Arch Blog

The 2019 Neighborhood Design/Build project “The Toolbox” was designed and constructed for a program at Seattle’s Nathan Hale High School that teaches students how to grow plants, understand global food systems, and care for the native ecosystem. The high school students in the program pass their skills and knowledge back to the local community through…

Contributed by Alex Anderson When my longtime editor at Kinfolk moved to Harvard Design News and invited me to contribute there, I was happy to do it. I was even happier when one of my first tasks was to write about Brutalist architecture. Having spent more than 20 years working and teaching in Gould Hall,…

The Department of Architecture is excited to congratulate atelierjones for being awarded two USDA/USFS grants as part of two collaborative teams relating to Mass Timber. These grants are the result of the firm’s multi-year design, research and teaching on the topic. The first grant is to assist a multi-disciplinary team with conducting fire testing in…

  As we approach the final weeks of the Spring quarter, the work of our 2019 Barry Onouye Endowed Studio is coming into its final stage. As with previous Onouye studios, our work highlights the intersection of architecture and structural design.  With a central theme of PERFORMANCE, this year’s studio (offered with Endowed Chair Sigrid…

The Interior Designers of Idaho (IDI) have been hosting a furniture competition in Boise for 27 years.  The Furniture Studio in the UW Architecture department has a long history of participating and bringing home awards from this event. This year we showcased seven new pieces from the 2018 Spring and 2019 Winter undergraduate classes, as…

Nearly a month ago we hosted our second biennial Alumni Awards, celebrating the accomplishments of our Graduates of the Last Decade and our Distinguished Alumnus. Here’s a look back at the event!

Each year, the Husky 100 recognizes 100 UW undergraduate and graduate students from Bothell, Seattle and Tacoma in all areas of study who are making the most of their time at the UW.  The Husky 100 actively connect what happens inside and outside of the classroom and apply what they learn to make a difference…

In a graduate materials and construction course taught by Senior Lecturer Jim Nicholls, students are challenged to rethink the relationship between the study of tectonics and the object itself. In a recent exercise, students have been exploring the potential of the concrete masonry unit (CMU). What are the potential applications of a cast object within…

UW Alumni Designs Lab for Space Research The University of Washington Department of Architecture has a long list of notable alumni working on exciting projects that push the limits of the built environment. UW alumni  Masayuki Sono, founding partner of Clouds Architecture Office in New York City, continues this tradition by designing architecture for outer…

Open Position: Assistant Professor of Digital Technologies and Computational Design   The Department of Architecture at the University of Washington invites nominations and applications for a full-time, tenure track position as an Assistant Professor of Digital Technologies and Computational Design, with an anticipated start date of Fall 2019. Tenure track faculty have an annual service period of…

Collaborative Student-Built Bench Project  Contributed by Jim Nicholls My dream bench’s handles are like mood rings and the rest of the bench is filled with encouraging words that would make anyone smile. -Eva Gugsa, Grade 11   In the spring of 2018 Yesler Community Center, Frye At Museum, Olson Kundig Architects and UW Department of Architecture…

Getting to Know The MS Design Computing Cohort The Department of Architecture’s Master of Science in Design Computing is an innovative degree focused on emerging technologies and programing related to simulation, analysis, fabrication and new approaches in design thinking. This degree and other degrees like it are critical to the progress of the field of…

“The idea to hold an Alumni Awards event emerged in the aftermath of the highly successful centennial celebrations of the University of Washington Department of Architecture, held during the 2014-15 academic year. In reflecting on the storied past of this program, we became increasingly aware of the substantial body of accomplishments of our graduates –…

In a recent video interview with UW News, Associate Professor of Architecture and Director of the Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse, Kathryn Rogers Merlino describes a critical opportunity for architects in adaptive reuse design projects. Earlier this year, Merlino’s most recent book was released, “Building Reuse: Sustainability, Preservation, and the Value of Design”. The…

An Installation at the 2018 Seattle Design Festival The 2018 Seattle Design Festival Block Party (September 8-9, 2018 in Occidental Park) provided a wonderful opportunity to showcase design in the Pacific Northwest – including the design talents of our MArch students. In the Spring 2018, our structures course for first-year Masters of Architecture students developed…

Last year, MS History and Theory candidate Kelly Daviduke was granted a Charles E. Peterson Fellowship for summer research in support of her thesis. Kelly’s research started as an interest in Olof Hanson, believed to be America’s first deaf architect, who worked in the late nineteenth century. As her exploration of Hanson’s life grew, Kelly…

Every year, twelve graduate students apply to participate in the Scan|Design studio. The studio begins with a two week trip to Copenhagen, Denmark to study the city’s famous urban design strategies and iconic architectural style. The studio, lead by Associate Professor of Architecture, Peter Cohan,  is also co-taught by a Danish architect in the field….

The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) have selected the recipients of the 2018 Steel Design Student Competition. The competition recognizes sixteen exceptional projects, in two categories, that explore a variety of issues related to the use of steel in design and construction.  We are pleased…

Food and the ability to prepare it are fundamental components of life. Places of food preparation–whether a home kitchen or a fire pit–serve not only their most explicit functions but also act as cultural gathering spaces for families and communities. Food preparation poses particularly unique challenges in Seattle’s homeless communities for individuals, families and larger…

Each summer, the Department of Architecture staff, Fab Lab staff, and Department Chair take a field trip to a local destination with a connection to the world of architecture and design.  On a sunny day in August the group visited the Center for Wooden Boats (CWB) on Seattle’s Lake Union. Our tour was led by…

Click to Play Video In a recent episode of By Design, a short film and interview series produced by GRAPHISOFT, Associate Professor Emeritus of Architecture Brian Johnson describes the importance of integrative design technologies and processes, like BIM, in architecture education. As described by GRAPHISOFT, “In Prof. Johnson’s view, the rise of 3D and virtual solutions are…

John V. “Jack” Christiansen (1927-2017) was a prolific, American designer of thin shell concrete structures. A recipient of the 2016 Eduardo Torroja Medal from the IASS, Christiansen built largely within the United States in the latter half of the 20th century – making him distinct among the global pantheon of concrete shell designers. Through the…

On June 20, the Carbon Leadership Forum brought together over 70 professionals from across the building industry, sustainability-focused nonprofits, and government agencies in New York City for a Build Positive: Carbon Smart Building Summit. Hosted by Skanska USA at the Empire State Building, the three-hour educational session presented participants with a roadmap to transform buildings…

Four Department of Architecture students were recently recognized by The Chair Affair, an annual furniture design competition hosted by the Interior Designers of Idaho. All of the projects were designed and built in the Furniture Studio under the tutelage of Kimo Griggs.

Built 100 years ago by the Navy at the tail-end of WWI to house seaplanes, then acquired by the UW to be used as Washington Rowing’s boathouse, the ASUW Shellhouse served the UW until 1975, when it was threatened with demolition.  It was ultimately saved, becoming the first building on campus to be placed on the National…

UW Architecture alumnus Devin Kleiner (M. Arch 2004) has been recognized by the University of Washington for his excellence in teaching sustainable design in receiving the Husky Green Award this year. CBE Dean John Schaufelberger was also recognized with the Husky Green Legacy Award. Devin is a Project Architect at the Seattle offices of Perkins + Will, where he…

Over the course of her professional and academic career, Affiliate Associate Professor of Architecture Susan Jones has led the field in the adaptation of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) as a stunning and sustainable building material. In her recent publication, “Mass Timber: Design and Research,” Susan discusses the potential carbon reduction in replacing concrete structures with…

Building Blocks: Storefront Studio on Mainstreet charts the grassroots evolution of a community outreach studio offered by the University of Washington College Built Environments.   Since 2003, Director Jim Nicholls has been leading groups of architecture, landscape, and planning students to partner with local small towns to study their main streets. The exhibit and book documents…

In the Journal of Lighting, Research and Technology’s recent article, “Lighting Research and Technology: Past, Present and Future”,  Associate Professor of Architecture, Mehlika Inanici’s paper, Evaluation of High Dynamic Range Photography as a Luminance Data Acquisition System, received the praise of being named one of 25 Classic Papers published by the journal. The journal has…

The 1:1 tectonic precedent study in Jim Nicholls’ Arch 570 Design Development is something legendary. The project tasked students with tectonically analyzing a joint detail from a grand built project by building a 1:1 scale model of the assembly. Former students’ eyes light up nostalgically if you ask them about the experience:  [it was] “awe-inspiring…

UW alumna Mariam Kamara (M.ARCH 2013) has been awarded the position of 2018-19 Rolex Arts Initiative Protégée! Selected by world renowned architect Sir David Adjaye, the two will work together as mentor and protégée for two years. This year, the award paired young talent with leaders in the fields of architecture, dance, literature, and music. …

The Barry Onouye Endowed Studio at the University of Washington is intended to explore the boundary between architecture and structural engineering – with a design project that forces a conversation between the two mutually-dependent disciplines.  In Spring 2017 we were honored to be joined by John Ochsendorf of MIT as the Barry Onouye Endowed Chair.  Together…

Building photos image copyright:  © Nic Lehoux Professor Dave Miller shared the exciting news that the Gohar Khatoon Girls’ School in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan was awarded an AIA  2018 National Honor Award. The school was designed by Bob Hull/Miller Hull, in cooperation with Assistant Professor Elizabeth Golden and Department of Architecture graduate students.  The 2018 Architecture program celebrates the…

The City Lantern   Chiaroscuro City Studio is an exploration into the light and the dark elements that define architectural interventions. By beginning with the study of light through a lamp fixture, the studio is able to realize a finished product and the way it relays light on its subject. In this series of studies,…

UW IDL in China: Building International Partnerships to Design and Construct Low Carbon Cities   Associate Professor Christopher Meek and Assistant Professor Heather Burpee from the UW Integrated Design Lab (IDL) recently traveled to China as part of a University-wide effort to work closer with Chinese counterparts in building a low-carbon urban future. Meek traveled…

Contributed by M. Arch candidate Sami Prouty As part of the research component for the Arch 500 Studio, Architecture in an Urban Context, students spent an afternoon at the Chihuly Boathouse Studio getting a first hand look at the beautiful practice of glass blowing as well as the storage, display and production areas that come…

The 2017 AIA Northwest & Pacific Region Student Design Awards were announced on Thursday, October 26.  The Department of Architecture is pleased to share the news that our students took home four out of the seven awards given! Citation: Student: Vy Nguyen Project: Center for Wood Innovation Faculty: Susan Jones Award of Merit: Student: Travis Huan Project:…

During this Autumn quarter, Associate Prof. Rick Mohler is teaching an interdisciplinary BE studio examining Sustainable Planning, Design, and Development strategies for TOD (Transit Oriented Development).  Teaching with Rick are Al Levine (Real Estate) and David Blum (Urban Design & Planning).  They are looking at the future Kent/Des Moines light rail station as a catalyst…

The Affiliate Fellows Program at the University of Washington Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies brings together Seattle area thought leaders in the built environment, UW College of Built Environment faculty and students in the Runstad Real Estate program to focus on a research project under the broad rubric of sustainability. The 2015-16 fellows consist…

The award recipients of the 2017 HERE+NOW: A House for the 21st Century Residential Student Design Competition were recently selected by the AIA, Custom Residential Architects Network (AIA CRAN) and ACSA. The competition recognizes seven exceptional studio projects that seamlessly integrate innovative, regenerative strategies within their broader design concepts. The program challenged students to submit…

In celebration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday, the Museum of Modern Art in New York is highlighting one of the most prolific and renowned 20th century architects’ work.  This summer’s blockbuster exhibition “Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive ” highlights this designer as a radical intellectual who embraced new technologies and materials….

Each summer the Architecture staff takes one afternoon to venture out of the office on a field trip to tour a building or place of architectural significance or relevance to our rapidly changing cityscape. We are often joined by the Architecture Chair, Brian McLaren, and we traditionally end the excursion with a relaxing lunch, giving us…

Seattle is comprised of 14,000 acres of rights-of-way, over 25% of the urban environment. How can we enhance the ecological, cultural and social function of these shared public spaces while increasing their capacity as our city rapidly expands? A group of real estate thought leaders, faculty from the UW College of Built Environments (including Associate…

The Construction History Society of America (CHSA) hosts a Biennial Meeting on even years.  CHSA’s 5th Biennial Meeting, held in Austin, Texas in May 2016, follows successful events in Minneapolis (2014), Boston (2012), Philadelphia (2010) and Atlanta (2008).  The biennial meetings draw approximately two hundred attendees who are passionate about construction history, and historic architecture…

Senior Lecturer Jim Nicholls leads a interdisciplinary studio “The Agency of Materials” focusing on a small intervention at the U District Alley. Collaborating with the Alley Community Council, the studio is proposing a project to implement the community-driven strategies from the recently adopted U District Alley Activation Plan (a large file at 12.6 Mb), which was developed by SvR…

The McKinley Futures Studio began in Spring 2014, and is now offered annually. The studio is made possible by the Jeannette and David McKinley Endowment for the Design of Future Architectural Environments. Each year a new team of faculty create projects that will generate research-based, speculative design scenarios that will serve as a framework for closer examination of the…

Allison Acosta, M.Arch ’17, is currently studying abroad at Meiji School of Science & Technology. Follow along on her blog as she embarks on this exciting five month long exchange program in Tokyo, studying architecture at Meiji SST.    The UW-Meiji Exchange is a college-wide exchange established in 2015 between the UW College of Built Environments…

Contributed by Karen Chan During Winter Quarter 2017, visiting professor Donald King led a senior year undergraduate design studio of ten students (including an exchange student from Australia) for a mixed-use Innovation Hub in Central District, located on 23rd Avenue and Yesler Way. The project aspired to restore the neighborhood’s African American heritage affected by…

Our graduate-level Furniture Studio enjoys some unique characteristics within the mix of studios offered each year, but it also shares one: that intense, last-gasp, total-immersion, getting to completion scenario. Students learn early and often that this can be a constant feature of their education and – later – of their professional life. Why this is…

The AIA Northwest chapter has just announced the winners of its 2016 Student Design Awards, and we are thrilled to share the news that our students took home both an honor award and a merit award! Congratulations to Katelyn Bristow, Brad Ecklund and Aaron Loomans for their “Canopy in the City” project and Kejia Zhang…

Congratulations to Assistant Prof. Elizabeth Golden and M. Arch ’07 alumnus Ray Villanueva!   They were awarded a 2016-2017 ACSA Architectural Education Award for their Philippines Bamboo Workshop Design-Build project: Food Trip Market Stall.  Details and more images of the project may be found here. M. Arch candidate Buddy Burkhalter was one of the UW students who took part…

Department of Architecture faculty members Brian Johnson and Kimo Griggs traveled to Shanghai, China in September, where they taught a two week Digital Practice Workshop and presented at a Design Education Summit hosted by the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art (SIVA) with a panel of educators from around the world. The workshop was the brainchild…

DESIGN AS PROTEST: NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION Friday, January 20, 2017 — 2:30 to 5pm, Gould Court East Join us on Friday, January for #DAPSeattle in Gould Hall for #DAPSeattle. Design as Protest is a nationwide action connecting citizens, planners and designers, with the intention of utilizing their skill set to stand up to injustice and discrimination in…

Anatomy of a Sketch: The Thinking Hand of Bob Hull This exhibit uses sketches to reveal the design process of Miller Hull founding partner, Bob Hull, FAIA (1945-2014).  The pen was his medium for having a design conversation. Bob drew to make sense of things and he drew for the sheer joy of making marks. Visitors…

Contributed by Halina Murphy Paestum We began our trip early Saturday morning at 6AM as we hopped on the bus to Paestum, an ancient Greek city that houses some of the best-preserved ruins in the world. Paestum is home to three main temples, the First Temple of Hera, the Second Temple of Hera, and the…

A BETTER BUILDING BLOCK WITH JIM NICHOLLS Ryan Salas, Tolla Dahlgren, Lauren Wabiszewski, Andre Kullmar, and Anna Grundmark all collaborated on the design and fabrication of a better building block that fits within a wall of standard module concrete blocks but adds the interactive feature of passively amplifying music played by your phone. PROCESS The…

A little over a month of Architecture in Rome has elapsed now, and although there are always new places to explore in the Eternal City, I’m beginning to feel less like a tourist and more like a resident. I have rabbit-trails to untidy corners and unfrequented streets that tourists only pass through on the way…

Contributed by M.Arch candidate Stefanie Barrera  The College of Built Environments at the University of Washington offers all 3+year M. Arch students a paid internship at different local firms after completing the first year of the program. As a student of this program, I was matched this summer with the Carbon Leadership Forum at the…

Lauren McWhorter and Audrey Reda are the two M.Arch students in the Architecture in Rome program, joined by 24 undergraduate students. We have decided to tag-team this first blog entry on our first week in Northern Italy before we travel to Rome to spend the next 2 months. Venice Audrey: From the train window Venice rises…

We are pleased to announce the recipients of our 2015-2016 Master of Architecture thesis awards: Thesis Prize: John Reynders The Shape of Global Wealth: Slender Towers from New York to Seattle Committee: Jeffrey Ochsner (chair), Gundula Proksch Thesis Citation: Amanda Wolfang Replay Value: Toward an Architecture of Future Narratives Committee: Nicole Huber (chair), Jennifer Dee Thesis Citation:…

Last month we were thrilled to learn that on behalf of King County Executive Dow Constantine and the King County Landmarks Commission, the Storefront Studio was awarded the 2016 King County Executive’s John D. Spellman Award for Exemplary Achievement in Historic Preservation.  The Studio was acknowledged for the tremendous contributions it has made to promoting economic revitalization…

We are delighted to announce that our students from last winter’s ARCH 501 studio took home First and Third Place honors and an Honorable Mention at this year’s Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture “Timber in the City” competition! These represent three of the five awards given to the nearly 200 national entries from over…

Each summer the Architecture staff takes one afternoon to venture out on a field trip to tour a building or place of architectural significance or relevance to our rapidly changing cityscape. We are often joined by the Architecture Chair, Brian McLaren, and we traditionally end the excursion with a relaxing lunch, giving us time to enjoy…

Neighborhood Design | Build Studio 2016 Contributed by by Elizabeth Kelley, M.Arch 2017 Candidate This year’s neighborhood design/build studio took on the task of designing and constructing a courtyard project for the local nonprofit organization New Beginnings, from start to finish in the span of just ten weeks. The courtyard (which is used by a range…

Contributed by M. Arch 2017 candidate Sarah Chan Every year, through the generous financial support of the Scan|Design Foundation, a studio taught by visiting professors is offered to grad students here at UW. This year’s 2016 Scan|Design Visiting Distinguished Professors were Sinus Lynge and Tue Hesselberg Foged, founding architects of EFFEKT, a Danish architectural collaborative…

Students, Faculty & Staff are invited to attend thesis reviews on Tuesday, May 31 & Thursday, June 2 next week. Please join us!

On May 12, the Department of Architecture’s Professionals Advisory Council sponsored a tour of the ongoing Denny Hall renovation project.  This was an excellent opportunity for our students and faculty to preview Denny’s new 2016 main entry, interior skylight/atrium/stair, active learning classroom, and TA loft as they take shape within the original 1895 French Renaissance…

An interdisciplinary team led by CBE M.L.A student Kelly Douglas with support from the Integrated Design Lab and the Office of the Campus Architect was awarded funding under a competitive solicitation of the Campus Sustainability Fund to create a roadmap for sustainable exterior landscape lighting at the UW. The project entitled “Campus Illumination” will create…

We are delighted to share the news that work from two of our students, Keija Zhang and Xiaoxi Jiao, was selected by the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE), in partnership with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) as one of the 2016 COTE Top Ten for Students Design Competition.   Their project, “The Art…

“Late in life, on an anxious urban street, Architecture meets Fashion. They fall in love…” Prof. Vikram Prakash’s winter 2016 graduate studio, in collaboration with the University of Washington School of Art, presents Near Body Architecture.  This gallery exhibit features “wearable work” in diverse media including collage, painting, sculpture, sound, architectural constructions, and light sculpture. It…

Contributed by M.Arch candidate Allison Acosta On the afternoon of Monday, March 1st, students in their second year of the Masters of Architecture program gathered in Gould Court to unveil their tectonic models for Jim Nicholls’ Arch 570: Design Development course.  This annual event brings together everything we have learned thus far about architectural design,…

Contributed by Associate Professor Ann Marie Borys ARCH/CM 404 is an integrated design studio that has been offered annually for over five years.  Professors Kate Simonen (Architecture) and Carrie Dossick (Construction Management) designed this studio to link with seminars on topics relevant to the studio project, which changes year to year.  I joined in this…

This morning (Monday, March 7) in Architecture Hall, eight Master of Architecture students and two Master of Science in Design Computing students presented their independent thesis projects.  Thesis reviews will continue this afternoon and tomorrow, to include a presentation from our Master of Science in History and Theory student.   A group of critics from the…

Contributed by Travis Hauan, M.Arch Candidate 2016 Steel Competition: Full Speed Ahead! This year’s steel studio is entering a national competition to design innovative steel buildings.  The competition has two categories: “tall building”, and “open”.  Our studio chose to design a building for the U.S. Coast Guard base, located just west of Century Link Field…

Contributed by Tyler S. Sprague, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture Every studio is an opportunity to explore something new.  The architectural studio format provides an almost unparalleled venue for thoughtful and critical investigations through design – whether to test out a new program, address a pressing social issue or something else entirely.  The unbounded yet focused…

Contributed by Rick Mohler An adequate, affordable supply of housing is the lifeblood of culturally rich, diverse, and livable urban centers. Without this, people who work here will be forced to move out of the city, with dire impacts not only on individual lives, but also on the region: more traffic congestion, increased environmental degradation,…

Contributed by Associate Professor Ann Marie Borys     This fall I have led a new course (officially titled “Introduction to Architectural Studies”) that is designed to welcome our newly admitted freshman and sophomore students and to introduce them to the academic program, the discipline, and the department. Undergraduate advisor Kim Sawada suggested offering this…

Contributed by Associate Professor Mehlika Inanici We all have days that we experience sleepiness during daytime, and/or find it difficult to sleep at night. If we travel across multiple time zones, we experience jetlag. A growing body of research in the past 15 years has shown that human eye functions in a dual manner: it…

Contributed by Sarah Chan, M. Arch candidate Prof. Sharon Sutton’s Arch 500 studio this Fall Quarter considers homelessness and the current shelter crisis in Seattle. Students are asked to redesign a block in the Pike-Pine Corridor of the Capitol Hill neighborhood. After determining site, program and usage, this urban studio will focus on developing a…

Contributed by Prof. Jeffrey Ochsner, Nov. 10. 2015 In late October, Routledge released the latest book in its Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series, Grief and Its Transcendence: Memory, Identity, Creativity, edited by Adele Tutter and Léon Wurmser.  The book includes my essay, “The Staten Island September 11 Memorial: Creativity, Mourning, and the Experience of Loss,” as…

The Department of Architecture Professionals Advisory Council sponsors the Summer Internship program for 3+year M Arch students, guaranteeing all 3+year M Arch students a paid internship in a local firm the summer after completion of the first year in the program.  Here, 3+ year student Madeleine Black shares an overview of her internship experience over summer 2015.  We are…

Greetings from 47° North, the student element of the UW Architecture Professionals Advisory Council (PAC).  Our goal is to bring students out of the academic bubble to engage with members of the local professional community. We are excited to introduce our year-long 3 Firms | 3 Projects | 3 Phases event.  Each quarter, we will…

  We were pleased to receive the news that two of our alumni, Glen Stellmacher (BAArch 2011) and Coby Vardy (BAArch 2012), and ARUP Seattle have won a joint first prize for the Treehousing International Wood Design Competition sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Their winning entry, Nkosi Market, capitalized on…

Architecture faculty members Chris Meek and Heather Burpee of the Center for Integrated Design will take part in the second season of “Getting to Zero”, a four-part series of workshops, case studies, and discussions exploring what net-zero building looks like in the real world; specifically, how we’ll meet the target of the 2030 Challenge: 70%…

The University of Washington Department of Architecture is pleased to be a part of the 2015 Seattle Design Festival, an annual celebration of all the ways design makes life better. Community members, city officials, citizen-experts, and designers all come together at workshops, performances, tours, exhibitions, talks, films, gatherings and more to exchange ideas. Seattle Design Festival 2015: Design for…

It is a much-loved Architecture staff tradition that every summer, we take one afternoon to venture out on a field trip to tour a local building or site of architectural significance. We are often joined by the department chair, and this year marked incoming chair Brian McLaren’s first time joining the fun.  We generally wrap up…

(Update [8/25/15]: now presenting… Phillippines Bamboo Workshop, the movie!  Click here to view!) There is a saying in the mountains of the Philippines – one is born with bamboo (built out of for a baby’s crib) and dies with bamboo (material for a coffin). This metaphor speaks highly to the intrinsic tie that bamboo has…

The Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) is an industry-academic collaborative research effort hosted by the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments.  The CLF works to reduce the carbon ‘embodied’ in building materials. ‘Embodied carbon’ is the sum of carbon emitted in each step of a material’s life. The reduction of embodied carbon is an essential part of reducing…

  Dear Students, Faculty and Staff, As I step down from the position of Chair, I want to thank all of you for your amazing dedication and support toward making the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington such a fantastic place to study, teach and work to advance our programs and to push…

Last summer, I was asked to teach a course in reinforced concrete bridge design as part of the UW Professional and Continuing Education program.  Having taught concrete design many times before, I thought “no big deal”.  I was surprised to learn that the course was to be delivered in person in Abu Dhabi (UAE). The…

  An inter-disciplinary College of Built Environments graduate student team, including two M. Arch students from the Department of Architecture, won the 24th Annual Bank America Low-Income Housing Challenge on May 14th in San Francisco.  The team was led by Al Levine of the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies. In the largest competition in…

Studies at UW Architecture take alumni/ae into a range of careers – including several who have held elective office in Seattle and Washington and beyond. Perhaps the farthest-flung: Alex Ekwueme (BArch 1956), “one of Nigeria’s leading statesmen” who served as his country’s first Vice President 1979-83. Following his graduation from UW with degrees in both…

Don’t forget to buy your tickets for one of our department’s favorite annual events, the Festa Romana!  This year’s extravaganza will be held on May 15 in Gould Court.  The deadline to register is May 8.  For some background on the Festa and some great photos, read our blog post from 2013. Friday May 15, 2015…

Every winter quarter, there is a spectacular showcase of the craft that we, as architecture students, put into our work in the form of quarter inch scale tectonic models for Jim Nicholls’ Design Development course (Arch 570). The level of detailing, which sometimes isn’t achieved in studio projects, becomes fully realized in the every student’s…

In my continuing work on a book manuscript on architecture and racial politics during the late-Fascist era in Italy, I am writing about the organization and displays of the Italian Overseas Exhibition. This politically charged representation of Italy’s colonies was held in the Fuorigrotta (literally, “beyond the grotto”) area of Naples, beginning in May of…

Update: August 2016 Last spring, the College of Built Environments displayed the work of Jim Olson in the Olson Gallery of Gould Pavilion. The exhibit opened with a conversation between Jim Olson and Alan Maskin, moderated by Ken Oshima.  Below, a March 2015 blog post about the exhibit; you can view this and many other…

Contributed by Abby Inbanputr, Photo Lab Instructor The photo lab is back in business! Complete with the extensive music collection, smells of developer, prints hanging to dry, and students at work. Tucked away in the basement, the Gould Hall photo lab is easy to forget about, but it is a unique and valuable resource that…

Ron Rochon, a partner at The Miller|Hull Partnership and a dear friend of the Department of Architecture, was one of six AIA Seattle members to be elevated to the organization’s prestigious College of Fellows this year, one of the greatest honors an AIA member can receive.  Managing partner of Miller|Hull since 2009, Ron’s leadership has…

The Center for Integrated Design has now made the Bullitt Center its home for almost 2 years.  The Center for Integrated Design is comprised of two entities: the Integrated Design Lab (IDL) and the Discovery Commons (DC).  The IDL is a self-supporting research lab and has been involved in many different ways with the Bullitt…

Every few years, professors Peter Cohan and Jennifer Dee lead a group of architecture students across the Nordic wilderness via bus, train, ferry, bicycle, and foot.  Even though winter is here, the Architecture in Scandinavia 2014 program (indexed on various social media as #cohandeenavia) is still very fresh in our minds.  Over about two months…

The UW architecture community is excited about a house currently being constructed in Madison, which uses a unique new wood system, Cross Laminated Timber (CLT). UW Affiliate Associate Professor Susan Jones and Arch 503 Studio students participated in the research for this project. House location: 1820 – 41st Ave. E., just off Madison Here’s a…

Perhaps you’ve heard the clamor of hammers in Gould of late, or have seen a construction zone where once was a quiet court. Don’t forget to check out the result of all that work — Arch 570 full-scale building details on display in Gould Court until February 13. The initial major assignment of the Design…

Photo credit: Josh Polansky UW Professor of Architecture Sharon E. Sutton’s art exhibition, City Life on and Off the Grid, is on display at the Ethnic Heritage Art Gallery until April 13. If you go to the show, please stop by Karen’s desk in the Architecture office (208 Gould Hall) where you will find the…

Yesterday evening’s symposium, Gould Hall: Past Present Future, was a huge success. As part of the UW Department of Architecture Centennial Celebration, the UW College of Built Environments community gathered in Gould Hall to learn more about the unique building which has served as its home base since the building’s opening in 1971. Audience members…

On Wednesday evening the UW College of Built Environments community gathered in Gould Hall to welcome its new Gould Pavilion, designed by The Miller Hull Partnership, with an inaugural exhibition, In-Between, by Seattle-based architecture firm Suyama Peterson Deguchi (SPD). The evening commenced with a “conversation” in Gould Court with SPD Founder and Principal George Suyama…

On Tuesday afternoon the UW community crowded into Alder Commons Auditorium to welcome Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt. The special noontime “conversation” proceeded as a question and answer session, with UW Professor of Architecture Vikram Prakāsh serving as interviewer. Audience members were also invited to pose questions to Murcutt. Students, staff, faculty, and practitioners listened…

Written by Kristopher Chan, M Arch 2014 Candidate It is still hard to believe that we have presented our theses and have technically “graduated.” A mere nine months ago, most of us were finishing winter quarter having hastily submitted a rough thesis proposal to our thesis advisors Louisa Iarocci and Sharon Sutton. We had all…

It has been written that the first architect was a bee – I know that from a slim volume, Bees and Beehives, published anonymously in 1874. One can wonder what manner of cultural artifact that bee-chitect produced but there can be little doubt that it was done with order, industry & modesty. There may even…

UW Today picked up the story about M. Arch students in Prof. Peter Cohan’s studio who were selected to design and build a new temporary event pavilion on Seattle’s waterfront.  This project is a collaborative effort between the Department of Architecture and Friends of Waterfront Seattle. In addition to Cohan, the faculty team includes Kimo Griggs (in charge…

After a (midnight) Friday thesis deadline, we gathered Saturday at Cultivate in Elm Hall to celebrate our graduating Master of Architecture students with a slide show and awards.  A list of this quarter’s theses is provided at the end of this post. Graduates, congratulations from all of us here at the UW Department of Architecture,…

Architects typically work to respect context.  Yes – culturally sensitive, site-specific interventions addressing constraints of the urban fabric and historical character of the neighborhood while maintaining a presence on the street can both navigate and transcend competing priorities in a subtle, yet powerful way.  But as a thought experiment, we’ve taken a few brief Scandinavian…

It’s hard to believe that autumn quarter is nearing an end and we’re soon heading into winter!  It’s been quite an exciting season around the UW Department of Architecture with much more still to come. This fall we celebrated with the grand kickoff of the Architecture Centennial.   Opening activities began on October 22 with an alumni lecture by Brian Bell…

When I first heard a preview of the UW Architecture Centennial celebration at a meeting of the UWArchPAC (Professionals Advisory Council), I began thinking of colleagues and friends who had taught and studied there over the decades in which I have observed and taken part in Department and College doings – going back to my…

“David” was a symbol of heroism and courage but even he didn’t know what the future held for him; that made him human, that made him more relatable, and that made him seem even more heroic because then he’s just an ordinary man taking on an extraordinary task. This was a student’s description of the…

A few weeks ago on Sunday October 26th, we had a great turnout of alumni for ‘Alumni in the City’ – a walking tour led by UW Department of Architecture alumni designers offering a behind the scenes glimpse into the design of six notable projects. The projects and alumni architects included: Bullitt Center (Brian Court…

Written by Rick Mohler The pace of work and level of intensity is increasing in the Thesis Studio as 25 students prepare to present final projects on December 1st, 2nd and 3rd. This will be the culmination of more than two quarters of work, which began in the Sprinq Quarter of last year with Thesis…

Written by Lecturer Judith Swain For the past 20 years, ARCH 100 / Introduction to Architecture has offered students the opportunity to learn about architectural design in an intensive, hands-on program during the UW summer quarter. It has also provided studio-teaching experience for the GSAs involved in the course. This year, we wrapped up the…

Written by Kristian London, edited by Rick Mohler and Dechen Gonnot The Seattle Studio is a collaboration between the City of Seattle Department of Planning and Development (DPD), the Department of Urban Design and Planning and the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington. The aim of the multi-semester studio is to assist the city…

Written by Senior Lecturer Jim Nicholls Tables Of Content is a School of Art summer furniture studio taught by Jim Nicholls and John Martin. 25 undergraduate students from across the UW campus, including students from the College of Built Environments, were introduced to the fundamentals of wood furniture fabrication and design. The studio began with an…

Written by Assistant Professor Elizabeth M. Golden Bob Hull, one of Seattle’s most well-known and respected architects passed away on April 7th, 2014, at the age of 68. He left behind an impressive legacy of buildings, and the work he created over a lifetime will continue to serve and uplift many people for generations to…

 Written by Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Jeffrey Ochsner When Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects sold out about 2006, I wondered if the book would ever be available again.  Shaping had been created in the early 1990s as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the AIA…

Please join the Department of Architecture for Studioworks 2014: End of Year Show. Featuring the work of students throughout the entire year as well as undergraduate and graduate furniture pieces! Let’s celebrate the end of another great year and toast the future as we look to our 100th year next year! Refreshments and beer provided!…

Written By Associate Professor Rob Corser The UW Department of Architecture’s Spring Collab/Fab Studio for 2014 engaged with the community of Forks Washington for the second year of a three year commitment of work with this rural city on the Olympic Peninsula.   The studio was led by Collab/Fab Studio founder, Associate Professor Rob Corser, AIA,…

Written by Assistant Professor Tyler Sprague As we wind down the quarter in ARCH324, students once again took part in the (now) annual tradition of building small-scale prototype structures, out of spaghetti and string. The hot gluing of tiny sticks on cardboard platforms becomes a useful means to reveal the fundamental issues of structure, often…

Written by Associate Professor and Associate Chair Alex Anderson Promise and failure. These two words seem to sum up the long project of developing a commercially viable, architecturally significant, factory produced house in the United States. A recent exhibition at the MOMA in New York, Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, highlighted this sense of…

Written by Kate Simonen, Assistant Professor A couple of weeks ago, I attended our college’s BE Connected: a Symposium on Integration & the Built Environment.  This symposium was organized by the PhD students in our interdisciplinary PhD program and provided a great opportunity for faculty and students to discuss a wide range of issues via…

 Written by Olga Amigud, M Arch 2014 Candidate  Photos courtesy of Olga Amigud, Kimo Griggs, Anna Pajulo, Olof Jondelius, and Jason Tran For several years now, some of the lucky architecture students (those that have taken Furniture Studio taught at the BE labs) have been traveling with their pieces to an interstate design competition in Boise,…

The 2014-2015 academic year will mark the 100th anniversary of the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington! At this important milestone, we will celebrate our past and contemplate our future through engaging events, lectures, design and discussion. The Department invites current students and alumni to design the logo for the year-long celebration! The…

Written by Associate Professor Kimo Griggs It is a truism that my generation grew up in the car. Flying was exotic and expensive. Driving seemed almost free, and it is how we made all but the longest of trips. Sitting in the back seat, often wondering out loud when the trip would be over. We…

Written by Marisol Foreman, 2015 M. Arch Candidate As architecture students, we spend an incredible amount of time on our craft, especially at our school. We do this willingly knowing that we will need to work just as hard in the real world, and (for a long while) on someone else’s designs. We all know,…

Written by Assistant Professor, Ann C. Huppert Despite hosting 8 million visitors a year, one vital element – ready sources of public water – has long been lacking for tourists to Florence. The abundant public drinking fountains that famously punctuate the alleys and byways of Rome have not been part of the Tuscan city. Until…

Written by Alden MacKey and Andy Wolfang, M Arch Candidates (2015) As a case study, our team’s project was Peter Zumthor’s Steilneset Memorial honoring the victims of the Vardø witch trails, built in Norway in 2011.  We were specifically interested in this project on account of its simple wood structure, which emphasized the fact that…

Written by Associate Professor Brian L. McLaren While in Rome this past fall, when I was not teaching or preparing for lectures, field trips or studio, I spent my time on my current research project, which examines the architecture of the late-Fascist period in Italy. My work in Rome was a continuation of my efforts…

Written by Ross Lambert, M Arch 2014 Candidate Winter Quarter means Furniture Studio at the UW for graduate students.  The first day of class began with a short lecture on the history and tradition of the studio by Professor Jeffrey Ochsner.  In 2012, Jeffrey published the book Furniture Studio chronicling the history of the program, highlighting exceptional projects,…