William Sherman in the News
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Additions to Campbell Hall Win 2009 VSAIA Award for Excellence in Design
The Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects announced that the additions to Campbell Hall are the recipient of the highest honor in the Society's annual Excellence in Design program. The two faculty members who served as architects for the additions to Campbell Hall, W.G. Clark and William Sherman, as well as the alumni at SMBW Architects (including Will Scribner, and others), the firm who served as the architect of record for the project, will all be recognized as key contributors to the superior design. As was noted by a jury member, "Among the 9 other projects in the architecture category, Campbell Hall was recognized with distinction." The additions to Campbell Hall are part of a larger decade-long project, Campbell Constructions, which was directed by (former dean) Prof. Karen Van Lengen. Recipients of the Award for Excellence in Design will be honored at a special session during Architecture Exchange East in Richmond on Nov. 6, and at the Visions for Architecture gala, also on Nov. 6; in a special exhibition at the Virginia Center for Architecture (opening reception January 7, 2010); and in Inform magazine’s annual directory (July/August, 2010). To see a list of all award winners, visit: http://www.virginiaarchitecture.org/vsaia_honors_design.htmlFriday, July 31, 2009
Karen Van Lengen Authors New Book on Campbell Constructions
"Urgent Matters: Designing the School of Architecture at Jefferson's University" was published in July, 2009 and is distributed by the University of Virginia Press. About the book: The dilemma of building contemporary architecture in the context of one of America’s World Heritage landmarks, Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village at the University of Virginia, is the central theme of this book. Former Dean Karen Van Lengen writes about her vision of building the School of Architecture: a highly orchestrated collaborative design strategy to exemplify the potential of architecture, landscape architecture, preservation and planning in the public realm. Using Campbell Hall as a working laboratory, Van Lengen demonstrates how various spatial, material and iconographic designs can influence and support the mission of an institution in a period in which branding and image making is the norm. The book includes both written and visual descriptions by the designers of over ten built projects of the past decade (1999-2009) designed by faculty, students and alumni.Thursday, May 7, 2009
William Sherman Helps to Develop "The UVa Bay Game"
"U.Va. simulation to focus on saving the Chesapeake Bay."
By Melissa Maki (U.Va. Research News)
Since the mid-1970s, federal and state partners have worked to try to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Because the Chesapeake Bay watershed extends over more than six states and 64,000 square miles, this has been no easy task. Farming, development, industry, and fishing in the watershed all impact on the bay's health health.
The University of Virginia is now developing an educational tool to model this complex and interdependent system. The U.Va. Bay Game will give students the opportunity to play critical roles in a simulation focused on the real-world goal of saving the Chesapeake Bay.
Chris Soderquist, a consultant and expert systems modeler who created a similar game for the Florida Everglades, is designing the game in collaboration with a multidisciplinary U.Va. faculty group and a student advisory team. The game's development is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research.
Faculty and students are scheduled to test the U.Va. Bay Game in early April, and the game will be unveiled to the public at 4 p.m. on April 22 – Earth Day – at the Harrison Institute Auditorium.
Soderquist's Everglades game was intended to teach sustainability concepts to corporate executives. As that game advances, players observe the interactions between the sugar industry, communities and cities in Florida and their impacts on the Everglades system.
In such simulations, players assume different roles in the system. Participants in the Chesapeake Bay Game will assume the responsibilities of key stakeholders such as watermen, farmers, developers and local policymakers. Throughout the course of the game, students will make decisions based on their individual roles, all of which will affect the bay.
A farmer, for example, will monitor details like profits and amount of crop produced per acre and will ultimately decide how much fertilizer to use in a given year or whether to switch to organic farming methods.
As students make choices, they will be able to see also how the overall system is working and they'll have the ability to chat with other students in the game, Soderquist said. "Players learn over the course of a simulation to communicate cross-stakeholder and to make decisions in a collaborative fashion, as opposed to only what's good for them — so they develop a very global perspective on the problems and situation."
The game's evolution has been interdisciplinary, according to Gerard Learmonth, research associate professor in the Department of Systems and Information Engineering and leader in the Bay Game's development. Faculty from U.Va.'s schools of Law, Engineering, Medicine, Commerce, Business, and Architecture and the College of Arts and Sciences have contributed data and expertise to the project.
"In designing these games, we always work with subject matter experts who all hold a different piece of the system," Soderquist said. "We get them all into the same room and force them to break down silos and to rise above them in order to get at the big dynamics — to get a complete systems view."
The vision is that the U.Va. Bay Game will eventually serve as a tool for research, education and outreach — not just for students, but for the general public and policymakers as well.
Thomas C. Skalak, vice president for research, said that he expects that the results of the Bay Game simulation will inform future public policies, private investment trends and societal behaviors in ways that enhance human health, economic prosperity and environmental sustainability.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Cville Weekly Names Additions a "Favorite Thing"
The local Charlottesville alternative newspaper C-ville Weekly, notes that the additions to Campbell Hall "prove that construction at UVA can be worthy of neighboring a World Heritage Site without merely imitating it." [Follow link to C-ville Weekly]
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
"Old School, New School: University of Virginia" - Architect Magazine
Source: ARCHITECT Magazine
Publication date: November 1, 2008
By Vernon Mays
When Karen Van Lengen arrived at the University of Virginia (U.Va.) in 1999, the School of Architecture she joined as dean was full of talented people and fresh ideas. But the building it occupied, Campbell Hall, was sorely lacking in space for reviews, classes, and staff. The four-story concrete-and-brick facility, which was designed by Pietro Belluschi and opened in 1970, had been criticized by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. "There was a huge accreditation issue," Van Lengen says. "I had to do something about it immediately."
Even perceptually, the physical environment was lifeless. So, launching an initiative called "Campbell Constructions," Van Lengen seized the opportunity to upgrade the building. Instead of hiring a name-brand outsider, her stratagem was to provide design opportunities for the U.Va. faculty. Starting with a rather modest gallery renovation, Van Lengen quickly moved on to bigger projects. A feasibility study by Bushman Dreyfus Architects, of Charlottesville, set the stage for three larger-scale projects?two additions and a new landscape plan.
[for complete article, follow link to Architect Magazine]
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
"Dedication of School of Architecture Additions Celebrates Collaboration, Transparency and the Creative Process"
[From UVa News Services; by Jane Ford, Senior News Officer]
Karen Van Lengen welcomed Saturday's autumn rain, even as it forced the dedication of the two new additions to the University of Virginia's School of Architecture indoors.
In her remarks, the dean told the high-spirited crowd of faculty, students, alumni, administrators and friends, "The rain is beautiful today. It is a quiet rain and a resource for replenishing the earth.
"That is what we are doing here with these additions. They provide a replenishment of the school that will give us a life and new life in the future."
The additions ? photographs of which were projected on the front wall of the auditorium ? were designed by faculty members William Sherman, associate dean for academic affairs, and W.G. Clark, Edmund Schureman Campbell Professor of Architecture and an alumnus of the school, in collaboration with SMBW Architects in Richmond. Alumnus and professor emeritus Warren Byrd created the landscape designs.
The new wings add 12,000 square feet, accommodating the school's growth since Campbell Hall was built in 1970. Each design also makes a statement about what architecture and architecture education mean.
Clark designed the Victor and Sono Elmaleh East Wing, which houses three rooms to hold review sessions of students' designs, as a transparent expression of the dialogue between student and teacher that is the hallmark of the school's education process. Through the use of both clear and thermally efficient white glass on three sides of the addition, he makes visible the process of what goes on inside.
Sherman's addition includes 26 faculty offices that promote interaction among the school's disciplines ? architecture, landscape architecture, architectural history and planning ? and between faculty and students. His design also includes examples of sustainable principles, a focus throughout the school's curriculum.
Byrd's designs for the gardens are also teaching tools, providing examples of materials, design principles and ways to use the landscape to achieve sustainable goals such as curbing erosion while purifying water runoff before it heads downstream.
[for complete article, follow link to UVa News]
Monday, October 27, 2008
"School of Architecture Shines with Campbell Hall Additions"
[from the Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Va.; by Aaron Lee, Staff Writer]
Two additions to Campbell Hall ? home to the University of Virginia?s School of Architecture ? are being dedicated today, more than two years after the project broke ground.
In the close to 40 years since Campbell opened, the number of students enrolled in UVa?s architecture programs has more than doubled. And at the same time the faculty has close to tripled, making space tight, officials said.
At a cost of $15.6 million, the additions have added 12,000 square feet of space, including 26 new faculty offices and three additional review rooms where students can have their work critiqued.
?The building is meant to exhibit what we do in the school,? W.G. Clark, UVa professor of architecture, said of the design of the east wing, which is almost completely encased on three sides by clear and translucent glass.
Two university professors were involved in designing the additions to the east and south ends of Campbell, which
before the additions topped out at 80,000 square feet.
Clark designed the east wing and said the review rooms it houses trump the former review rooms that lacked natural light.
?People don?t feel so trapped in there,? Clark said of the new rooms. In addition, the design sought ?to make that [review] process more visible to the campus community.?
William Sherman, an associate professor of architecture, designed the south-facing facade with computer-controlled louvered windows. Those windows adjust during the day and through each season to help control the temperature of the building.
The windows are also designed so they can be retrofitted with photovoltaic panels that capture sunlight to use as energy for Campbell, Sherman said.
[For complete article, follow the link to the Daily Progress website]
Monday, October 6, 2008
Architecture School Additions Emphasize Collaboration, Transparancy of Creative Process
[from UVa News Services, by Jane Ford]
The University of Virginia School of Architecture opened this fall with two new additions that promise to reorganize the life of the school and dramatize its mission.
"The additions are part of a master plan to remake our home in the spirit and mission of the school, while giving design opportunities to the faculty," Dean Karen Van Lengen said.
Van Lengen has worked over nine years to bring the additions and six faculty design-build projects, which include dedicated exhibition space, a café that offers local, organic food and an outdoor classroom, to reality. All reinforce and demonstrate the curricular values of the school to students and the public.
With the latest endeavor, the school created two additions and a "learning landscape" and also renovated some of the interior spaces in Campbell Hall, the school's home since 1970.
The new wings, which add 12,000 square feet to the building to address the growth of the school, were designed by faculty members W.G. Clark, the Edmund Schureman Campbell Professor of Architecture, and William Sherman, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Architecture, in collaboration with SMBW Architects in Richmond.
A dedication will be held at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 25.
[for complete article, follow link to UVa News]
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]
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Students Propose Pedestrian-Friendly Amendments to Charlottesville's Route 29
Students in Assoc. Professor William Sherman's Spring 2007 architecture course, "Walking in the Commercial Landscape," presented their proposals for immediate improvements for pedestrian access along and across Charlottesville and Albemarle's primary highway, Route 29, to the North Charlottesville Business Council yesterday. From all accounts, the proposals, including plans for a pedestrian bridge, bus stops in the median, and more crosswalks leading to shopping centers, were enthusiastically received.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Campbell Constructions
Construction began in late June with the removal of the east terrace to make way for the Victor and Sono Elmaleh East Tower, which will provide much-needed review, reception and exhibition space for our students. Work has also begun on the South Addition. This addition will provide essential space for faculty offices, enabling most of our faculty to be housed in closer proximity to their students and the studios.Saturday, May 20, 2006
Assoc. Professor Julie Bargmann's Work With Superfund Sites Featured in Virginia Magazine
The work of Associate Professor Julie Bargmann, both in her landscape architecture studios at the school and in her practice, D.I.R.T., is featured in the spring issue of Virginia Magazine article, "Queen of Slag: Transforming Industrial Wastelands," by Lee Graves. Several of Bargmann's projects over the past 6 years are highlighted.
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
School of Architecture Hosts Groundbreaking Ceremony for New Additions
President Casteen, representatives of the Board of Visitors, and the School's Advisory and Foundation Boards were all in attendance at the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new additions to Campbell Hall held on September 29th. President Casteen announced that the East Addition, designed by W.G. Clark, will be named the Victor and Sono Elmaleh East Addition in honor of the Elmaleh's generous gifts to the School. Dean Van Lengen thanked everyone who has been involved in the effort that lead to this historic day.
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Architecture School Celebrates Groundbreaking for New Additions
The terrace outside Campbell Hall was crowded on Sept. 29. Faculty, students, staff and guests mingled with Architecture School advisory board and University Board of Visitors members. All were gathered for a groundbreaking celebration, led by U.Va. President John T. Casteen III and Architecture School Dean Karen Van Lengen, of several additions to Campbell Hall.Friday, January 28, 2005
Three Professors Contribute to New Book About Site
A new compendium of essays on the definition and significance of site, Site Matters: Design Concepts, Histories, and Strategies (Eds. Carol J. Braun and Andrea Kahn; Routledge: 2005), includes entries by Professor of Architecture Robin Dripps, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Elizabeth Meyer and Associate Professor of Architecture and Chair of the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, William Sherman. Dripps' essay, "Groundwork," seeks to establish a literal and metaphoric foundation for the discussion of site. Meyer's piece, "Site Citations: The Grounds of Modern Landscape Architecture," discusses the history of site in landscape architectural design. Sherman's afterword, "Engaging the Field," describes the many ways in which the fields of architecture and landscape architecture are finding new paths of collaboration through a shared exploration of site.Professor Dolores Hayden of Yale University has said of the book, "At last, an excellent book about sites that should be on the desk of every architecture, landscape architecture, and planning student in the U.S.A. Carol Burns and Andrea Kahn have gathered a distinguished group of authors to discuss the political, poetic, and visual dimensions of sites."
A booksigning will be held on February 21, 2005 at the Van Alen Institute in New York, NY.
