The book, Low Impact Development: Opportunities for the PlanET Region, was prepared for the City of Knoxville and the Plan East Tennessee (PlanET) Consortium, a regional planning initiative supported by a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It addresses Anderson, Blount, Loudon, Knox and Union Counties.

For three years, faculty and graduate students of the UT College of Architecture and Design conducted research and created design solutions in collaboration with PlanET. The publication encourages communities to embrace low-impact development in watershed planning, community design, and site development. This means addressing stormwater issues at their source by reintroducing natural hydrologic functions and biological processes into developed landscapes. The Knoxville County Metropolitan Planning Commission funded publication of the research.

View the publication online.

“In East Tennessee, water is a resource that defines the landscape and sustains the region economically, socially, and environmentally,” said Brad Collett, an associate professor of landscape architecture and plant sciences. He co-authored the publication with lecturer Valerie Friedmann and program alumna Wyn Miller. “Precipitation, streams, rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater are all part of an interconnected system. As the East Tennessee population grows, the health of the region’s water resources, such as that for drinking, industry, recreation, and tourism, will face increasing challenges.”

The health of water resources is threatened by the amount and quality of the stormwater runoff in urban and rural watersheds, each of which is affected by prevailing development patterns, activities on developed properties, and existing infrastructure, Collett said.

Through the impact avoidance, minimization, and management methods outlined in the publication, East Tennessee communities can learn how to promote and protect the health of the region’s shared water resources. The research demonstrates water management solutions for existing and new development in rural, urban, and residential areas.

“By implementing ‘green’ stormwater infrastructure, developed landscapes can perform as part of the solution to water resource challenges and help communities meet new stormwater management regulations by reducing, cleaning, retaining, and infiltrating runoff,” Collett said.

Low-impact development practices also present an opportunity for stormwater management systems to become an aesthetically pleasing part of a landscape instead of a buried function. According to Collett, developers around the country are reaping savings by using similar approaches.

The research was made possible through the coursework of landscape architecture graduate students. They investigated and designed for regional growth through grayfield redevelopment and low-impact alternatives to managing stormwater runoff and re-introducing natural water cycle processes on developed sites in Knoxville’s First Creek/White’s Creek Watershed. Several of the projects received awards in 2012 from the American Society of Landscape Architects Tennessee Chapter.

The UT Landscape Architecture Program is the only accredited landscape architecture program in Tennessee. It is a partnership between the College of Architecture and Design and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The program’s commitment to PlanET is valued at $1 million, an estimate based on students’ time, facilities, and faculty resources dedicated to the project through six graduate-level studio courses.

To learn more about PlanET and UT’s involvement, visit PlanET’s website. Information about the UT Landscape Architecture is available on its website.

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CONTACT:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

The event, from 2:00 to 6:30 p.m., will give prospective undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to learn about the college’s programs in interior design, landscape architecture, and architecture. Each program is accredited and is the highest ranked program of its kind in Tennessee.

Participants are encouraged to register online by October 9.

The open house will offer potential students from high schools and universities from across the country opportunities to meet current students and faculty, and learn about the integrative hands-on experiences unique to the college’s programs.

Open house activities will be held in the award-winning UT Art and Architecture Building and will include presentations by faculty and discussions with student leaders and program chairs. Participants also have the opportunity to attend a lecture at 5:30 p.m. with internationally recognized architect Iñaqui Carnicero, who will be visiting from Madrid, Spain, as part of the college’s lecture series.

For more information about the College of Architecture and Design’s open house and programs, visit the website.

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CONTACT:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

Amy Howard, architect and director of development, and James Rose, adjunct assistant professor and interim director of the Institute for Smart Structures, will present “The UT Solar House—A Prototype for Zero-Energy Living,” on Friday, September 13.

The Science Forum is a weekly brown-bag lunch series that allows professors and area scientists to discuss their research with the general public in a conversational presentation.

The presentations begin at noon on Fridays in Room C-D of Thompson-Boling Arena. Attendees can bring lunch or purchase it at the arena. Each presentation is forty minutes long and is followed by a question-and-answer session. Science Forum presentations are free and open to the public.

More than 200 UT students and faculty across nine academic disciplines designed the Living Light house for the Solar Decathlon.

UT placed eighth overall in the decathlon and claimed high-standing marks in several categories, including first in energy production, third in engineering, third in hot-water production, third in energy-efficient appliances, and fifth in architecture.

Here’s a look at other upcoming Science Forums:

• September 20: Jill Mikucki, assistant professor of microbiology, presenting “Antarctica: Exploring Ecosystems Below Half a Mile of Ice.”

• September 27: Hap McSween, Chancellor’s Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, presenting “Exploring the Asteroid Vesta: NASA’s Dawn Mission.”

• October 4: Stacy Clark, research forester with the US Forest Service, discussing “American Chestnut Restoration: Can We Bring Back the Mighty Giant?”

• October 11: Chad Duty, group leader of Deposition Science and Technology Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, discussing “3D Printing: The Next Generation of Manufacturing.”

• October 25: Kasey Krouse, urban forester for the city of Knoxville, presenting “Knoxville Urban Forestry—Year One.”

• November 1: Gerry Dinkins, curator of malacology and natural history at the McClung Museum, discussing “Rediscovery of the Nearly Extinct Alabama Lampmussel in the Emory River.”

• November 8: Devin White, senior research scientist of geocomputation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and assistant professor of anthropology, discussing “Archaeological Discoveries from Space.”

• November 15: Phil Colclough, director of animal collections and conservation at Knoxville Zoological Gardens, discussing “Eastern Hellbender Conservation and the New Role of Zoos.”

• November 22: Nathan Schmidt, assistant professor of microbiology, discussing “Infection with the Malaria Parasite: Malaria is Only Half the Problem.”

The Science Forum is sponsored by the UT Office of Research and Quest, an initiative to raise awareness of UT’s research, scholarship, and creative activity.

For more information, visit the Science Forum website.

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C O N T A C T :

Amanda Womac (Amanda@HellbenderPress.org)

Mark Littmann (865-974-8156, littmann@utk.edu)

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

They also have been using sites in Knoxville to understand and design various spaces, buildings, and environments that are multifunctional places; they serve one function while also producing food. One example: a student designed a brewery in which the building completely grows its own hops. Local food growing is more sustainable than industrial food systems and processing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b-d0aydC-E

A group of UT faculty members and students is trying to change this situation.

Nursing professors in the Global Disaster Nursing program are working with architecture and environmental engineering professors, law enforcement professionals, graduate students, and Clay County community partners to improve the area’s community wellness and disaster preparedness.

The project is made possible through a $1.5 million grant over three years from the US Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Through a constant flow of communication between the project group and community members, the group will identify, evaluate, and address the health and disaster readiness needs of Clay County.

“This project launches a new nursing model for the nation,” said College of Nursing Dean Victoria Niederhauser. “What makes it truly unique is that it brings together disciplines that rarely work together and integrates the varied skills with planning and knowledge sharing with community members.”

Clay County is an isolated area ranked 119th out of 120 Kentucky counties on major health indicators. Much of the population is ill-equipped to deal with a disaster because of poor housing, few shelters, inadequate sanitation, limited public resources, poverty, and lack of disaster education and essential reserves of food and water.

“The link between wellness and the capacity of communities to recover from disaster is clear,” said Susan Speraw, the project lead and coordinator of UT’s Global Disaster Nursing graduate program. “With Clay County partners as members of the team, this project can result in significant positive change and increase the community’s ability to be resilient in the face of disaster or public health emergency.”

At the same time, the project will train a new generation of professionals to work together to achieve the best possible outcome.

“The collaboration with the nursing program is a fantastic example of how creativity works,” said J. David Matthews, Interior Design program chair. “By bringing together two very different disciplines, we can build amazing new design ideas that cannot be realized independently.”

“We look forward to providing input on reducing the safety concerns of the hospital including potential threats and access issues,” said Don Green, executive director of UT’s Law Enforcement Innovation Center.

Over three years, the group aims to have a comprehensive assessment of the community’s health status, living conditions, and disaster readiness and vulnerability; an enhancement of overall wellness, including structural safety of homes and buildings; and the development of a community that has sufficient disaster preparedness training and resources. The project members will write grants to pay for costly updates and work with UT students and volunteers to implement solutions.

“Flooding in Clay County this year was devastating—compromising homes, health, safety, and sanitation,” said Tracy Nolan, director of community outreach at Red Bird Mission. “With UT’s help and knowledge of best practices, we will identify innovative solutions to local issues, never before attainable.”

“Emergency management is about preparing for uncertainty, and we are so excited to have the additional resources made possible through this grant,” said David Watson, emergency management director for Clay County and executive director of Manchester Memorial Hospital.

Participants include nursing professors Susan Speraw, Moriah McArthur, and Mary Nypaver; architecture and design professors John McRae and J. David Matthews; John Schwartz, environmental engineering professor; Don Green from the UT Law Enforcement Innovation Center; graduate students; the UT Institute for Assessment and Evaluation; and two Clay County community partners, Red Bird Mission and Clay County Emergency Management.

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C O N T A C T :

Susan Speraw (865-974-7586, ssperaw@utk.edu)

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

As a winner of the Gensler Diversity Internship and Scholarship, she is now one step closer to her dream. Darko received one of three top academic scholarships from Gensler, a global architecture, design, and planning firm. The scholarship also provided a paid summer internship in Gensler’s regional office in San Francisco.

Darko, who moved to the United States from Accra, Ghana, when she was five, competed against architecture and design students from across the country. The scholarship will pay for this academic year, her senior year, in the UT Architecture program.

She said her cultural background will help her better relate to the design notion that architects create based on someone’s story.

“Each and every story is unlike any other and an architect must create eclectic solutions to design problems from different scopes,” Darko said. “With this in mind, I approach every project by looking for the narrative that will tie the final design to the people that will use it or live in it.”

As a finalist, Darko submitted a video about her work and passion for design. View her entry below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcxjyHLlt5A

Darko’s submission was a design proposal for the Knoxville Community Rowing Boathouse, a plan that considered the actions, experiences, and perspectives of both the spectators and rowers within a single space.

“Because of the built-in theme of ‘place’ in design, architecture will always have the ability to speak subtly about how context and culture make our experiential world,” Darko said. “What continues to inspire and interest me is the way in which location and culture can profoundly influence the design of a project.”

After graduation, Darko hopes to pursue a master’s degree in architecture and eventually would like to teach or work at a firm focusing on urban renewal projects and those designed and built abroad.

Gensler has forty-two locations and more than 3,000 professionals on five continents. The firm specializes in architecture, interior design, brand design, product design, planning and urban design, and consulting, and has more than 2,000 active clients representing virtually every industry.

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CONTACTS:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

From laser-cut aluminum to furniture design and photography taken abroad, Thirty-Two will showcase faculty work for the first time in five years. Exploring themes found in the college’s three disciplines—architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design—the exhibit will also include drawings, sculpture, film, and mixed media.

A reception will be held from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, August 23. All activities are free and open to the public.

The Ewing Gallery is on the first floor of the Art and Architecture Building, 1715 Volunteer Boulevard. It is open 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday with extended hours on Mondays and Thursdays, and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free throughout the year.

To learn more about the College of Architecture and Design and its upcoming events, visit the website.

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C O N T A C T:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

Fulton, who begins August 1, will oversee three master’s degree options offered by the Landscape Architecture Program, a joint collaboration between the College of Architecture and Design and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

“Gale has a strong publication record, success in national competitions, and professional experience with nationally recognized firms. His degrees in horticulture and landscape architecture make him a great fit within a program that is a partnership between two colleges,” said Scott Poole, dean of the College of Architecture and Design. “I am convinced he will move our newly accredited graduate Landscape Architecture Program to national prominence in the near future.”

The UT Landscape Architecture Program is the first and only of its kind in Tennessee. It welcomed its inaugural class in fall 2008 and was accredited by the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board in 2012. The program’s curriculum focuses on the planning, design, and stewardship of constructed and natural environments.

Fulton’s expertise includes urban design and policy planning related to storm water management, ecological infrastructure, architectural and landscape architectural theory, and landscape intelligence.

Prior to teaching at the University of Illinois, Fulton taught landscape architecture and urban design at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, The Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Colorado at Denver.

Fulton earned his Bachelor of Science in horticulture from Iowa State University and Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Colorado at Denver. During his career, he has served as principal of Landscape Intelligence in Urbana, Illinois, and project manager of the multidisciplinary firm Civitas in Denver.

To learn more about the landscape architecture program, please visit archdesign.utk.edu.

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C O N T A C T:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

Scarpa, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), will teach a design studio and seminar during the 2014 spring semester.

Lawrence Scarpa

Following the 2014 studio, Scarpa will give a UT student an internship or full-time position at his Los Angeles-based firm, Brooks + Scarpa.

Scarpa will also deliver a lecture and exhibit his work during the UT Church Memorial Lecture Series. A publication documenting the seminar will be produced.

“We are very fortunate to have Larry Scarpa as the first BarberMcMurry Professor,” said Scott Poole, dean of the College of Architecture and Design. “Mr. Scarpa will be leading a studio of undergraduate and graduate students on a design project set within the city of Los Angeles. This fits well with our strategic priority focus of advancing our competence and leadership in the area of urban design.”

As the design principal in charge, Scarpa leads an architectural practice that has received more than fifty major design awards. They include the National Firm Award from the AIA in 2010, and five AIA Committee on the Environment-Top Ten Green Building Project Awards. Scarpa also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Interior Design Magazine in 2009.

The BarberMcMurry Professorship was established to promote design excellence through teaching by a visiting professor, an internationally or nationally recognized practicing architect. It is the result of two gifts—a bequest from Charles I. Barber, one of Knoxville’s most respected architects, and another from his firm, BarberMcMurry architects. In 2011, the firm’s leaders, Kelly Headden and Charles Griffin, UT architecture alumni, matched the Barber gift to produce the $1 million endowment.

The position is also part of Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek’s vision to create more endowed chairs and professorships across the UT campus.

“The BarberMcMurry Professorship is an exceptional opportunity for our college,” Poole said. “It allows us to bring world-class architects to campus to work with our students and faculty members.”

In the last two decades, Scarpa has taught at several universities. He currently is a professor of architecture at the University of Southern California, where he was named the John Jerde Distinguished Professor in 2011. In 2012, he was a visiting professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

To learn more about the College of Architecture and Design, visit the website.

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C O N T A C T:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

The show will be part of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Convention in Denver from June 20 through 22.

Gann, of Pegram, Tennessee, who won a video contest by popular vote, will host with Stephen Chung, an acclaimed architect and creator/host of Cool Spaces: The Best of New Architecture, a prime-time television series on US and Canadian public television. Karen Tang of California Polytechnic University was also voted to emcee.

View Gann’s video entry below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvu-n2xH0bE

“It is such an incredible honor to be chosen,” Gann said. “It means the world to me to have this opportunity to represent the voice of students and emerging professionals from around the globe in a discourse about leadership in the profession.”

The AIA Convention is the largest professional convention of architecture in the world. Nearly 15,000 people are expected to attend. The theme this year is “Building Leaders.” The convention will include keynote speakers, educational seminars, a product show exposition, and the conferring of the year’s biggest design awards.

Gann is scheduled to interview notable architects and keynote speakers in eight sessions over three days. One interview will be with Tricia Stuth and Zach Mortice of the UT New Norris House, which was recently named a Top 10 Green Project of 2013 by the AIA and its Committee on the Environment (COTE).

A number of UT architects will be recognized for their work during the convention. Faculty members Ted Shelton and Katherine Ambroziak will receive honors, and seventeen Tennessee architecture alumni will present educational seminars or receive awards.

“Within the College of Architecture and Design, there is such a fantastic support network,” said Gann, who also earned her undergraduate degree from UT. “From my very first year in architecture school, I learned that there are passionate people like me all over the world who could inspire me and teach me how to become a better designer, communicator, and individual.”

Gann received the Chapter President Honor Award from the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) in 2012. She recently placed first in the Architectural Design Category of the Gowanus by Design Water_Works Competition and claimed the Jury Prize in Environmental Sensitivity in the 2013 Ed Bacon Student Design Competition. She also received an honorable mention in the AIAS and Kawneer “Enlightening Libraries” Design Competition. She is now editor-in-chief of IMPRINT, a student publication of the UT College of Architecture and Design.

To learn more about the UT College of Architecture and Design, visit the website.

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C O N T A C T:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

The project, which will provide wheelchair access to the home, is expected to be completed by Wednesday, May 22.

The home of Wanda Skeen and her daughter Stacey is getting the makeover through UT Freedom by Design, a student service organization that is part of the American Institute of Architecture Students.

Team members Matt Barnett, left, and Jarod Dotson work on the home’s planters and deck.

“It is really amazing to be able to help others who aren’t able to help themselves,” said Matt Barnett, a fourth-year architecture student and the project manager of UT Freedom by Design. “Freedom By Design allows me to use what I’ve learned as an architect and over the course of my life to give the gift of freedom to those with disabilities who need it most.”

Barnett noted that the Skeens have had a host of medical problems. Wanda has been through cancer, open heart surgery, and a stroke. Stacey has what doctors believe is multiple sclerosis or brain damage.

The UT students started working on the project in January after Operation Backyard, a free home repair service of the Knoxville Leadership Foundation, told them about the Skeen family. Through several months of design, the students developed something that fitted their resources and the clients’ needs. They began construction on the project on May 1.

The student team has built a wrap-around deck to both the front and back entrances of the house. This will be connected to a new large, flat concrete slab, which will allow wheelchairs to exit a car on a flat surface that is level with the main entrance. The students have also salvaged parts of the home in disrepair, landscaped, and created gardens for the family.

“Through donations we are able to reframe the home’s rotting overhang and provide a much wider pathway to the entrance,” Barnett said. “With our excess material we inquired about something special for Wanda. We made two railroad tie planters that will allow Wanda to plant flowers and herbs directly from her wheelchair on the deck.”

The project at the halfway point.

Several East Tennessee businesses partnered with the architecture students on the project. Operation Backyard provided all of the lumber, Tennessee Stone donated flag stone, Sequatchie Concrete donated the concrete and labor for the slab, Acadia Landscape provided the landscaping plants and gravel, JRC Company discounted the railroad ties and delivery, and Craig Dotson of GEOConex provided funds to assist the students.

Freedom by Design’s goal is to use students’ architecture and design talents to improve the homes of disabled or low-income people. This is the second project by the UT chapter. The group designed a ramp for a special-needs child last year.

“This has by far been my most rewarding experience at UT because I get to work as a team with other students through all the processes of design—from finding a client and working closely with them to designing and carrying out full construction,” Barnett said.

Architecture students who worked on the project include Gus Carodine, Jennifer Elder, Zach Mulitauaopele, Alex Paisley, Michael Sena, Michael Turko, Joseph Wessels, and Billy Yang.

The organization’s officers are Jarod Dotson, director; Melissa Dooley, treasurer; Thomas Agee, secretary; and Brice Holmes, assistant project manager.

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PHOTO CAPTION:

Barnett and Dotson: Team members Matt Barnett, left, and Jarod Dotson work on the home’s planters and deck.

Construction: The project at the halfway point

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C O N T A C T S:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

“It was confirmation that architecture was for me,” she said. “The camp exposed me to UT’s space and curriculum, so I felt comfortable here as a freshman.”

Cagle and nine other former campers graduated this weekend from the UT College of Architecture and Design. They are among the students who attended the very first Design Matters camp after it was established in 2008.

The week-long overnight summer camp gives high school students the opportunity to learn innovation and invention skills. It also gives them an understanding of how design impacts invention and human experience. They gain an in-depth look at life as a university student.

This year’s camp will be June 16 through 21.

Besides Cagle, other former campers and now newly minted UT alumni are Forrest Reynolds, a dual major in engineering and architecture, who was a central designer of the UT Haiti Project; Emily Barnett and Caroline McDonald of the Interior Design Program; Ashlynne Camuti, Leslie Hood, Brandon McCloy, Kirsten Reed, and Frannie Robinson of the School of Architecture; and Sarah Howell, a dual major in architecture and engineering.

“These students represent some of the best of our graduating class,” said Matt Hall, an associate professor of architecture and program director of Design Matters. “The camp encourages imagination, innovation, and collaboration to solve problems. It promotes students to transform their ideas into spaces and products that affect people’s everyday lives.”

Cagle, who plans to attend a two-year Bible college in California and then eventually work as an architect, noted that the students in her class were instrumental in her positive experience at UT.

“We supported one another through good times and bad,” she said. “The community we had here is unparalleled.”

To learn more about the Design Matters Camp, visit the College of Architecture and Design’s website.

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C O N T A C T:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

The three-year award provides Tricia Stuth a stipend of $25,500 to be used at her discretion. Stuth is an associate professor in the College of Architecture and Design. She is a licensed architect.

The award is named for Knoxville native James R. Cox, whose gifts to the university through his sister and nephew, Charlotte and Jim Musgraves, helped establish the professorships in 2002 for faculty in the arts, theater, biological and physical sciences, architecture, and forestry studies. Recipients are chosen by a committee for their excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.

“Professor Stuth’s nomination is an indication of the high regard in which she is held by her colleagues, those who served on the selection committee, and the university,” Provost Susan Martin said.

Stuth’s passion for architecture began in the eighth grade when her school required both boys and girls to enroll in home economics and industrial arts. She learned about craft in the wood shop and designed her first house—complete with a budget constraint.

She’s since moved on to more prominent roles. Stuth, along with Robert French, an adjunct associate professor of architecture, led the design, construction, and evaluation of the New Norris House, which is now one of the most energy-efficient homes in Tennessee. It recently was named one of the nation’s top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE).

The New Norris House is also one of the first in Tennessee to earn the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Homes platinum certification from the US Green Building Council. The house was developed by UT students in conjunction with Stuth and other UT faculty members.

“I am truly honored by the awarding of the Cox Professorship,” Stuth said, noting that the award will support continued research on the design of sustainable housing.

Stuth and her husband, Ted Shelton, an associate professor of architecture, also have designed and built two homes in North Knoxville and preserved a third.

The project, Ghost Houses, drew the attention of international architecture and design publication Dwell. The homes were featured in the magazine last year. The project also received an American Institute of Architects National Small Projects Award.

Stuth is director of her college’s Design/Build/Evaluate Initiative (DBEI), a multi-disciplinary learning program. She spearheaded successful efforts last year for the initiative to be co-funded by the UT Office of Research.

Over the last three years, Stuth and her collaborators have received national awards including the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s National Design/Build Award and an honorable mention for the main award given by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. She also received the New Faculty Teaching Award given jointly by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the American Institute of Architecture Students.

Previous recipients of the Cox Professorship include Nate Sanders, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Beauvais Lyons, a professor in the School of Art.

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

UT will award two honorary degrees and welcome a host of accomplished speakers at this spring’s commencement ceremonies, which begin May 8.

Honorary degrees will be awarded to renowned journalist John Seigenthaler at the College of Law commencement and to opera singer Mary Costa, known as the voice of Sleeping Beauty, at the College of Arts and Sciences commencement. Read more about the recipients in Tennessee Today.

More than 3,730 undergraduate and graduate students will receive degrees at thirteen college ceremonies this spring.

Graduates and their guests can park free in university student parking areas throughout the campus, but should avoid parking in staff lots.

Commencement ceremonies will be webcast.

Webcast links are included below. For information about parking and other details, visit the commencement website.

Below is a list of the commencement ceremonies and speakers. All events take place in Thompson-Boling Arena unless otherwise specified:

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8

• 8:30 a.m.—College of Nursing. The speaker is Julie Worley, a nursing doctoral student who has a private psychiatry practice. She teaches online at Rush University in Chicago and will be a full-time assistant professor and researcher at Rush after graduation. View the webcast here.

• 11:30 a.m.—College of Engineering. Alumnus Dwight Hutchins, the global managing director of Accenture’s Health and Public Service Strategy practice, will speak. View the webcast here.

• 3:30 p.m.—College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. Missy Kane, a former Olympian, a Pan American Games medalist, and a former UT track coach, will speak. She is now a fitness promotion coordinator for Covenant Health. View the webcast here.

THURSDAY, MAY 9

• 8:30 a.m.—College of Communication and Information. The speaker is alumna Monica Langley, an author and senior special writer for The Wall Street Journal. View the webcast here.

• 11 a.m. —Audiology and Speech Pathology. Cox Auditorium in Alumni Memorial Building

• 1:00 p.m.—College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Alumnus Donnie Smith, president and chief executive officer of Tyson Food, will speak. View the webcast here.

• 4:30 p.m.—Graduate Hooding. Amanda Sanford, fifth-year doctoral candidate in political science and president of the Graduate Student Senate, will speak. The Graduate School expects about 300 master’s students and 100 doctoral students to take part in the ceremony. View the webcast here.

FRIDAY, MAY 10

• 9:00 a.m.—College of Arts and Sciences. Costa will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane and Musical Letters and speak briefly. The speaker is alumna Margaret Scobey, former US Ambassador to Egypt and longtime diplomat. She is now deputy commandant, international affairs advisor, Industrial College of the Armed Forces. View the webcast here.

• 2:00 p.m.—College of Business Administration. Mark A. Emkes, Tennessee Commissioner of Finance and Administration and retired chairman, chief executive officer and president of Bridgestone Americas Inc., will speak. View the webcast here.

• 5:00 p.m.—College of Law. Seigenthaler will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree and speak briefly. US Sen. Lamar Alexander, who served as Tennessee’s governor, president of the University of Tennessee and US Secretary of Education, will speak. View the webcast here.

SATURDAY, MAY 11

• 10:00 a.m.—College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Patricia Sura, who completed her residency at the College of Veterinary Medicine and was an assistant professor of surgery for six years, will speak. Sura now practices at a veterinary hospital in Kentucky.

• 1:00 p.m.—College of Social Work. No guest speaker. View the webcast here.

• 5:00 p.m.—College of Architecture and Design Hooding Ceremony. The speaker is alumna Robin Klehr Avia, regional managing principal and chair of the board at Gensler, an internationally acclaimed design firm. View the webcast here.

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

The honor has garnered national recognition for the house and the College of Architecture and Design in several major publications including:

ARCHITECT: Projects You Should Know: The 2013 AIA COTE Top Ten Green Projects

Gizmodo: The Systems that Power the Year’s Most Sustainable Buildings

Knoxville News Sentinel: New Norris House: Energy, efficiency, with warmth and charm

Metropulse: UT’s College of Architecture and Design Recognized for ‘Green’ House

Scientific American: Top 10 Green Buildings Improve Surrounding Environment and Users’ Health

US Building Digest: AIA Selects 2013 COTE Top 10 Green Projects

Wired: Vintage Breweries, Salvaged Wood: This Year’s ‘Greenest’ Buildings Are Surprisingly Hip

The AIA COTE Top Ten Green Projects Awards is one of the profession’s best-known recognition programs for sustainable design excellence. The program honored a range of architectural types, including government projects, education buildings, office spaces, community projects, and housing.

The New Norris House is the only university project selected for the award. Along with fellow award recipients, including renowned architecture firms such as Brooks + Scarpa and KieranTimberlake, the New Norris House will be feted at the AIA 2013 National Convention and Design Exposition in Denver this June.

The house was developed by UT students in conjunction with architecture faculty members Tricia Stuth, Robert French, Samuel Mortimer, and Richard Kelso. The building is one of the first in Tennessee to earn the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Homes platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The project was led by the College of Architecture and Design in partnership with the UT Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, the College of Engineering, and the Department of Environmental Studies. It took more than three years to complete.

The award’s jury lauded the home for its affordability and prefabrication approach—made possible through a university partnership with Clayton Homes—and its historical reference to the town of Norris, a planned community under the US New Deal program.

It is “one of the few projects that really looked at the manufacturing process holistically and how a residence could be delivered on site in a really economical way and in a way that conserved energy,” the jury wrote.

The New Norris House has received other recognitions, including a 2013 Design Build Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, a 2012 Residential Architect Merit Award for Single-Family Housing, and the 2011 Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education from the National Council of Architectural Registration Board. It also won the 2009 Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet Sustainable Design Competition.

To learn more about the New Norris House, visit the website.

Visit the AIA website to learn more about the Top Ten COTE Green Projects Awards and to see other winning projects.

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CONTACTS:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

The students participated in the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Regional Competition. Their work advanced to the national conference and was recognized as two of the top fifteen projects out of 130 entries from across the country.

Interior design seniors Teal Nabors, Abbey Stepanek, and Erin Brelsford won second place for their project, “The Learning Center.” Their peers, seniors Margaret Jamison, Deanna Olson, and Caroline McDonald, won third place for “Learning Landscape.” Both projects addressed the reinvention of college learning spaces by examining how future classrooms in higher education could function through well-considered design.

Similar student research has contributed toward the renovation of the Humanities and Social Sciences building, a secondary school built in Haiti by the College of Architecture and Design, and the UT-Herman Miller Research Studio, a learning space that evaluates how students work, collaborate, and learn.

The IDEC competition is an opportunity to create an awareness of human, economic, environmental, and ethical concerns for future interior designers. Students are charged with creating interior environments that consider socially responsible design and the importance of design in society.

“The biggest challenge with these projects was the short two-week time frame the students had to produce them,” said Jeff Geren, the students’ UT faculty advisor. “Working collaboratively, they had one week to research and a second week for design development and presentation drawings.

“I am very excited for the students because of their consistent strong work ethic.”

The Interior Design Program is a four-year program that leads to a bachelor’s degree. It is the highest ranked program of its kind in Tennessee. Its curriculum focuses on the interior architecture of spaces through the research and design of functional environments.

To learn more about the Interior Design Program, visit the website.

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C O N T A C T:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

The lecture, free and open to the public, is sponsored by General Shale Brick and will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the McClung Museum Auditorium. It will be followed by a reception and an opportunity to meet Tsien.

Tsien has taught at Harvard and Yale universities and at Parsons The New School for Design, among other institutions. She is a director of the Public Art Fund, the Architectural League of New York, and the American Academy of Rome, as well a member of the advisory council for the Yale School of Architecture. Tsien was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2007, and she is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Tsien’s firm, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, was recently recognized with the AIA’s 2013 Architecture Firm Award. The award is the highest honor the AIA bestows on a firm. It recognizes a practice that has consistently produced distinguished architecture for at least ten years.

Tsien received the 2013 AIA Honor Award for Architecture in January for her firm’s 93,000-square-foot museum designed for the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

Other recognized work by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects includes the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago; the American Folk Art Museum in New York; the Cranbrook Natatorium in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; the C. V. Starr East Asian Library at the University of California-Berkeley; Skirkanich Hall at the University of Pennsylvania; the David Rubinstein Atrium of New York’s Lincoln Center; and the Neuroscience Institute at La Jolla, California.

The Robert B. Church III Memorial Lecture Series was established by Anne Church in memory of Robert B. Church III, the UT School of Architecture’s second dean and a pre-eminent modernist of midcentury architecture. The series addresses history, theory, and practice in the design disciplines of today by bringing internationally and nationally prominent practitioners and scholars of the built environment and design arts. Five to seven speakers come to the college each semester.

All lectures are webcast and archived for public viewing on the College of Architecture and Design website.

Established in the early 1990s, the General Shale Lecture Series seeks to further the public’s awareness and appreciation of architecture and design. The lecture provides opportunities for leaders of practice and industry to come to UT.

For more information about the Church Lecture Series, visit the college’s website.

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CONTACT:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

The event, from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. in the Art and Architecture Building, will give prospective undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to learn about the college’s programs in interior design, landscape architecture, and architecture. Each program is accredited and is the highest ranked program of its kind in Tennessee.

The event is open to potential students from high schools and universities. Current UT students from other disciplines are also invited to attend.

College faculty will make presentations and participants will have the opportunity to talk to student leaders and program chairs. The Offices of Financial Aid, Housing, and Campus Life and the UT Police Department will also make presentations to parents.

The day will close with a reception featuring hors d’oeuvres and music in the college’s reading room and courtyard.

“Beyond basic issues of orientation and logistics, the open house offers our prospective students opportunities to meet with faculty and existing students, better survey the facilities, and learn of new developments in each program and the college,” said George Dodds, the college’s associate dean of academics and research.

For more information about the open house or to register, view the online invitation.

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CONTACT:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)