new Visiting Professors Susan Johnson-Roehr who teaches 19th and 20th Century Contemporary History, and Camden Greenlee who will be teaching architectural design.  

Assistant Professor Marci Uihlein was awarded the 2011 AIAS Excellence in Architectural Education Award (Illinois Chapter). This award is selected solely by collegiate architecture students to recognize educators who “advocate for students and positively enhance the profession of architecture.”

Associate Professor William Worn, accompanied by two graduate students, participated in the Welsh School of Architecture’s “Vertical Studio” studying narrative and the implications of “Post Industrial Transformations.” Professor Worn will return to Cardiff in November to present a paper on “Post Industrial Transformation and the Obesogenic City.” Both trips are funded by a grant from the UK-US Partnership. 

Assistant Professors Julie Larsen and Roger Hubeli received Third Place in the Young Architects Forum 10Up Design Build Competition in Atlanta, Georgia for their project titled, “[BIO]MASS PRODUCTION”.

Nicholas Watkins, Ph.D. (Architecture, U of I – 2006), Senior Associate and Director of Research for HOK,  assumed the position of Chair of the Board of Directors of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) on August 1, 2011. Nick took over the Chair position from Associate Professor Lynne Dearborn who now has taken on the position of Immediate Past Chair and ex-officio member of the Board during the final year of her four-year term. EDRA is an international, interdisciplinary organization with membership of over 500 academics and design professional. EDRA’s purpose is the advancement and dissemination of environmental design research, thereby improving understanding of the interrelationships between people, their built and natural surroundings, and helping to create environments responsive to human needs.

Assistant Professor John Stallmeyer is leading a studio this fall that will explore the transformational potential of digital technology in the design process from ideation to integration. Working with Phil Bernstein (VP Autodesk) who was a guest lecturer on campus last fall, and with the assistance of Scott Rawlings (VP Wacom), the School of Architecture has provided each student in the studio with a Wacom Cintiq interactive drawing tablet and a suite of software including Autodesk Sketchbook Pro and Autodesk Labs Project Vasari.  Students will investigate the potential of this combination to iterate multiple conceptual designs for a Chicago High Speed Rail Station through digital hand sketching and conceptual massing studies. Stallmeyer will document the student process and outcomes to understand whether and how the Cintiq’s radically thinner user interface influences design process and outcomes.

In May, Symbius participated in the 2011 International Mock Firms Competition in Chicago, Illinois at the Congress Plaza Hotel. Under the faculty supervision of Carl Lewis, Tashio Martinez and Derek Larsen, both graduate students in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois, organized a “mock firm” and designed as a skyscraper located in Stockholm, Sweden. The team was awarded “2011 American Firm Runner-up” and the “Top Building Project” among competition from University of Houston, University of North Carolina – Greensbaro, DIS

Copenhagen, Denmark and Birminghan City University, United Kingdom.

Associate Professor Ralph Hammann has a book soon to be published titled “Creative Engineering”, DOM Publsihers, Berlin, Germany.

The School of Architecture, in conjunction with the School of Landscape Architecture, announces the Fall 2011 Lecture Series. Lecturers include:  Marlon Blackwell, Fred Clarke, Brian MacKay-Lyons, Thomas Woltz, Stanley Saitowitz, Jie Hu, Dorothée Imbert, Jim Cramer, and Chris Sharples.