Karen Van Lengen in the News
Friday, May 2, 2008
Dean, Faculty, Students Participate in Temporary Shelter Symposium with Shigeru Ban
Dean Karen Van Lengen, Assistant Professor of Architecture Anselmo Canfora, and students from Canfora's Fall 2007 ReCOVER Studio will participate in "Shigeru Ban and The Architecture of Disaster Relief," a symposium sponsored by the Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C.
The symposium events include a series of panel discussions, an open forum, and the construction of three temporary paper shelters of Shigeru Ban's design to be installed on the National Mall and at the National Building Museum.
On Thursday, May 8, Meridian will co-host an Open Forum at the National Building Museum featuring a panel of Shigeru Ban, Dean Karen Van Lengen, and several architecture students each from Keio University's Shigeru Ban Laboratory and the UVa School of Architecture, presenting new design ideas for global disaster relief.
For registration and additional information, follow the provided link.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
"Green Advocate Wins Jefferson Medal" - Architect Magazine
By ARCHITECT Staff
"The winners of the University of Virginia's Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture aren't always architects. In addition to Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, past winners include critics Lewis Mumford and Jane Jacobs, artist James Turrell, and politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan. This year's winner, Gro Harlem Brundtland, boasts perhaps the most dynamic résumé of all...."
[for complete article, follow link]
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland To Give 2008 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medalist in Architecture Lecture
[by Jane Ford, UVa News Services]
Gro Harlem Brundtland, special envoy on climate change at the United Nations, former prime minister of Norway and a former director-general of the World Health Organization, will be awarded the 2008 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture at the University of Virginia Founder’s Day festivities in April.
Brundtland will give a public talk on Friday, April 11, at 3 p.m., in Old Cabell Hall Auditorium.
“In honoring Dr. Brundtland we celebrate her legendary leadership in global sustainability and the stewardship of our environment, values that we have championed and developed in our work at the School of Architecture. We are so pleased to share our school’s accomplishments with such a distinguished figure and we all look forward to her University address on April 11th,” said Architecture School Dean Karen Van Lengen.
A politician, physician, diplomat and activist, Brundtland gained international recognition in the 1980s for supporting and promoting sustainable development as chair of the United Nations' World Commission of Environment and Development, known as the Brundtland Commission. The commission's report, "Our Common Future," outlined the broad political concept of sustainable development that takes into embraces multi-disciplinary considerations, including energy, industry, population and human resources, food security, species and ecosystems, international cooperation, decision-making systems and international economic relations.
The commission's recommendations led to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, at which representatives of 172 governments and 2,400 representatives of nongovernmental organizations concerned about the environment agreed on a Climate Change Convention that developed into the Kyoto Protocol.
Brundtland spent the first 10 years of her professional career as a physician and scientist in the Norwegian public health system, where she championed children's health issues and became increasingly aware that many of those health concerns are related to environmental issues. Her work in this area led to her appointment as Norway's Minister of the Environment in 1971. In 1981, at age 41, she was appointed prime minister, the youngest person and first woman to hold that post.
It was during her 10 years as prime minister that she developed a growing concern for environmental issues of global significance and chaired the U.N.'s World Commission on Environment and Development. In 1998, after stepping down as prime minister, Brundtland became director-general of the World Health Organization, where she combined her skills as doctor, politician and activist to advocate and work for equitable and sustainable health systems in all countries.
Since 2007 Brundtland has served as a U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Change.
Former recipients of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture, which was created in 1966 to recognize outstanding achievement in design or distinguished contributions in the field of architecture, include; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (the first recipient), Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Lewis Mumford, Vincent Scully, Dan Kiley, Jane Jacobs, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Glenn Murcutt, James Turrell, Peter Zumthor and Zaha Hadid.
The Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture and its counterparts in law and civic leadership are the highest external honors bestowed by the University, which grants no honorary degrees. The awards recognize achievements of those who embrace endeavors that the author of the Declaration of Independence, third U.S. president and founder of the University of Virginia, himself, excelled in and held in high regard.
Sponsored jointly by the University and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the nonprofit organization that owns and operates Monticello, the annual awards are conferred during the Founder's Day celebrations surrounding Jefferson's birthday, April 13. Awardees each deliver a public lecture at the University and engage in dialogue with students and faculty members. In addition to receiving a medal struck for the occasion, they will attend ceremonies in the Rotunda and a dinner at Monticello.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
April's "Women's Work" To Feature Carolyn Callahan
Women’s Work is a faculty lunch group designed to share and promote the research interests and accomplishments of women faculty at the University of Virginia. Founded by Dean Karen Van Lengen, this group provides an informal framework for women faculty to share their research and intellectual interests with other faculty at the University. April's presentation will be given by Commonwealth Professor Carolyn Callahan, Chair of the Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Policy at the Curry School of Education. Callahan focuses her research on the education of the “gifted” student. Her talk will focus on recent research that evaluates Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) Programs for gifted secondary learners. These courses serve as the primary means of meeting the needs of gifted students in most high schools. In a qualitative study using a grounded theory approach, Callahan investigated how teachers conceptualize and implement curriculum and instruction in AP and IB courses and how students evaluate their learning experiences in these environments. Those interested in attending "Women's Work" should contact Alice Keys at 924-7019 or eak3n@virginia.edu.Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Dean Van Lengen to Participate in NBM Conversation Featuring Women Leaders in Architecture
Dean Karen Van Lengen will participate as one of three women deans of architecture schools in, "Women of Architecture Challenging the Paradigm," at the National Building Museum. Dean Van Lengen will be joined by Frances Bronet, Dean, School of Architecture & Allied Arts, University of Oregon; and Donna Robertson, an alumna (MArch'78), Dean, College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology. The Deans will discuss their careers in architecture and their current leadership positions in architectural education as well as their roles in shaping architecture’s future. The conversation will be held on Monday, March 10 from 6:30 to 8:30pm. There is a fee to attend and registration with the National Building Museum is required.Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Dean Van Lengen Participates in Yale University Symposium on University Architecture
Selections from an article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education Online (by Lawrence Biemiller, January 28, 2008)
"At Yale, Architects Consider Universities as Patrons"
New Haven, Conn. — A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who is partly responsible for two of the most striking and controversial buildings of the past 10 years — Steven Holl’s Simmons Hall and Frank Gehry’s Stata Center, both at MIT — said Saturday that “mindless commodity architecture” should be no more acceptable on college campuses than “second-rate physics or banal history.”
“It is a fundamental responsibility of universities to pursue architecture and urbanism at the highest intellectual level and the highest level of cultural ambition,” said the professor, William J. Mitchell, who teaches architecture and served for 10 years as architecture adviser to MIT’s former president, Charles M. Vest. In the latter capacity, Mr. Mitchell said, his job was “to be a persuasive advocate of architecture in the broader community” and to help foster “lively, informed discourse about architecture and its role.”
Mr. Mitchell was one of a dozen speakers at an engaging but underpublicized Yale University symposium entitled “Building the Future: the University as Architectural Patron.” The symposium, half architectural-history lesson and half pep rally for architects who work on campuses, was built around the university’s annual Brendan Gill Lecture, named after the former New Yorker architecture writer. This year’s lecturer was David Brownlee, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania’s art-history department. ....
Karen Van Lengen, dean of the University of Virginia’s architecture school, was one of several speakers who worried that “branding” had “hijacked the architectures of actual spaces and actual experiences.”
At her institution, she said, the Rotunda has become the university’s brand. “It’s our logo. It’s on our letterhead, it’s on napkins. It’s on everything that we do at UVa. And this branding phenomenon has driven much of the decision-making process at UVa, particularly in the recent past.”
“So I guess the question I want to ask today,” she said, “is, How does a university deploy planning, architecture, and landscape architecture to support and project its mission beyond the imagery level alone, and equally important, how can design support the real experience of teaching, learning, and research? I’d like to make the case that as clients in this arena of architecture and planning we look a little deeper, past the wallpaper solution — as we refer to it at UVa, the Jefferson wallpaper solution — that is so prevalent, not only on my campus but all across America.”
Ms. Lengen also asked how universities could be persuaded to offer more design opportunities to promising young architects, just as promising young scholars are offered interesting research projects. Laura Cruickshank, university planner at Yale, said that was a question she struggled with.
“On the one hand, I think it is the university’s responsibility to do that, and on the other hand, I’m not exactly sure how to achieve it,” said Ms. Cruickshank. She said that deadlines tied to the campus calendar — “You have to finish the residential college before the students come back and move in” — tended to “push us away from using or recommending one of the smaller kinds of firms.”
Monday, December 3, 2007
"Women's Work" Discussion to Feature Prof. Ellen Bass
Women’s Work is a faculty lunch group designed to share and promote the research interests and accomplishments of women faculty at the University of Virginia. Founded by Dean Karen Van Lengen, this group provides an informal framework for women faculty to share their research and intellectual interests with other faculty at the University. Each monthly lunch meeting includes a short research presentation by a selected faculty member followed by a question and discussion period. On December 6th, the speaker will be Ellen Bass, Assistant Professor, Department of Systems and Information Engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Bass will present a methodology for investigating human interaction with information analysis automation. The event will be held at Pavilion IX from 12:30pm-1:45pm. RSVP is required - space is limited. Please reserve a spot with Alice Keys via email: eak3n@virginia.eduTuesday, October 30, 2007
Dean's Project for Mix House will Travel to Poland and Norway
The design for MIX HOUSE, one result of a collaboration between Dean Karen Van Lengen / KVLA, Joel Sanders / JSA, and Ben Rubin / EAR Studio, will be on display at the Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland from November 30, 2007 through February, 2008 and the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture in Oslo, Norway in summer 2008 as part of a larger exhibition developed by the Vitra Museum in Germany entitled OPEN HOUSE: Intelligent Living By Design. In addition to being mounted at the Vitra Museum in 2006, the exhibit was shown at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California earlier this year. The collaboration between Dean Van Lengen, Sanders and Rubin, Hearways, builds upon shared interests in architecture, technology and the human senses. The output includes the design of MIX HOUSE, with an analogous installation that explores the possibility of closely coordinating sound and vision as a way to shape and to individualize the experience of the domestic environment.Monday, October 29, 2007
"Women's Work" Discussion to Feature Daphne Spain
Women’s Work is a faculty lunch group designed to share and promote the research interests and accomplishments of women faculty at the University of Virginia. Founded by Dean Karen Van Lengen, this group provides an informal framework for women faculty to share their research and intellectual interests with other faculty at the University. Each monthly lunch meeting includes a short research presentation by a selected faculty member followed by a question and discussion period. On November 1st, the speaker will be Daphne Spain, James M. Page Chair and Professor of Urban & Environmental Planning. The event will be held at Pavilion IX beginning from 12:30pm-1:45pm. RSVP is required - space is limited. Please reserve a spot with Alice Keys via email: eak3n@virginia.eduTuesday, October 16, 2007
Dean's Project Highlighted on Turbulence's Networked Music Blog
Ph.D. student in Music at the University of Virginia, Peter Traub, highlighted MIX HOUSE in his blog post for Turbulence's Networked Music feed.
MIX HOUSE, a product of the collaboration between Dean Van Lengen, Joel Sanders (JSA) and Ben Rubin (EAR Studio), Hearways, builds upon shared interests in architecture, technology and the human senses. The output includes an analogous installation that explores the possibility of closely coordinating sound and vision as a way to shape and to individualize the experience of the domestic environment.
MIX HOUSE was installed in 2006 at the Vitra Museum, in Germany and Art Center College in Pasadena.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Dean Appointed to P/A Awards Jury
Dean Karen Van Lengen has been appointed to serve on the 55th annual 2007 Progressive Architecture (P/A) Awards jury for the design competition sponsored by Architect Magazine. The P/A Awards recognize unbuilt projects demonstrating overall design excellence and innovation. The entries must be commissioned by paying clients for execution. Other jurors include Coleman Coker, buildingstudio, New Orleans; Sarah Herda, Graham Foundation, Chicago; Thomas Phifer, Thomas Phifer and Partners, New York; and Julie Snow, Julie Snow Architects, Minneapolis. Judging will begin this week in Washington, D.C.Wednesday, September 12, 2007
U.Va. Group Fostering Communities that Embody Sustainability
News Source: Explorations
Sept. 12, 2007 -- At U.Va., you have only to walk as far as the Lawn to see an example of a sustainable community — Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village. As in all sustainable design, the relationship of structures to the environment was an important consideration for Jefferson. He placed his suite of buildings at the end of a long ridge with an uninterrupted view from the Rotunda to the Ragged Mountains in the south. The classrooms and living quarters are in close proximity — and the Rotunda serves as a natural gathering place. This built environment encourages the exchange of ideas between faculty members and students — a process that is essential to its long-term viability. The Lawn also incorporates the cultural ideas of the time as well as enduring values of balance and proportion. Almost 200 years after its creation, it still excites our imagination.
As School of Architecture dean Karen Van Lengen points out, “Sustainability, broadly defined, is not only based in the ecology of an area, but supports equity and embodies important cultural ideas.” As part of U.Va.’s Sustainable Communities Group, Van Lengen and her colleagues seek to create and support communities that extend the characteristics of the Academical Village for our time.
[For the complete article, please visit Explorations online - Fall 2007 issue]
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
School Publishes New Book on Visions for the Gulf Coast
The School of Architecture has published a compendium of recent faculty and student work from design studios during the spring semester of 2006 which examined the challenges of rebuilding the Gulf Coast following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. This second volume in the Urgent Matters series, Building After Katrina: Visions for the Gulf Coast is edited by Lecturer Betsy Roettger and includes contributions from dozens of students and the following faculty members: Dean and Elson Professor Karen Van Lengen; Quesada Professor William Morrish; Fitz-Gibbon Professor Robin Dripps; Disinguished Lecturer Lucia Phinney; Lecturer Azadeh Rashidi; Lecturer Cecilia Nichols; Kenan Professor Peter Waldman; Assistant Professor Jenny Lovell; Associate Professor Maurice Cox; Associate Professor Judith Kinnard; Assistant Professor John Quale; Associate Professor Sanda Iliescu; and Associate Professor William Sherman. The book aims to present the pedagogical values of the school as well as present strategies for re-building the Gulf Coast in an effort to pose critical questions about the role of design professionals in disaster relief, environmental objectives, and policy shaping. Building After Katrina will be available for purchase from the University of Virginia Press in the next few weeks.Wednesday, August 8, 2007
School Publishes Compendium of TJF Medalists in Architecture
Dean Karen Van Lengen has co-edited, with Jayne Riew and Lydia Brandt (architectural history graduate student), a new book titled, The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal: The First Forty Years (1966-2005). The book, published by the UVa School of Architecture and distributed by UVa Press, includes an introduction by Garry Wills and showcases the best-known work of the medalists with brief biographies and color photographs. Since 1966, this prestigious medal has recognized some of the world's greatest architects, historians, politicians and benefactors of architecture. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal: The First Forty Years is available for purchase through the UVa Press website [www.upress.virginia.edu] and popular online book retailers.Thursday, March 22, 2007
"Architecture Dean Designs a Space for Women's Work"
March 21, 2007 -- Despite advancements made in recent decades to improve women's status in the workplace, female faculty members are still in the minority at academic institutions across the country. Karen Van Lengen, dean of the School of Architecture, has established “Women’s Work”—a forum for women’s research to help counteract some of the effects of this disparity at the University of Virginia… [UVa News Services]
Monday, March 19, 2007
Dean Van Lengen's Design for MIX HOUSE Published in Dwell Magazine
The design for MIX HOUSE, one result of a collaboration between Dean Karen Van Lengen / KVLA, Joel Sanders / JSA, and Ben Rubin / EAR Studio, is currently on display at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. and pictured in the April issue of DWELL magazine as part of a larger exhibition developed by the Vitra Museum in Germany entitled OPEN HOUSE: Intelligent Living By Design.The collaboration between Dean Van Lengen, Sanders and Rubin, Hearways, builds upon shared interests in architecture, technology and the human senses. The output includes the design of MIX HOUSE, with an analogous installation that explores the possibility of closely coordinating sound and vision as a way to shape and to individualize the experience of the domestic environment.
Monday, September 4, 2006
Dean Van Lengen Appears on PBS' "Charlie Rose Show"
Dean Karen Van Lengen appeared on the September 1, 2006 edition of the "Charlie Rose Show" (PBS-TV) where she discussed: Initiatives at the School of Architecture; her professional and academic career; the South Lawn project; Thomas Jefferson's role as an architect; the dialogue about recent architecture on grounds that incorporates Jeffersonian-inspired facades; The Architecture of Democracy; the Trojan Goat and ecoMOD projects; and plans for the World Trade Center, among other topics.The program is available for viewing online via Google Video (free for those who have Google accounts; setting up a Google account is also free).
