CDes MEMO Archives

A bi-weekly electronic newsletter for the faculty and staff of the College of Design.

The deadline for submissions is noon on Wednesday prior to Thursday of publication. Send submissions to Michael Fraase <mfraase@umn.edu>. The next issue comes out September 28.

Read CDes Memo online on the College of Design Web site.

September 14, 2006

Editor: Michael Fraase <mfraase@umn.edu>

From the Dean

The first CDes retreat went well and we have a lot of terrific comments and ideas about moving the college forward. We have typed out the notes taken at each table and will be putting that on the Web site along with the PowerPoint presentation. We will have a follow-up discussion about this at the first all-college assembly in about two-months.

We had a very positive response from the Board of Regents' Education Policy and Planning Committee when I presented information about the new College of Design. The provost was at the presentation and he, too, expressed his support and excitement for the new college and what we can do together.

[Ed. note: The Fall 2006 CDes Retreat PowerPoint deck is currently available on the CDes Web site. Gayla Marty covered Dean Fisher's presentation for UMNnews. The meeting of the full board was webcast for the first time September 8, and an archive is available.]

Coming up

November 17 - 19, 2006 -- HRC's fall conference -- Energy, Currency, and Memory: Sustaining the Value of Historic Resources
During the AIA Minnesota annual convention in Minneapolis, the AIA Historic Resources Committee (HRC) and the Committee on the Environment (COTE) will gather with University of Minnesota College of Design students and faculty and preservation partners from across the country to host "Energy, Currency, and Memory: Sustaining the Value of Historic Resources," a symposium on historic preservation and sustainable design. The event will include seminars and tours of local architectural landmarks. 2006 winners of the Charles E. Peterson Prize Student Competition of Measured Drawing will be honored during a special reception at Charles Peterson's alma mater -- the University of Minnesota. For more information, see the event's page on the AIA Web site.

October 15 -- Making River Connections design workshop
A design workshop that will explore ideas for redesigning the site around the Science Classroom Building on the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus. Workshop participants will work in teams to devise designs for the site that "tell river stories" and highlight connections between the river, the site, and the campus through strategies such as public art, interpretive installations, plantings, and water features. The teams will emphasize the history and ecology of the site, connecting the redesigned site to the river's past and to its natural qualities.

Saturday October 14, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sunday October 15, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. (pin-up at noon)

Registration forms at front desk in the Metropolitan Design Center, 1 Rapson Hall, 89 Church St. SE Minneapolis, or at the Mississippi River Design Initiative Web site. Please register by October 6.

October 6 -- Landscape Architecture 40th anniversary reunion
The reunion includes the Cleveland lecture (6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.) and dinner reception 6:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., Rapson Hall. Information and RSVP online on the CDes Web site.

College-wide staff meetings have been scheduled for the semester, two in Minneapolis and two in Saint Paul. The dates are: September 25 at 1:00 p.m. in Rapson; September 27 at 1:30 p.m. in McNeal; December 13 at 1:30 p.m. in Rapson; December 14 at 2:00 p.m. in McNeal.

September 15 -- Mentor Program student applications due
Accepting mentor applications until matches are complete. Info and application are online on the CDes Web site. Questions? Contact Kim Hindbjorgen, 612-625-3726 / khindbjo@umn.edu.

News and announcements

Poster Offensive 3 (PO3): an exhibition of screenprint posters by local designer/artists, including work by graphic design faculty James Boyd-Brent, Design Institute faculty Bill Moran, and DHA alumni Anchalee Chambundabongse, Ben Hribar, Steve Jokisch, Katie Kirk, Steve Marth, Nate Strandberg, Adam Turman, Jason Walzer, and Dustin Yerks.
Friday, September 15 - Sunday, September 24
Frank Stone Gallery
1226 2nd St. NE
Minneapolis
Opening reception Friday, September 15, 7:00 p.m.

The Scholars Walk projects on the East Bank are nearing completion. To mark the occasion, the University is holding dedication ceremonies on Friday, September 29. A public event is scheduled for 11:45 a.m., with the unveiling of the Wall of Discovery at noon. Free Dairy Queen ice cream treats will be given out until 2:00 p.m. or while supplies last. The Scholars Walk is a 2,200-foot-long corridor through campus with monuments honoring the University's greatest intellectual achievements. The Wall of Discovery is an artistic tribute to the process that leads to discovery, featuring reproductions of original sketches, notes, drawings, letters, and other items from 92 illustrious faculty and alumni. For more information on the Scholars Walk, the Wall of Discovery, and the dedication events, please visit the alumni Web site.

Steven McCarthy (DHA) will present a paper at the international Design Research Society conference in Lisbon, Portugal this November. Titled "Defending the Domestic Environment from Advertising: the Commercial Rhetoric Art Project," the paper discusses the body of work created during Steven's Semester Leave project last fall. The project's digital videos were recently displayed at the Festival of Electronic Language in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Samples from the project, including the digital videos, can be seen on Steven's faculty Web site.

Graphic design graduate student Rebecca Noran's MFA thesis exhibit opens at the Hennepin History Museum on September 30. Entitled "Places to Go: Bathrooms of the Twin Cities," the exhibit includes photographs of more than 50 noteworthy public bathrooms from a wide range of cultural and commercial landmarks. "A truly interdisciplinary concept," said her adviser Steven McCarthy, "Rebecca's project looks at urbanism, architecture, and interiors, and -- dare I say -- product design (the toilets, of course), and employs exhibit design, graphic design, and photography."

The School of Architecture is continuing to explore the use of Building Information Modeling in the design studios and construction classes, particularly with a Revit-based studio led by HGA partner Bill Blanski and senior associate Scott Davidson.

Congratulations and kudos

Karen LaBat (DHA) has been selected to serve as a Scientific Excellence Adviser for the National Textile Center (NTC) for a second year. She will review research proposals for the NTC and be responsible as primary evaluator for managing 10 proposals this year. The NTC is a research consortium of eight universities with collaborative research funded by the federal government. The mission of the NTC is to enhance and expand the knowledge base of the fiber/textile/fiber products/retail complex.

Using funds from a 2004 University of Minnesota Grant In Aid award, Daniel Jasper (DHA) collaborated with textile designers Susan Walter (BS '04) and Chris Batagglia to fabricate quilts that recreate photographic images of women soldiers and marines who have been killed in the Iraq War. Using military photos from a WashingtonPost.com interactive feature called "Faces of the Fallen," pixilated digital images of the service women are transformed into large-scale patchwork quilts. The Casualties of War: Karina S. Lau quilt is part of a traveling exhibit entitled Insult to Imagery.

The Center for Sustainable Building Research (CSBR) has won a Crystal Achievement Award for its Commercial Windows Web site. John Carmody and Kerry Haglund were responsible for the design of the site, including the design and functionality of the Facade Design Tool.

Renée Cheng (Architecture) was chosen to participate on the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Academic Leadership Program during the 2006-07 academic year. The primary objective of the program is to develop the leadership and managerial skills of faculty on CIC campuses who have demonstrated exceptional ability and administrative promise. The program particularly encourages the nomination of women and faculty of color.

Renée Cheng has been chosen to serve on the McKnight Foundation Advisory Committee for the 2006-07 academic year.

Julia Williams Robinson (Architecture) served as a juror on the Fifth Annual AIA Minneapolis Merit Awards.

Marc Swackhamer's (Architecture) poster "Drape house," was accepted by the review committee for Affordable Design: Convening the Conversation Forum. The forum took place June 7-8, 2006, in Los Angeles in conjunction with the Association for Community Design Annual Conference.

Mary Guzowski (Architecture) is the recipient of the Renewable-ARCHITECTURE Education Initiative (RAEI). The initiative will provide the hands-on knowledge, resources, and tools that design professionals need to integrate renewable energy, assess its economic costs, and determine its environmental benefits. The initiative will bring together the educational and technological expertise of the School of Architecture and the Center for Sustainable Building Research (CSBR) at the University of Minnesota, the American Institute of Architects Minnesota (AIA MN) in cooperation with their Committee on the Environment (COTE), the Green Institute, the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society (MRES), and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA). A comprehensive renewable energy curriculum and online renewable energy design resource will be developed and offered in the coming year to design professionals and design students in Minnesota.

Publications

Tasoulla Hadjiyanni's (DHA) paper, "Bounded choices -- Somali women constructing difference in Minnesota housing," has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Interior Design.

Both the Karina S. Lau and the Tyanna Avery-Felder quilts by Daniel Jasper will be published, in a book by Steven Heller and Mirco Ilic entitled The Anatomy of Design: Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design (Rockport Publishers; forthcoming, February 2007).

Julia Williams Robinson's book, Institution and Home: Architecture as a Cultural Medium, is to be published in fall 2006 by Techne Press of Delft, the Netherlands as a part of the Transformations Series. In May, as a participant in the University of Minnesota Bush Grant to Improve Teaching in Large Lecture Classes, she is presenting two papers at the Society for Teaching and Learning (WoTL) 6th Annual International Conference in London: "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Incorporating Faculty Conceptions and Multiple Perspectives on Course Redesign to Promote Student Engagement," co-authored with Valerie Ruhe and architecture graduate student Marc Beitz, and "Designing Research: The Scholarship of Teaching & Learning in Large Lecture Courses," co-authored with Valerie Ruhe, Sue Wick, and Paul Baepler. The proceedings are to be published in early 2007.

Transitions

John Comazzi joins the architecture faculty as assistant professor. John received his master of architecture (1998) and a master of science in architectural history and theory (1999) from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Design. From 2001 to 2006, John has been a lecturer in architecture at the University of Michigan.

Diogo Burnay (Portugal) and John Fernandez (MIT) are visiting Cass Gilbert professors fall semester, part of our Cass Gilbert Design Catalyst Program.

Also visiting this fall are Blair Satterfield, (Rice University), Pedro Ravera (Portugal), and Jorge Spencer (Portugal).

Colophon

CDes Memo is published by the College of Design at the University of Minnesota bi-weekly, every other Thursday, September through May, on the Web. Please send comments, questions, or submissions to Michael Fraase <mfraase@umn.edu>. Submissions are due by noon Wednesday prior to Thursday publication. Fall semester publication dates are: September 14, September 28, October 12, October 26, November 9, November 22 (Wednesday because of Thanksgiving; submissions due by noon Tuesday), December 7.

This e-mail was sent by: University of Minnesota, College of Design. 32 McNeal Hall, 1985 Buford Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA.