Assistant Professor Alvin Huang and his firm Synthesis Design + Architecture’s recently completed Pure Tension Pavilion have been awarded a 2014 AIA National Small Project Award as well as being honored for the 2014 Architects Journal Small Projects Review (shortlist), 2014 Architizer A+ Award for Architecture & Mobility (Finalist), and 2014 Architizer A+ Award for Pavilions (Special Mention). He has been invited to speak about his recent work at the upcoming Progressive Architecture Symposium in Mexico City (April 7-8), Salone di Mobile in Milan (April 9), ACSA Conference in Miami (April 10-12), CAADRIA conference in Kyoto (May 14-17) and Dwell on Design in Los Angeles (June 21-22).  He is currently co-directing the upcoming AA Visiting School Los Angeles (June 16-27) and co-chairing the 2014 ACADIA Conference (October 23-26).

Associate Professor Amy Murphy is designing an upcoming exhibition for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art entitled “Haunted Screens German Cinema in the 1920’s” with Michael Maltzan Architecture. The exhibit will open in early fall. 

Geoffrey von Oeyen, Lecturer, was elected to the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. The LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design provides a framework for design professionals and members of the general public to explore, evaluate, and impact the development of architecture in Los Angeles. To learn more about the work of the LA Forum, please visit: laforum.org 

Assistant Professor Kyle Konis, Ph.D, AIA was recently invited by faculty of the University Ute (Universidad Tecnologica Equinoccial), Ecuador to conduct a week-long sustainability workshop and design-build project in Quito.

Karen M. Kensek, LEED AP BD+C, Assoc. AIA has completed a new book:  Technical Design Series: Building Information Modeling is an overview of BIM in the profession at an introductory, but comprehensive level. This book addresses many key roles that BIM is playing in shaping professional offices and project delivery processes. The book is divided into two parts: Fundamentals (BIM overview, stakeholders and BIM’s many roles, data exchange and interoperability, BIM implementation, and beyond basic BIM) and Application (four case studies).

Karen M. Kensek, LEED AP BD+C, Assoc. AIA

Karen M. Kensek and Doug Noble also collaborated on a new book:

Building Information Modeling: BIM in Current and Future Practice is an edited compilation of provocative essays providing a forum for these leadership voices in the marketplace of ideas about building information modeling in architecture. They provide clarity and direction for thinking about the current practice and the future directions of BIM, instigating commentary by foremost thinkers about both research about BIM and speculation into the future of BIM. The 26 chapters are grouped together thematically in six sections that present both complementary and sometimes incompatible positions: Design Thinking and BIM, BIM Analytics, Comprehensive BIM, Reasoning with BIM, Professional BIM, and BIM Speculations.  In addition, full color digital material (pdf, PowerPoint, animations) is available for professors to augment the use of this book in their classes: case studies by architecture firms, engineering firm, contractors, two faculty bonus papers, and sample teaching material.

Assistant Professor Alison Hirsch published an article, co-authored with Lecturer Aroussiak Gabrielian, in International Journal of Interior Architecture and Spatial Design (Jan 2014) on a project developed through their design practice foreground design agency. She will present two papers at the annual CELA conference at the end of this month. She is leading a research seminar called “Contested Territories: Geopolitics, Media & Design in Southern California” for Harvard GSD graduate students in Architecture and Landscape Architecture studying in Los Angeles for the semester. Her book, City Choreographer, will be released next month through University of Minnesota Press, as will the book she co-edited with James Corner, The Landscape Imagination (Princeton Architectural Press). 

Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA and his firm Brooks + Scarpa have won the $29 Mil Design/Build Competition for the Angle Lake Light Rail Transit Station in Seattle, WA.  The Project will begin construction in late 2014.  He also recently won three AIA Los Angeles Design Awards, six AIA California Council Design Awards, a Presidential Award from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs, and a National AIA Housing Award. 

Assistant Professor Kenneth Breisch will take over as President of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) on April 9.

Chu+Gooding Architects has recently completed the new Wellness Center at the Historic General Hospital in Boyle Heights. A 45,000 SF Center for Health Care related non-profit organizations. Rick Gooding’s Subterranea drawing exhibit in the Chang Gallery at Kansas State University from March 3-21

Lecturer and filmmaker Mina M. Chow is directing/producing “100 Years of Architecture” short film in celebration of the USC School of Architecture’s centennial anniversary.

Aroussiak Gabrielian, Lecturer, will be presenting a paper on her design-research at the annual CELA conference in Baltimore at the end of this month.  A recent project (‘Recipe Landscape’) by her research practice, foreground design agency, was featured in the latest volume of Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, as well as in the 15th edition of 306090 books, (Non-) Essential Knowledge for (New) Architecture.  A peer-reviewed essay Aroussiak co-wrote with her partner at foreground (Assistant Professor Alison Hirsch), came out in last month’s issue of International Journal of Interior Architecture and Spatial Design themed ‘Corporeal Complexities.’

The book Structure and Design by Professor G. Goetz Schierle has received very positive reviews.

Lecturer Nefeli Chatzimina will be organizing International Architectural Design Workshops in Europe [Athens and Innsbruck] during Summer 2014. Selected students from USC will participate in this design academic research with the title ‘Functionless’ using the latest computational design techniques and digital fabrication technologies. X|Atelier workshops are based on Nefeli’s current PhD Research as a selected candidate from the University of Athens in Greece.