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.

March 22, 2007

Editor: Michael Fraase, mfraase@umn.edu

Next two weeks

March 22, 6-8 p.m., 144 McNeal Hall
Friends of the Goldstein Museum present: An Evening of Graphic Design -- CANCELLED

March 28, 5-8 p.m., Great Hall, Coffman Memorial Union
Architecture, Environmental Design, Interior Design, and Landscape Architecture Career Fair
More information about the fair is available on the CDes Web site.

April 2 , 9 a.m.-noon, 45 Rapson Hall
"Making the Mississippi" seminar series
Join Pat Nunnally, coordinator of the University's Mississippi River Initiative, and local experts on riverfront design, planning, and policy for a series of discussions on the changing Twin Cities Mississippi River waterfront. Each program starts as a session of the undergraduate course, "Making the Mississippi," and will feature a presentation and discussion on the broad themes of the topic at hand. After a brief break, at 10:45 a.m., the discussion will continue (moving to 225 Rapson Hall) in a more interactive mode that allows for a more detailed analysis of that day’s particular subject.

April 4, 3:30-5:30 p.m., reception follows, 140 Nolte Hall
River Runs Through All of Us symposium
Sponsored by the University of Minnesota Mississippi River Initiative
Speakers:

Seitu Jones, City of Minneapolis, CPED
Ruth Murphy, East Side Conservation Corps, St. Paul
Kathee Foran, Heart of the Beast Theater, Minneapolis
MaryLynn Pulscher, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board

Response: Paul Labovitz, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, National Park Service

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. It's updated frequently between issues of CDes MEMO.

Community of interest -- housing issues
The initial meeting on March 2, 2007 included faculty, staff, and community partners. Tom Shirber shared a short PowerPoint presentation about the affordable housing gap and the difference between housing costs and wages in Minnesota. Discussion was lively; participants explored solutions or creative initiatives for affordable housing and generated many additional questions. Participants decided to continuing meeting from noon-1:30 p.m. on the first Friday of the month. Faculty, staff, and students are welcome to join and bring interested community partners. The next meeting is April 6 in 101 Walter Library. For more information, contact Lyn Bruin, mbruin@umn.edu.

Restoring Hidden Beach
A citizen volunteer team is working with the Minneapolis Park Board and park police to improve the Hidden Beach area of the city. The team's intent is to work with park department design staff to remedy the damage and design a place that allows the natural landscape to heal and flourish. The group is in need of professional landscape architecture services and is requesting volunteer help from faculty and students. For more information, contact Charlie Lazor, charlie@lazoroffice.com or 612-788-5355.

Sustainabillity theme for 2007-08
Sustainability is the college's theme for 2007-2008. It is a complex social, political, ecological, and cultural term. Are you planning a lecture, symposium or exhibition for next year that relates to sustainability? If so, please send information to Lisa Luttinen at mcdow008@umn.edu who will be putting together a schedule of these events.

Support the U Day -- March 28
U of M supporters will fill the rotunda of the Minnesota State Capitol on March 28 for Support the U Day. You are invited to attend this annual event, joining hundreds of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and volunteers from across the state.

12:00 p.m. Rally in the Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda
12:45 p.m. Lunch in the Great Hall, Minnesota State Capitol
1:00 p.m. Meetings with legislators (optional)

More details can be found at the Support the U Web site.

CDes graduate student research slam
Faculty members, do you have a graduate student who would like to share a current research project with colleagues from the college? Your students can be part of the first CDes graduate student research slam on April 10 at noon. The slam is meant to give graduate students from different disciplines a chance to hear about each other's work and interests. We have room for 15 students to give 3.5 minute presentations. Please have your students e-mail Kristine Miller, mille407@umn.edu, by April 1 if they would like to present. Slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. This is the first of what we hope will be an ongoing series.

Metropolitan Design Center on the Web
The Metropolitan Design Center manages a number of Web sites that are worth checking out. Except where noted, all are accessible from the center's home page.

Design for Health features the connection between health and urban design
Corridor Housing Initiative has won multiple awards for its site focused on attracting well-designed, higher-density, and affordable housing to transit corridors and town centers
The Service and Engagement section of the Design Center's Web site was developed as a service to the college

The Design Center offers technical assistance to organizations as a part of the Direct Design Assistance program, or other projects. Links to these initiatives and projects are available on the Design Center's Web site.

Finally, MDC Director Ann Forsyth writes a weblog on the Planetizen planning and development network Web site.

Free Neenah premium paper from Design Redux: Eames Paper exhibition at the Goldstein
The current Goldstein exhibition, Design Redux: Eames Paper, closes on March 31, 2007. Be sure to see it one last time and pick up beautiful, free Neenah premium papers -- in wonderful colors and textures -- as you leave. Take all that you want, and encourage your students to help themselves, too.

Imaging Lab studio at McNeal Hall
The Imaging Lab will open a photographic studio in 322 McNeal Hall on Wednesday, March 28. The studio is available for use by DHA students to document projects and will operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Faculty interested in an orientation for themselves or their students should contact Warren Bruland at 612-624-2937. Weekly hours for spring semester will be Mondays and Wednesdays, 1-6 p.m, and Fridays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

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.

"Design psychologists analyze your interior psyche" by Linda Marsa, Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2007
Interior designers, environmental psychologists, and architects are paying more attention to our psychological attachments to the home, says Denise Guerin, a spokesperson for the American Society of Interior Designers and a design professor at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.

"Faces in the quilts" by Pauline Oo, M, Spring 2007
U professor Daniel Jasper remembers female American soldiers killed in the current Iraq war.

"Was your Computer ready for this weekend's time change? U site can help by Staff, KARE 11, March 9, 2007
A University of Minnesota techie has come up with a remarkably simple way to check and see if your computer was ready for the switch to daylight saving time.

"U of M techie saves computers from Daylight Savings Time" by Staff, KSTP-TV, March 9, 2007
Jeff Williams, the network administrator for the University of Minnesota College of Design, invented a Web page that will test your computer for the daylight saving time switch and offer links to correct it.

"Engineering serves people, not things" by Bruce F. Wollenberg, Star Tribune, March 11, 2007
An engineering response to Dean Tom Fisher's March 4 "design intelligence" piece in the Star Tribune.

Congratulations and kudos

The Corridor Housing Initiative won the 2007 National Grassroots Planning Award from the American Planning Association (APA). The project is convened by the Center for Neighborhoods and the Metropolitan Design Center (MDC), under the direction of Ann Forsyth (MDC), who provides design expertise. The project previously won a state award from the APA and was a finalist in the Innovations in American Government Awards, both in 2005.

Presentations

Tasoulla Hadjiyanni (DHA) presented the paper "Homes as sacred spaces -- Difficulties endured by Minnesota’s Hmong and Somali refugees" at the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) conference, March 6-11, in Austin, TX. Hadjiyanni was also invited to host two cultural understanding workshops at the Minnesota Multi Housing Association's "Working Together Conference" on March 13. Part I was titled "The experience of the Somali and Ojibwe people" and Part II was "The experience of Hmong refugees."

The CDes faculty/alumni exhibition program at the architecture and landscape architecture library announces an upcoming exhibition, Near and Far, Watercolors by Julia Williams Robinson (Architecture). The exhibition runs March 22-June 15, 2007. Robinson will exhibit watercolor paintings of landscape, still life, and travel sketches. Please join the artist for a reception on Friday, March 30, 5:30-7:00 p.m. in the architecture and landscape architecture library. There will be a live keyboard music performance by David Saffert and other music at the reception.

Steven McCarthy (DHA) will have several assemblages on display in a juried exhibition at the Altered Esthetics gallery in Minneapolis. Entitled Art Reincarnated, the show features works that reuse or reconfigure elements because, according to the gallery's Web site, "the modern world is full of waste and clutter." The dates are April 5-26, 2007.

On March 9, Jeff Crump (DHA) testified before the Minnesota House Labor and Consumer Protection Committee on the issue of predatory lending and foreclosure. On March 20, Crump provided testimony on predatory lending and foreclosure before the Minnesota House committee on Commerce and Labor and also testified before the Minnesota Senate committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

Daniel Jasper (DHA) presented his work associated with "The Casualties of War Series” at the National Art Education Association conference in New York City on March 17. In February, one of the quilts from Jasper's "The Casualties of War Series" was published in a book entitled The Anatomy of Design: Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design by Steven Heller with Mirko Ilic (Rockport Publishers).

Karen LaBat and Karen Ryan (DHA's Human Dimensioning Lab) presented information on the Human Dimensioning Lab's capabilities and current research at the quarterly meeting of the North Plains chapter of Orothotists and Prosthetists. They are exploring the use of body scanning in developing better fitting orthotics and prosthetics.

Future events

April 12, 4 p.m., 125 Nolte Hall
The Mississippi River Over Time
Carrie Jennings (Minnesota Geological Survey), Dan Engstrom (St. Croix Research Station), and Deb Swackhamer (Institute on the Environment) will discuss the natural history, recent history, and future prospects for the Mississippi River. How was the river formed, what are its habitat and biological communities, and what is our legacy for the river and future generations? Part of the "Thursdays at Four" series hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study.

April 19, 5:00-6:30 p.m., 100 Rapson Hall
The Corridor Housing Initiative: Because Place Matters
The multi-award winning Corridor Housing Initiative will hold a reception and screening of its new 11-minute video, The Corridor Housing Initiative: Because Place Matters. The film will start at 5:15 p.m. with an introduction by filmmaker Tom DeBiaso. A reception will follow.

April 21, time TBD, location TBD
A Women's School of Architecture
Leslie Weisman, New Jersey Institute of Technology

April 27-28, noon-6 p.m., Rapson Hall auditorium
Design and Its Publics, Curators, Critics and Historians
Co-organized by Janet Abrams (Design Institute director) and Steven Ostrow (chair, Department of Art History). To reserve a seat, e-mail design@umn.edu with 'DAIP' in subject. An international line-up of speakers is now confirmed: details are available on the Design Institute Web site.

Confirmed speakers are:

Frances Anderton, host, DnA: Design and Architecture, KCRW 89.9FM, and KCRW.com, Los Angeles
Paola Antonelli, Curator of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Ole Bouman, Director, Netherlands Architecture Institute; editor-in-chief of Volume
Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Jean-Louis Cohen, Sheldon H. Solow Professor in the History of Architecture, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Margaret Crawford, Professor of Design and Planning Theory, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA
Maarten Delbeke, Assistant Professor in the History and Theory of Architecture, Ghent University, Belgium; architecture critic
Brooke Hodge, Curator of Architecture and Design, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Joseph Rosa, John H. Bryan Curatorial Chair of Architecture, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Zoe Ryan, Neville Bryan Curator of Design, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Suzanne Stephens, Deputy Editor, Architectural Forum
Deyan Sudjic, Director, Design Museum, London
Olivier Touraine, Touraine Richmond Architects, Venice, CA; UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design; Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Henry Urbach, Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

April 29-May 1, Minneapolis Convention Center
Fifth Annual International Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards, and Trade Show
Plenary and specialized sessions focused on three green roof topic areas: policies and programs; design and implementation; and research and technical papers on performance. Those planning to attend are also encouraged to check out the various training courses and workshops offered, as well as the conference trade show. Information is available at the Greening Rooftops conference Web site. Nina Ebbinghausen, Peter MacDonagh, and Virajita Singh (Center for Sustainable Building Research) serve on the "Green Roofs Meet Minneapolis" host committee.

April 30, 8:00-10:30 a.m., Campus Club Conference Room ABC, Coffman Memorial Union
Accounting for Health in Planning Policy and Site Design
Jonathan Levine, University of Michigan
More information is available on the Design for Health Web site.

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. Spring semester publication dates are: January 25, February 8, February 22, March 8, March 22, April 5, April 19, and May 3.

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