Faculty News
Here are major highlights of faculty accomplishments in 2008-09.
Austin Allen, Associate Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, presented a workshop on January 19 as part of the 2009 Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Austin’s two-part workshop, “In the Site of the Unseen, Unrealized and Unthinkable,” featured “The Unseen,” an examination of the documentary film project on the impact of Frederick Law Olmsted on the American landscape, particularly as one defines diversity and the African American cultural experience, and “The Unrealized and Unthinkable,” a reflection upon efforts to rebuild and rethink New Orleans and the Bayou Bienvenue Wetlands and its full circle back to Frederick Law Olmsted.
Fred Andreas, Assistant Professor Adjunct in Architecture, has been appointed to the City of Denver’s Greenprint Task Force, reviewing and recommending “greening” changes to the City’s codes, ordinances and regulations. Their goals go beyond LEED to High Performance Standards. He has also been appointed by the Vice Chancellor’s Office to the “Presidents Climate Commitment Council” for the University. That Council will review and recommend best practices and High Performance Standards with a goal of Zero Net Energy and Carbon by 2030. And finally, Fred was appointed to the new University of Colorado Denver Sustainability Hub Steering Committee establishing a new Sustainability Office, coordinating all green and sustainable design research and activities throughout the UC Denver system.
Meredith Banasiak, Instructor of Architecture, received a 2008 AIA Research Grant of $7,000 from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Knowledge Committee. She will be eligible to present the findings of her project, “From Benchtop to Bedside: Transferring research lessons learned in an undergraduate program,” at the 2009 AIA National Convention in San Francisco, and the work also will appear in other print and electronic venues.
Jason Bentley, Lecturer in Architecture, and his undergraduate students in ENVD 3152, Intro to AutoCad, were featured in the Boulder Daily Camera on Tuesday, November 11. Their class project at the historic landmark Mapleton School in Boulder has involved drawing the as-built site plans, which will be a record of the building’s condition and can be a key reference for future maintenance or projects. See the website link here.
Professor of Landscape Architecture Lois Brink and Associate Director of Learning Landscapes Rachel Cleaves received a $224,997 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for their project Organized Leaders Across a Healthy Westwood. The goal is to increase healthy eating and active living for children and youth who live or learn throughout Denver’s Westwood neighborhood, by increasing neighborhood walkability, improving neighborhood safety, increasing organized programs for physical activity, and increasing access to healthy foods. Lois and the Learning Landscapes Initiative were featured prominently in the August 2008 issue of Landscape Architecture, the magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Landscape Architecture Senior Instructor Lori Catalano and Assistant Professor Joern Langhorst wrote an article about their design-build project in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward in the May/June issue of Rocky Mountain Exposures, Newsletter of the Colorado Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Read the article here.
Louise Chawla, Professor of Planning, Pamela Wridt, Senior Instructor and Associate Chair of Planning, and Ph.D. student Doug Ragan gave presentations at a colloquium held at the University of Montreal May 29-30, 2008, on "Public Participation in Environmental Planning and Management: Reflections on the Ethics of Participation." Louise's paper was on "Participation as political capacity building: An ethical obligation." Doug's paper was on "Growing up with expectations: Better understanding the expectations of community partners in participatory action-research projects." Pamela served as a discussant, presenting remarks on a panel of four papers. The colloquium will form the basis of a special issue of the journal Atelier, which will be published by the Center of Research in Ethics of the University of Montreal in the summer of 2009.
Louise Chawla, Professor of Planning, and Selena Paulsen, Ph.D. student in Design and Planning, presented a paper on "Restoring Children's Access to Nature in Urban Environments" at the 46th International Making Cities Livable Conference in Santa Fe, June 1-5, 2008. They will also take part in a meeting to discuss the creation of a point system for certifying child-friendly neighborhoods, towns and cities, with board members of the International Making Cities Livable Council and representatives of the National Town Builders Association.
Senior Instructor of Architecture Joe Colistra won an Honor Award from AIA Colorado for the Merchants Row Brownstones at 26th and Champa Streets in Denver. It was one of 16 winning projects from among 170 submissions. This follows Joe’s selection in April as 2008 Young Architect of the Year as part of the AIA Colorado Young Architects Awards program.
An opinion piece written by Mark Gelernter, Dean and Professor of Architecture, entitled “Want to reanimate Civic Center park? Get people to walk through it” was published in the Denver Post under the Rocky Mountain News’ opinion page on Sunday, August 31, 2008. Read the piece here.
AIA Colorado North recognized its 2008 architectural design, honor and president’s awards recipients during a ceremony on Oct. 17 at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. These annual awards recognize firms and individuals within a nine-county area of northeastern Colorado for excellence in the field of architecture. Allen Harlow, RA, Senior Instructor in Architecture, was named Mentor of the Year, which recognizes a firm or licensed architect for exceptional efforts to promote the professional growth and development of an emerging design professional, or group of emerging professionals, who is/are in the process of acquiring a license.
Julee Herdt, Professor of Architecture and licensed architect, working with the CU Law School and CU LEEDS School of Business, has filed her new company, BioSIPs, Inc., as a woman-owned C corporation and technology-based business in the State of Colorado. BioSIPs, Inc. was established on March 6, 2008. Julee Herdt and M.Arch student Kellen Schauermann (who will eventually be part-owner of the company) are currently conducting their BioSIP patent developments and research through a State of Colorado technology transfer grant, and a College of Architecture and Planning 2007 Faculty Grant. Following completion of the grants, BioSIPs, Inc. will move into commercialization and revenue generation. At that time, CU will hold equity in BioSIPs, Inc. through University License Equity Holding, Inc. [ULEHI] along with Schauermann and investors in the company. Herdt and Schauermann are collaborating with CU law and business students on BioSIP business feasibility planning and supply chain management so that the BioSIP product will be an environmental, modular, structural insulated panel system from value-added, Colorado post-consumer waste stream material. The first BioSIP fabrication facility will be located in Colorado. Herdt was recently contacted by the Forest Service in order to determine whether beetle kill pine is a suitable waste fiber resource for application in the BioSIP technological processes. Herdt, Schauermann and researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory will test beetle kill waste in addition to post-consumer waste in upcoming finite element modeling and physical prototyping of BioSIP panel substrates. Once BioSIPs are successfully commercialized, Herdt plans to establish scholarships at CU for research and development of environmental building materials and renewable energy architecture.
Professor of Architecture George Hoover’s Advanced Design Studio was featured in Susan Barnes-Gelt’s column in The Denver Post on Sunday, May 18, 2008. Read it here.
T. John Hughes, long-time Department of Architecture lecturer teaching Architectural Photography, exhibited his Cityscape Panorama Project at the College and at the Art Institute of Colorado. The work showcases the dramatic transformation of downtown Denver over the last 15 years, featuring 20 sets of four panoramic photographs of downtown Denver taken from the identical vantage points in 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture Joern Langhorst’s paper, Tactics of Difference: Places of Discourse, Spaces of Encounter was accepted for the Environment and Design Research Association (EDRA) conference held in Veracruz, Mexico, in May 2008, and will be in the conference proceedings.
Architecture Instructor and Architect Tamarah Long was selected to show her sketches at The Winot in Niwot, Colorado. Architectural Landscapes: A Memoir of India explores the origins of patterns in the built environment. Sketches from Tamarah's recent trip to France were also included.
Associate Professor of Architecture Taisto Mäkelä interviewed architect David Adjaye in March at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver as part of The Logan Conversations Series, “a platform for contemporary thought as dialog.”
The graduate students in Assistant Professor of Planning Jeremy Németh’s Advanced Planning Studio presented four possible design concepts for the renovation of Denver’s historic Union Station Plaza on Tuesday, May 13. Their work was covered in the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Daily News, and on Channels 4, 7, and 9. See links to some of the stories:
Willem van Vliet, Professor of Planning and Director of the Children, Youth and Environments Center for Research and Design, received $3,000 in Teaching Funds from CU Boulder’s Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences, to support his project “Designing Communities with Multicultural Youth: Using Multimedia Methods for Social Change.”
In celebration of its 150th birthday on Nov. 22, 2008, the city and county of Denver selected 150 of its citizens to honor as "unsung heroes" -- ordinary people who have done extraordinary things to help make our city a better one for this and future generations. Among those honored are Rich von Luhrte, Chair of the CAP Advisory Board and Lecturer in Architecture, and friends of the College Dana Crawford, Mark Falcone, and Tom Noel. See the entire list here.
Some students from Pamela Wridt’s Community Development Processes course have been involved with the North City Park Neighborhood Association doing surveys and community mapping to help with their neighborhood planning efforts. Read more about it here.