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.

November 22, 2006

Editor: Michael Fraase <mfraase@umn.edu>

Coming up

Inhabiting Urban Landscapes
Diogo Burnay, architect, CVDB arquitectos and assistant professor, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Monday, November 27, 2006, 5:45 p.m, 100 Rapson Hall
Cass Gilbert Lecture

Design as Currency in a Cultural Interchange
Marilyn DeLong, professor and associate dean for research and outreach, College of Design, University of Minnesota
Wednesday, November 29, 12:15 p.m., 225 Rapson Hall
Design @ Noon Lecture

News and announcements

Want to stay in touch with important CDes announcements? Consider setting your Web browser's home page to the College of Design Announcements page. Updated frequently, this page has timely information that didn't make the CDes Memo deadline.

Furnishings for Rapson Hall
Meyer, Scherer, & Rockcastle, Ltd., joins five other individuals and firms who have made gifts of $25,000 to help complete the purchase of furnishings for Rapson Hall. Studios and other spaces in Rapson will be named to recognize Elness Swenson Graham Architects, Inc., Frederick and Ann Bentz, Edward J. and Jan Kodet, AIA Minnesota, and the Cuningham Group in honor of John Cuningham. In many of the Rapson Hall studios, the desks and other furnishings date back to the original 1959 building. Private gifts are doubling the impact of funds received from the University to complete the furnishings.

New Design Institute courses
The Design Institute announces two new courses

DESI 4041: Innovating, taught by architect Alex Terzich
DESI 3061: (Un)Wrapping, taught by Fabric Architecture editor, Bruce Wright.

These courses explore new areas in design, including patent research and new materials.

Please see the design minor Web site for complete descriptions of these new courses and the other Design Institute courses (open to all students).

CDes mentor program
The College of Design mentor program is off to a great start. This year more than 175 students have been matched with mentors. The program provides students with "real world" information, encouragement, advice, and access to industry expertise to complement their academic studies.

Throughout the year, students will shadow mentors, receive guidance on job searches, attend conferences and professional meetings, complete resume and portfolio critiques, and other activities.

More information is available on the CDes Web site.

Else/Where
College of Design and all U of M faculty, staff, and students can purchase Else/Where: Mapping -- New Cartographies of Networks and Territories at a 30% discount direct from the Design Institute: 612-625-3373 or design@umn.edu.

Diversity Committee seeks your input
The College of Design Diversity Committee will meet Monday, November 27 and would appreciate suggestions from faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties. What steps should the college take to ensure diversity -- diversity of teaching/learning, diversity of scholarship, diversity of community engagement. What about diversity of people. Let us know your thoughts. E-mail Ann Ziebarth -- aziebart@umn.edu -- with your ideas.

Housing Organization for University Students (HOUS) alumni gala
In celebration of the new College of Design, the Housing Organization for University Students (HOUS) is hosting an alumni gala for housing studies alumni, current students, staff, and faculty on Friday, December 1, from 6-9 p.m. in 274 McNeal. HOUS is dedicated to expanding housing studies students’ perspectives of the housing field, creating social contacts between professionals and students, and ensuring an arena for students to come together for the purpose of education and the completion of the housing studies program. College of Design Associate Dean Kate Solomonson will speak about how the housing studies program benefits and interacts with the other programs in the college; Ann Ziebarth and Jeff Crump will talk about the research they completed during their sabbaticals last year; and Marjorie Mangine, housing studies alum, will speak about opportunities for getting involved. Stop by for all or part of the evening. Please RSVP to Bailey Erlandson (HOUS vice president) at erla0030@umn.edu or call 612-624-7461 (Becky Yust).

Corridor Housing Initiative
The Corridor Housing Initiative is a Metropolitan Design Center collaboration with the Center for Neighborhoods and a number of other neighborhood groups, nonprofits, and local governments. Check out the educational materials section for housing-related handouts, posters, and PowerPoint presentations.

Girl Scouts at the Goldstein
This week the Goldstein Museum of Design staff was energized by a visit from a fourth grade Girl Scout troop whose members attend a French immersion school. To help the girls fulfill the requirements for an "Art to Wear" badge, graduate assistant Monica Sklar first gave the troop a guided tour of the current exhibition, America Fashion Transformed. Then, with many giggles and considerable creativity, three teams of girls each created a dress on a dress form using fabric yardage, feathers and artificial flowers, with pins and clothes pins holding things in place. The results were colorful and surprisingly sophisticated..The three dresses are on display in the lobby outside the Goldstein Gallery.

CDes in the media

The following CDes activities and expertise have been featured in the media. Contact Laura Weber, communications director, at l-webe@umn.edu if you have news to promote through the media.

"Chocolatey concoctions hit the fashion world" -- The Minnesota Daily, November 13, 2006
Imagine walking into a clothing store and enjoying a bite of a belt or savoring the taste of a necklace. Few could fathom such a concept, but as part of a clothing design studio class...

"U of M interior design students create concepts for rennovation of historic Parkway Theater in south Minneapolis" -- University News Service, November 15, 2006
Thirty-four senior interior design students from the University of Minnesota's College of Design are working on a redesign of the historic Parkway Theater in South Minneapolis. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback attended the event on November 21. KARE-11 News and the StarTribune's Linda Mack were also there.

The Fashion of Architecture exhibit on display in the HGA Gallery in Rapson Hall is featured in the "So Little Time" section of the December issue of The Rake (page 38).

Congratulations and kudos

Congratulations to the recipients of the first Design Democracy Fellowship in Architecture, Xinle Wang and Jonathan Mason, who each will receive a $5,000 fellowship. In addition to Wang and Mason, finalists were Scott Aspenson, James Wheeler, and Mike Perrizo. The Design Democracy Fellowship, for second-year master of architecture students, recognizes exemplary projects that reflect the values of good design, every day, for everyone. The fellowship, a permanent endowment, was established through gifts to the College of Design from alumni, firms, allied professionals, and Target Corporation.

Dean Thomas Fisher made the following presentations:

Chronicle of Higher Education "The Sustainable University," panel discussion, Boston, MA
Chronicle of Higher Education, "Technology and Higher Education Facilities" symposium, Las Vegas, NV
Build Boston, "BSA Research Awards, Iconic Buildings in Boston," panel discussions, Boston, MA
AIA California Desert Practice Conf. "Architectural Practice and the Paradigm Shift," keynote address, Palm Springs, CA
American Society of Landscape Architects, "F. L. Olmsted and Public Health" lecture, ASLA convention, Minneapolis

Brad Hokanson (DHA) was a guest on the University of Minnesota's Tech Talk "gadget" show. Produced to help community members learn more about digital technology, the episode will air Sunday, December 17 at 9 p.m., on Twin Cities Public Television Channel 17. The show will also be podcast through the University's Tech Talk Web site. Hokanson informs CDes Memo that the program will air as far away as Utah.

Dewey Thorbeck (Center for Rural Design) presented on the topic of rural design and UMore Park at the AIA Minnesota Convention on November 15.

Arthur Chen (Center for World Heritage Studies) received funding from Cranbrook Archives and Cultural Properties (through a grant to Cranbrook from the Getty Foundation) to advance its program of conservation through nomination for World Heritage Inscription by UNESCO. The project will produce Cranbrook's nomination.

Lin Nelson-Mayson (Goldstein Museum of Design) was awarded funds from the Minnesota State Arts Board for fiscal year 2007.

Publications

John Comazzi (Architecture) presented a paper -- "Detroit's Midway Urbanism" -- at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) West regional conference. The paper looks at new forms of urbanism in Detroit that orbit around large-scale events and event structures. Comazzi also had an essay, entitled "(re)Moving History," published in the Magazine on Urbanism (MONU), in Germany. The essay details the issues of urbanism and monumentality in Budapest, Hungary following the dissolution of the former Soviet Union.

Louise Goldberg (Center for Sustainable Building Research) published "Foundations -- The Base of Sustainable Residential Building Design" in the Journal of Green Building, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 46-57, 2006.

Transitions

The College of Design IT department welcomes Chris Bucksa as the manager of desktop support services starting November 27. Bucksa comes to us from the Humphrey Institute. His office will be in 67 Rapson Hall. Tara Faricy, a current desktop support staff member, will report to him. Together, they will be providing desktop and peripheral support for for all college faculty and staff offices and the Rapson computer labs.

Errata

In the last issue (November 9, 2006) Ann Forsyth was misidentified. We regret the error. The Metropolitan Design Center's Ann Forsyth did phone interviews with Minnesota News Network (radio) and WCCO-AM radio.

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.