Students

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Planning Student Authors Article for New Planner Magazine

Benjamin H. Chrisinger, fourth-year Urban and Environmental Planning student is the author of, "Expanding the Academic Menu - Today's Planning Students Have an Appetite for Food Systems" published in the American Planning Association's "The New Planner" online magazine. Access to the magazine is restricted to APA members, but the first paragraph of the article is included below: "At colleges and universities across the country, students are putting their shovels into soil, laying out beds and rows, sowing seeds, mixing compost, and making statements about food. In Virginia alone, three public institutions started student gardens during the past academic year. Though they differ in size, scope, and style, all student gardens seem to make a point of saying 'our food doesn't come from the grocery store.'"

Friday, October 16, 2009

Emily Rogers (MLA'09) Quoted in Post Article on Dumbarton Oaks Vegetable Garden

At Dumbarton Oaks, Veggies Crop Up Once More By Adrian Higgins [Washington Post, 10/15/09] The renowned garden at the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Georgetown is celebrated as a work of art, the perfect union of landscape design, craftsmanship and horticulture. I've felt for years, though, that the garden was missing one essential element: a vegetable garden. Happily, that has been fixed. A band of volunteers, with the staff gardeners, are reflecting on their first season of raising salad greens, beans, lettuces, tomatoes, okra and more in one of the garden's most serene spaces, a large terrace anchored by a pair of distinctive clay-tiled pavilions. [for complete article, follow link in headline]

Friday, October 9, 2009

Learning Barge Project Featured in Dominion Power Electricity Bills

The Learning Barge Project, directed by associate professor Phoebe Crisman, is featured in this month's electricity bills for Dominion Power customers, as well as on Dominion's website. The company's charitable giving arm, Dominion Foundation, is a major supporter of the project. To learn more about The Learning Barge, visit www.arch.virginia.edu/learningbarge

Thursday, September 17, 2009

David Malda (MLA/MArch) Named 2009 National Olmsted Scholar

The Landscape Architecture Foundation announced that David Malda is the 2009-10 National Olmsted Scholar, an honor bestowed on the student who best exemplifies leadership in sustainable design and planning. Malda is a student in both the Master of Landscape Architecture and Master of Architecture programs who expects to complete them in 2010. Now in its second year, the Olmsted Scholars Program solicits one nomination from every college and university landscape architecture program in the United States from which one National Olmsted Scholar and four finalists are selected. Last year, Karl Krause (MLA’09) was named a finalist in the inaugural program. The UVa Landscape Architecture Program nominated Malda for his outstanding scholarship and his leadership across several platforms – within studio; between disciplines; as a co-editor of the journal, lunch; among graduate students through GALA; and other initiatives inside and outside of the School of Architecture. “The University of Virginia Landscape Architecture faculty are … confident that he will be one of the leaders who re-imagines the forms and spaces of the twenty-first century urban landscape through his writings, built works, and the conversations he initiates with his clients and collaborators,” the faculty noted in their letter of nomination. Malda’s design and research direction reflects his studies across disciplines and the essay he prepared for the Olmsted Scholars Program, “Lessons for a Multi-Disciplinary Practice,” outlines a detailed plan for bringing community to the forefront of public urban landscape design. Malda expects to follow through on this plan. “Over the past few years I have been particularly interested in urban highways as sites of intersection between global and local priorities. After school, I am interested in working on these kinds of infrastructural landscapes both as an architect and landscape architect,” he said. The nominators also identified Malda’s prominent role in highlighting the points of connection between architecture and landscape architecture: “Malda exemplifies the best of our dual design students: he is committed to the ethic and craft of building sustainably, he assumes that form evolves from intersection of social, ecological and tectonic concerns, and he is central to the emerging discourse on the seam between architecture and landscape architecture in our Department,” they said. Malda will receive the award, which includes a $25,000 prize, at the American Society of Landscape Architects’ annual meeting in Chicago this week. Dean Kim Tanzer, who will attend the event along with Associate Professor Elizabeth Meyer among others, noted the School’s pride in Malda’s accomplishments, “We are honored and thrilled that a student in our Landscape Architecture and Architecture graduate programs will receive this national award which reflects on the excellence of our faculty, staff, and programs as well as our strong interest and support for interdisciplinary explorations of sustainable design principles.”

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Learning Barge Christened in Portsmouth

[by Jane Ford, UVa News Services] The water of the Elizabeth River sparkled like a jewel in the sunlight Monday as a crowd gathered at Portsmouth's High Street Ferry Landing. Dignitaries, supporters and friends had their eyes focused on a brighter jewel, though: the Learning Barge, a floating environmental wetlands classroom. All were gathered to celebrate the christening of the 120-foot vessel, designed and built by University of Virginia faculty and students in collaboration with the nonprofit Elizabeth River Project and support from more than 50 sponsors. The goal of the floating classroom is to teach students of all ages how to steward the river and its resources, with the goal of making it swimmable and fishable by 2020. The Elizabeth River is one of the most polluted rivers on the Chesapeake Bay. Architecture School associate professor Phoebe Crisman conceived of the project in 2005 while working on an environmental cleanup project on the river. "It has a series of learning environments," she said. "It's built on a barge, which travels from place to place along the Elizabeth, and also potentially other rivers, teaching children and the public about wetlands, about restoration and about green energy systems. The barge is completely off the grid, so we generate our own power, collect rainwater and treat that water onboard." Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, executive director of the Elizabeth River Project, hailed the University's involvement. "The partnership between The Elizabeth River Project as a local nonprofit and the University of Virginia, which is some distance away in the mountains – not even on this river – is a powerful statement that the University is looking beyond the ivory tower, so to speak, and seeing the needs of the state, the needs of the region and making the commitment – quite a considerable commitment – to travel to the need and invent the solution that will make a difference," she said. From the steps for children – up to 60 at a time – to sit on and hear stories about the river, to pumping water into planters of grass wetlands to learn about ways to remove pollutants, to compost toilets and sun-powered lights, every aspect of the design was conceived with education in mind. [for complete article, follow link in headline]

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Learning Barge Set for Sept. 14th Christening

[UVa News Services, by Jane Ford] The Learning Barge, the world's first floating wetland classroom, will be christened Sept. 14 at 11 a.m. at the High Street Ferry Landing in downtown Portsmouth. The 120-foot barge – a joint project of the University of Virginia, which designed and built it, and the non-profit Elizabeth River Project, which will operate it – will traverse the Elizabeth River to teach all ages how to make the Elizabeth River "swimmable and fishable" by 2020, the new goal of the Elizabeth River Project. The design by U.Va.'s School of Architecture has won a series of national awards. A live wetland on a steel barge symbolizes this community's commitment to reclaim the Elizabeth River as not only a major port, but also a healthy ecosystem. Currently the river is one of the most polluted on the Chesapeake Bay. Speakers at the christening will include U.Va. President John T. Casteen III; retired U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Joseph J. Thomas, president of the Elizabeth River Project's Board of Directors; and Paul D. Koonce, chief executive officer of Dominion Virginia Power. Dominion Virginia Power will announce a lead gift of $375,000 toward the $1.3 million total cost of the custom-designed barge and two years of educational programming. The Lowe's store in Charlottesville worked closely with The Elizabeth River Project to secure materials, and the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation funded an enclosed, on-board classroom laboratory with a gift of $125,000, while the Virginia Environmental Endowment funded initial project research. With these gifts, initial budget needs are met for The Elizabeth River Project to begin student field trips to the barge later in September, although fundraising continues to help schools pay for transportation and other ongoing needs. "The Learning Barge is our most powerful education tool yet for enlisting students and citizens to restore our home river," Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, executive director of the Elizabeth River Project, said. Often described as an initiative "by students for students," the Learning Barge not only was designed by U.Va., but the classroom and "green" power systems were also constructed by U.Va. students over the last three years – winning them a $75,000 cash award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a 2007 sustainability competition. Phoebe Crisman, the U.Va. associate professor of architecture who led the interdisciplinary team of students and community partners to design and fabricate the Learning Barge, was awarded the Education Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects in 2008. The U.Va. School of Architecture collaborated with the University's School of Engineering and Applied Science to power the Learning Barge solely by sun and wind, just one of its design elements geared to foster environmental responsibility. [for complete article, follow link in headline]

Thursday, September 3, 2009

ecoMOD4 Nearing Completion

[UVa News, by Zak Richards] After a busy summer of construction in the old hangar at the University of Virginia-owned Milton Airfield, the four modules of ecoMOD4 – a first floor with kitchen and living area, a second floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom, and first- and second-floor stairwell-storage-powder room modules that tie the two stories together – will be hauled by tractor-trailer later this month, lifted by crane onto the prepared foundation, and assembled on its permanent Elliott Avenue site. It's an exacting construction process. "The stair module needs to line up to within a 16th of an inch of the front," said Edric Barnes, a mechanical engineering student in U.Va.'s School of Engineering and Applied Science, who served as an engineering manager on ecoMOD4 this summer. [for complete article, follow link in headline]

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

"Community Garden Part of the Sustainable Agenda" in Cville Weekly

[Cville Weekly, by CHIARA CANZI] For quite some time now, Charlottesville has been the fulcrum of all things local: food, farms, local and sustainable businesses. Recently, the University of Virginia has taken up the local food discourse and integrated it into its curricula with practical instruction. Last March, a group of students began thinking about creating a sustainable, community garden on campus. “At the beginning of last year, we had just a couple of students who were really interested in having a garden of some kind going here,” says Ben Chrisinger, a senior Urban and Environmental Planning major. “They were kind of working independently, but realized that it would be better if we unified our efforts.” The students presented their idea to the Student Council Environmental Sustainability Committee and soon after, a task force was formed. For academic support, the students went to the Urban and Environmental Planning Department in the School of Architecture. [for complete article, follow link in headline]

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Graduate Student Develops Nut Harvesting Tools in Ghana with International Development Design Summit

MLA and MArch student Delia Kulukundis presented her team's design for one-acre farmers' Groundnut Threshing Tools at the annual International Development Design Summit yesterday. For the first time, the summit is being held outside of the United States, in Kumasi, Ghana. Kulukundis and approximately 70 other participants from 21 countries have spent the past five weeks tackling a problem in small teams that produce innovative, affordable, scalable technologies to assist the 2.6 billion people in the world earning less than $2-a-day. The summit was started by Massachusetts Institute of Technology senior lecturer Amy Smith, a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius Grant” award. Kulukundis will take part in demonstrating the finished prototype of her team's project at Maker Faire Africa, a celebration of African ingenuity, in Accra, Ghana from August 14th-16th. International Development Design Summit http://2009.iddsummit.org/

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

U.Va. Students Build a Floating Environmental Classroom

About 10 University of Virginia students, along with a handful of alumni, two faculty members and consultants, put in another 16-hour workday Thursday at a Chesapeake shipyard. Their mission: to prepare a floating classroom, dubbed the "Learning Barge," for its September launch date. Thanks in part to a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the students are spending six weeks living in two Virginia Beach townhouses while constructing the classroom, bathrooms, demonstration wetland habitat and breezeway on the solar-powered barge. Since the project's 2006 inception, more than 100 students have been involved through a variety of means: design studios, environmental seminars, engineering courses, competitions, fundraising efforts and construction. [follow link in headline for complete article and photos]

Monday, June 29, 2009

View Latest Videos of Learning Barge Under Construction

About The Learning Barge: The Learning Barge: teaching about environmental and cultural ecologies on the Elizabeth River. An interdisciplinary team of University of Virginia students and faculty are collaborating with diverse community partners on an innovative service-learning project to design and fabricate a floating, self-sustaining field station. The Learning Barge, located on the most polluted tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, will provide interactive K-12 and adult education about how the river and human activities are inextricably linked. Unlike environmental education centers located in pristine nature, the Learning Barge traverses an important urban river linking Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. Moving to a different river restoration site every few months, the Learning Barge will teach participants about the tidal estuary ecosystem, restoration efforts and the Elizabeths economic and transportation significance as a major port. The non-profit Elizabeth River Project will own and operate the field station, which will support environmental research, education and public outreach primarily to economically and socially disadvantaged children. The design harnesses energy from sun and wind, filters rainwater and gray water in a contained bed wetland, and utilizes recycled materials and green technologies.

Friday, June 12, 2009

ecoMOD Wins Spotlight Award from Charlottesville Business Innovation Council

[UVa Research News] PluroGen Therapeutics Inc., a University of Virginia start-up; ecoMOD, a unique design/build partnership of U.Va.'s schools of Architecture and Engineering; and David Chen, a U.Va. faculty member, were honored in May by the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council. The Charlottesville Innovation Awards, given at a gala event at Farmington Country Club, commend individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions over the last year to the local community and economy by advancing technology and innovation.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Learning Barge Named a Top Project in First UVa Sustainability Project Competition

From a floating learning center designed to teach K-12 students sustainable practices to sophisticated energy monitoring systems for Charlottesville-area homes, the first-ever Student Sustainability Project Competition held last week in the Dome Room of the Rotunda showcased 24 projects aimed at creating a more sustainable future. The competition, organized by the President's Committee on Sustainability, featured projects from students in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, McIntire School of Commerce, School of Architecture, College of Arts & Sciences and the Darden School of Business, among others. "Our goal for the U.Va. Sustainability Project Competition was three-fold," said Andrew Greene, sustainability planner in the University Architect's office and an organizer of the competition. "One, to help further these great projects; two, to foster collaboration among students from across the University, and three, to set up a successful event model that can be replicated and expanded in the future. "The quality of entries at our first competition bodes well for the future of this event." The top three projects identified by a panel of U.Va. faculty judges were "UVA Bikes" by students from the Commerce School, "Learning Barge" by students from the Architecture and Engineering schools and "Management and Reuse of Salt-Contaminated Stormwater Runoff" from the Engineering School. Each winning project team will be awarded $750. The "Learning Barge" details the creation and benefits of a 32- by 120-foot floating classroom and environmental field station that will educate K-12 students about sustainability with interactive, hands-on lessons. Beginning as soon as this summer, the barge will move every few months to different locations on the Elizabeth River to teach visitors about the tidal estuary ecosystem, wetland and oyster restoration, sediment remediation efforts and the Elizabeth River's economic and transportation significance. Other lessons will include how to adapt the rainwater collection and renewable energy systems found on the barge into homes. The project team, which consists of engineering students Whitney Newton and Farhad Omar and architecture graduate assistant Danielle Willkens, is working to help make the Elizabeth River fishable and swimmable by 2020, and the group estimates that more than 19,000 students and adults will visit the barge annually. [for complete article, follow link]

Friday, April 3, 2009

Chloe Hawkins Receives Raven Society Fellowship for Travel to Denmark

Chloe Hawkins (MLA candidate 2010) has been awarded a 2009 Raven Society Fellowship for her project,“Landscapes of Participation in Denmark." Hawkins will observe and research the use and engagement of public space by Danish children. The site of her research interest, the spatial practices of children and adults within the Lilleskolen, or Little Schools, in Denmark, builds on her prior experiences living in Denmark and teaching art to children in New York City. Hawkins' design research topic connects to many current pressing concerns: the lack of opportunity for active childhood play and its impact on rising childhood obesity; the relationship between play and cerebellum development in children; and the estrangement of the urban residents from nature and the impact on a community’s environmental values and actions.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Cameron Ringness Named a Steamboat Foundation Scholar

In 2008, the Steamboat Foundation initiated a partnership with Reed Hilderbrand Associates and UVa's School of Architecture that will give one Steamboat Scholar, selected from the junior class at UVa, the opportunity to intern at Reed Hilderbrand. Third year architecture student Cameron Ringness is the first student selected for this honor. For the Steamboat internship, Reed Hilderbrand will conduct a specialized research project that examines urban tree plantations in the context of increasingly typical goals for extending tree canopy cover to reduce the heat island effect in dense urban neighborhoods. Led by Principals Douglas Reed and Gary Hilderbrand, the firm has produced a legacy of thoughtfully conceived, durably built, and sustainable works across the United States that demonstrate the capacity of the landscape as one of the most potent instruments of contemporary cultural expression. With 23 landscape architecture professionals who also possess backgrounds in planning, architecture, the arts, sciences and humanities, and graphic design, the firm promotes an open studio culture that fosters a creative design life and a mutually supportive atmosphere. Ringness will have ongoing assignments in support of project teams in the firm's office and will present her own design research project to the office as the internship draws to a conclusion.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Landscape Architecture Students Win Numerous Virginia ASLA Awards

The Virginia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (VA ASLA) will award several students in Assoc. Professor Elizabeth Meyer’s LAR 801 Landscape Additions studio (Fall 2008) in the annual Student Design Competition. Receiving an Honor Award for Design: Zoe Edgecomb, Serena Nelson and Chihiro Shinohara for the design of a Second Street NE addition to Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall; and Ryan McEnroe for a street and a room, an addition to the Mall’s west end. Receiving a Merit Award for Design: Elise Mazareas for “Choreographing Flow, Constructing Experience”, an addition to the Mall’s west end. Receiving an Honor Award in the Communications category: Zoe Edgecomb and Serena Nelson on behalf of the entire class’s Design Research Book which examines the history of the Downtown Mall, Halprin Associates’ design philosophy, 20th c. pedestrian streets, and Landscape Preservation Theory and Practice.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Jason "Jay" Cantrell Awarded The Gabriel Prize from W.E.A.F.

The Western European Architecture Foundation awarded the 2009 Gabriel Prize to master's in architecture candidate Jason "Jay" Cantrell. Cantrell is the first recipient of the prize from the UVa School of Architecture. The Gabriel Prize, a $17,500 grant for the three-month study of classical architecture and landscape in France, has been awarded to one individual annually since 1991 through a highly selective juried process. Recipients are required to prepare three large drawings during their time in France, and to be mentored by a Parisian architect selected by the Foundation.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

2009 Kyle Kauffman Award Bestowed on Brandon Cuffy

Third year student Brandon Cuffy was awarded the 2009 Kyle Kauffman Award. The $2,500 award is given annually to the rising fourth year architecture student who best exemplifies the outstanding qualities of Kyle Frances Kauffman (BSArch’85)as determined by the third year class. In particular, the award is given to the student who "embodies dedication, enthusiasm for architecture,and achievement...and who serves their fellow students not in thoughts and words but in deeds, encouraging all about him or her to perform to the utmost of their capabilities."

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

New U.Va. Study Sheds Light on Foreclosures in States and Metropolitan Areas

{UVa News, by Jane Ford} National housing price declines and foreclosures have not been as severe as some analyses have indicated, and they are not as important as financial manipulations in bringing on the global recession, according to a new analysis of foreclosures in 50 states, 35 metropolitan areas and 236 counties by University of Virginia professor William Lucy and graduate student Jeff Herlitz. Their analysis shows that most foreclosures have been concentrated in California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and a modest number of metropolitan counties in other states. In fact, they claim that "66 percent of potential housing value losses in 2008 and subsequent years may be in California, with another 21 percent in Florida, Nevada and Arizona, for a total of 87 percent of national declines." [for complete article, follow link to UVa News]

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Graduate Student Published in Planning Magazine

Jeff Herlitz (MP degree expected in 2010) was recently published in the American Planning Association trade magazine Planning. The August/September 2008 issue focused on water in America. Jeff penned "Our Imperiled Oceans and Coasts", which detailed the problems associated with coastal water quality and some current domestic and international ideas on how best to address them. Ranging from coastal development patterns in Georgia to the effect of climate change on Venice, the article assessed current domestic policy and its implication for the health of our world's ocean ecosystem. On a similar note, Jeff published a related article in the September 2008 issue of Urban Land. It was a short overview of the effect of ocean rise on coastal infrastructure and was titled "Infrastructure and Climate Change." Jeff expects to have two more articles published by year?s end. One focuses on industrial symbiosis and another examines the Brookings Institution policy report "MetroPolicy."

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Planning Students Awarded Public Service Fellowships

Graduate students in Urban & Environmental Planning, Fania Gordon, Renee Pean, Lisa Hardy, and Meg Johnstone have each been selected to receive UVA School of Architecture Public Service Fellowships for the 2008-09 academic year. The UVA School of Architecture Public Service Fellowship Program provides fellowships for students interested in working in local design and environment-related nonprofit organizations. The intent of this program is to provide a formal structure for students to gain experience in creative work in the community that is in line with their interests. For the 2008-2009 academic year Fania Gordon will be working with the Charlottesville Tomorrow organization, Renee Pean will be working with Habitat for Humanity, Lisa Hardy with the Institute for Environmental Negotiation, and Meg Johnstone with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Students Win Honor Award in ASLA Design Competition

For the second year in a row, students in the Program in Landscape Architecture have been awarded a top prize for their submission in the annual ASLA competition. Shanti Levy (MLA, MArch, degree expected Dec, 2008) and Elizabeth Hoogheem (MArch'08) submitted, "AGUA: Infrastructure as Landscape Identity," a proposal for a 300-acre water infrastructure park in the Mexico City Basin. Assoc. Professor Julie Bargmann and Mario Schjetnan, FASLA, who was the Frank Talbot, Jr. Visiting Professor for 2007-08, served as faculty advisors. The awards jury commented, " Beautifully presented?real art! This project dealt with important hydrological issues in a revelatory way that was culturally specific and spoke to things that were Mexican in nature."

Thursday, July 17, 2008

UVa School of Architecture Students Help Residents Envision a Sustainable South Bronx

[by Jane Ford, UVa News Services]: July 17, 2008 ? New York City's South Bronx neighborhood is poised to become a model for urban sustainable development on a large scale, and a group of University of Virginia Architecture School graduate students have helped citizens and community leaders there visualize their dreams. For 19 U.Va. students in two studio design classes, the experience was a lesson in urban ecologies, collaboration across disciplines and working with a coalition of South Bronx organizations dedicated to promoting sustainable initiatives. The South Bronx neighborhood has long been marginalized and neglected, said Kristina Hill, associate professor and director of landscape architecture, who led a studio that explored plans for affordable housing, retail stores and light industry ? all while employing sustainable building principles and the creation of a linear park that would connect various parts of the community. The South Bronx was transformed by a wave of property abandonment in the 1960s and '70s, and a subsequent period of appropriation by government agencies of what was once private property ? sometimes to create new public housing, and sometimes to build highways that cut through vital parts of the Bronx and isolated them from each other and from the Bronx River. In addition, the South Bronx is now a crazy quilt of experiments in housing density, from single-family ranch homes to super-blocks with high rises ? and contains New York City?s only remaining surface stream; the rest are underground in pipes. The neighborhood provides "a great way for students to think about what the American city is, both socially and ecologically, and what it means to the American psyche," Hill said. Communities like the South Bronx, whose population is about 60 percent Hispanic and 40 percent black, too often bear an inequitable environmental burden of pollution, industrial facilities and very limited access to parks, clean air and water, Hill said. "In a time of increased awareness of the need for equitable conditions for all, the design professions need to take a more active role in becoming advocates, or helping advocates make an argument for responsible design/planning decisions," said Toshihiko Karato, who is pursuing dual graduate degrees in architecture and landscape architecture. "There is a need for the profession to be able to effectively become leaders in the public sphere, so that they can at the least advise government decisions, if not participate in the political process." Through research and meetings with community members, the students learned that a major barrier for the South Bronx is the under-utilized Sheridan Expressway, which impedes neighborhood access to the Bronx River and does not serve the transportation needs of the community, of which only 20 percent own cars. Neighborhood groups are already working with the state of New York to have the expressway removed. [for complete article, see article on UVa News website]

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Class of 2008 Profile: Working Across Disciplines, Malindi Lankatilleke is Dedicated to Neighborhood Restoration and Revitalization

[by Jane Ford, UVa News Services] May 13, 2008 ? The tsunami that devastated communities along the coastlines of Indonesia, Thailand, Maldives, India and Sri Lanka in December 2004 had a lasting effect on Malindi Lankatilleke. Armed with her bachelor's of architecture degree, which she earned at the University of Virginia in 2004, Lankatilleke took a hiatus from her office job and spent three weeks working with the United Nations Human Settlement Program in Sri Lanka to help with rebuilding efforts. She quickly learned that her design background was not enough to deal with the policy issues associated with rebuilding a community. To have real impact, "you need to be able to understand all sides of the issues," she said ? social, political and cultural ? and allow the citizens of the community to be part of the process. Lankatilleke's firsthand experience reinforced what she had been exposed to her whole life. A native of Sri Lanka, she came to U.Va. from a high school in South Africa, one of many places around the world that her father's work with U.N. Habitat took their family. "I had seen so much of this work of community building in marginalized communities," she said. "It is so important to allow communities to make decisions and build their visions. It instills value in them and encourages people to build their own assets. The people?s process of development is a much more effective way for marginalized communities to sustain themselves and be self-reliant." Lankatilleke kept this vision with her when she applied to graduate schools, seeking dual master's degrees in architecture and planning. She said a major factor in her decision to return to U.Va. was the Architecture School's commitment to community activism and outreach. She also knew the faculty's expertise in both disciplines would be a great resource for her. "The faculty work closely with the students and are available," Lankatilleke said. "They inspire in so many different ways." [for complete article, follow link in headline to UVa News]

Monday, May 12, 2008

Malindi Lankatilleke to Receive Shannon Award from the Z Society at Graduation

The University of Virginia's anonymous Z Society has announced the winners of its 35th annual Edgar F. Shannon Awards, given to the "best" graduating students from each of the University's schools. In a notification letter to the winners ? signed, "Mystically, Z" ? the society wrote, "The definition of best student is intentionally left ambiguous because each of us pursues greatness in very different ways; however, the best student is an individual who has pursued academic greatness with fervent ardor and keen insight while never forgetting the importance of those priorities aside from school." The notification letters state that the winners are determined based upon the recommendations of deans and students. Notations of the awards are made on both the students' transcripts and in the Finals program. The awards are named for the University's fourth president. In its announcement, the Z Society lauds Shannon's legacy of initiating coeducation and increasing the numbers of black students and faculty, and his establishment of the Center for Advanced Studies and the Echols Scholars program. This year's Shannon Award winners are: ? School of Nursing: Sarah Morris Boschung, Oakton, Va. ? McIntire School of Commerce: Jennifer Renee Clifton, Danville, Va. ? School of Medicine: David Benjamin Bumpass, Flowery Branch, Ga. ? School of Law: Katherine Ireland Twomey, Vienna, Va. ? Curry School of Education: Kevin Patrick Haddix, Haddon Heights, N.J. ? College of Arts & Sciences: Christopher Ross Walters, Blacksburg, Va. ? School of Architecture: Malindi Rasangi Lankatilleke, Charlottesville, Va. ? School of Engineering and Applied Science: Eliah Ruth Shamir, Vienna, Va. The notification letter urges the winners to "Take the lessons you have learned here and use them to do great things for the world in the years to come, but never forget that you will forever be welcome back at our University. Congratulations, and happy graduation."

Friday, May 9, 2008

UVa Students Collaborate to Help Fund and Design New Schools in Uganda

[from UVa News Services, by Jeffrey Hanna] "Contagious" is perhaps the best word to describe the excitement surrounding a project to build schools for impoverished rural communities in Uganda through a partnership between the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science and its School of Architecture. That excitement would certainly go a long way to explain why more than 700 students took turns riding stationary bikes in the pouring rain at a project fundraiser, held March 31 through April 4 on the Lawn, as muddied Irish step dancers, a cappella groups and belly dancers cheered them on. The energy driving it all was perhaps nowhere more evident than in the voice of second-year student Meredyth Gilmore, president of the U.Va. chapter of Building Tomorrow. She proudly explained that, with the $17,610 generated by the bikers added to funds raised through a similar event last year, the organization now has more than enough to build a school in Uganda. "Everybody's giving their time, their money, their innovation ? whatever they can to help out this one community that's halfway around the world whose needs are so great," she said, crediting the support that spread like wildfire among the student body, the faculty and the local community. Near the top of that list of supporters are the fourth-year Engineering in Context students working with Dana Elzey, associate professor of materials science and director of the Engineering School's international programs, and the architecture students working with assistant professor Anselmo Canfora in his "Studio reCOVER." They've worked together since last year to design the school's physical structure and its water collection, filtration, sanitation and solar lighting systems, and they are tremendously excited by Building Tomorrow's effective and high-impact approach that pushes every dollar to its maximum use. By partnering with the Ugandan Ministry of Education, which pays for the teachers, and working closely with the community leaders to ensure local investment in the form of donated labor, the organization builds strong consensus. That's crucial when you consider that in the Wakiso district of Uganda, where the school will go, approximately 330,000 children have no access to education. The students are excited by the prospect of seeing their design implemented and used. Bridging the gap between academia and practice is what Studio reCOVER and Engineering in Context are all about. [for complete article, follow link in headline]

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.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

"Fine Arts Cafe Goes Organic, Local"

BY JAYSON WHITEHEAD "UVA senior architecture student Serena Weaver spent last semester dreaming of an ideal menu for the Fine Arts Café in the School of Architecture. The decades old cafeteria was finally getting revamped. What if, instead of the normal plastic-tasting cafeteria food, its menu was organic?or even better, from local Virginia farms?..." [for complete article, follow link to Cville Weekly]

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

SARC Alumnus Lectures and Students Mount Exhibit for Historic Garden Week in Virginia

[From UVa News Services, by Rebecca Arrington] The University of Virginia will participate in the 75th Historic Garden Week in Virginia April 22. Events include a lecture by Will Rieley, U.Va. School of Architecture alumnus and former faculty member, and a student-designed exhibit on the architectural history of the U.Va. gardens. As always, the University's pavilion gardens and selected homes will be open to the public for the event. Rieley, who serves as consulting landscape architect to the Garden Club of Virginia, which sponsors historic garden week, will give a public talk titled "The Garden Club of Virginia and the U.Va. Gardens" at 2 p.m. in the auditorium of the Harrison Institute/Small Special Collections Library. Special Collections will also house a student-curated exhibit, "Designing History, Curating Nature: The Gardens Within the Academical Village" on April 21 and 22. The exhibit outlines the architectural history of the gardens and their relationship to the wider University community. Landscape architecture students Jessica Calder, Melissa Celii, Taylor Cooper, Paul De, Kurt Fulmer, Dhara Goradia, Lauren Hackney, Christa Kolb, Elise Mazareas and Chihiro Shinohara, as well as College of Arts & Sciences student Mary Brandon Ingram, created the exhibit as independent study projects over the course of the year. They explored themes such as how the gardens have changed over time, their use as social spaces and the patronage of the Garden Club, which restored the gardens in the second half of the 20th century. Landscape architecture professor Beth Meyer, who guided the students in developing the exhibit, said that the project was a chance for the whole University community to learn more about the unique spaces. "There are a lot of myths about those gardens," Meyer said. She also pointed out that while Jefferson laid out the serpentine walls, "He didn't design the gardens. He let the faculty develop them the way anybody who moved into a house would. They had to grow their own food...." [for complete article, follow link to UVa News online]

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

SARC Students Share Vision For New College Institute in Martinsville

[From UVa News Services] by Jane Ford, Senior News Officer Fourth-year architecture students from the University of Virginia experienced the power of architecture to bring community together and saw the ability of education to be an economic development tool in a fall studio design class. In early March, five students from architecture professor Kenneth Schwartz's fourth-year design studio pulled together a presentation of their work and that of their eight classmates, sharing their ideas and vision for the future of the New College Institute with interested faculty, staff, students and Martinsville citizens. [for complete article, follow link to UVa News]

Monday, April 14, 2008

Planning Student Wins Internship with Urban Institute

Third-year Urban & Environmental Planning student Donta Harris has been awarded an internship with the extremely selective Washington D.C. Urban Institute Summer Academy for Public Policy Analysis and Research. Harris is one of 10 students selected for the internship from a field of 350 applicants nationwide. Harris will be in residence at the Urban Institute for eight weeks this summer, and according to the program's description, "taking classes, attending policy seminars, and conducting analyses to hone research skills while gaining exposure to a wide range of career opportunities in policy research and analysis."

Monday, March 10, 2008

Landscape Architecture Student Wins Howerton Fellowship

Heather Woodworth (MLA 2009 candidate) has been selected as a Summer 2008 Fellow at Hart Howerton's NYC office. This prestigious fellowship includes a paid internship, a housing subsidy, and a $5000 travel subsidy for select field study. Woodworth will be traveling to the UK to investigate green roof practices.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

2008 Kyle Kauffman Award Given

Third year student Steven Johnson was awarded the 2008 Kyle Kauffman Award this afternoon at a brief ceremony in the Naug Lounge. The $2,500 award is given annually to the rising fourth year architecture student who best exemplifies the outstanding qualities of Kyle Frances Kauffman (BSArch’85)as determined by the third year class. In particular, the award is given to the student who "embodies dedication, enthusiasm for architecture,and achievement...and who serves their fellow students not in thoughts and words but in deeds, encouraging all about him or her to perform to the utmost of their capabilities."

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

"A Floating Environment": Profile of a Student Leader of the Learning Barge Project

[by Charlie Feigenoff] When most people think of the environment, they imagine a pristine mountain stream or a meadow blanketed in wildflowers?anything but the heavily industrialized Elizabeth River in Southeast Virginia. Yet it is precisely because the hand of man rests so heavily on this estuary of the Chesapeake Bay that Phoebe Crisman, an associate professor of architecture, chose it as the site for the Learning Barge. This floating field station, designed and being built by architecture and engineering students in collaboration with local partners, will give schoolchildren a better understanding of natural processes and the contributions they can make to a healthy environment. Danielle Willkens, a graduate student in architecture, is one of two student leaders for the Learning Barge. ?This has been a fascinating experience for me,? she says. ?The project is so rich because so many different factors?economic, demographic, environmental, educational?come together at the site and influence our design.? ... [for complete article, see "Explorations"]

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Graduate Student Helps Earn National Historic Designation for South Albemarle

December 13, 2007 | Charlottesville Daily Progress "...Charlottesville?s Martha Jefferson neighborhood, which surrounds the hospital just north of downtown, has been added to Virginia?s list of historic districts. ...The neighborhood hired Lydia Mattice Brandt, a University of Virginia Ph.D. candidate in architectural history, to conduct an inventory of historic homes and author a nomination report. Brandt found that 118 homes and buildings in the neighborhood should be considered historic, with the oldest dating back to 1839."

Monday, November 12, 2007

Graduate Student Awarded American Assoc. of University Women Fellowship for 2007-08

Zoe Edgecomb, a student in the graduate programs in Landscape Architecture and in Architecture, has been awarded the prestigious American Association of University Women (AAUW) Selected Professions Fellowship for 2007-08. Edgecomb is one of ten female university students from around the nation selected for the award, which provides an average of $10,000 per student in financial support for exceptional work in a discipline with traditionally few women.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Students and Alumni Win Honors in Local Design Competition

School of Architecture students and alumni won second and third places in the Market Value Design Competition directed by the City of Charlottesville, the Charlottesville Community Design Center (CCDC), and the Virginia Society of the AIA (VSAIA), as announced on Saturday. The competition brief called for ideas for developing a site in the central downtown section of Charlottesville that is currently a parking lot. Graduate students James Huemoeller and David Malda were awarded second place, and the Barcelona-based design firm Speranza Architecture, lead by Philip Speranza (BSArch'97) won third. Alumnus James Dayton (MArch'91) of James Dayton Design, Ltd. based in Minneapolis was awarded an Honorable Mention. First place was given to the firm Little, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Information about the winning projects will be available shortly on the competition website at www.marketvaluecompetition.org.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Graduate Students Win Top Prize in Alternative Transportation Design Competition

Graduate planning students Bob Batz and Julie Ulrich are members of one of three winning teams in Re:Vision's design competition for alternative transportation, Re:Route. In partnership with Javier Del Castillo and Alec Gosse of GreenBlue, the students proposed "Intelligently Integrated Transport (ITT)," a system in which smaller buses link between neighborhood hubs, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and waiting times. To see the winning scheme, follow the link below.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Doctoral Student Receives Fulbright Award

Burak Erdim (MAH'04, MArch'05), a doctoral student in the Ph.D. Program in the History of Art and Architecture has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright student scholarship from the U.S. Department of State to further his dissertation research in Turkey during the 2007-08 academic year. Harrison Professor Dell Upton serves as Erdim's dissertation adviser. Erdim's dissertation, "Cultural and educational exchanges between the U.S. and Turkey in the post-WWII period (1950-64)," includes a special focus on the inception and foundation of METU (Middle East Technical University), in the context of Cold War politics in the Middle East and new directions in Modernism. Erdim is one of 1,300 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad this academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Graduate Students Awarded Scholarships

Two graduate students have been selected to receive scholarships from the Virginia Center for Architecture Foundation / VSAIA in partnership with other scholarship funds. Malindi Lankatilleke was selected for the scholarship that partners with the School of Architecture Foundation?s Merrill C. Lee Scholarship Fund, and Chihiro Shinohara was selected for the scholarship that partners with the School of Architecture Foundation?s Harry E. Ormston Scholarship Fund. The funds offset costs for tuition and other fees associated with enrollment as students at the UVa School of Architecture.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Graduate Student Receives Scholarship to Assist in New Orleans Historic Home Mitigation

Rachel Robinson, a rising second year student in the Masters in Urban & Environmental Planning program, is one of four students nationally to receive the Help Rebuild New Orleans Foundation Scholarship from the American Planning Association. Robinson is using the scholarship this summer to work for the City of New Orleans in the Office of Recovery Management where she is managing a group of historic residences that will require Section 106 Review before they can be mitigated. ?While this project represents but one small piece of the much larger Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP), it highlights my interest in preservation planning and uncovers many of the questions and challenges that the city faces as it recovers from one disaster and prepares for the next,? she said. Robinson is a member of a team performing hazard mitigation that is led by Dr. Earthea Nance, Manager of Infrastructure and Planning, and including representatives from the city of New Orleans, state of Louisiana, and FEMA.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Learning Barge Project Wins $75,000 EPA P3 Award for Sustainable Design

A team of University of Virginia architecture and engineering students won the EPA's prestigious Third Annual P3 (People, Prosperity and the Planet) Award in the National Sustainable Design Expo, a student design contest for sustainability, held on the Washington, D.C. Mall on April 24 and 25. U.Va.'s entry, "The Learning Barge: Environmental + Cultural Ecologies on the Elizabeth River," was one of six projects to be recognized with Sustainability Design Awards of $75,000.

Monday, April 23, 2007

SARC Students Honored with Leadership Award from OAAA

Students L. Bernard Harkless, Jr., Mario Moore, and Marques Moore (4th year undergraduates in the BS Architecture Program) received the Longevity of Excellence Award for their outstanding achievements in leadership from the U.Va. Office of African-American Affairs at a ceremonial dinner on April 4th that was attended by Assistant Professor Nisha Botchwey and Professor Kenneth Schwartz.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Students Win Honors in BSA Design Competition

Three students have won awards for design in the Boston Society of Architects? In the Pursuit of Housing design competition. The competition was established to "engage younger members of the profession and student designers to think critically about the housing issues facing their generation." Matthew Young (4th Year Architecture) is recognized for his project, "Dwelling in Sert's Shadow,? a proposal for modular faculty/staff housing in Cambridge, MA that combines individual units with collective courtyards. Young developed the proposal as part of Assoc. Professor Judith Kinnard's ARCH 401 Urban Housing Studio. The team of Allison Dryer and James Pressly (MArch Program) is honored for their project, ?(Re) Building Blocks,? a proposal for new housing in the Gulf Coast that they developed in Assoc. Professor Maurice Cox's ALAR 702/ 802 Higher Density on High Ground Studio. The winning projects will be on display at the Residential Design and Construction Convention and Tradeshow in Boston April 4 and 5, where the students will receive cash prizes.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Landscape Architecture Student Wins Prestigious Fellowship

Marko Phemister, landscape architecture graduate student, received one of six highly-competitive inaugural Hart Howerton student fellowships for research, travel, and for a summer internship in the Hart Howerton offices in NYC or San Francisco. Phemister will receive a $5,000 research stipend, funds for European travel, and a stipend during the internship. The six fellows represent the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and planning.

Friday, March 9, 2007

Students win Top Prize and Honorable Mention in 2007 AIA Virginia Society Prize Competition

The 2007 Virginia Society AIA Prize Winner is 4th Year Architecture student Howard Kim, for his project, ?The Barge Listens.?
Anjushree Rathi, a graduate student of architecture, received an Honorable Mention in the competition for her project, ?Untitled.?
Members of the jury included: James P. Clark, AIA (Jury chairman, MTFA Architecture, VSAIA Board), Timm Jameison, FAIA (SFCS), Randall Mars, AIA (Randall Mars Architect, VSAIA Board, AIA NOVA Board), Vernon Mays (Virginia Society AIA Staff, Inform Magazine Editor), and Bob Middlebrooks, AIA (Clark Nexsen Architects).

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Assistant Professor John Quale and the ecoMOD Project receive two significant awards

It is a great pleasure to announce that John Quale and the ecoMOD Project has received two significant awards recently: The first is the Collaborative Practice Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.  Criteria: This ACSA award recognizes programs that demonstrate how faculty, students, and community/civic clients work to realize common objectives. Participation by professional practitioners and colleagues from other academic disciplines is encouraged. Architecture, Landscape, Interior, Planning, Industrial, Urban Collaborative projects and practice can encompass a variety of endeavors, including but not limited to: design/build, new construction, rehabilitation, open space planning, zoning and regulatory reform, and the development of new institutions or social processes. The second is one of three Education Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects.  Criteria: The awards jury will seek evidence of exceptional and innovative courses, initiatives, or programs that: - deal with broad issues, particularly in cross-disciplinary collaboration and/or within the broader community; - contribute to the advancement of architecture education; - have the potential to benefit and/or change practice; and/or - promote models of excellence that can be appropriated by other educators. Both awards will be presented at next month's ACSA Convention in Philadelphia. Congratulations John and all of the students whose commitment has made this recognition possible.

Monday, January 8, 2007

Katherine Floreshiemer wins DIS Award of Design Excellence

UVA student Katherine Floersheimer was recognized at the Fall 2006 Concluding Ceremony and received the DIS Award of Design Excellence. This is the 2nd year in a row that a UVA student has received this award (in the Fall of 2005, Andrew Vann won the award).

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Architecture Student Named Finalist in KRob Competition

Fourth-year undergraduate student Howard Kim was named a finalist today in the 32nd Annual Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition (KRob). Open to architecture students and professionals who are working in the United States, KRob accepts both hand and digital delineation and is the longest-running architectural delineation competition currently in operation anywhere in the world. Kim's proposal, LAX SLEEPING POD, is available for viewing on the competition website.

Monday, October 2, 2006

MArch Student Leslie McDonald Designs Production for Feature Film, "Hollywoodland"

Leslie McDonald, a student in the graduate-level Program in Architecture, has been featured in several news articles for her production design work on the new film, "Hollywoodland." McDonald has worked in film art direction and production design for two decades and has a long list of credits to her name.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Graduate Students Win Honors in 2006 ASLA Student Awards Program

A graduate studio at the School of Architecture, Associate Professor Phoebe Crisman's ?Learning Barge? in Spring 2006, and a MLA student from Professor Robin Dripps' "New Orleans Studio" in Spring 2006, Bridget Belkacemi won awards in the 2006 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Student Awards Program.

The students in the ?Learning Barge? studio won the Student Collaboration Award of Honor for their research and design work during the spring semester with Phoebe Crisman?s multi-year project to design and build a floating classroom for children on the Elizabeth River that will educate about a wide variety of environmental issues. The awards jury commented, ?What an imaginative idea to get kids outdoors to learn about the environment and sustainability. Fun, refreshing, creative, and cost-effective."

Belkacemi won the Communications Award of Honor for her project, "Bayou as Infrastructure," a video narrative and representational interactive model of New Orleans. The awards jury commented, "Amazing in its use of simple materials and the tactile nature of the message delivery. Using a puzzle and storytelling as a way to inform and engage the general public is an effective and responsible example of how landscape architects should communicate about possible solutions."

Thursday, August 17, 2006

MLA Student Receives EPA "STAR" Fellowship for Phytoremediation Visualization Project

Mary Nelson, a graduate student in the landscape architecture program, has received a Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowship from The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for her proposal, Visualization of Site Specific Phytoremediation. Her project will utilize GIS software to create an interactive database of phytoremediation species that can be cross-referenced to specific geographic locations for the visualization of their spatial and temporal design.

Using GIS technology, the scientific data of phytoremediation, (the plant species, contaminant(s) addressed, and quantifiable data on the remediation process) can be represented as a graphic database cross-referenced to site-specific qualities, (climate, geography, solar orientation, soil type) informing not only what species would function best, but also the spatial and temporal growth potential of each plant. The expected result is an interactive database that will identify the phytoremediation plant species and methodology available to any site of a user?s choosing.

As primary faculty advisor, Julie Bargmann, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, will guide research on both phytoremediation and design. As the faculty co-advisor, David L. Phillips, Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, will guide the GIS resources of the project, including the development of appropriate geodatabases and 3D visualization, and the utilization of resources available at U.Va.?s Geospatial and Statistical Data Center.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Graduate Students Receive Merit Award in High Density on the High Ground Design Competition

A student design team in ARCH/LAR 702/802 under the direction of Assoc. Professor Maurice Cox will receive the Merit Award in the professional category of the High Density on the High Ground residential design competition sponsored by Architectural Record and Tulane University School of Architecture. Graduate students Justin Laskin and Kathleen Mark are one of three teams in the competition to receive the honor.

Two additional School of Architecture student design teams, Lorenzo Battistelli and Kristin Hennings and Alli Dryer and James Pressly from the Cox Studio will have the honor of their designs included in an exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Art in New Orleans. The competition attracted more than 600 entries in the professional and student categories from around the world.

Entrants were asked to design a 140-unit housing community on a high-ground site by the Mississippi River. The winning designs will be featured in the June issue of Architectural Record and will be on display at the annual AIA Convention, held this year in Los Angeles in early June, as well as at the Ogden Museum.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

ecoMOD2, "preHAB," Destined for Hurricane-Devastated Mississippi

"The challenge of combining ecological technologies with the need for affordable housing in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast occupied the minds and talents of 18 University of Virginia students taking part in a unique student/faculty project. The interdisciplinary team of undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Architecture and the School of Engineering and Applied Science teamed up throughout the spring semester to create a Habitat for Humanity home to be constructed in Gautier, Miss. Along the way, they tackled issues related to high winds, humidity, moisture and hurricanes, and employed passive and active solar technologies to build preHAB, a prototype environmentally responsive panelized house kit ? the second house in ecoMOD, a multi-year research and design / build / evaluate project at the School of Architecture?." ~ Jane Ford, UVa News

Thursday, May 11, 2006

ecoMOD Project Receives Honorable Mention in P3 Competition

?Evaluating ecoMOD: Building Performance Monitoring and Post-Occupancy Evaluation of an Ecological, Modular House,? a component of the ecoMOD Project directed by Asst. Professor John Quale, received an honorable mention last night at the Environmental Protection Agency's P3 Competition, a science and technology sustainability competition. The event was presided over by EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, and the awards ceremony included speeches by Congressman Mark Udall (D-Colorado) and Charles O. Holliday, Jr., CEO of DuPont.

ecoMOD2 was featured in the local newspaper, The Hook, this week as a positive step toward aiding those displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Graduate Student Wins 2006 BE Award of Excellence

Graduate student Ryan Hughes has been selected for the 2006 BE Award of Excellence taking first place in the University Architecture competition for his project "High School in Philadelphia" (Waldman Studio). The international competition is held among all architecture schools engaging the use of Microstation and other Bentley Systems products, with entries from across the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. Hughes will receive the award at a banquet on May 22nd and his project is expected to be published by Bentley Systems.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Graduate Student Wins Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellowship

Mary Nelson (MLA expected 2008) has been selected to receive a Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Dangermond Fellowship for 2006-2007. Nelson's proposal "Visualizing Phytoremediation" will deploy her considerable digital imaging abilities in order to explore the spatial, place-making implications of emerging site regeneration techniques for cleansing toxins from the soil. Nelson developed this proposal with the assistance of Professors Julie Bargmann and David Phillips (whose GIS course she took last Fall) and will work on it as series of independent studies and a design research project over the next two years.

The Dangermond Fellowship is named in honor of landscape architect Jack Dangermond, a pioneer in GIS software development.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Graduate Student Wins Top Teaching Assistant Award

Graduate student Matthew Hural received the U.Va. Seven Society?s Top Teaching Assistant award yesterday at their annual awards dinner in the Rotunda. Hural was a teaching assistant for ARCH 101 and ARCH 201 in the fall semester. The $7,000 prize will allow him to further his academic goals.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Rehabilitating Homes and Hope: School of Architecture Students and Faculty Contribute to Gulf Coast Relief Efforts

As most university students were preparing for the start of the spring semester, a group of undergraduate students from the School of Architecture with a graduate student from the School of Engineering and Applied Science were helping with the ongoing post-Katrina clean-up in greater New Orleans.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Justin Aff Named Scholarship Winner by VA Chapter of ASLA

Landscape Architecture student Justin Aff will be awarded the annual scholarship from the Virginia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (VA ASLA) on April 21st at the chapter's annual meeting in Richmond. VA ASLA awards the scholarship to one student at the University of Virginia and one student at Virginia Tech with the purpose to "encourage continued advancement in the profession of landscape architecture." The scholarship winners are selected in a highly competitive process from which VA ASLA seeks the student "who most clearly exhibits excellence in their landscape architectural studies," and who has at least one year remaining in their respective program.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Faculty and Students Develop Charlottesville Streetcar Proposal

A University-based group of architects and students have unveiled an exhibit for their plan to connect vital parts of Charlottesville with a single-track trolley system, according to a University press release. The team includes former Charlottesville Mayor Maurice Cox and Gary Okerlund, both current adjunct professors in the Architecture School, as well as Architecture graduate students Justin Laskin, Justin Walton, Tommy Solomon and Jayme Schwartzberg and Shannon Yadsko and Architecture undergraduate Sally Foster. The project is co-sponsored by the Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation. ? Cavalier Daily Friday, Nov. 18, 2005

Thursday, November 3, 2005

Winners Announced in New American Front Door Design Competition

The Commonwealth of Virginia?s Department of Professional & Occupational Regulation and the University of Virginia School of Architecture have collaborated in conducting a Virginia Student Design Competition to address the crucial issue of ?visitability? in residential design. On behalf of the distinguished jury, we are pleased to announce the winners and recipients of honorable mention for this competition. These projects along with several others selected for their unique qualities are being exhibited at the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects annual convention ? ?Architecture Exchange East? - at the Richmond Convention Center today and tomorrow, November 3-4, 2005. The winners were announced today at noon following the convention?s keynote address.

First Place Winners (tie):

Daniel Norman & Carter Williams ? University of Virginia

Mark Buenavista & Eric Craig ? University of Virginia

Second Place Winners (tie):

Duckjune Park ? University of Virginia

Edward P. Singer - University of Virginia

Honorable Mentions:

Allison Dryer ? University of Virginia

Samuel E. Scheibel ? Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

Exhibited Projects:

Kimberly Brown ? University of Virginia

Virginia Koon ? University of Virginia

Kimberly Stone ? Hampton University

Reginald Truxon - Hampton University

Competition Jury:
Mark McInturff, FAIA, Bethesda, Maryland, Jury Chair
Gregg Bleam, ASLA, Charlottesville, Virginia
Carol Rogers, AIA, Raleigh, North Carolina

Competition Advisor
Kenneth Schwartz, FAIA
APELSCIDLA Board Member for Virginia

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Planning Student Awarded Top Honors at Virginia Public Health Assoc. Conference

Andrew D'hyvetter, graduate planning student, was awarded the 'Outstanding Student Research Poster' award at the Virginia Public Health Association Conference. His poster, "Improving Control with Activity and Nutrition: A Preliminary Analysis of Community Interventions" received high praises from the judges and a great deal of attention and comment throughout the day. Co-authors include Nisha Botchwey (DUEP), Viktor Bovbjerg (Public Health Sciences) and Anne Wolf (Public Health Sciences).

Friday, September 2, 2005

School of Architecture Students Organize Anti-Hate March

From the Daily Progress, September 2, 2005: "Two fourth-year School of Architecture students ? Joy Wang and Maria Arellano ? organized the march to demonstrate the 500-student school?s dismay in the wake of the incidents. At the forefront of students? concerns were five reported incidents of written or shouted slurs, three reported incidents of gay bashing, the anti-black and anti-female defacement of Beta Bridge and a symbolic attack on a Christian student."

Monday, July 11, 2005

Public Service Fellowship Program Proves A Resounding Success

The public service fellows at the School of Architecture completed their fellowships at the conclusion of spring semester 2005. This pilot program supported students interested in working in local design and environment-related nonprofit organizations for a semester-long fellowship. Through a competitive selection process, ten fellowships were awarded in the amount of $1,500 each.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Planning Students Present Findings of GIS Mapping of the

Under the direction of Professor David Phillips, students from the spring course,Applied GIS-Health, Housing, Accessibility for the Aging, completed a mapping project for the Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA) and presented their results at the JABA conference on June 24 held at UVa?s Darden School of Business. Issues discussed at the conference will be raised at the White House Conference on Aging scheduled for December, 2005. Planning students used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to map and analyze the various elements of the health and housing needs for the Charlottesville area?s aging population, bringing these often intangible and overlooked issues into visual form. Students explored aging persons? access to: suitable transportation, community facilities, health services, housing, prepared meals, the arts, and other key destinations. A primary goal of the course was to inform the continuing dialogue among faculty, service providers, local officials, and local citizens concerning the connections between housing, transportation, and services for the aging in the local community. The course was developed by Prof. Phillips and Quesada Professor William Morrish as part of a research project, Mapping the Landscape of Aging, organized and funded in cooperation with JABA; the University?s Institute on Aging, for which Prof. Morrish serves as an advisory board member; the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission; and the UVa School of Architecture?s Department of Urban and Environmental Planning.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

The New A+A Store

During the summer of 2004, the nonprofit Arts and Architecture student supply shop (A+A), moved from one room in Campbell Hall to another in order to accommodate upgrades in laser cutting equipment. The School took the opportunity to redesign the store, asking graduate architecture student Philip Donovan to take charge of the project. The design problem included a significant space challenge - the new space is only 1/3 the size of the previous store, and must accommodate the full breadth of merchandise including overstock items that were previously kept elsewhere.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Students Win Special Inform Design Award

Current fourth year students Meredith Epley, Justin Hershberger, Elizabeth Shoffner, Michelle Shuman, and Katie Spicer as well as recent graduate Nathan Petty (BSArch'04), comprising "Studio Antithesis," have won an Inform Magazine Design Award from the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects in the category of Object Design, for their project "Metablica,? steel tables mounted in the courtyard of Campbell Hall. Upon receiving news of the award, the students expressed gratitude to the numerous faculty members and others who offered advice about the project.

Vernon Mays, editor of Inform Magazine, noted, ?The jury was highly complimentary of the project and elected to recognize it with a Special Award, with the understanding that it is student work.?

The award-winning project will be featured in the May issue of Inform Magazine.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Student Competition Winners Announced

In January of this year the School of Architecture in conjunction with the UVA CSI announced a student competition to create a Materials Reuse Center on the third floor of the Architecture School. Recently the winning team composed of third year students Melissa Elliot, Maria Arellano and Joy Wang was announced. The goal of the competition was to create an adaptable cabinet-like space to store reusable modeling materials. The winning project would act to reduce the amount of waste generated by the Architecture School while simultaneously reducing the expense of materials for students. The site for this Center is the space beneath the staircase leading from the third to fourth floor studios.

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