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Faculty Notes
Way Elected President of Landscape History Chapter
Thaisa Way, assistant professor of Landscape Architecture, was elected president of the Landscape History Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH). Additionally, she has just published a new book, Unbounded Practice: Women and Landscape Architecture in the Early Twentieth Century (University of Virginia Press, 2009). Way also chaired a session for the annual meeting of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) in January in Arizona and a session for the annual meeting of the SAH in April in Pasadena on cultural landscape studies and research.
Architecture Faculty Co-author Structural Design Book
Architecture faculty members Frank Ching, Barry Onouye and Doug Zuberbuhler recently published Building Structures Illustrated: Patterns, Systems, and Design (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009).
The authors hope this richly illustrated work for designers, builders and students will serve as a desktop resource that helps them view structural systems holistically as essential and integral to the design and building process. Ching is a registered architect and professor emeritus in the Department of Architecture. Barry S. Onouye is a registered engineer and senior lecturer emeritus in the Department of Architecture, where he teaches courses on structural design. Douglas Zuberbuhler is a registered architect and senior lecturer in the Department of Architecture, where he teaches architectural design. He is also associate dean of the College of Built Environments.
McLaren Gets Fellowship, Research Grant
Brian McLaren, associate professor of Architecture, was recently awarded a Visiting Senior Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where he will be in residence this summer. He has also been awarded a research grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in support of his current book project, Modern Architecture, Colonialism and Race in Fascist Italy.
Spencer Working to Protect Peru’s Ancient Murals
Ben Spencer, assistant professor of Landscape Architecture, has been working recently with the Tumbas Reales Museum of Lambayeque, the University of Bergamo, and Architects Without Borders-Seattle to design a roof structure to protect the oldest murals ever discovered in the Americas and plan a community-based tourism industry in the adjacent town of Ventarron, Peru.
The project enlists the Ventarron community as stewards of the site's cultural heritage and leverages the site's assets to create income-generation opportunities, protect local ecosystems, and promote health and education in the town. The project will serve as a case study for community integrated preservation of cultural heritage sites in Peru and was included in the exhibit "Design Making Change" at AIA Seattle this spring. Spencer hopes that this project and associated work he will pursue this summer in the squatter settlements of Lima will serve as a platform for design/build/evaluate summer studios in coming years.
Mohler Working on Various Community Projects
Architecture Associate Professor Rick Mohler is serving as a member of an ad-hoc committee preparing professional testimony from AIA Seattle to the Seattle City Council's Planning and Land Use Committee, which is currently reviewing revisions to Seattle's multi-family housing code for the first time in 20 years.
In addition, Mohler has been selected by 4Culture's Public Art Advisory Committee to serve on the artist selection panel for the renovation of the Factoria Recycling and Transfer Facility. Finally, Mohler is a member of the Steering and Design sub-committees for the Friends of McDonald School Playground. The group is working with Seattle Public Schools, the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and interested neighbors to renovate a much-needed playground at the currently unoccupied McDonald Elementary School in the Wallingford neighborhood.
Miller Chairs Symposium on Sustainable Urban Planning
Donald Miller, professor of Urban Design and Planning, chaired the eighth International Symposium on Urban Planning and Environment at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, in late March. The symposium’s theme was “Parallel Patterns of Urban Growth and Decline—Sustainability Issues and Challenges for Spatial Planning in 21st Century Cities and Regions.”
Plans were also approved for UPE9, the next of these symposiums, which will take place in August 2010 at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. The principal theme of UPE9 is “Sustainable Planning Challenges—From Rapid Urbanization to Global Recession.” Miller initiated this series in Seattle in 1992, and it has come to be a major venue for officials, planners and researchers to exchange information on sustainable urban development throughout the world.
Pyatok to Teach Community Design in Oakland
Architecture Professor Mike Pyatok will teach a “storefront” community design studio this summer in downtown Oakland, Calif., for planners, landscape architects and architects. The program will be offered through Cal Poly of San Luis Obispo and is open to students from other schools, but is limited to 20 students.
Pyatok will lead an exploration of two main commercial corridors and how to change the zoning and design guidelines to create higher-density, mixed-use developments that will also have a high percentage of dwellings affordable to lower income households. The studio will address planning issues, urban design, architectural design, and street design and include real estate pro formas to test financial feasibility. In addition to the main studio effort, there will be a course in computer graphics and a lecture course related to the political and social issues of inner city redevelopment.
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