Named-spaces event honors donors

New studio desks, designed by W. L. Hall Workshop manager Kevin Groenke, were installed in architecture and landscape architecture studios in time for fall semester 2007. (See the studio desks on the back cover.) On September 26, some 200 students and 80 guests celebrated with the donors who made the new furniture purchases possible.

L to R: Ed Kodet, Tom Fisher, Jan Kodet. The Kodet Architectural Group Conference Room is one of the new named spaces.

Six spaces in Rapson Hall were newly named to honor the donors whose gifts helped purchase the new furniture. They include:

• AIA Minnesota Studio
• Frederick and Ann Bentz Studio
• John W. Cuningham Studio
• Elness Swenson Graham Studio
• Kodet Architectural Group Conference Room
• Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd. Studio

Three generations of Rapsons--Toby, Lane, and Ralph--help celebrate new named spaces in Rapson Hall.

These new named spaces join the HGA Gallery and the W. L. Hall Workshop, which were named in 2003. The renovated Ralph Rapson Hall was dedicated on October 5, 2002, in honor of noted modernist and longtime head of architecture at the University of Minnesota, Ralph Rapson.

Officials of AIA-Minn, Beverly Hauschild-Baron, L, and Tom Meyer, R, are recognized for their gifts to establish the AIA Minnesota Studio.

Mark Swenson, L, and David Graham, R, of Elness Swenson Graham are recognized for their firm's named studio by Renee Cheng, School of Architecture head.

Preparing for the inconvenient truth

Dean Tom Fisher and John Koepke (landscape architecture department head) co-chaired the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) international administrators conference "Preparing for the Inconvenient Truth" at the Graves 601 Hotel in Minneapolis Nov. 1-3.

Hundreds of administrators of schools of architecture and landscape architecture from around the globe addressed how academic leaders can prepare future design professionals to meet the challenge of global climate change and create a more sustainable future.

Keynote speakers were Will Steger, polar explorer, and J. Drake Hamilton, science policy director for Fresh Energy. Steger's message, that the globe is warming faster than scientists originally expected, was important for the audience to hear, Koepke said. "It was a tough message, but there were some hopeful signs."

Sacred sites: A symposium on architecture, ethics, and spiritual geography

The School of Architecture will be hosting an international symposium on architecture, ethics, and spiritual geography April 4-6, 2008, in Rapson Hall. "Sacred Sites | Sacred Sights: Past/Present/Future," will bring together scholars, design practitioners, and local communities for lectures, panels, and workshops examining sacred space, how it is perceived, and ethical engagement with local communities' sacred lands. The Graham Foundation is a cosponsor.

Coorganizers are Ozayr Saloojee, assistant professor of architecture; and Virajita Singh, senior research fellow, Center for Sustainable Building Research, and adjunct assistant professor, School of Architecture. Program and speaker information will be available in January. For more information, contact Saloojee at saloojee@umn.edu or Singh at singh023@umn.edu.

Response to the I-35W bridge collapse

Students in Rapson Hall studios were among the dozens of citizens who rushed to the site of the I-35W bridge collapse on the evening of August 1, 2007. In the following weeks, public talk turned to questions of appropriate responses, whether legislative, engineering, or community-driven. The College of Design has actively participated in this public conversation. Notably, Dean Tom Fisher discussed the role of public memorials August 14 on Minnesota Public Radio's "Midmorning" program and wrote a Star Tribune op-ed piece, published October 14, 2007, in which he discussed the design chosen for the new bridge. Fisher has also been called upon to comment on the bridge design for a number of other publications.

Photos of the site, taken September 10-17, 2007, by students in the course "The River, the Bridge, the Community: Beyond the Headlines of the I-35W Bridge Collapse."

Pat Nunnally (Landscape Arch; Institute on the Environment) designed and taught a new class on the social, design, and environmental issues related to the I-35W bridge collapse. Nunnally told the Star Tribune that one of the goals for the course is to prepare students to question leaders and act as citizens. Nunnally was also quoted in the New York Times and St. Paul Pioneer Press. In addition, the college cosponsored a public lecture series, "Telling River Stories," that further extended the conversation to include reflections about the ongoing nature and role of the Mississippi River, the new I-35W bridge, and the community in which these two critical systems intersect. Lecturers included R. T. Rybak, Minneapolis mayor; Paul Labovitz, superintendent, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area; Hokan Miller, Upper River Services; Dean Thomas Fisher; Lance Neckar (Metropolitan Design Center; Landscape Arch); and other University professors. Rybak and Labovitz's lectures are available as podcasts.

L to R: Paul Labovitz, superintendent, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, National Park Service; Ann Waltner, director, Institute for Advanced Study; R. T. Rybak, mayor of Minneapolis; Deb Swackhamer, interim director, Institute on the Environment; Pat Nunnally, RiverLife Mississippi River Program.