TEMPE, Ariz. – Tanner Woodford’s artistic take on calamity has resulted in cash prizes. The ASU College of Design undergraduate student recently took two top awards and $11,000 home for his graphic and broadcast design entries about disaster relief.

Woodford entered the Center for International Disaster Information’s (CIDI) 2009 PSAid: Public Service Announcements for International Disasters competition. Contestants were asked to provide public service announcements that demonstrated the importance of giving monetary donations – as opposed to in-kind donations – in response to international disasters. Woodford’s graphic and broadcast designs entitled “Cans Can’t Cash Can” demonstrated the difference between the cost it takes to send one can of food to Zimbabwe, and how the same amount of money could benefit more than 800 community members there with healthcare for an entire year.

The winning entries were selected from a group of approximately 50 semifinalists from college and university students nationwide. The final winners were selected based on an online public vote and the scores by a panel of esteemed judges that included last year’s student winners in both the broadcast and print categories. The winners split $30,000 in cash, of which, Woodford received $5,000 for placing second in the broadcast division. His first-place print design netted him $6,000 and he may have his PSA distributed to national print media. Despite the monetary gains he received from the competition, Woodford feels that his graphic design work goes far beyond collecting cash.

“I believe graphic designers have the unique understanding and responsibility to motivate the public to participate in events that benefit local, domestic and international communities,” Woodford says. “I find the work at CIDI particularly interesting and found this contest to be a unique opportunity to use some of my newly realized design skills for a good cause.”

Scheduled to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Visual Communication Design from Arizona State University in 2009, Woodford also lives in Tempe, Ariz. with his wife. For more information about Woodford, visit: http://www.tannerwoodford.com.

Media Contact:
Wendy Craft
Media Relations
480.965.0478
wendy.craft@asu.edu

TEMPE, Ariz. – A team of ASU College of Design students and faculty were recognized this spring for their transgenerational toilet design concept, Go With the Flo™ by the Northwest Design Invitational (NDI). Five excellence criteria were exercised at the NDI biennial competition to recognize outstanding design: appropriate aesthetics, design innovation, ecological responsibility and market and user benefits.

Design team members honored with the NDI’s Breaking the Rules Silver Award include John Takamura and Dosun Shin, College of Design faculty members, and Tamara Christensen and Dean Bacalzo, Master of Science in Design students.

“We hope our design will alter the toilet archetype by the year 2030,” says John Takamura, design team leader and assistant professor of industrial design in the ASU College of Design.

The Flo™ toilet is an ergonomic, sustainable design concept for baby boomers that functions like a squat toilet. Designers maintain that using the Flo™ toilet is akin to yoga – by building and strengthening abdominal and back muscles. Only one-half to one gallon of water is used for flushing and The Flo™ reuses water from hand washing. To flush water from the tanks to the toilet, the Flo™ employs an electromagnetic ball valve that uses electromagnets. Go With the Flo™ also is free of mechanical parts.  The toilet is fully self-sustaining and independent of electric power.

The genesis for the Go With the Flo™ design concept was a request by graduate student Tamara Christensen. She expressed her interest in toilet design based on some work she did as an industrial design undergraduate. Takamura agreed to work with her on an independent extracurricular study and quickly pulled in Dosun Shin, fellow College of Design professor.

“I wanted to have another graduate design student on the team and solicited the talents of Dean Bacalzo because of his undergraduate engineering degree,” Takamura says.
Bacalzo became the design engineer, Shin was the 3-D design consultant, Christensen served as the team’s researcher and Takamura stepped into the branding-specialist role.

“We decided to meet at least once a week over a 15-week semester to take on the task of completely redesigning the modern toilet,” Takamura says. “This was actually very difficult because the toilet really hasn’t changed in over 100 years of use, but we felt confident in our transdisciplinary team to get the job done!” he adds.

Takamura and his design team not only have changed the concept of a typical bathroom experience with their Go With the Flo™ design, but they also shut out the competition. According to NDI event organizers, this year they received more than 80 entries from 25 different design organizations and universities.

Media Contact:
Wendy Craft
Media Relations
480.965.0478
wendy.craft@asu.edu

ASU Stardust Designer/architect is community-focused PhD candidate

TEMPE, Ariz. – The ASU College of Design’s Ernesto Fonseca was named as one of The Phoenix Business Journal’s 2009 “Forty-Under-40.” The designation honors professionals who have made significant contributions to the community and who have achieved remarkable milestones in their careers.

Fonseca is an ASU Stardust Center designer/architect and urban planner who has a commitment to environmental sustainability and energy conservation with a particular sensitivity to multicultural communities. He currently is pursuing a PhD in Environmental Design and Planning at ASU and is passionate about developing innovative affordable, energy-efficient and culturally relevant housing.

During 2006 Fonseca earned his Masters in Energy and Climate and Building Sciences at ASU. Since beginning his graduate studies, he has worked for the Stardust Center on innovative housing projects and   led the Stardust Center’s design/build project in 2006. He worked closely with residents and city officials of Guadalupe, a small Yaqui and Mexican-American community in the Phoenix-metro area. He also collaborated with numerous volunteer and non-profit agencies including Guadalupe Youth Build to construct a home and conducted the post-occupancy energy monitoring. Fonseca adds an important dimension to the Stardust team with his creativity, knowledge and skills that bridges cultures and generations.

Fonseca has been intensely involved in the architectural design and planning, energy engineering and, in some cases, the actual building of projects. During the summer of 2005, work was completed on the Nageezi House, Stardust Center’s first demonstration home. Located on allotted lands of the Navajo Nation, Fonseca was involved in the design, construction and post-occupancy energy monitoring of this culturally relevant home for a family of Navajo elders.

Through his private practice, Fonseca is designing a 900-acre eco-village in La Paz, Mexico. He’s also working with the city of Nogales, Sonora, to establish their first municipal planning institute in collaboration with fellow College of Design colleague, Francisco Lara.

Having completed a professional degree in architecture in Mexico, with a specialization in materials, Fonseca arrived in the U.S. during 1998; however, he was unable to find work in his professional field. Determined to patiently work hard and persevere, he earned a living as a restaurant server, factory painter and a group home manager/caretaker of physically and developmentally disabled youths and adults. With the encouragement and support of his partner, Susan, he was inspired to apply to ASU to further his education.

To read the story about all five ASU employees on the “Forty-Under-40” list, visit:  http://asunews.asu.edu/20090413_forty 

To download the Phoenix Business Journal's 2009 Forty-Under-40 Special Section, visit: http://www.phxbj.com/40under40//pdf/40under40-09.pdf

Media Contact:
Wendy Craft
Media Relations
480.965.0478
wendy.craft@asu.edu

Congratulations to David Pijawka, College of Design professor, who received the 2009 Outstanding Leadership in Education award from the Maricopa County Chapter of the NAACP. The award recognizes scholarship and environmental justice, Native American community engagement, sustainability and the development of bi-national and cross-cultural educational programs. Pijawka and five other awardees accepted awards for their long-term commitment and efforts to achieve the objectives of the Maricopa County branch of the NAACP, during the organization's 100th year anniversary dinner in April.

Design Innovation Programs Stand Out in 2009 National Rankings

Annual rankings from America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools published by DesignIntelligence has just been released, and the programs and faculty of one of ASU’s newest units—the School of Design Innovation—continue to be highly recognized and ranked for excellence.

Though America’s Best is concerned with ranking programs, it also identifies other points of reputation and excellence in design schools. Industrial Design Associate Professor Prasad Boradkar was named one of the “Most Admired Educators of 2009,” by the publication, only one of 26 individuals noted. Boradkar is the project leader for InnovationSpace, an entrepreneurial joint venture among the College of Design, Ira A Fulton School of Engineering, and W.P. Carey School of Business. InnovationSpace received the 2008 ASU President’s Award for Innovation, and Boradkar was awarded the inaugural Faculty Achievement Award in Design Imperatives from the Office of the Provost in 2007. Chosen with extensive input from hundreds of design professionals, academic department heads, and students, this recognition as an educator covers the disciplines of architecture, interior design, industrial design, and landscape architecture. Boradkar is only one of two associate professors noted among a list of deans and department leaders. The list also includes architect Robert A.M. Stern, landscape architect James Corner, and design educator Theodore C. Landsmark.

The tenth annual, 2009 edition confirms the College of Design’s capacity for maintaining strong programs and momentum over the long term. For the first time, the publication ranked schools according to a system that combined five scoring criteria, including the results of 10 years of rankings and opinion surveys and independent analyses. The ASU College of Design was identified as a school “With High Distinction,” the second tier of a five-tier ranking system and in good company with Pratt University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Rice University among others.

In rankings of the individual design degree programs, the Interior Design undergraduate program ranked ninth and the graduate program ranked sixth nationally. The Interior Design program has ranked in the top ten programs for all ten years of the publication’s surveys.

The Industrial Design undergraduate program is ranked 13th and graduate program ranked 10th and has been ranked in the top 15 industrial design programs for the last three of the four years that America’s Best has been ranking industrial design programs. In addition, the Industrial Design program was ranked seventh in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for 2008.

DesignIntelligence is the leading organization for surveying educators and practitioners to rank the schools that are best preparing students for practice in the design fields. Though DesignIntelligence does not rank Graphic Design/Visual Communication Design programs, student awards and alumni success from this program are proof of the continuing excellence and preparation for professional practice that this program embodies. This year, Visual Communication Design students won top awards for international design competitions for Microsoft Imagine Cup’s Interface Design Challenge in Paris and first place for a print public service announcement for the Center for International Disaster Information.

The School of Design Innovation in the College of Design combines the Industrial Design, Interior Design, and Visual Communications Design programs and the Master of Science in Design and Master of Healthcare and Environmental Design degree programs into one administrative unit. As units concerned with the future of design and the accompanying issues of sustainability, social responsibility in practice and production, and collaboration in the professional world, the grouping of these units provides a basis for strengthening connections between faculty, students, and curriculum that have been ongoing within the college in practice.

SALA Assistant Professor Tom Morton

Recognized for Excellence in Teaching

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) have awarded Thomas J. Morton, Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, with one of three New Faculty Teaching Awards for 2008–2009. The New Faculty Teaching Award is given jointly by ACSA and AIAS and recognizes demonstrated excellence in teaching performance during the formative years of an architectural teaching career.

Morton specializes in the architecture and urbanism of the Roman Empire and has conducted archeaological fieldwork in Cathage, Tunisia, on the island of Jerba in Tunisia, and at Villa Magna, Italy. He is well known to his students and colleagues for bringing this ancient civilization's ideas to life for his Architectural History courses. During the meetings of the Roman Senate that he conducts in the college's public space, Red Square, students stand at the center and convince their fellow students of the logic of their arguments. And as seen above, his tower building/team building are challenging but lively exercises about space and balance. It is these creative, engaging teaching sessions that have won Morton the recognition that is so well deserved.

Each year, the ACSA honors excellence and distinguished achievement in architectural education, in recognition of those who embody these qualities and have advanced the art and science of the field. These award-winning professors inspire and challenge students, contribute to the profession's knowledge base, and extend their work beyond the borders of academia into practice and the public sector.

An awards ceremony, including a visual presentation of Tom's accomplishments, will be showcased at a plenary session during the ACSA 97th Annual Meeting, March 26–29, 2009 held in Portland, Oregon.

Underwood Adds President's Professor

to List of Career Achievements

2008 Induction Ceremoney takes place Thursday, December 4, 5 pm, ASU Katzin Concert Hall. Come for a preceremony reception from 4–4:30 pm in the Fred and Dorothy Cowley Lobby, ASU Music Building.

Interim Dean Mark Searle and SALA Director Darren Petrucci announced that School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Professor Max Underwood has been selected by the university and President Crow as one of three President's Professors. President’s Professors are active in enhancing the quality of undergraduate education. They demonstrate evidence of (1) active, creative, and outstanding engagement with undergraduate students of all abilities in the learning process and (2) success in motivating and promoting a rich undergraduate experience. Nominees must hold the rank of tenured Full Professor at ASU.

Professor Underwood has been a faculty member in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at ASU for 23 years. When one speaks of Professor Underwood, you always hear his name followed with the phrase, “he’s an amazing teacher.” In the past two decades, Professor Underwood received four teaching awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), two National Teaching Innovations Honor Awards (1993-94), an AIA Arizona Educator Honor Award (2001), and a National Teaching Innovations Honorable Mention (2003). His most prestigious accolade was awarded in 1997, when he received the National Distinguished Professor Award and Medal from the Associated Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA).

Professor Underwood’s greatest gift as a teacher is his ability to inspire his students, peers, and professionals without projecting his own design prejudices. His teaching method is conversational and tailored to the benefactors own strengths and desires. His vast knowledge of both the history and contemporary conditions of architecture serve as both a resource and model for all.

Housing Research Leader Sherry Ahrentzen

Receives Career Award from EDRA

Sherry Ahrentzen, PhD, Associate Director for Research at the Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family, has been honored by the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) Board to receive the 2009 EDRA Career Award to honor her lifetime achievement in environment and behavior research and education. The career award will be given at a lunchtime awards ceremony at EDRA 40 in Kansas City, May 27–31, 2009. The Environmental Design Research Association advances and disseminates behavior and design research toward improving understanding of the relationships between people and their environments.

In a letter from Robert Ryan, Vice-Chair of the EDRA Board, Ahrentzen was lauded for a “career [that] has influenced a generation of young scholars who have gone on to make their own mark in the field of environment and behavior studies. [Her} work in gender studies, housing, and design education has created a seminal body of research that has influenced both policy and the built environment.”

For over twenty years, Sherry Ahrentzen’s research has focused on new forms of housing and community environments to better accommodate the social and economic diversity of U.S. households and families. In addition to coediting the book New Households, New Housing, she has over 50 published articles, chapters, and reports. As Associate Director for Research at the Stardust Center, Ahrentzen’s efforts are directed towards producing and fostering research that gives constituents reliable information and new insights to inform design, development actions, and policy decisions.

For more information about Sherry Ahrentzen’s work with the Stardust Center, go to the website at stardust.asu.edu.

Click the image above to jump to the Lab Report Publications webpage

October 20, 2008

LAB REPORT EXAMINES NEW IDEAS FOR PARKS AND PUBLIC LANDSCAPES

Latest volume from Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory investigates the role of public landscapes within contemporary cities across the United States and Mexico

Flying into Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, you become powerfully aware of a suburban landscape dominated by housing subdivisions, by single-family houses with large yards and private pools. You will also see, interspersed throughout the vast expanse of residential tracts, a scattering of public parks and preserves. But what role do these public landscapes play in a city with so many private landscapes, with such abundant opportunities for personalized leisure?

This question is at the center of the latest of Lab Report, an annual journal published by the Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory (PURL), a think tank and research center within the College of Design at Arizona State University. In a series of articles on projects in the United States and Mexico, leading practitioners and academics argue that postwar cities, like Phoenix, test the relevance of the traditional city park, and would benefit from new approaches in which landscapes are defined not only as places but also as large-scale metropolitan systems.

“Why drive to the park when you’ve got a backyard patio, a private pool?” asks Catherine Spellman, Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at ASU and author of the volume’s opening feature “Great City, Great Park.” Spellman’s article summarizes the design research of an interdisciplinary PURL-sponsored studio that looked at the past and future of Papago Park—the largest and most important public park in metropolitan Phoenix.

Spellman’s article and those that follow describe ambitious projects that push landscape thinking beyond the bounds and programs of traditional parks—projects that explore the potential for landscape urbanism, or “landscape suburbanism,” to be an agent of civic transformation.

“When we think about urban landscapes, we tend to think of the traditional city park situated within dense, compact cities,” said Chris Reed, founding principle of StoSS Landscape Urbanism and landscape architecture lecturer at University of Pennsylvania. “The Phoenix model of non-density is actually much more prevalent and is not conducive to the same density-driven public landscapes seen in New York or Chicago. This is an important topic that is not being discussed.”   

Three articles examine public spaces outside Arizona. In “Doing More with Less,” Syracuse University associate professor Julia Czerniak describes the Connective Corridor, a competition-winning project that deploys metropolitan-scale landscape strategies to revitalize Syracuse, New York—a Rust Belt city that has been thinning out for decades. In “Unsprawling Atlanta,” architect and urban designer Ryan Gravel traces the history of the Atlanta Beltline, an ambitious proposal to transform abandoned rail corridors and brownfield sites into a 22-mile transit greenway that originated as Gravel’s urban design thesis at Georgia Tech and is today a two-billion-dollar public initiative. And in “The Edge in the Center,” ASU landscape architecture professor Gabriel Díaz Montemayor delineates his response to the rapid growth of the informal city. His project in Chihuahua, Mexico, comprises a series of subtle but cumulatively powerful interventions—including a network of small public-private green spaces and paths—that would define the urban/nature edge.

Two articles propose solutions for Phoenix, one at the edge, the other in the center. In “Sun City and the Suburban Desert,” Nataly Gattegno describes the work of a University of Virginia design studio that proposed new ways of developing desert communities. The goal, says Gattegno, is “to reconcile what would seem to be two antithetical conditions that define contemporary Phoenix: extreme climate and extreme sprawl.” In “Connected Oasis,” Christiana Moss describes a proposal developed by the architectural firm Studio Ma, working as part of the design team for the Downtown Phoenix Urban Form Project, to create a “green grid” that would interweave through downtown Phoenix a network of linear parks, plazas, and courtyards, with the goal of making the streets shady and comfortable year-round.

Rounding out Lab Report are articles by Ralph Stern and Nicole Huber, and Lucy Lippard, drawn from “Sites of Transition,” a photography exhibition and symposium coordinated by PURL this past spring. For more information on Lab Report or to purchase a copy, please visit http://design.asu.edu/purl/labreport.shtml.

About Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory—The Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory (PURL) is an extension of the College of Design at Arizona State University. Part think tank, part project center, PURL pursues a multifaceted agenda comprising funded design and research, publications, lectures, exhibitions, conferences, and workshops for mid-career professionals and high-school students. PURL’s mission is at once deeply local and broadly applicable: to inspire creative thinking and concrete action that will empower metropolitan Phoenix to grow in ways that are environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable; and to advance intellectual and professional discourse on the future of contemporary urbanism. For more information visit http://design.asu.edu/purl.

Contact

Jason Franz, jason.franz@asu.edu

480.727.9888 direct line

480.458.8113 cell

Press release (word document)

Success Sticks Like Velcro to Industrial Design

Senior Adam Craft

In July 2008, Velcro USA Inc. announced the winners of the company's 50th Anniversary Student Design Challenge. Participants of the scholarship contest, the company's first ever student design competition, were challenged to create an original, marketable VELCRO® product that utilizes one of three new Velcro technologies. One of two grand prize winners, Adam Craft, 23, an Industrial Design student at Arizona State University was awarded a $3,000 scholarship and a trip to the corporate headquarters in Manchester, NH, to tour the production facilities and meet the Velcro team.

Adam at the Velcro headquarters in New Hampshire

After brainstorming several possibilities and drawing inspiration from the state-of-the-art Conductive V30 Velcro fastening technology, Craft decided on a product he thought best fit the goal of the challenge, a product that would be innovative, appealing to consumers and unique, hence, Glo-Chess was created. Designed to be played night or day, at home or on the road, this stylish, travel-friendly chess set's main function is it's ability to illuminate, using Conductive V30 Velcro.

On his vision for Glo-Chess, Craft says, "After juggling around my ideas, I decided that this product best encompassed the function of conductive VELCRO in such a way that would also be highly marketable and unique. Without the Conductive V30 Velcro technology, Glo-Chess would cease to exist. I was immediately attracted to this idea because of its dependence on and direct source of functionality from the VELCRO brand technology."

"The creativity of these young men deserves recognition and support," says Joan Lombardo, Channel Marketing Manager of Velcro USA. "They have a bright future in the business world and our company is proud to name them the first winners of the Student Design Contest and support them in their educational endeavors."

Craft is currently a senior at ASU, pursuing two undergraduate degrees—one in Industrial Design and another in Design Management. His passions include design, music, and spending time outdoors. He is continually inspired to create innovative products like Glo-Chess, and hopes to become a successful entrepreneur in the near future.

For more information visit www.velcro.com/50years.

Thank you to Lauren Aiken, Publications Assistant for the National Speakers Association, for writing this article about Adam.

Congratulations to the 2008 Academic Bowl Team for the College of Design!

Back row (l to r): Robert Jackson, Urban Planning; Anthony Avery, Urban Planning; Sal Cosenza, Architecture

Front row (l to r): Jeremy Mudd, Urban Planning; Catherine Gerard, Industrial Design; Jennifer Rearich, Urban Planning

This year's team will compete in the first round against the College of Human Services during the first night of competition. Good luck to the team and thank you to all the students who competed to be on the College of Design team.

Academic Bowl Schedule

October 14 Opening Round/First Night

Memorial Union (MU) Pima Room 7:00–9:40 pm

7:00 pm

Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication

vs.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

7:40 pm

Ira A Fulton School of Engineering

vs.

W P Carey School of Business

8:20 pm

College of Design

vs.

College of Human Services

October 15 Opening Round/Second Night

Memorial Union (MU) Pima Room 7:00–9:40 pm

7:00 pm

College of Teacher Education and Leadership

vs.

Herberger College of Arts

7:40 pm

University College

vs.

School of Applied Arts and Sciences

8:20 pm

New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences

vs.

Ira A Fulton School of Engineering

9:00 pm

College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

vs.

Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness

October 22 Quarter Finals

Memorial Union (MU) Pima Room 7:00–9:40 pm

October 30 Semi Finals and Finals

Reception 5:30 pm

In Studio Competition, Broadcast on KAET 7:00–9:30 pm

Click here for offical ASU Academic Bowl website.

Night panarama. Photo KBAS

Architecture Alum Keith Kaseman and Partner Julie Beckman Reveal Pentagon 9/11 Memorial

September 11, 2008

Link to CNN.com video about the Pentagon Memorial with Keith Kaseman talking about the project.

Dedication Ceremony on ABC.com

September 9, 2008

KBAS Press Release (pdf)

College of Design Olympic Athlete!

August 19, 2008

MSD student Selim Nurudeen competed this week in Bejiing in the 110-meter high hurdles for Nigeria. Nurudeen, who is making his Olympic debut, is the lone entrant in that event for Nigeria.

He competed in Round 2 at 6 am on the morning of August 19 for the quarter finals and ran just out of contention to move on to the semi-finals.

In his note to Industrial Design professor Dosun Shin, Selim was concerned about finishing his thesis! Selim, whose research focus is Human Factors Research and Design in the MSD program, is working on a device that combines kinesiology and design for athletes preparing for races, not unlike the hurdles and running that we are all fascinated with during this week's Olympic Games. I am sure we will hear more from this young man, who is also a talented comic artist.

Congratulations to Selim for this amazing feat of athleticism.

Second Year Success for Summer Design Workshop 2008

Thank you to all who sponsored this excellent program

A library, an office building, a historic building. To most high school students, these are just bricks and mortar. But a group of Valley sophomores, juniors, and seniors who participated in ASU College of Design’s Summer Design Workshop now look at buildings “not just as a place used on a daily basis but as a place that has a purpose and a reason why it is the way it is,” says Metro Tech student Andrea Perez.

This is the second year the workshop has taken place thanks to the generous financial support from local architects, design professionals, and other sponsors. Conducted at the college’s Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory located in downtown Phoenix, 20 students worked with College of Design faculty, staff, and students for three weeks in June. Each week of the workshop featured field trips to architectural sites, talks by design professionals, and hands-on projects learning about space, place making, structure, and the effects of using shade and water in the desert.

“We wanted to expose students to all facets of design and help them look at the world in a different way, as environments in a landscape, ” says architect Mark Ryan, a faculty associate in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

The design projects, built primarily with cardboard and glue, challenged students to work as teams to construct large structures that you can walk into and small-scale models of two buildings with an open space between that had to be “designed” from what the students had learned. Each student also had to present their ideas and model to their classmates and to the faculty that includes Jose Bernardi, Associate Professor in the Department of Interior Design.

Nicholas Tehrani, a BioScience High School student back for a second year, described his open space area as a “destination.” “Because traveling is so expensive now,” Tehrani says, “I wanted to create a space with shade and water that would be relaxing.”

The program wrapped up on June 27 to a packed house of parents, students, three alumni of program, donors and supporters, and faculty and staff from the College of Design.

Several supporters of the program found out about it at the college’s annual Design Excellence Dinner that was held in April of this year and stepped up to make sure that these students had scholarships to participate in the program.

Many of these students are from central city neighborhoods who would be the first generation to be college bound. In addition to learning about design, they also learned that they have friends at ASU, like program coordinator Tim Kniseley, to help them figure out how to get to college and what a college experience can be.

"I have no doubt that I will be welcoming many of these high school students into Athena, the college's residential program, in a few years," says Kniseley who also leads that program.

View the video produced by City of Phoenix KNOW Channel 99. Thank you to producer Chuck Emmert for his fine work.

Link www.phoenix.gov/know99/99vidsummerdesign.html

Two College of Design Grads Receive AZCREW Scholarships

May 20, 2008

Kristin Burger, Housing and Community Development graduate, and Amanda Kaminsky, Master of Real Estate Development graduate, were awarded $1,000 scholarships from AZCREW (Arizona Commercial Real Estate Women), a founding chapter of the national organization CREW Network. The . scholarships were presented at the AZCREW monthly luncheon on May 20 at The Arizona Biltmore. AZCREW created the scholarship program for women looking to pursue a career in commercial real estate or a related field at an Arizona university.

As a new addition to the CREW Careers program, AZCREW offered the scholarships to deserving undergraduate and graduate students with a real estate focus. “We want to make sure that every girl has access to the right support and education that enable her to fulfill her career dreams” says Sherry Sentgeorge, AZCREW president.

Kristin Burger is graduated from the ASU’s College of Design with a BSD in Housing and Community Development with honors and an overall GPA of 3.83, as well as a minor in Urban Planning. She is currently pursuing her Professional Real Estate Development Certificate through the Urban Land Institute and her Arizona real estate license. During her time at the university, Burger was an active member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, Lambda Alpha International Student Association, Urban Land Institute, and the HUD Coalition. Last summer, Burger interned for Newland Communities during which she developed a construction waste management program to reuse and recycle 75 percent or more of the construction waste generated by homebuilders within Newland’s communities. The company continues to develop the program even after she left and are now implementing it at their master planned communities.

Amanda Kaminsky graduated from the Master of Real Estate and Development (MRED) program. One of the early woman pioneers of the program, she graduated with a 3.67 GPA. Kaminsky is an active member in the Urban Land Institute and the National Housing Conference and was the treasurer of Lambda Alpha International Student Association. Kaminsky received her bachelor’s degree from the Arizona State University’s College of Housing and Community Development before pursuing her master’s in the MRED program.

For more information about AZCREW, go to www.arizonacrew.org.

New Stardust Center Director Kurt Creager Set to Advance Affordable Housing in Arizona

May 20, 2008

The College of Design is pleased to announce the appointment of Kurt Creager as the new director of the Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family. Creager was most recently the CEO of the Vancouver Housing Authority in Vancouver, Washington, where he was responsible for producing over 3,500 housing units over a 15-year period. The announcement was made at the Stardust Center Advisory Board meeting on April 29.

Kurt Creager has more than 25 years experience in nonprofit affordable housing, private development, and government-based public housing authorities. As the former Chief of Housing and Economic Development for King County, Seattle, Washington, he created a countywide Housing Opportunity Trust Fund, which has since invested $150 million in over 9,000 affordable housing units in over 40 localities. Creager has been active in Phoenix for the past few years as senior vice president for Housing Development for CDK Partners. He also has his own consultancy, Urbanist Housing Solutions LLC, where he is engaged in transit-oriented and sustainable master planned communities in Scottsdale, Arizona; Beaverton, Oregon; and Kootenai County, Idaho. Urbanist Solutions is also retained by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles to help diversify their portfolio to include a significant inventory of workforce housing for communities.

“Kurt Creager brings an entrepreneurial spirit to the intersection of public and private enterprise,” says Conrad Egan, President of the National Housing Conference and Stardust board member. “He has a lifelong commitment to increasing and supporting good, affordable homes to families and the organizational, managerial, and leadership skills to bring the Stardust Center to a higher level of performance.”

Creager has a vision for the future of the Stardust Center that builds on ASU President Michael Crow’s commitment to social embeddedness and support and mission of founding donor Jerry Bisgrove and founding director, nationally known architect, Michael Pyatok.

“Stewardship is important” says Creager. “The Stardust Center needs to extend its reach into the community to leave it in a better condition than how we find it. We will remain grounded in the local community but will be striving to increase the visibility and applicability of the center’s work to the national and international stages.”

Wellington Reiter, dean of the College of Design, says that Creager is coming to Arizona at an pivotal time for housing and real estate development. “He has the knowledge of the complex financing and development strategies vital to the development of affordable and workforce housing. In today's economic climate, we will need his experience and leadership to ensure that the Stardust Center will continue to be at the forefront of solutions to today’s challenges in housing and sustainable development.”

Creager was a Fannie Mae Fellow in the State and Local Public Executive Program in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and is a graduate of the Institute for Public Policy and Management at the University of Washington. He received his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Planning & Architectural Graphics at Western Washington University. Creager lends his time and energy to a variety of boards and associations. He was president of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials and continues to sit on the board of governors. He represented the organization’s non-governmental organization at the United Nations. He also serves on the board of the Housing Development Law Institute and on the advisory board for Affordable Housing Finance magazine. He has been an entrepreneurship trainer for Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, and the Public Housing Authority Director’s Association in Washington, DC.

Since January 2005, when it first opened its doors, the Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family has established a strong reputation for applied design and research in affordable, sustainable housing. The Stardust Center has built two successful demonstration projects—in the Phoenix area (Guadalupe) and on the Navajo Nation. Through research, educational outreach, advocacy, and design innovation, the Stardust Center supports organizations, neighborhoods, and professionals in their efforts to improve the growth of quality affordable homes and sustainable communities.  

Gena P. Trimble Named 2008 Distinguished Achievement Awardee for College of Design

The College of Design is honored to name Gena P. Trimble as its 2008 Distinguished Achievement Award recipient.

Gena Trimble is a long-standing proponent of community education and outreach for excellence in urban and regional planning. Through her leadership, Gena has been a catalyst for emerging ideas for the future of the region as past Chair for the Arizona District Council for the Urban Land Institute (ULI), member of the Board of Trustees for the Urban Land Institute International, and past President of the Phoenix Chapter of Lambda Alpha International (LAI), an honorary land economics society.

During 2005–2006, Gena led the College of Design’s Council for Design Excellence (CDE) as president and cemented the college’s relationship with both ULI and LAI. Gena also inspired the CDE membership to become more engaged in the success of the annual Design Excellence Dinner, a fundraising event that grew exponentially that year through the support of many sectors of the design, development, and real estate industries.

Gena’s advocacy for educating future real estate decision makers is evident from her participation in ULI’s UrbanPlan program, which provides high school students with a hands-on experience in developing realistic land-use solutions to urban growth challenges. Gena is also a founding member of the advisory board for the ASU Master of Real Estate Development program, an accelerated degree program that educates the next generation of real estate professionals in design, law, business, and construction.

Gena currently is the Communications and Community Relations Manager of SRP. In this capacity, she is responsible for Corporate Communications, Media Relations, Advertising, Corporate Relations, Community Outreach, Communications Research, and Corporate Philanthropy. In her previous position as SRP’s Land Manager, she was responsible for overseeing all land transactions and property management services. This included acquisition and disposition of land rights and all functions associated with the management of real property rights. Gena also was the Managing Executive of Papago Park Center, a wholly owned land development subsidiary of SRP. Under her management, the subsidiary was successful in attracting corporate entities resulting in over 4,000 new professional jobs in the city of Tempe.

In addition to those named above, Gena currently is on the boards and executive committees of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. She also is on the Board of Directors for the Arizona Foundation for Women and is past Chairman of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce and a past Commissioner of the Tempe Transportation Commission. In 1997, Gena was voted the City of Tempe’s Business Woman of the Year by the Tempe Chamber of Commerce.

For her inspiring public service, exemplar leadership, and commitment to education, the College of Design is proud to award Gena P. Trimble with this honor.

Trimble will accept the award at the College of Design Convocation ceremony at the Wells Fargo Arena on May 8 at 5:30 pm.

Marci Scronic Lange Receives the 2008 College of Design Alumni Chapter Alumni Service Award

The College of Design Alumni Chapter is pleased to award Marci Scronic Lange the Alumni Service Award in 2008 for her enduring commitment to ASU, the college, and the professional community.

The College of Design alumni chapter established the alumni service award in 1998 to recognize a graduate of the college for personal accomplishment in service to his or her profession, the college, and the community. 

Marci Lange graduated from the ASU Interior Design program in 1998. She has successfully applied her skills to contribute to the community on professional, educational, and philanthropic levels. Since graduating, Marci has given her time and energy back to the students of the College of Design.

For the past eight years, she has taught the five-week “CHAIR”-ity portion of the fourth year Interior Design Studio. This has involved teaching students about designing a unique chair, about working as a team, and about domestic violence. The students design and build these beautiful chairs, which they then donate to the City of Phoenix Family Advocacy Center to auction to raise money for victims of domestic abuse. Last year, chairs from this auction raised $15,000 to provide services to Family Advocacy Center clients. Marci has done this all while working as a full-time professional interior designer.

In addition to her educational service on the Program Advisory Committee for the interior design program, she is passionate about helping to advance the Interior Design profession. Among various professional involvements and contributions, her most notable is her commitment to the International Interior Design Association, which she served as the Southwest Chapter’s Board President for several years.

Marci has helped a vast array of charitable causes throughout the Valley. In recent years, she has been actively involved in raising awareness and funds for Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Sojourner’s Center, Youth Evaluation and Treatment Centers, and Habitat for Humanity, in addition to the Family Advocacy Center.

Marci has demonstrated leadership with each charity she has been involved. She has a passion for helping others, and it shows in everything that she does. Her involvement has made a lasting impact on the lives of all the youth and families. We congratulate her for her accomplishments.

2008 Outstanding Graduates of the College of Design

Congratulations to the outstanding graduates of the College of Design for 2008. Each of these students has been nominated by a member of the faculty for their academic and/or community service achievement above and beyond what is expected by even our high-achieving students!

(Click on the student's name to see a photo of the student and read the nominating statement.)

William Atwood            Bachelor of Science in Design, Industrial Design

Maria Cagnina             Master of Urban and Environmental Planning

Emily Callaghan          Master of Science in Design, Industrial Design

Larisa Cherny              Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture

Patrick Devinger          Master of Real Estate Development

Mark Dudlik                 Bachelor of Science in Design, Visual

                                      Communication Design

Susan Goldsmith         PhD in Environmental Design and Planning

Michael Illies               Bachelor of Arts in Design Studies

Mitchell Karren            Bachelor of Science in Design, Housing and

                                      Community Development

Cindy Louie                 Bachelor of Science in Design, Interior Design

Lucia Miranda              Bachelor of Science in Planning

Jennifer Millerd            Master of Architecture/Master of Science in

                                      Building Design

Kelly Vanyo                Bachelor of Science in Design, Architectural

                                      Studies

Faculty Focus: Jose Bernardi Receives IIDA Award

May 1, 2008

In front of a rare standing ovation at the International Interior Design Association Southwest Chapter's annual PRIDE Award event, Jose Bernardi, Associate Professor of Interior Design, received the first IIDA Southwest Industry Appreciation Award given to an educator for his work bridging the academic and professional communities. The award ceremony took place May 1, 2008 at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale.

Former ASU Interior Design student and current member of the firm of Richard + Bauer, Stacey Crumbaker presented the award to Bernardi. Crumbaker is currently enrolled in the college's master of architecture degree program.

The evening was an acknowledgement of the many collaborative projects that Bernardi has been involved in including:

Frame a Dream: Each year for the past five years, a studio of Interior Design students take the written or recorded "dreams" of children in the care of Phoenix Children's Hospital and build representational sculptures that "frame" the child's wish. Many of these pieces are whimsical with movable parts and always take into account the age of the child. These pieces are then passed onto the children through staff at the hospital.

Professional Trips Abroad: For three years, Bernardi has organized and choreographed trips to Europe to help promote new connections between industry professionals and reengergize their work. Participants in these two trips have also funded scholarships for two Interior Design students to join the professionals in their travels. A good partnership for both students and practicing pros!

Desert Architects Lecture and Exhibition Series/Barcelona Exhibition: A small idea begun with Kelly Bauer of Richard + Bauer has taken wing under Bernardi's enthusiast leadership. This College of Design exhibition and lecture series began in the fall 2007 with the packed house for the Richard + Bauer lecture and exhibition, carried by another full house for a late winter lecture and exhibition by Jack DeBartolo II and Jack DeBartolo III, and will continue this fall with lectures and shows by Wendell Burnette and John Kane. In spring 2009, Eddie Jones will exhibit and in fall 2009, the series will finish with Will Bruder. Underlying this local series, Bernardi has coordinated a joint exhibition in Barcelona, Spain, with Barcelona architects and co-curators Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores that will be held at the Col.legi de'Arquitectes de Catalunya for these architects and designers, along with Arizona-based architects and artists Darren Petrucci, Ron McCoy of McCoy and Simon Architects, Mayme Kratz and Mark Ryan, Matthew and Maria Salenger of coLAB studio, Laurie Lindquest, and Phil Weddle and Michael Gilmore of Weddle Gilmore Architects. Flores and Prats Architects is also designing the exhibition in Barcelona. The exhibition will take place in September and October 2008, with a lecture series by the exhibitors in Barcelona on October 10, 2008. It is anticipated that this exhibition will also be installed in Phoenix at some later time.

Bernardi was also recently nominated for the 2008–2009 ASU Centennial Professorship Competition. He was cited as demonstrating exemplary work both in and out of the classroom.

Congratulations to Professor Bernardi for his committment to his profession, to his students, and to the academic arena.

InnovationSpace Receives President’s Award for Innovation

April 16, 2008

InnovationSpace was honored at the President’s Recognition Reception and Award ceremony April 16 in the Carson Ballroom of Old Main with the President’s Award for Innovation. ASU President Crow and Associate Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Matthew McElrath presided over the festivities.

This award recognizes ASU individual employees or teams for innovations that improve educational, administrative, or other organizational processes through creative approaches. The innovation is an original program, project, initiative, or technique that has been implemented and demonstrated sustainable results.

InnovationSpace is an entrepreneurial joint venture that involves the College of Design, Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, and W.P. Carey School of Business. The goal of this transdisciplinary education and research lab is to teach students how to develop products that create market value while serving real societal needs and minimizing impacts on the environment.

The award includes current and founding team members Kate Benjamin (currently Director of Marketing for Boon, Inc), Prasad Boradkar (Department of Industrial Design), Emily Callaghan (College of Design MSD student), Tamara Christensen (College of Design PhD student), Thomas Dueningt (Entrepreneurial Programs Office), Adelheid Fischer (InnovationSpace coordinator), Mark Henderson (Polytechnic Departmetn of Engineering), James Hershauer (Department of Management), Mookesh Patel (Visual Communicatin Design), the late Paul Rothstein (Department of Industrial Design and founding director of InnovationSpace), and Philip White (Department of Industrial Design).

2008 Visual Communication Design Student Scholarships and Awards

April 21, 2008

The faculty of the Department of Visual Communication Design has announced its student scholarships and awards for 2008. Congratulations to all the students for their outstanding work.

Kenneth L. and Jo Ann White Memorial Scholarship 2008

Jason Geiger

Jin Hwan Kim

Mario Trejo

Kenneth L. and Jo Ann White Memorial Scholarship 2008 in memory of Rob Roy Kelly

Matthew Siyu Mang

Shelby Sandler

Jean Wong Memorial Endowment in Graphic Design

Emily Diane Parcell

MLK Award

Men at Work Team

Matthew Berry

Jason Geiger

Nevin Pontius

Marco Rodriguez

Mario Trejo

Tanner Woodford

Outstanding Fourth Year Student Performance Award

Mark Dudlik

Outstanding Third Year Student Performance Award

Nevin Pontius

VCD Student Joseph Clay Wins First Place in National PSAid Competition

The Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI) announced that Visual Communication Design junior Joseph Clay was chosen as this year’s First Place winner in the Print category for PSAid: Public Service Announcements for International Disasters. Clay was awarded $6,000 for his efforts.

The competition asked student filmmakers and graphic designers to create broadcast and print PSAs demonstrating the importance of monetary donations rather than in-kind donations in response to international disasters.

Clay’s entry—“Donation Facts”—uses the template of a nutritional ingredients label to tell the “facts” about disaster-relief giving. The entry was punctuated by photographs of needy children framing the “label.” The first place winner’s entry may have his PSA distributed nationally to newspapers and magazines.

“I am delighted and proud of Joe,” says Mookesh Patel, chair of the Department of Visual Communication Design. “He is a wonderful sensitive designer, and I believe he deserves the award. I would also like to thank every one at CIDI and USAID for organizing this wonderful award program. The department is committed to explore relevant, inspirational, and appropriate communication messages for the community at large. This program provides the perfect opportunity for all our students to learn through this project. We plan to integrate PSAid contest in our curriculum again next spring.”

The entries from students across the country were reduced to five finalists per category, which were chosen by public vote through the PSAid.org website. The winning PSAs will be used to educate the public about appropriate donation response during international disasters.

“Cash does not clog supply channels like in-kind donations, cash is always socially appropriate, and cash can be used to buy the exact items needed in a disaster area while also giving the local economy a much needed boost,” Kate Houston, media contact for CIDI explained in a press statement.

For more information about the students competition, see PSAid.org website.

Link to ASU State Press article.

Digital Phoenix Project Rendering Featured at City of Phoenix Mayor's State of the City Address

Members of the Digital Phoenix 3D modeling team with Mayor Gordon. Shown here (left to right) are Mike McDearmon* (BA program), Christopher Grasso* (Industrial Design MSD), Nick Wood, Mayor Phil Gordon, Yoshihiro Kobayashi* (SALA), Janet Holston* (Herberger Center for Design Research), Reid Baker* (SALA undergraduate).

*indicates members of the Digital Phoenix team

The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce was looking for great images to show the 1,000-plus audience for the annual Mayor's State of the City Address what is in store for Phoenix in "2008 and Beyond," the theme of this year's speech. And they certainly found it in the rendering from the Digital Phoenix team. The three-minute video opened the mayor's talk at the April 16 luncheon event, held at the Phoenix Convention Center and impressed the crowd with its ability to show not only what Phoenix looks like today, but also the density and skyline of tomorrow's Phoenix.

Chamber representative Katie Pushor gave the project excellent recognition at the event.

The Digital Phoenix Project has developed an innovative integrated visualization platform to better understand the impacts of policy choices as they play out in patterns of growth and in the quality of life of Phoenix residents. It has created a visual planning tool with keen insight into urban dynamics in the Phoenix metropolitan area through the use of state-of-art visualization, computation, and informatics tools, combined with detailed social, economic, and environmental data. For more information about the Digital Phoenix Project, contact Janet Holston, Director, Herberger Center for Design Research, at janet.holston@asu.edu.

The event was captured by Phoenix Channel 11 and will be rebroadcast many times in the upcoming weeks. Please check back for rebroadcast dates and times.

Congratulations to the team for a job well done.

College of Design Leading Global and National Rankings

Industrial Design named to U.S. News Top Graduate School List

Close on the heels of its ranking in BusinessWeek magazine as one of the top 60 global schools of design for the second year in a row, programs in the College of Design are being highly ranked by surveys that evaluate and assess the quality of its programs and graduates.

Confirming its reputation and strength among its peers, the Industrial Design program is ranked 10th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for 2008. U.S. News produces its rankings by surveying 220 art and design school deans and top academics who are asked to rate the quality of the programs. In 2008 America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools, published by Design Intelligence, the Industrial Design graduate program was ranked fourteenth nationally and third in the West, and the undergraduate program was ranked number seven nationally and second in the western region. In addition, the Industrial Design program was notably nationally ranked in two subcategories—it was ranked first for students’ understanding of ecodesign practices and principles and fifth ranked for academic balance.

Design Intelligence ranked the Master of Architecture program number five in a highly competitive and academically strong western region. The undergraduate Interior Design program was ranked number tenth nationally and fourth in the western region, with the graduate program ranked seventh nationally and fifth in the West.

The same publication named College of Design Dean Wellington Reiter one of 2008’s “Most Respected and Admired Educators” through a survey of professional practice firm presidents and respected educators. The nominations were cited for the candidates balancing practice, theory, and technology; inspirational and engaging; innovative and visionary; leadership that attracts and retains top talent; and agents of change. Reiter will also receive one of the American Institute of Architects’ highest honors, induction into its academy of Fellows, at a ceremony in May 2008.

In a special article, Design Intelligence focused on ASU’s Master of Real Estate Development degree program, citing it as “the first ‘transdisciplinary’ program of its kind nationwide because it goes beyond issues of design and finance to incorporate two additional disciplines that are essential to real estate: construction and law.” Only in its second year, the accelerated master’s degree program has become nationally known and is competitive with established programs from MIT, USC, and Columbia University for students.

Design Intelligence is the publishing arm of the Design Futures Council, a global network of design and construction industry leaders whose mission is to explore trends, changes, and new opportunities in design, architecture, and building technology to advance innovation and leadership.

The America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools study ranks accredited undergraduate and graduate programs from the perspective of practitioners. The survey queried design firm leaders who, during the past five years, have had direct experience hiring and performance of recent design school graduates. Respondents were asked about which programs have best prepared students for today’s real-world practice. A cross-section of US firms with a disbursed geographic profile participated in the survey, including firms that are leaders in their market sector (i.e., healthcare, commercial, institutional, etc.) and that have won major national, state, local, and market-sector awards.

In October 2007, the College of Design was named one of 60 top global schools of design for the second year in a row by BusinessWeek magazine—only one of 36 US schools cited in the list of “Best D-Schools for Creative Talent.” Again, the BusinessWeek list was compiled by surveying top industry leaders and recruiters from corporations such as Whirlpool, Siemens, and BMW who hire new design talent in addition to surveying both design and business school faculty and design and innovation consultants from across the globe.

One reason that schools were cited in the BusinessWeek listing is their close partnerships between design, business, and engineering programs—a hallmark of the College of Design’s InnovationSpace program, which partners industrial design, visual communication design, business, and engineering undergraduates to work on new product ideas. Professors from each of the four disciplines also teach the InnovationSpace class. The BusinessWeek article specifically cited InnovationSpace program’s $30,000 Intel Corp.-funded project, which focused on products for aging baby boomers. InnovationSpace currently has other project support from Herman Miller Inc. for product concepts that improve acute-care and ambulatory-care environments for patients and healthcare providers. Top companies have connected with the InnovationSpace concept because their own teams reflect a multidisciplinary approach for product innovation and development.

Given its growing reputation and solid programs, the College of Design has also seen its community and professional support grow across the design, planning, and real estate industries and, as a result, the success of its students in the job market. In a lecture sponsored by the College of Design, Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, argued that the greatest economic and social value in the future will come from right-brain or creative thinkers—giving design schools and students the edge in the world of the future.

SALA Director Darren Petrucci Selected by Architectural Record for Record Houses 2008

For more than 50 years, RECORD has presented an annual collection of projects from around the globe that represent exemplary residential design. For its 2008 Record Houses awards program, they took a new approach: they looked for built, single-family dwellings that not only were aesthetically striking, but also employed innovative strategies for achieving environmental sustainability. In selecting this year’s nine winners, their jury evaluated criteria such as water efficiency, energy consumption, and indoor air quality. The “green” focus resulted in two of the projects likely ranking as the smallest ever presented in a Record Houses issue.

Darren Petrucci and wife (SALA Assistant Professor) Renata Hejduk's Martha's Vineyard house is one of nine homes chosen for this recognition and is featured on the homepage of Architectural Record at archrecord.construction.com/.

Details of the VH R-10 gHouse can be found at archrecord.construction.com/residential/recordHouses/2008/08VH.asp.

Congratulations Darren and Renata for creating a beautiful and sustainable home.

More coverage:

Boston Magazine (Summer 2008)

www.bostonmagazine.com/home_garden/articles/outside_the_box/

Collaborative Studio Rethinking University Building Wins School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture National Recognition

The Applied Research Collaborative Studio in the School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture was the recipient of the prestigious NCARB prize for 2008. ASU was one of five winners this year receiving $7,500 for the work done in collaboration with the School of Sustainability and the University Architects’ office on the adaptive re-use of the old Nursing Building. This was the first year that the transdisciplinary Applied Research Studio was conducted, and the project was recognized for it collaborative excellence.

The Applied Research Collaborative Studio is a transdisciplinary design graduate thesis studio that includes students from the various schools and departments in the College of Design—Architecture, Energy, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Planning, and Visual Communication Design. In turn, these students collaborated with faculty and administrators from the College of Design, Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, Global Institute of Sustainability, School of Sustainabiity, Nursing, and the University Architects’ office.

Six prize winners were selected for awards. The NCARB Prize Grand Prize—a cash award of $25,000—will be presented to the Department of Architecture, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Five submissions were selected as NCARB Prize winners and recipients of $7,500 each: individual submissions from the School of Architecture, Arizona State University, and the Department of Architecture, the Savannah College of Art and Design; a joint submission from the School of Architecture, University of Arkansas, and the School of Architecture, Washington University in St. Louis; and two submissions from the School of Architecture, Clemson University.

The 2008 NCARB Prize jury is comprised of members of the Council's Practice Education Committee and six academic representatives (deans, heads, or chairs) from schools with architecture programs accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) nominated by NCARB's regional leadership. The jury considered 31 entries representing 22 different colleges and universities. when they met March 26–27, 2008 in Houston, Texas.

Both entries and jurors were divided into two groups based on regional location. Each team evaluated a set of anonymous submissions and selected finalists, which were then reviewed by the entire jury. The jury’s decision was announced during the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Annual Meeting Awards Ceremony, March 28, 2008 in Houston, Texas.

Click here for a link to the NCARB site.

The Wisdom of Crowds Benefits Design Excellence Dinner

Under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent and are often smarter than the smartest people in them. Financial columnist James Surowiecki has researched this phenomena for his book, The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations. Surowiecki will speak at the College of Design annual Design Excellence Dinner on April 10, 2008, which will take place at the J.W. Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa.

Surowiecki uses the example of the jar filled with jelly beans to illustrate how “invariably the group’s estimate is superior to the base majority of the individual guesses.” In an experiment, a jar that held 850 beans was estimated by individuals in the group to hold 871. Only one of 56 people in the class made a better individual guess. And if the experiment is conducted several times, it will not be the same person who guesses correctly each time.

Even “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” is scrutinized for this hypothesis. With the three choices that the contestants had to answer questions—fifty-fifty shot, expert friend on the phone, or poll the audience, the random crowd picked the right answer 91 percent of the time, where the expert friend was only right 65 percent of the time.

As a twice-monthly financial writer for The New Yorker and past contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Wired, and The Wall Street Journal, many of the cases that he examines in The Wisdom of Crowds are focused on a business audience—how businesses work, how new ideas are advanced, how global economies cooperate, and how our daily lives are affected by group decisions.  “There are a lot of hurdles—both institutional and psychological—that make it hard for organizations to change,” Surowiecki says.

Surowiecki describes systematic ways to organize and aggregate the intelligence available in an organization to arrive at superior decisions—often better than those that individuals would make, even if they are “experts.”

“The college is pleased to host James Surowiecki for this year’s Design Excellence Dinner, especially in this time of an unsettled stock market, housing market, and global business environment—all arenas that operate through the wisdom of crowds. His presentation should give our supporters fresh insights into how groups operate and offer practical methods that really serve their organization’s goals,” College of Design Dean Wellington Reiter says.

Proceeds from the dinner benefit the Dean’s Academic Enrichment Fund, which provides support for college programs and student scholarships. For more information about table sponsorship or attending the Design Excellence Dinner, visit the website at design.asu.edu/dinner2008 or contact Sharon Haugen at Sharon.haugen@asu.edu, 480.965.6384.

Link to the Design Excellence Dinner website.

Congratulations to Tamara Christensen and Qiawen Wu

ASU GPSA Teaching Excellence Award Winners

The Graduate and Professional Student Associatian (GPSA) annually recognizes graduate and professional students at the ASU Tempe campus that exemplifies excellence in education and classroom instruction. This year, 22 teaching assistants were recognized, partially as a result of the increasing number of truly excellent instructors and TAs in the university.

The College of Design is proud to recognize Tamara and Qiawen Wu for their dedication and energy in the classroom. The awardees were recognized March 19 at a luncheon in their honor at teh University Club on the ASU Tempe campus.

Link to the GPSA announcement.

Link to ASU news article.

March 25, 2008

NBC highlights ASU School of Sustainability

Features SALA Professor Harvey Bryan and Students on the roof of College of Design South building

ASU’s School of Sustainability is continuing to garner national attention, this time featured on NBC Nightly News.

Anne Thompson, NBC's Chief Environmental Affairs correspondent, highlighted how the nation's first-of-its-kind school is providing a highly unique approach to education, the challenges for this generation of students, and the opportunities that await graduates in the green economy.

NBC spent two days at ASU in February. The comprehensive visit gave them an in-depth look at key facets of ASU's sustainability portfolio including:

• Student activism (ASU's Student Sustainability Coalition)
• Entrepreneurship and jobs in the green economy
• Tipping points in population behaviors (water consumption and urban growth)
• Urban heat island research
• Campus sustainability; reducing ASU’s carbon footprint

The producers interviewed undergraduate students, School of Sustainability students, professors, administrators, and ASU President Dr. Michael Crow.

Watch the video.

SALA Professor Underwood Leads Summer Seminar at Cranbrook

SALA Professor Max Underwood is one of three cochairs leading the 2008 ACSA/AIA Teachers’ Seminar: Deep Matter—The path to meaningful and provocative architectural research. Underwood is collaborating with Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake, both of Kieran Timberlake Associates. The seminar will take place June 19–22, 2008 at the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The three renowned cochairs will blindly review each of the submitted papers and format the sessions around the accepted papers. The call for papers deadline was March 5, 2008.

Underwood has a long history of teaching excellence, as the recipient of the ACSA National Distinguished Professor Award, the AIA Arizona Educator Award, and has received three National AIA Honor Awards for his teaching innovations.

The themes for the Deep Matter seminar include:

1. Defining Architectural Research in the Academy and Practice. What is interesting and why?

2. The Emerging Methods of Research Innovation. What are the networks, collaborations, visualization opportunities, strategies and tactics?

3. Case Studies of Bleeding Edge and Innovative Applied Research. What are the acknowledged in depth current case studies of projects or groups which are redefining the integration of research into practice and education?

4. Open Submissions. What areas of research innovation outside of architecture might inform the way forward? What arenas within architecture might the first three categories not capture?

For more information, see the ACSA website.

Richard Loope far left with MRED students in NYC

MRED Director Loope Appointed to NAIOP Fellows

The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) Research Foundation announced the appointment of Richard N. Loope, FAIA, as a Distinguished Fellow effective January 1, 2008. Loope, Director of the Master of Real Estate Development and Housing and Community Development degree programs, is also a professor in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Loope is also the president and CEO of HL Design Build LLC.

The NAIOP Distinguished Fellows program serves as a bridge between the practicing commercial real estate community and the academic community.

Link to NAIOP press release.

Sites of Transition: Urbanizing the Mojave

Exhibition and Symposium Explore Development Reaching into the Desert

Exhibition March 17 through April 5

Gallery of Design, College of Design South

Opening Reception March 18

5:00 pm Gallery of Design

Symposium April 5

9:00 am–2:00 pm ASU Art Museum

See the PURL event website for more information about location and attending.

The Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory is collaborating with the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and the University of Washington to bring to the College of Design Sites of Transition, an exhibition exploring the rapid urbanization of the Mojave Desert near Las Vegas. The exhibition, which will open at the German Architecture Center in Berlin before traveling to PURL and other U.S. venues, features sixty photographs by Ralph Stern, associate professor of architecture at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and Nicole Huber, associate professor of architecture at the University of Washington. Part of an extensive and ongoing research project by Stern and Huber, the photographs document the effects of recent development on the outskirts of Las Vegas and in the surrounding valleys, capturing the uneasiness of social dislocation, the fragility of history, and the loss of memory.

In conjunction with this exhibit will be a one-day symposium on April 5 featuring Stern and Huber; prominent art writer Lucy Lippard; Matthew Coolidge, the director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Los Angeles; and Mark Klett, photographer and professor of art at Arizona State University.

This exhibition is currently running at the Deutsches Architektur Zentrum in Berlin through February 8.

Summary by Ralph Stern + Nicole Huber

Unlike most presentations of the city, this material avoids the spectacle of the Strip. Rather, beginning with the Strip’s “backside”—the monumental parking structures and staging areas serving the spectacle—it spirals outward as it moves through various aspects of the ”everyday,” the “other” and the marginalized, through the city's inner industrial sites, trailer parks, areas slated for “urban renewal,” the cityscape of signage, and the topography of homelessness. Moving toward the city's peripheries, the images document infrastructure (vehicular, water, and waste management) before engaging the outer suburbs and fringe areas beyond. The work concludes with an exploration of the abstract geometrical forms that characterize much of the city's development and that serve to relate it, finally, to the degree of abstraction found throughout the desert in which Las Vegas is located.

The exhibition and symposium are sponsored by the Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory in partnership with Future Arts Research@ASU, the ASU Art Museum, and the ASU School of Art.

Chronicle of HIgher Ed Catches Up with Ron McCoy
 
Ron McCoy’s fifth-year architecture students can see firsthand the efforts of their professor’s professional practice. As ASU university architect and School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) professor, his students are a few minutes walk from many of McCoy’s most pressing projects. McCoy has been known in the College of Design as director of SALA, interim dean of the college, and as one of the lucky few rolling around campus on a Segway. But McCoy’s ceaseless pace of overseeing the variety of large and small projects on behalf of the university has drawn more attention—specifically from the esteemed publication The Chronicle of HIgher Education’s “Chronicle Review.”
 
In the March 7, 2008 issue, Chronicle reporter Lawrence Biemiller recounts following McCoy around a typical day, full of the challenges of meeting and exceeding the pace of development around the “new American university” that ASU faculty, staff, and students know well. The unflappable McCoy is focused on making a contribution to the quality of life for everyone on the ASU campus. Biemiller notes that “He's the one person at Arizona State who can look at all the puzzle pieces — the hodgepodge of existing structures and spaces, the flashy new buildings by different architecture firms, the lush new landscapes by various designers— and try to make sure they all come together into places that look and feel and work like campuses.”
 
See the Chronicle website at chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i26/26b02201.htm to read the story.
 
McCoy was elevated to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in May 2007. He was one of 76 architects named to the college and joins an elite group of fewer than 2,600 of 81,000 members of the AIA have the distinction of being a fellow. The fellowship program was developed to elevate architects “who have made a significant contribution to architecture and society and who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession.”

February 4, 2008

Dean Reiter Honored as Fellow of the American Institute of Architects

Dean Wellington Reiter was named as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) in January 2008. The College of Fellows (COF) of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) is composed of members who are elected to Fellowship by a jury of their peers. Fellowship is one of the highest honors the AIA can bestow upon a member and recognizes not only the achievements of the architect as an individual but also elevates before the public and the profession those architects who have made significant contributions to architecture and to society. Reiter was also awarded the Arizona Architects’ Medal from the Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Architects in December 2007. Reiter’s accomplishments both at the national and state level are a result of his leadership in design education and outreach and advocacy for the urban and built environments, especially the visioning and development of the ASU Downtown Phoenix Campus.

The Fellows Medal will be awarded to Reiter at the annual American Institute of Architects conference in May 2008, which is being held in Boston, MA.

Reiter joins School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture faculty Harvey Bryan, Richard Nicholas Loope, Ronald McCoy, Michael Rotundi, and David Scheatzle in the AIA College of Fellows. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Kenneth Brooks was also recently named as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Click here for Reiter faculty page

Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family Joins the College of Design

Since the inception of the Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family in January 2005, there have been strong links between the Stardust Center and the College of Design. Collaborations between faculty and programs were a natural outgrowth of the work of the two groups in an informal but active sharing of knowledge, students and projects in the arenas of housing, sustainable building materials and practices, and promotion of good design. The two units are now formalizing this connection with the Stardust Center administratively moving from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs to one of the family of academic programs and research centers that are collectively under the banner of the College of Design.

With a mission to improve the growth of quality affordable homes and sustainable communities, the Stardust Center has been involved in two major demonstration homes on the Navajo Reservation (2005) and in the town of Guadalupe (2006). Students from the college’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and Housing and Community Development program participated in both projects. Two graduates of the college are employed by the Stardust Center as designer/architects. Sherry Ahrentzen, Stardust’s Associate Director for Research, is a Research Professor in the College of Design and an active professor in the college’s doctoral program.

As a starting point, that is a good track record. Which is what makes the future of this partnership full of possibilities. College of Design programs, including the Herberger Center for Design Research, Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory, the Planning and Design Academy, as well as the academic units, will further collaborate with Stardust in research and funding opportunities, urban design and housing projects, and community and professional outreach.

During its short life, the center has already garnered several awards for excellence including the 2007 Valley Forward Crescordia for Environmental Excellence and the 2007 Brian Michelsen Housing Heroes Award in the category “Sustainable Design” at the opening reception for the Governor’s Forum on Housing. Both awards were for the Guadalupe Demonstration House. At the end of October, the Stardust Center was notified by Urban Land Institute-Arizona that they are the recipient of a $20,000 ULI Community Action Grant along with partner LISC Phoenix (Local Initiatives Support Coalition) to develop a presentation toolkit and campaign strategy to engage local residents, business groups, community organizations and civic leaders in discussions about challenges presented by the population growth of metropolitan Phoenix, as well as realistic solutions and designs for building sustainable, affordable and healthy neighborhoods.

The center continues its work with community development corporations, tribes, public agencies and developers in creating residential developments that are affordable and sustainable. Currently eight residential developments—with over 800 units total—are either under construction or in the pipeline for development. Stardust Center Associate Director for Design, Daniel Glenn, is working with partner Chicanos por la Causa on a 47-unit subdivision currently under construction that utilizes structural insulated panels (SIP), a construction system that speeds on-site construction and creates a highly insulated home that reduces cooling and heating requirements. This project will be the first Green Communities project in Arizona. Green Communities is a national green building program developed for affordable housing that focuses on the use of environmentally sustainable materials, reduction of negative environmental impacts and increased energy efficiency.

The Stardust Center will continue to be located at the ASU Mercado in downtown Phoenix and is currently searching for a new director. Sherry Ahrentzen is interim director. For more information about the Stardust Center and its projects, see the website at www.asu.edu/stardust.

This article was also published in ASU Insight.

College of Design Leading Global and National Rankings

Close on the heels of its ranking in BusinessWeek magazine as one of the top 60 global schools of design for the second year in a row, programs in the College of Design are being highly ranked by a survey that evaluates academic programs by assessing the quality of its graduates. In 2007 America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools, published by Design Intelligence, the Master of Architecture program was ranked number three in a highly competitive and academically strong western region, the undergraduate Interior Design program was ranked number five nationally and number one in the western region, and the Industrial Design undergraduate program was ranked number seven nationally and second in the western region. The graduate program in Interior Design was ranked sixth nationally and second in the West, while the Industrial Design graduate program was ranked as the number two program in the West. In addition, the Interior Design program was notably ranked in two subcategories—second nationally for it students’ understanding of professional practice and third nationally for its teaching of sustainable design concepts and principals.

Design Intelligence is the publishing arm of the Design Futures Council, a global network of design and construction industry leaders whose mission is to explore trends, changes, and new opportunities in design, architecture, and building technology to advance innovation and leadership.

The America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools study ranks accredited undergraduate and graduate programs from the perspective of practitioners. The survey queried design firm leaders who, during the past five years, have had direct experience hiring and performance of recent design school graduates. Respondents were asked about which programs have best prepared students for today’s real-world practice. A cross-section of US firms with a disbursed geographic profile participated in the survey, including firms that are leaders in their market sector (i.e., healthcare, commercial, institutional, etc.) and that have won major national, state, local, and market-sector awards.

In October 2007, the College of Design was named one of 60 top global schools of design by BusinessWeek magazine—only one of 36 US schools cited in the list of “Best D-Schools for Creative Talent.” Again, the BusinessWeek list was compiled by surveying top industry leaders and recruiters from corporations such as Whirlpool, Siemens, and BMW who hire new design talent in addition to surveying both design and business school faculty and design and innovation consultants from across the globe.

One reason that schools were cited in the BusinessWeek listing is their close partnerships between design, business, and engineering programs—a hallmark of the College of Design’s InnovationSpace program, which partners industrial design, visual communication design, business, and engineering undergraduates to work on new product ideas. Professors from each of the four disciplines also teach the InnovationSpace class. The BusinessWeek article specifically cited InnovationSpace program’s $30,000 Intel Corp.-funded project, which focused on products for aging baby boomers. InnovationSpace currently has other project support from Herman Miller Inc. for product concepts that improve acute-care and ambulatory-care environments for patients and healthcare providers and Procter & Gamble for product concepts for healthy aging in women over 65 as well as health and beauty care products for people who are blind. Top companies have connected with the InnovationSpace concept because their own teams reflect a multidisciplinary approach for product innovation and development.

Given its growing reputation and solid programs, the College of Design has also seen its financial support in the community for all of its programs grow across the design, planning, and real estate industries and, as a result, the success of its students in the job market. In a lecture sponsored by the College of Design, Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, argued that the greatest economic and social value in the future will come from right-brain or creative thinkers—giving design schools and students the edge in the world of the future.

CHAIRity Event Raises Record Auction Sales for Victims of Abuse

IIDA Scholarship winners Meredith Nunn (left) and Caitlin Bullock (right) sitting on their chair "Do You See Her?" The chair brought $6,000 at live auction for the CHAIRity benefit auction.

For the eighth consecutive year, senior year students in the College of Design’s Interior Design program began the first task of their semester—designing a chair—not learning about design, but learning about victims of domestic abuse. Interior Design faculty partner with the City of Phoenix Family Advocacy Center, an organization that provides comprehensive services to domestic violence and sexual abuse victims, to bring case workers’ information and victims’ stories to the students. On to this knowledge is layered inspiration from and exploration about an artist or artistic movement, and the idea for a chair emerges. From 25 separate student ideas for chairs, 11 designs are developed by teams of two or three student designers who collaborate, construct, and present their chairs for judging. The challenge is to design and build the chairs in only five weeks, and all are one of a kind. Representatives of the International Interior Design Association Southwest Chapter judge the chairs and choose one winning chair for a scholarship award.

The students are challenged, not just by working out details of how to bring their designs on paper to reality by constructing them of wood, steel, and glass, but also by raising funds for the materials. The students are allowed to spend only $100 of their own money; the balance is provided by companies donating cash or materials for the completion of the chairs.

The chairs—and their mission to raise awareness for domestic abuse—are exposed to many people from the time they are finished until they go to the auction. The initial display was in the ASU Architecture and Environmental Design Library, then on to exhibition from October 8 until November 2 in the College of Design Gallery of Design. The exhibit was on display for one night at the Burton Barr Central Library for First Friday, and then moved to the atrium of Phoenix City Hall. On November 15, they were finally moved to the Phoenix Art Museum Great Hall for the "CHAIRity" dinner and auction that benefits the City of Phoenix Family Advocacy Center. Help in moving these 11 chairs was provided by U. S. Business Interiors and principal Marsha Goodman, who is also the chair of the fundraising committee for the CHAIRity event.

Three chairs were offered through a live auction with the remaining chairs in a silent auction bid process. The scholarship winning chair titled, “Do You See Her?” was the final bid of the evening and went for a record breaking $6,000. The other two live auction chairs went for $2,100 (“Brise”) and $2,500 (Revolution). All combined, the eleven chairs were purchased for a total of $15,675, far and above any of the previous year’s total. All proceeds from the sale of the chairs go to the Family Advocacy Center for services to their clients. The student team from “Do You See Her?” raised more than enough to construct their chair, and with the permission of their donors, RSP and Middlestadt, Cooper and Assoc., donated the extra to the Family Advocacy Center.

“The quality and design of the chairs this year were amazing,” said Faculty Associate Marci Lange, a designer with FM Solutions who has been teaching this portion of the class since the inception of the idea. “It is no wonder that they were valued so highly by the audience. Of course, the money goes for such a good cause. That makes for a big incentive.”

“More than that,” said Lange, “This project teaches students that design can contribute to the betterment of society and that they have a responsibility to the community, a lesson they can take into their design practice after graduation.”

To see all the chairs or for more information about the Family Advocacy Center, see the website at design.asu.edu/news/chairity/shtm.

Design Students Compete in the Ultimate Elevator Speech Challenge at Chase Bank Tower

Left: Dean Reiter with the winning "Team 40"

Right: Dean Reiter on stage with Chase Bank's Mary Jane Rogers, Herman Miller rep. Michael Tilbrooke, and Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. Also shown, college supporter Greg Vogel and Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Human Communication student Tiffany Tcheng with video camera in hand.

You have one minute riding up in the elevator to make a point with the boss or client. Can you do it? Make that sale? Move that top project forward? Ten teams of College of Design students practiced these skills on November 1 in a competition where they presented design solutions on the way up in the elevator of the downtown Phoenix Chase Bank Tower and were reviewed by a team of judges on the way down—the total ride took less than three minutes. Video cameras in the elevator captured all the action of the student presentations for replay to a lively audience of supporters in the concourse of the Chase Bank Tower. Students in the winning team each received a $500 award. Chase Bank and Herman Miller were sponsors of the event.

The competition is the brainchild of ASU College of Design Dean Wellington Reiter, who created this “Dean’s Challenge” as an opportunity to make connections at ASU and with the Phoenix community and have a fun, educational event at the same time. The challenge problem is based on a recent study by the Urban Land Institute–Arizona identifying the top ten intersections in the Valley. Dean Reiter asked the students to think about how pedestrians, drivers, bicyclists, wheeled-device users, and others experience an intersection of two streets—not only proceeding through the street crossings but also other activities that may occur at these overlooked points of contact.

“Students in the College of Design have creative minds but in the 21st century must work collaboratively and be able to think on their feet,” said Dean Reiter. “This competition helps to highlight that our students are learning to think not only like designers and planners, but also to communicate effectively. It is this future generation of creative thinkers that will build a strong economy and a thriving city.”

The teams were comprised of three students and were required to have each member come from a different discipline within the college—for example, one each from architecture, industrial design, and planning. And a few teams had one member from outside of the college, including from the schools of engineering and business.

The review judges were drawn from faculty at the College of Design and design professionals and downtown business people, including Dean Brennan of the city of Phoenix Planning department who has been working on the Downtown Phoenix Urban Form Project.

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Human Communication participated in the event as well. Faculty from the Cronkite School, with the support of Dean Chris Callahan, provided the College of Design event team with valuable connections to their students, ultimately providing a student to build a website for the event, document the competition, and create a video recording of the entire span of activities. A team from Cronkite News Watch also covered the evening’s competition.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon opened the event along with Dean Reiter and Mary Jane Rogers, Media and Government Relations for Chase Bank, who announced the inauguration of the Walter Bimson Prize for the Dean’s Challenge winners. Bimson was Valley National Bank president during the 1960s and ‘70s and was responsible for building the Chase Tower. Bimson’s son and daughter were on hand to take in the festivities that honored this Phoenix patriarch. Michael Tilbrooke represented sponsor Herman Miller, which donated one of its “Leaf Lamps” as a prize to a student participating in the event and individual gifts for members of the top four teams, including messenger bags for the winning team.

The winning team—Team 40, including Heather Dessel (design studies), Nicholas Glover (landscape architecture), and Antonie Stahlbuhk (architecture)—pitched their “Liquid Light” proposal for the intersection of Camelback and Scottsdale Roads and featured an interactive light sculpture “to remind people of the beautiful resource of water flowing just below street level and hopefully inspire better care for it.”

The success of the first Dean’s Challenge confirmed its place as an annual event for the College of Design, especially because it accomplished two of its initial goals—promote interaction of students from different disciplines within the College of Design and promote interaction among the College of Design and other units within the larger university—all while reaching out to the business and professional community for support and participation.

For more information on the student teams and their proposals, what was required of the students to participate, or the Urban Land Institute’s ten hottest intersections, see the website design.asu.edu/news/DeansChallengeEvent.shtm.

A Tribute to Mary Kihl:

Dedicated Teacher, Beloved Colleague

On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, the College of Design lost one of its most dedicated professors with the passing of School of Planning Professor Mary R. Kihl. In a note to the department, Planning professor Subhro Guhathakurta summarized what many of her students and colleagues knew about Mary. “I have been struck by her compassion, generosity of spirit, dedication to her students and colleagues, as well as to the institution of academia over and over again,” he wrote. “She was one of the hardest working persons I have known—and mostly she did this without conditions and expectations, out of her own decency and concern for others.”

Mary Kihl came to Arizona State University in 1996 from Iowa State University where she had established her expertise in the transportation and urban planning fields. While at ASU, Mary held the positions of Professor of Planning, Director of the Herberger Center for Design Excellence, Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Intermodal Transportation Systems, Associate Dean for Research and Creative Activity, and Interim Director of the School of Planning and Landscape Architecture. In fact, during one particularly busy year, Mary held all of those jobs simultaneously—a testament to her amazing work ethic. In 2004, Mary returned to a focus on teaching, continued leading the Transportation Systems certificate program, and for a short time, acted as interim director of the PhD Program. Obviously, she did not slow down her pace, taking on the Planning Graduate Capstone Studio, mentoring PhD students, redoubling efforts for her own research and writing on transportation issues, chairing the Curriculum Committee for the ASU Faculty Senate, and again always making time for undergraduate students, colleagues, and members of the community from the professions and civic and governmental arenas.

Mary was recognized as a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2003 and in January of this year received the Leadership Award by AZTech for “demonstrating academic and research excellence.” She was involved in many organizations, including as a member of the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council, American Planning Association, American Society of Landscape Architects, Advanced Public Transportation Systems of ITS America, State of Iowa Department of Transportation, Architectural Research Council Consortium, Urban Land Institute, Lambda Alpha, Harrington House for Universal Design, AZTech Executive Board, and the Maricopa Association of Governments.

Mary held five degrees: an AB from Juniata College (1963), MA from University of Michigan (1964), PhD in History from Pennsylvania State University (1968), PhD in Transportation Planning from Pennsylvania State University (1975), and an MURP (Urban and Regional Planning) from the University of Pittsburgh (1977). In addition to teaching at ASU and Iowa State, Mary has also been on the faculty of the University of Nebraska and University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

In all of this, Mary was also a dedicated wife and mother, raising two children, Ann and Christopher Kihl, with husband Young W. Kihl, an emeritus professor of political science at Iowa State University and a specialist in foreign policy, Asian security, and US/Korea relations.

Mary Kihl affected so many students, friends, and colleagues with her genuine concern and interest in their work, their challenges, and their successes. Professor Guhathakurta speaks for all of those who came into contact with her in saying, “I am just grateful that I had the privilege of working with her. Her spirit has touched us in many ways, and I hope that will continue to live within us.”

An award in her name—the Mary R. Kihl Memorial Award—has been opened and gifts can be donated by contacting Trista Dunagan, Director of Development, College of Design (trista.dunagan@asu.edu or 480.727.8998). This scholarship will be used to support an award in urban planning in the School of Planning.

Student Focus

School of Planning Student

Andrea Garfinkel-Castro

Receives Recognition as 2007 Morris K. Udall Scholar

See the bio on Andrea at the Udall Foundation website.

The Udall Foundation seeks future leaders across a wide spectrum of environmental fields, including policy, engineering, science, education, urban planning and renewal, business, health, justice, and economics. The Foundation also seeks future Native American and Alaska Native leaders in public and community health care, tribal government, and public policy affecting Native American communities, including land and resource management, economic development, and education.

For more information on applying to be a Udall Scholar, go to the Morris K. Udall Foundation website.

College of Design Faculty Speak at Green Building Expo

Expo also Features Sustainability Expert Sue Roaf and Architecture 2030 Ed Mazria

October 5–6

The Tenth Annual Green Building Expo is taking place October 5 and 6 and will feature ASU faculty Harvey Bryan, Professor, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) and Dan Hoffman, Professor, SALA; past visiting Herberger Center scholar Sue Roaf; and Unintended Consequences book and exhibition contributors Anthony Floyd and Bonnie Richardson.

Dan Hoffman will present “Sustainability Standards for the Downtown Phoenix Urban Form Project” and Harvey Bryan will discuss “Calculating Your Building’s CO2 Impact” at concurrent sessions from 12:30–1:15 on October 5.

The Herberger Center for Design Research is sponsoring Sue Roaf’s appearance at the Expo. Sue will speak both days.

Ed Mazria, the force behind the Architecture 2030 and 2010 Imperative ideas, will be the kick-off speaker on October 5 at 11 am, a very compelling proponent of the importance of the designers’ role in reducing the carbon emissions of the entire planet.

The expo takes place at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and is free with no registration required. To learn more about the expo and to see the schedule and list of speakers, go to the website at greenbuildingexpo.com.

Town Hall Highlights ASU's Sustainability Strengths

For Professor Bryan's powerpoint presentation with the list of links to websites for how to measure and reduce your carbon footprint, click here.

For a pdf of this poster, click here.

September 10, 2007

Tempe Center for the Arts Grand Opening

Reveals Architecture Alum John Kane's

New Jewel on the Lake

The new Tempe Center for the Arts has several ties to the College of Design, with both alumni and faculty involved in its design and construction. Architecture alumni John Kane's firm Architekton, along with Barton Myers Associates, are the architecture firms responsible for this building that featues a new perspective around each corner.

Architecture faculty associate Mark Ryan joined with artist Mame Katz to design a focal point sculptural wall that can be viewed from both inside the main lobby and outside on the patio.

John Kane said that many other ASU alums were part of the design and construction process, which will be highlighted in the weeks to come.

For an article about the design, see this article from The Arizona Republic:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/
0909hotel0909.html

For a link to the Tempe website about the Tempe Center for the Arts:

http://www.tempe.gov/tca/

SALA Professor Dan Hoffman to Kick-Off Scottsdale Community Design Studio Lecture Series

Scottsdale’s Community Design Studio, in collaboration with the College of Design and Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory, is hosting a series of free community lectures to explore issues related to design, architecture, economics, and sustainability. The first lecture will feature School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Professor Dan Hoffman at 6:00–7:30 pm on September 27. His topic is Downtown Planning in a Desert Environment—How Appropriately Designed Urban Form Can Enhance Pedestrian Activity. The lecture will take place at the Granite Reef Senior Center, 1700 N. Granite Reef Road, Scottsdale.

Professor Hoffman is also one of three partners at Studio Ma, a Phoenix-based architecture and environmental design firm. As an ASU Professor of Architecture, he focuses on bioclimatic urbanism and the design of outdoor public spaces in hot, arid climates. Hoffman has been integrally involved in the recent Phoenix Downtown Plan Update process.

For more information on Scottsdale’s Community Design Studio lecture series go to www.scottsdaleaz.gov/bldgresources/planning/lectures.asp.

Future lecture topics include the San Diego Center City success story, visualizing density, and the evolution and impact of artist centers on careers, neighborhoods, and economies.

Attendees are encouraged to RSVP by calling 480.312.2647.

Student Focus: Interior Design Senior Cindy Louie Awarded Prestigious Angelo Donghia Foundation

The Angelo Donghia Foundation of New York has announced that Cindy Louie is one of only eleven design students in the United States to receive this prestigious award. The Donghia Foundation Senior Scholarship Program provides a $30,000 scholarship to each winner. Sixty-five student projects from around the U.S. entered.

The Donghia Foundation, established by the internationally recognized interior designer Angelo Donghia, provides support for the advancement of education in the interior design field. Its senior scholarship program awards prizes to exceptional seniors in accredited, undergraduate interior design programs. A jury of professionals in the field, educators, and magazine editors selects the winner of each merit-based scholarship.

See the Interior Design program website for more information about our programs.

Donghia website

Summer Design Workshop

Featured in ASU in the Community website
details +

American Solar Energy Society Names Harvey Bryan as Solar Pioneer

The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) honored School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Professor Harvey Bryan with the 2007 Passive Solar Pioneer Award. Established in 1979 by ASES to recognize individuals who have open doors to new ideas with their foresight, innovative thinking, and creativity within the passive solar field, the Passive Solar Pioneer award has been granted to esteemed individuals such as internationally-renowned architect and author Malcolm Wells, Professor Ralph Knowles, and Founder of Architecture 2030 Edward Mazria. ASES is a national membership organization whose mission is to attain a sustainable U.S. energy economy and strives to accelerate the development and use of solar and other renewable energy resources through advocacy, education, research, and collaboration among professionals, policy-makers, and the public.

A Fellow of the American Solar Energy Society, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and a Fulbright Scholar, Bryan was also recently named the James Haecker Distinguished Leadership Award of Architectural Research by the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC). This award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the growth of the research culture of architecture and related fields.

Bryan is one of the world’s leading experts in architectural daylighting including the development of design tools and urban design legislation. His dedication to ASU’s Building Science graduate program has turned it into one of the top building research programs in the nation, and his contributions to the field of daylighting have served educators, practitioners, and students and building energy simulation and green building assessment since the late 1970s. As an architect, Bryan has helped write Standard 90.1, the most widely adopted building energy code, which became the de facto measure of performance in the LEED energy rating system. 

He has served on the design faculties of MIT, Harvard, and UCLA, where his research received support from numerous public and private sponsors. He was a member of teams that received three Progressive Architecture Awards, was chairman of the 1986 International Daylighting Conference, and was Associate Editor of the international journal Building and Environment. Dr. Bryan is active in several professional and technical societies. He is presently serving on ASHRAE TC 2.8, which is concerned with Buildings Environmental Impact and Sustainability, the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment, as well as Chair of the Solar Buildings Division of the American Solar Energy Society. He represents ASU on the U.S. Green Building Council, served on the Board of Directors of the USGBC’s Arizona Chapter, and is certified in both BREEAM (an environmental rating system widely used in Europe and Canada) as well as LEED.

Bryan received the Solar Pioneer award in July at Solar 2007—the National Solar Energy conference—which was presented by ASES along with Green Energy Ohio supporting the conference’s location in Cleveland this year. The conference is the largest and most inclusive solar energy conference in the U.S. each year and combines a technical conference with exhibitions that showcase manufacturers, dealers, and other related businesses and services. The annual conference brings together organizations with interests in promoting, researching, and educating about solar energy including ASES 36th Annual Conference; the 32nd Passive Solar Energy Conference; the 2nd Renewable Energy Policy, Advocacy, and Marketing Conference; the Green Energy Ohio Annual Meeting; the Society of Building Science Educators Annual Meeting; and the Solar Ratings and Certifications Corporation Annual Meeting. Next year’s Solar 2008 meeting will be in San Diego, where Bryan will be serving as its technical chairman.

In the News—SALA Professor Harvey Bryan

Article in The Arizona Republic

Calculate your carbon footprint and then take steps to reduce it.

Celebration of Founding Dean James Elmore Draws Many to Legacy of Tempe Town Lake

The gathering on the unfinished 12th floor at the Hayden Ferry Lakeside complex, courtesy Steve Betts and SunCor, were perched above a view envisioned by the man they had come to celebrate—James Elmore. Over 200 people came to share memories about a man, known to the ASU community as the founding dean of the College of Architecture in 1964, was known and admired by many people from across the Valley and Arizona for his leadership in creating and championing the idea of the Rio Salado project, which became the Tempe Town Lake.

The evening began by a welcome and introduction by current ASU College of Design Dean Wellington Reiter, who introduced Elmore's family and thanked cosponsors of the event—AIA Arizona, Rio Salado Architecture Foundation, and Valley Forward.

Reiter reviewed Elmore's tenure and accomplishments with ASU, including:

• Elmore was founding dean of the College of Architecture and served from 1964 to 1974, taught until 1986 when he retired.
• Elmore came to Arizona State College in 1949, accepting a position offered by then president Grady Gammage.
• For the next 15 years, he built the program from a few technical courses in the Industrial Arts Dept. to a Bachelor of Architecture in 1957 and an independent School of Architecture in 1959 to full accreditation in 1961 and the stand alone College of Architecture in 1964.
• He hired distinguished faculty—Cal Straub, George Christensen, John Yellott, Jack Peterson, and James Rapp to set the college on its course of excellence.
• Also started the college on its own legacy of service to the community—a history of working with community leaders to improve the built and natural environments.

Sponsors Mark Patterson of AIA Arizona, John Williams of Rio Salado Architecture Foundation, and Diane Brossert of Valley Forward each shared why Elmore was a valuable asset to these professional and business organizations and to the Valley.

The formal section of the celebration included James Garrison, Arizona State Historic Preservation Officer, who shared the history of the Rio Salado design studios that took place during the 1960s; Steve Nielsen, ASU University Real Estate Development Office, who was the project leader for the Town Lake for the city of Tempe for 12 years; and finally, Emeritus Professor Robert Oliver, who was a faculty member during Elmore's tenure but more than that was Elmore's close friend during the last years of his life.

These formal presentations were punctuated by additional speakers Rick Naimark, representing the City of Phoenix; Paul Winslow, former student of Elmore's and principal of The Orcutt/Winslow Partnership; Bill Meek, Arizona Utility Investors Association; Ned Sawyer, architect, former student and participant in the original Rio Salado studio, and family friend; and Will Bruder, architect, who proposed renaming Tempe Town Lake to honor Jim Elmore—Lake Elmore.

Finally, Jim Elmore established the J W Elmore Lectureship Endowment with the College of Design several years ago. Former students and friends of James Elmore have the opportunity to add to this endowment to support the annual Design Excellence Dinner, which raises money for college programs and student scholarships. For more information on contributing to the endowment, please contact Trista Dunagan at trista.dunagan@asu.edu or 480.727.8998.

James Elmore, Founding Dean of the College, Dies at 89

James W. Elmore passed away peacefully at his home in Phoenix at age 89 on April 19, 2007. Born in Nebraska, he received his B.A. from the University of Nebraska. He served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the European Theater of World War II. After earning a Master’s degree in Architecture from Columbia University, he moved to Phoenix in 1948, where he began to practice architecture and to teach at Arizona State College at Tempe.

For the next quarter century, Professor Elmore was instrumental in the development of the College of Architecture at ASU, becoming its founding Dean. His concerns and enthusiasms extended beyond the university. He served as a director on many local boards, including the Heard Museum, the Valley Forward Association, the Central Arizona Historical Society, and the Central Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In 1966, he was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. He also served for many years in the U.S. Army Reserve, attaining the rank of colonel.

A source of great pride for him was seeing the realization of the Rio Salado project, a concept arising from design proposals in the College of Architecture. Town Lake in Tempe is an embodiment of this dream for reclaiming the channel of the Salt River in the Valley. In recent years, he sought solutions for transportation and other issues affecting sustainable growth in the Valley. He was a steadfast advocate for solar energy applicatons.

Dean Elmore was predeceased in 2006 by his beloved wife of 59 years, Ann D. Elmore. He is survived by his daughter, Kay Elmore, of Portland, OR, his son, James D. Elmore, of Bangor, ME, and grandchildren, Adam Elmore of Pittsburgh, PA, and Aurora Elmore of New Brunswick, NJ, and their mother, Kal Elmore of Old Town, ME.

Department of Visual Communication Design Wins AIGA Arizona 2007 Prisma Award for Vizual Voices

The Prisma Award Show, which takes place every other year, recognizes excellence in graphic design work throughout Arizona. Entry categories, which include corporate identity, direct mail, packaging, advertising, photography, illustration, environmental design, and interactive design, are reviewed and judged by an esteemed panel of design professionals from around the country. In 2005 the competition garnered more than 275 entries and recognized 50 total winners, including approximately a dozen winners of the prestigious Prisma Award. AIGA is the professional association for design. For more information on the Arizona AIGA, see the website here.

Mookesh Patel, Chair of the Department of Visual Communication Design, submitted the Vizual Voices newsletter on behalf of the students and faculty who created, wrote, and published the newsletter. Vizual Voices is in its second issue and was published in Fall 2006 and Spring 2007.

An awards presentation will take place on June 2 at the Camelback Inn.

Congratulations Prasad Boradkar!

Boradkar Receives Inaugural Faculty Achievement Award in Design Imperatives

Prasad Boradkar, InnovationSpace Codirector and Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Design, was named as the inaugural awardee of the Faculty Achievement Award in Design Imperatives by Elizabeth Capaldi, Executive Vice President and Provost. The awards were conceived of to annually celebrate the top intellectual contributions at ASU, and a ceremony to recognize awardees will take place at an event on April 24 at the ASU Art Museum.

Boradkar was chosen for his leadership and excellence in academic contributions toward supporting President Crow's Design Imperatives for a New American University, which includes hallmark characteristics of the InnovationSpace program—Use-Inspired Research, Social Embeddedness, Societal Transformation, Knowledge Entreprenuer, and Intellectual Fusion, while embracing the tenants of sustainability and excellence in student learning.

In his nomination, Dean Reiter noted Boradkar as a "gifted teacher, canny program manager, detail-oriented administrator, savvy fundraiser, and expansive researcher—all with the desire to create what he calls a 'community of learners.'"

Congratulations Prasad—well-deserved recognition for the leadership role that he has so successfully taken on.

For a complete list of all ASU faculty award winners, go to http://www.asu.edu/provost/awards.

Visual Communications Awards Kenneth L. White Scholarships

On Friday, March 23, the Department of Visual Communication Design hosted the Kenneth L White scholarship program judging. Thanks to the effort and active participation of Visual Communication faculty, faculty associates, and friends of the program in the selection process, it was a rewarding, stimulating event.

This year’s Kenneth L White Scholarship awarded to the deserving third-year students:

Jacqueline Gouin

Grant Walker

This year’s Kenneth L White Scholarship, in memory of Rob Roy Kelly, awarded to the deserving incoming third-year students:

Cassandra A Minopoli,

Annie Ka Wai Choy

In the history of the program, this year’s event will be written as the record number of students that participated in the selection process with passion and commitment—thirty-eight in all. As a class, they all decided to compete—full heartedly, and the students showed real sensitivity to the subject. It was even more significant as the entire White family was present for the award selection and presentation. Hats off to benefactor Jo Ann White’s spirit and commitment to the program!

Kenneth White Jr. participated for the first time in the selection process. He was certainly delighted to see the student work and said that (paraphrased) his Dad is happy and smiling to view the progress of the program. Wendy White-Ring was also delighted and excited to be present and participate and said she wished she had more time to review every project displayed. She certainly enjoyed all the animation projects and did not stop talking about them. Congratulations go to professor Al Sanft’s excellent instruction in his class.

Faculty Focus

Harvey Bryan—2006 ARCC James Haecker Distinguished Leadership Award of Architectural Research

March 7, 2007

The Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) named School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture Professor Harvey Bryan as their 2006 ARCC James Haecker Distinguished Leadership Award of Architectural Research.

This award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the growth of the research culture of architecture and related fields. The award was announced at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture National Conference in Philadelphia this month and will be awarded in a formal ceremony April 16 at the ARCC Annual Conference on Architectural Research at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Bryan will give the keynote speech at the awards reception.

Harvey Bryan is a specialist in building technology who has written over eighty papers and articles, many of which focus on the interface between technology and the design of ecologically-responsible environments. He has served on the design faculties of MIT, Harvard, and UCLA, where his research received support from numerous public and private sponsors. He was a member of teams that received three Progressive Architecture Awards, was chairman of the 1986 International Daylighting Conference, and was Associate Editor of the international journal Building and Environment. Dr. Bryan is active in several professional and technical societies: he has served on the ASHRAE committee responsible for developing the 90.1 National Energy Standard, is presently serving on ASHRAE TC 2.8, which is concerned with Buildings Environmental Impact and Sustainability, the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment, as well as Chair of the Solar Buildings Division of the American Solar Energy Society. He represents ASU on the U.S. Green Building Council, served on the Board of Directors of the USGBC’s Arizona Chapter, and is certified in both BREEAM (an environmental rating system widely used in Europe and Canada) as well as LEED. Dr. Bryan is also a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects as well as a Fellow of the American Solar Energy Society.

Congratulations to Harvey on this recognition of your work!