Dear Alumni and Friends,

I hope that this letter finds you and yours healthy and thriving as we enter 2025. Now in my second year as chair, I’m delighted to tell you that the department is healthy and thriving amidst exciting changes and impressive accomplishments by faculty, students, and alumni.

Department News

Upon my appointment as chair last year, the department released a draft Strategic Plan and was externally reviewed through a very positive and insightful UW Ten-Year Program Review process and report. The simultaneity of these two events was fortuitous as they are well aligned and provide clear direction for the department. Both call for greater administrative capacity for fiscal analysis and strategic planning and we spent the past year restructuring the department administration in response. Claudine Manio has been promoted to department Administrator and we are delighted to welcome Tracy Pitt from UW Tacoma as Claudine’s replacement as Graduate Program Advisor. We also welcome Nancy Dragun as our new Admissions and Outreach Coordinator. Together with Undergraduate Program Advisor Kim Sawada and Manager Shanna Sukol, our capable staff ensure that the department runs smoothly.

We hosted our first of what will be an annual UW Architecture Alumni and Friends Reception at the AIA A24 Conference in Washington, D.C. in June. Our sincere thanks to ZGF Architects and Principal Tim Williams (MArch 1995) for hosting the event in their beautiful office just blocks from the White House. Our Alumni and Friends Reception for the upcoming AIA A25 Conference in Boston will be at DesignLAB Architects and we thank them and Principal Sam Batchelor (MArch 2004) in advance. If you will be attending the conference please join us! We will send an invite and will be on the AIA A25 Conference app.

We have established an exciting collaboration with ARCADE, the Pacific Northwest design magazine, in which writer Lauren Gallow teaches a Storytelling in Architecture class in the department and the resulting student essays, with introductions penned by practicing professionals, are published in a dedicated issue of ARCADE titled COLLABORATION. We hosted the first launch party in November and look forward to more as we amplify the voices of our students while strengthening ties with the professional community.

We are excited to announce the department’s fourth Alumni Awards program with the gala event to take place on the evening of Thursday, April 17 at the LMN Shop Space in downtown Seattle. Please save the date! In addition, please submit your nominations for Distinguished Alumni and Graduate of the Last Decade Awards HERE. The deadline is February 3.

Faculty News

We are delighted to welcome Zahra Rasti as an Assistant Teaching Professor of Beginning Design. Zahra comes to us from Cal Poly San Louis Obispo but brings international experience in teaching and practice to her introductory studios and seminars.

We are also delighted to announce that four department faculty were promoted in the 2024-25 academic year including Heather Burpee (Research Professor), Tomás Méndez Echenagucia (Associate Professor with Tenure), Gundula Proksch (Professor), and David Strauss (Affiliate Associate Professor).

Associate Professor Kimo Griggs, who since 2008 has taught material and fabrication courses within the department and led the CBE Digital Design and Fabrication Labs as Director (2018-2021) and Associate Dean for Technology Transfer (2012-2018), retired at the end of fall quarter. Student work from Kimo’s popular Furniture Design Studios has won dozens of awards over the past sixteen years and his custom fabricated designs including tables, rolling partitions, and modular stage components are found throughout the college. Kimo will be missed as he continues his creative pursuits in his home state of Vermont.

It was a truly remarkable year for faculty accomplishment and recognition and the following are only highlights from a much longer list. Professors Ann Marie Borys and Kate Simonen were both elevated to FAIA bringing the total number of fellows on our faculty to eight. Affiliate Associate Professor Susan Jones and Professor Kate Simonen were each one of five women nationally to receive a 2024 Women in Architecture Award from Architectural Record magazine (yes, you read that correctly…five winners nationally, two on our faculty). Susan and Kate were also prominently featured in a recently released national documentary, Women of Carbon, which chronicles the outsized impact women in the built environment disciplines are having in the fight against climate change.

Other faculty awards include Professor Gundula Proksch receiving the 2024 Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) Mid-Career Research Impact Award, Professor Mehlika Inanici being awarded the 2023 Leon Gaster Award (in 2024) by the Society of Light and Lighting, and Associate Professor Elizabeth Golden receiving (with ASU colleague Marc Neveu) the 2024 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ASCA) Course Development Prize.

Student News

It was a remarkable year for our students as well. Morocco Branting (MArch 2024) was one of thirty MArch students nationally to receive a 2024 Future 100 Award from Metropolis magazine.

AIAS-UW, our American Institute of Architecture Students chapter, hosted BLOOM: Emerging Solutions for Urban Sustainability, the 2024 AIAS West Quad Conference on campus and set a new benchmark for national AIAS events by breaking records for fundraising, attendance, revenue, and quality of programming. Bloom co-chair Trevin Thompson, a grad student in his final year, is now the AIAS West Quad Director and national board member.

For the second year in a row, students in our National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (UWNOMAS) chapter participated in the NOMA Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition as members of a self-organized team working over the summer. Ten students travelled to the annual NOMA Conference in Baltimore to present their submission. While their submission did not advance to the finals, the students made a number of important national connections including meeting architect Leon Bridges, the oldest living NOMA member and a graduate of our department (BArch 1960). This spring, the department will launch the first NOMA Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition Studio to provide the 2025 student team with additional support.

AIAS and NOMAS are but two of several departmental student organizations and affinity groups that are cultivating leadership while advancing the department’s goals of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion and the department is proud to support them in these efforts.

Alumni News

As with our faculty, the following are highlights from a very long list of alumni accomplishments this past year. Four graduates of our department were elevated to AIA Fellow in 2024. They include Sam Batchelor, FAIA of DesignLAB in Boston (MArch 2004) and Doug Ito, FAIA of SMR (BA Arch 1989), Rob Misel, FAIA of Miller Hull (BA Arch 1992), and John Shoesmith, FAIA of Perkins Eastman (MArch 1994) in Seattle. Of the 98 AIA members elevated to Fellowship internationally in 2024, six are either faculty or graduates of our department.

In addition, Doug Ito received the 2024 AIA Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award which is given annually to an architect or architectural organization that embodies social responsibility and actively addresses a pressing social issue. Doug’s tireless efforts to advocate for progressive affordable housing policy while leading SMR, a firm staunchly committed to advancing affordable housing design, make him especially deserving of this coveted award. Doug and the six other newly elevated AIA fellows were honored at the AIA A24 national conference in Washington, D.C. in June.

I would like to acknowledge and honor the passing of L. Jane Hastings, FAIA (BArch 1952), who, like many of those mentioned above, was an innovator, pioneer, and impactful member of our community. Jane was only the eighth licensed woman architect in Washington State, maintained an award-winning practice for over forty years, was elected an AIA Fellow in 1980, Chancellor of the AIA College of Fellows in 1992 (the first woman to hold the position), received the AIA Seattle Chapter Medal in 1995, and was the first recipient of the AIA Northwest & Pacific Region Medal of Honor in 2002.Her memoir, The Woman in the Room, was published fours months before her death on March 25, 2024. While we are saddened by her passing, we are inspired by her legacy as will future generations of architects in our community and beyond.

While I’ve had many reasons to be optimistic for the department’s future throughout my nearly four decades on the faculty, I’ve never been as excited for it than I am today. Much of this excitement stems from the extraordinary support we receive in so many ways from our alumni, friends, and the practicing community. If you would like to further support the department and our students, please consider a contribution today. 2024 has been an extraordinary year for the department and I look forward to an even more exciting year in 2025. Please do not hesitate to reach out or pay us a visit. We’d be delighted to hear from you!

ARCADE NW is a non-profit community publishing house focused on projects related to art, design, and architecture.

info@arcadenw.org
arcadenw.org
@arcade_nw

Congratulations to Best Practice (Ian Butcher, MArch 1999 and Kailin Gregga, BAAD 2002) whose Aspen Leaf Ranch design was published in The New York Times’ Living Small column. We caught up with Ian and Kailin to chat about Best Practice to learn more about the project, and what makes their firm tick.

Best Practice was founded with the goal of fostering a place where people are encouraged to evolve and develop ideas based on the specifics of each project. “We’re known for leaning into eccentric conditions, and we aim to embrace the challenges that come from treating what seem like constraints as design opportunities,” notes Kailin. Ian adds, “We wanted to make a studio that was a great place to work, and to work with the extended and talented building community in Seattle. We are so lucky to work with talented fabricators, craftspeople and artists on our projects and seek out those collaborations. They are what lend a unique measure and feel to our projects and showcase a different way of being local.”

Read the complete article HERE.

(Another Best Practice project of theirs, Cloud Ranch, was featured in the NYT “on Location” in 2021. Check it out HERE.)

Daniel Simons (MArch 1998) and his fellow Principals at Bay Area-based David Baker Architects published an article in this month’s ARCHITECT magazine on the Nine Ways to Make Affordable Housing for People.

Professor Mehlika Inanici has been awarded the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) 2023 Leon Gaster Award. The Leon Gaster award is presented for the best paper included in the SLL Lighting Research & Technology Journal concerned with lighting applications, and recognizes the role that Leon Gaster made as the founder of the Illuminating Engineering Society in 1909. The award was first made in 1929 and one award is given annually. Inanici will receive the award at the SLL Annual General Meeting, Awards and Presidential Address on May 14 2024 in Leeds, England.

This year, 98 architects in the U.S. and beyond were elevated to the AIA College of Fellows, including Professors Ann Marie Borys and Kate Simonen. Nine of the department’s permanent and affiliate faculty are now AIA Fellows. In addition, three UW Architecture alumni were also elevated to Fellowship: Samuel Batchelor, designLab Architects in Boston (M.Arch, 2004); Douglas Ito, SMR Architects (BA Architecture, 1992); and Robert Misel, The Miller Hull Partnership LLP (BA Architecture, 1989). Doug Ito is also the recipient of the 2024 Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award, which recognizes an architect or organization that champions a range of social issues. UW Architecture will host a reception/celebration for alumni and friends at the AIA Conference in Washington, D.C. on June 5 at ZGF Architects. Register here to attend.

The 2024 design exCHANGE exhibit is an annual exhibition of unbuilt projects by local Seattle architecture firms. The projects showcased are located in the Pacific Northwest region and all around the world.

This exhibit is free and open to the public.

Exhibition April 26 – May 9, 2024
Gould Court

Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 2024 5:30PM
This event is not open to the general public.

The 2024 design exCHANGE opening reception is an invitation only event to celebrate the opening of the annual design exCHANGE exhibit. The opening reception is open to members of the UW College of Built Environments and invited members of the Seattle design community. Please register to attend.

We are proud to announce that four members of the UW Architecture community have been recognized with an AIA Seattle Award this year!

“Each year, AIA Seattle celebrates leadership and achievement in design and the built environment through its member awards program, which recognizes individual leadership and achievement in design and the built environment at the local and national levels. Honorees are nominated by their peers and selected by the Fellows & Honors Committee each year to acknowledge excellence and strengthen ties between architects and the many professions that partner with them to make a difference through design.” – AIA Seattle

Gold Medal: Susan Jones, FAIA, atelierjones, Affiliate Associate Professor

College of Fellows: Bill LaPatra FAIA, LEED AP

Community Service Award: Emilia Cabeza de Baca, AIA – 2019 M Arch alum

Allied Organization Award: NOMAS UW – student organization

For more information about each award and to purchase tickets to attend the awards ceremony on January 23, visit the AIA Seattle event website.

AIA Seattle Parti
Tuesday, January 23 6-8:30pm @ The Forum at Town Hall Seattle

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Overseas, the exhibition “The Wright Imperial Hotel at 100: Frank Lloyd Wright and the World” curated by Professor Ken Tadashi Oshima at the Toyota Museum of Art (Aichi, Japan) attracted a record 35,000+ visitors while on view October-December 2023. This year it travels to Tokyo to the Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art (January 11 – March 10) and the Aomori Museum of Art (March 20 – May 12, 2024).

Here in the United States, an exhibit will open in June 2024. Mona Ghandi, Assistant Teaching Professor, is a recent winner and finalist of the DATMA (Massachusetts Design Art & Technology Institute) public art Installation peer reviewed national competition. Her interactive piece entitled “Mood-Vironment” is a full-scale interactive installation that interacts with the visitors’ emotions and changes itself accordingly. The piece will be built in New Bedford MA and will be on display until October 2024.

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Professor Ken Tadashi Oshima curated/authored The Wright Imperial Hotel at 100: Frank Lloyd Wright and the World, a major exhibition and fully-illustrated book currently at the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. Five years in the making, this exhibition builds on the 2017 MoMA exhibition, Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive, for which Professor Oshima was a co-curator, to celebrate the centennial of the 1923 opening of Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

In bringing together works from Columbia University’s Avery Library, MoMA, the Library of Congress and Japanese collections, this exhibition reexamines Wright as one of the first global architects pursuing this decade-long project at the nexus of his vast career spanning art, architecture, and design to writing, landscape, education, construction and urbanism. Highlights of the exhibition include film footage of the construction of Wright’s Fallingwater (1936-), a full-scale Usonian House installation and contemporary color animated film of Broadacre City (1929-35). The reexamination of Wright also considers his designs in the context of his travels and passions connecting different landscapes and cultures around the world, and pursuit of high-rises including his 528-story Mile-High Illinois skyscraper (1956). Today, a further evolution of Wright’s vision can be seen in the design of the new high-rise Imperial Hotel (2021-2036) by Tsuyoshi Tane (1979-) that bridges past/present/future.

Professor Oshima will also present this work on-line in collaboration with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and Foundation for the lecture series “Unpacking the Imperial Hotel at 100: Frank Lloyd Wright and the World”

Thursday, November 9, 2023
7 p.m. EST / 4 p.m. PST

2024 Exhibition Dates

The exhibition continues in 2024 at the Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art (Minato-ku, Tokyo) January 11 – March 10, 2024 and Aomori Museum of Art (Aomori City, Aomori) March 20 – May 12, 2024.

The La Conner Swinomish Library by BuildingWork, a Seattle-based firm founded by Matt Aalfs, AIA (MArch 1999) is featured in ARCHITECT magazine online. As noted in the article, the project “represents a multitude of collaborations and innovations. First, the new building is constructed from cross-laminated timber, making it one of the first publicly funded buildings in the country to be built entirely from CLT, according to its architect. Second, and perhaps more important, the library results from a unique partnership between an architecture firm and a local tribal community.” In addition to Matt, the project team consisted of partner Kate Weiland, AIA (MArch 2009), and project architect Jake LaBarre, AIA (MArch 2009). The project illustrates the commitment of UW Architecture and its graduates to issues of material innovation, community engagement, and social equity.

We are thrilled to share that Sam Miller, FAIA (MArch 1992), a partner with Seattle-based LMN Architects, and Justin Schwartzhoff (MArch 2014), LMN’s Sustainability Lead, are featured in an online article in Architectural Record magazine titled “Continuing Education: Architects Zero in on Zero to Define Building Performance.” In this captivating article, Sam and Justin, along with other industry experts, share their thoughts on the complexities of defining and achieving “net-zero energy” buildings.

We invite you to immerse yourself in this thought-provoking article HERE.

This is but one example of our grads’ practice, research, and advocacy having a national impact in making our buildings more sustainable and leading climate-responsible practices across the industry.

We are immensely proud of our alums’ accomplishments and the recognition they have garnered.

The department of Architecture is proud to announce that two of our Master of Architecture students have been recognized as part of this year’s Husky 100!
Please join us in congratulating Jacquelyn Crane and Dana Austin Bass!

 
Jacquelyn Crane 2023

Master of Architecture, Sustainable Systems and Design emphasis; Design Computing Graduate Certificate

 
Dana Austin Bass 2023

Master of Architecture; Graduate Certificate in Housing Studies; B.A. Architectural Design; B.S. Real Estate

Each year, the Husky 100 recognizes 100 undergraduate and graduate students from the UW Bothell, Seattle and Tacoma campuses in all areas of study who are making the most of their time at the University of Washington. The Husky 100 include students who have founded start-ups, created artwork, served as mentors, conducted research and advocated for social justice. They work on our campuses and in our communities. They are leaders and innovators.

These students are united in their efforts to actively connect what happens inside and outside of the classroom and apply what they learn to make a difference on our campuses, in their communities and for the future. Through their coursework, research, volunteer and leadership efforts, internships and jobs, they have created their own unique Husky Experience.

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Exhibit Duration: May 15, 2023 – May 26, 2023
Closing Reception: Friday, May 26, 2023, 5:30PM

Gould Court, University of Washington College of Built Environments
3950 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

Entry Deadline: Board must be uploaded to Riot Creative Imaging by 5PM on Monday May 8, 2023
(one week before shows begins)

design exCHANGE 2023 will highlight emerging architectural and landscape projects designed by regional practitioners. This preview of un-built work and the design process behind built projects gives students and the public a rare glimpse into the studio process and provides a forum for public discourse between the region’s academic community and practitioners. An overview of the design innovation and influence of regional practitioners both large and small, design exCHANGE 2023 offers an exciting preview of future projects to be built regionally, nationally and globally. The closing night reception, with food and live music, is open to students, professionals, and the Seattle design community.

design exCHANGE Entry Form

UW Architecture connected to four of the sixteen 2023 National AIA Architecture Award winning projects and more!

The AIA Architecture Award is the highest recognition the U.S. architecture profession grants to a recently completed project. This year, as in most, Seattle-based firms won more than their share of awards. This includes two projects by Seattle’s LMN Architects (Scott Crawford, M.Arch 2008/MS Arch 2010, and Sam Miller, MArch 1992, Partners) which received awards for the Mukilteo Multimodal Ferry Terminal and the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences Middle School. The Seattle office of Perkins + Will was recognized for the University of Washington Life Sciences Building (Devin Kleiner, MArch 2004, Associate Principal and Project Architect). On the other side of the country, designLAB architects (Sam Batchelor, MArch 2004, Partner) of Boston was recognized for the Worcester Blackstone Visitor Center.

In addition, Seattle-based Miller/Hull (Professor Emeritus Dave Miller, Founding Partner and Brian Court, MArch 2002, Ben Dalton, MArch 2005, Rob Misel, and Sian Roberts, MArch 1992, Partners) won a 2023 National AIA Interior Architecture Award for its Student Success District at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Congratulations to all of these notable alumni and firms!

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Douglas Stewart Kelbaugh, former Chair and Professor in the Department of Architecture, on February 18, 2023, at the age of 78. We extend our deepest sympathies to his wife, Kathleen Nolan, son, Casey, and daughter, Tess.

Douglas S. Kelbaugh FAIA was born in Brooklyn NY on January 25, 1945, graduating from Memorial High School in Houston, Texas in 1963. He received his B.A. in architecture Magna Cum Laude from Princeton University in 1968. He then participated in a Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program in Trenton NJ for two years (1968-70). He graduated with his M.Arch. from Princeton in 1972. While in graduate school Doug joined in anti-war protests and peace marches in DC, also building inflatables for events on campus and play structures for the “People’s Workshop”—a Community Design Center in New Brunswick NJ. After graduating Doug worked as a senior planner and architect for the Department of Planning and Development, City of Trenton (1972-78).

In 1978 Doug joined with Sang Lee to form the partnership Kelbaugh + Lee. This firm did numerous projects and received awards for multiple pioneering passive solar buildings and other designs. Kelbaugh’s activities in the early solar design movement were marked by the design of the first Trombe Wall house in Princeton NJ (1973-75). Over the course of his activities in practice, Kelbaugh’s firms won over 15 regional and national design awards and competitions, and their designs appeared in over 100 books and magazines, and in many exhibitions in the USA and abroad. While at Kelbaugh + Lee, Doug began visiting teaching appointments, including lecturer positions at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania. Over time he became convinced that design of urban areas rather than single buildings would make a bigger impact on the issues of global warming and climate change.

In 1985 Doug accepted an appointment as Professor and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington. During this time, he was instrumental in bringing a younger generation of faculty into the Department. He also instituted the Department’s student-run publication, Column 5, and initiated a program of design charrettes that took on urban design issues in Seattle. Through the charrette program Doug became involved in the New Urbanism movement. He partnered with Peter Calthorpe, another co-founder of the passive solar and New Urbanism movements, in the firm Calthorpe, Kelbaugh & Associates (1989-98).

Doug’s first books grew out of the design charrette program and reflected his growing commitment to urban issues. In 1989, he edited The Pedestrian Pocket Book (Princeton Architectural Press), a national bestseller in urban design that introduced the concept of Transit-Oriented-Development to a broad audience. In 1997, Kelbaugh authored Common Place: Toward Neighborhood and Regional Design, a book on urban theory, design, and policy, followed by its sequel, Repairing the American Metropolis in 2002.

In 1992, Doug stepped down as Chair of the UW Department of Architecture and in 1998 he accepted appointment as the Dean of the Taubman College at the University of Michigan, a position he held for ten years. At Michigan he continued creating and participating in design charettes, and he brought numerous notable speakers to Michigan leading to his edited book The Michigan Debates on Urbanism: Everyday, New, and Post, published in 2005. He was the co-editor of Writing Urbanism in 2008. From 2008 to 2010 he served as executive director of design and planning for a Dubai-based development company with a portfolio of large sustainable projects in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Kelbaugh co-chaired multiple national and international conferences on energy, urbanism, and design; he spoke to hundreds of professional and community groups and wrote numerous articles on sustainable design. His most recent book, THE URBAN FIX: Resilient Cities in the War Against Climate Change, Heat Islands, and Overpopulation, was published in 2019.

Among his many accolades, he was Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Fellow of the Congress for a New Urbanism, and in 2016 was awarded an AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education—the highest award given to an educator by the two organizations with only one Topaz award given each year. In announcing this award, Kelbaugh was praised for the “transformative impact he has had on architectural education” by Harrison Fraker, Dean Emeritus at University of California at Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. Fraker also noted that during his time as the University of Washington, Kelbaugh “demonstrated a more activist role for schools of architecture in their cities.”

Following retirement, Doug returned to Seattle in 2020. He taught the class “Climate Change, Architecture and the City” in the UW College of Built Environments during Autumn Quarter 2020 and was schedule to give a lecture, “Architecture, Urbanism and Climate Change” on Thursday, February 16, 2023.

Through the course of his thirteen years at the University of Washington, Douglas Kelbaugh championed sustainable urban design and placemaking, transformed our curriculum, and strengthened relationships between faculty and local practitioners. His impact on the people and culture of the Department of Architecture is immeasurable and he will be sorely missed.