College of Architecture and Planning alumni make news all over.
Breckenridge architect Suzanne Allen-Guerra (M.Arch 1997) was featured in an article in the Denver Post on Thursday, May 8, 2008, “Lodge Style Looks East,” describing the Rustic Zen style she incorporates in the homes she designs. The article mentions her work with fellow alumnus Dan Craine (M.Arch 1997) on the Shock Hill Lodge and Spa condos in Breckenridge, projected to open in 2010. Don’t miss the article and spectacular photos here.
Donald E. Baus, AIA, CCCA, LEED AP (B.Envd 1994), Senior Associate at Perkins Eastman in Charlotte, NC, was in Aurora in November 2008 working on the new Health and Wellness Center at Anschutz Medical Campus. Perkins Eastman has been selected to provide program verification, financial feasibility and space programming services for the new building. The HWC will provide an integrated approach to health and wellness by bringing together, in a single comprehensive facility, a number of existing programs including the Center for Human Nutrition, the Center for Integrative Medicine and the Center for Women’s Health Research.
Angela D. Dye, FASLA (MURP’83, MLA’84), is President of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) this year. ASLA is the national professional association representing landscape architects, with more than 18,000 members and 48 chapters, representing all 50 states, U.S. territories, and 42 countries around the world. Angela is a licensed landscape architect who has worked for federal and county government as well as the private sector. In 1998, she founded her ten-person firm, A DYE DESIGN, which specializes in urban design and planning, context sensitive design of transportation and transit, recreation and site design, higher education, and public art-oriented projects. She has always sought projects within the public sector that infill existing communities, create a sense of place, and honor natural and cultural systems. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of two local civic organizations, Valley Forward Association and Friends of the West Valley Recreation Corridor. She served as a member of the City of Phoenix Design Review Standards Committee (2002-2006). Since its inception, she has served as the AzASLA representative to the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) Transportation Enhancement Working Group (12 years). She is a frequent panelist, facilitator, and speaker, a past adjunct professor at Arizona State University, and artist selection panelist.
Zuhair Fayez (M.Arch 1971) returned to the College of Architecture and Planning in May 2008 to be honored not only for his support of the university but also for his vision in establishing an innovative educational partnership between CAP and Dar Al-Hekma, the first private, not-for-profit women’s college in Saudi Arabia, of which he was the designer and a major founder and now chairs the Board of Trustees. The partnership will serve as a building block to develop an undergraduate degree in architecture that will meet the accreditation standards of the United States for the women at Dar Al-Hekma, as well as numerous other collaborative opportunities between the two institutions. Future plans include sending professors from CAP to Saudi Arabia to help establish the program and to serve as guest speakers/professors, while students from Dar Al-Hekma will travel to Denver as exchange students. To see Channel 9’s story about Zuhair’s visit, click here.
Luis E. Fraguada (B.Envd 2002) and Monika Wittig (B.Envd 2001) are on the Live Architecture Network (LAN) Denver team that won the 2008 Emerging Artist Program commissioned by the Denver International Airport and Denver Office for Cultural Affairs in its inaugural year. The commission called for a temporary installation in the highway median en route to Denver’s International Airport. Their piece, [Wind]ow Seat, attempts to take the behavior of a single windsock and translate it into a condition where small fluctuations can be read throughout the entire form to articulate the complexities of the wind forces. View their website here.
The College mourns the passing of Chrisy Hardy (MLA & MURP’06) on September 21, 2008, at the age of 31. Chrisy was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and moved to Colorado to earn a B. S. in Natural Resource Management from Colorado State University. She then moved to Aspen, Colorado to be among the mountains. While in Aspen, Chrisy became a level 3 PSIA Ski Instructor and taught skiing to many, mostly children. She decided that she wanted skiing to be her passion, rather than profession, and came to Denver and obtained Master’s Degrees in both Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning from CAP. Most recently, Chrisy was a practicing landscape architect in Denver. Her love of life and zeal for adventure took her around the world and to the top of most of Colorado's fourteeners. She chased her dreams and packed more into her abbreviated life than most do in a typical lifetime.
Jon Hunt (MLA 2007) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at Kansas State University, joining Melanie Klein (MLA 2002) and Blake Belanger (MLA 2006) on the tenure track there. Jon is teaching first-year studios to undergraduate and graduate students. For the last two years, Jon was a lecturer for CAP in Landscape Architecture and the Environmental Design program, teaching in Denver and Boulder.
Rori Knudtson (M.Arch ’07), now a lecturer in the Department of Architecture for CAP, had work displayed in September 2008 in the exhibition “Spatial Investigations: New Art from Redline,” the first show at Redline, a new exhibition space in the Rino Art District. For more information see the website.
Will Kralovec (MURP and MUD 2008), TOD Specialist for the City of Denver Office of Economic Development, has been named to Mayor John Hickenlooper’s new Age Matters Task Force. The task force is charged with identifying strategies to help Denver prepare for the anticipated “age wave” of rapidly aging baby boomers, while continuing to ensure a high level of service and engagement for the City’s current aging population.
Anirban Pal (PhD, 2007) developed his dissertation into a recently published book, Planning from the Bottom Up: Democratic Decentralisation in Action (2008, Delft University Press), as well as an article, “Political space for the civil society: The work of two community-based organizations in Kolkata,” pp. 424-436 in Habitat International, vol. 32, no. 4, December 2008.
Kevin Patterson (MURP 1997) was appointed by Mayor John Hickenlooper as the new Manager of the Parks & Recreation Department for the City of Denver in September 2008. A City employee since 1993, Kevin has also served as Manager of General Services, Deputy Manager of Human Services, Finance Director for Community Planning and Development, and Budget Supervisor and Budget Analyst for the City's Budget and Management Office. Prior to his employment with Denver, he was Citizens' Advocate in the Office of Governor Roy Romer. Kevin received his bachelor's degree in teaching from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and a Master of Public Administration as well as MURP from the University of Colorado Denver. He was also elected to the Denver School Board in 2001 and re-elected in 2005.
Rob Pyatt, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP (B.Envd 2005, M.Arch 2007), has had his Box House selected as House of the Month for June 2008 by Architectural Record. Rob built his own house as an independent study project with Senior Instructor and Associate Chair of Architecture Rick Sommerfeld. See the article and slide show here. The house also was featured in the July “sustainability issue” of Dwell. Rob was an intern architect for Lake Flato Architects in San Antonio, Texas, and is currenctly a Lecturer in the College of Architecture and Planning. He is the recipient of CAP’s 2008 Alpha Rho Chi medal, provided by the National Professional Fraternity for Architecture and the Allied Arts to be awarded to an outstanding graduating student.
Ron Rael (BEnvd 1994) is an architect, author, Assistant Professor of Architecture at The University of California, Berkeley, and the founder of EarthArchitecture.org, a clearing house of information on the subject. He has a new book published by Princeton University Press, Earth Architecture. Currently it is estimated that one half of the world's population—approximately three billion people on six continents—lives or works in buildings constructed of earth. And while the vast legacy of traditional and vernacular earthen construction has been widely discussed, little attention has been paid to the contemporary tradition of earth architecture. Rael provides a history of building with earth in the modern era, focusing particularly on projects constructed in the last few decades that use rammed earth, mud brick, compressed earth, cob, and several other interesting techniques. Earth Architecture presents a selection of more than 40 projects that exemplify new, creative uses of the oldest building material on the planet. Read more about the book here.
Adam Serafin (MURP, 2005) has been named a Campus Planner at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Facilities, Campus Planning + Design Division. He conducts planning studies and analysis for the operation and growth of the MIT campus, and specializes in cartography and visualizations for planning projects.
Matthew Sullivan (BEnvd’98) was part of a team that submitted the winning entry to the 2008 Architecture for Humanity international design competition, the Open Architecture Challenge. Architecture for Humanity is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings design services to communities in need. Each year the Challenge addresses a different systemic issue facing those living in under-served communities; this year the issue was digital inclusion. The teams designed a youth media lab and library for Slums Information Development & Resource Centres (SIDAREC), a local NGO near Nairobi, Kenya. The facility will provide a library, a small radio recording studio, a low cost internet café, allow youth free access to a computer lab and teach them graphics and web skills, provide computer training to the community at-large and an exterior space for informal sports tournaments and other competitions. The winning team received a US$5,000 travel stipend to travel on site, plus the opportunity to realize their design in partnership with the community organization. Matthew and his partners at The Global Studio in Seattle are now hard at work getting this project built. View the Open Architecture Challenge website here and Global Studio’s website here.
Shu-yi Pearl Wang (PhD, 2008) has been selected for the Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Sustainable Cities Cluster at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. The Sustainable Cities cluster examines emergent situations in Asia in which social-cultural and environmental sustainability require urgent attention. Pearl expects to start her work there in March 2009.
Terrence Ware (M.Arch, BEnvd 1976) has been appointed director of Housing and Neighborhood Development for the Denver Office of Economic Development (OED). Andre Pettigrew, executive director of the OED, said, ““We are excited to bring Terrance on board to lead our housing and neighborhood development efforts,” said Pettigrew. “From TREX planning, to the redevelopment of Stapleton Airport and Villa Italia Mall, Terrance has an incredible track record in land development, planning, architecture and urban design. His talents will help our Office with further developing viable urban neighborhoods, while expanding economic opportunities for our residents.” Terry has been a lecturer for CAP off and on since the early 1980s. In his new position, Terry provides strategic direction and oversight of OED’s community development efforts and collaborates with the community to protect and enhance Denver’s distinctive neighborhoods and housing opportunities.
Jun Xia (M.Arch and MUD, 1989) is a principal at Gensler in Shanghai, the firm that is building the second largest tower in China, the Shanghai Tower. Xia was quoted in a December 1, 2008 article in Architectural Record. See the article here.