Thomas K. Davis

As an undergraduate student at Cornell University, Thomas K. Davis studied under architecture professors who infused their teaching with such enthusiasm that it birthed in him the desire to do the same.

“I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher,” he said. “I have taught for fifty-six semesters, and I want to give my students that same passion. The more I work with students, there’s so much more I realize I want to learn.”

Davis, who came to UT in 1994, is an associate professor of architecture. His primary interest is urban and architectural design. He teaches a seminar on issues in urban design; a course on architecture, the city and film; and an urban design studio course.

For three years, he served as director of the Nashville Civic Design Center—a nonprofit organization that addresses the city’s urban design challenges—and is on its board of directors. UT students use the center as a satellite learning space and studio. He also established a summer learning program for students in Tennessee’s capital city.

Davis recently received national recognition for his community outreach program with students, Collaborations in Transit-Oriented Development, which aims to produce a walkable, pedestrian-friendly Nashville.

“Our teaching and applied research are having a direct and lasting impact on the people and places, culture and community, environmental health, and economic vitality in the state of Tennessee and beyond, and professor Davis’s longtime work as a leader of urban design in Nashville epitomizes this,” said Scott Poole, dean of the College of Architecture and Design.

Davis noted that as he works with students, he often encourages them to use their eye and hand to draw—instead of immediately going to the computer—as they attempt to solve architectural problems because it enhances their conceptual thinking.

“I hope they develop a life-long interest and ability to keep on learning,” Davis said. “I want them to have learned to see architecture not just as good-looking objects, but as well-designed spaces and places that people occupy.”

Mary Beth Robinson

Mary Beth Robinson (in blue) with students, from left, Teal Nabors, Michelle Hawfield, and Lindsay Payne.

For interior design students, attending one of Mary Beth Robinson’s classes often results in self discovery.

Robinson, an associate professor of interior design, invites students to explore how they relate to the environment through their own history—important life moments, where they came from, and what sensory influences shaped them.

“It’s important for students to understand what their own motivations are,” she said. “They’re designing and sometimes they’re not quite sure where it’s coming from. Once they pinpoint it, it really frees them up to move on, or inspires them as they design for themselves or for others.”

Robinson has taught interior design at UT for ten years. Prior to that, she was a design practitioner.

“Working with young people in the office really led me to knowing that eventually I would want to go into teaching and share not just the practice aspect, but also learning about design,” she said. “Seeing students discover their passion and what they want to do in life and connecting them to that is something that has always inspired me to teach.”

For many years, she coordinated the Interior Design Program’s summer internship course. She will soon transition into a part-time teaching role as a professor, which will allow her to pursue other ventures while staying connected to the university.

David Matthews, associate dean of the College of Architecture and Design and chair of the Interior Design Program, said Robinson’s love for both the profession and the art of teaching “is evidenced in the high caliber of students who leave our program and enter into varying and robust careers.

“She has modeled the integration of research and design in her teaching by providing opportunities for student to use emerging knowledge as they design interior environments,” he said.

Robinson has an interest in helping students understand how interior space can contribute to wellness and human behavior. She takes her students on field trips to museums and studios in various cities so they can see the practical application of design in action.

“Whether it’s your personal space or a retail environment, it’s how to manipulate all elements of design—lighting, positioning of partitions, color, the furnishings, every aspect—and then understanding the human behavior piece of it and how space can be transformed to benefit how people use that space,” she said.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The lecture series, which begins January 28, is sponsored by the College of Architecture and Design. It is composed of exhibitions, presentations, and films. The events are free and open to the public and provide opportunities to gain insight to the works and ideas occurring in the architecture and design disciplines today.

All activities will be held at the Art and Architecture Building, 1715 Volunteer Boulevard. Lectures will begin at 5:30 p.m. and films will be shown at 8:00 p.m. in McCarty Auditorium. The exhibitions will be featured in the Ewing Gallery and Gallery 103.

Webcasts of the lectures are also available on the College of Architecture and Design website.

Attending or viewing the lectures can contribute toward maintaining and gaining architecture licensure. Professionals in the design fields are eligible to receive continuing education credits from the American Institute of Architects. Students may receive supplemental experience hours in the Intern Development Program of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

The semester lineup includes:

Lectures:

January 28: Kai-Uwe Bergmann, head of business development and a partner at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), a New York- and Copenhagen-based firm. He brings his expertise to work around the globe, including completed projects in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. He is a registered architect in the United States, United Kingdom, and Denmark.

March 4: Volkan Alkanoglu of Volkan Alkanoglu Design, who uses narrative and storytelling in his award-winning design work as seen in projects located in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States. Alkanoglu presently teaches at Georgia Tech.

April 8: Billie Tsien, who will be the college’s General Shale Lecturer. With numerous awards for both residential and commercial architecture, Tsien has taught at Harvard, Yale, and Parsons, among other institutions. Her practice, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, recently won the 2013 Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects.

Exhibitions:

January 14 – February 1: Bjarke Ingels Group: Yes is More, Gallery 103

February 4 – March 1: Spatial Pedagogy: a History of the College of Architecture and Design, Gallery 103

March 4 – 22: Volkan Alkanoglu Design, Gallery 103

April 1 – 26: Cardinal Points | Odd Fellows Cemetery, Gallery 103

Films:

January 23: Drive (2011) by Nicolas Winding Refn

February 13: Harold and Maude (1971) by Hal Ashby

February 27: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) by Stanley Kubrick

March 20: Damn Yankees (1958) by George Abbott and Stanley Donen

April 3: The Wizard of Oz (1939) by Victor Fleming

April 17: Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (2012) by Matthews Akers and Jeff Dupre

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C O N T A C T :

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

Bruce was a driving force in East Tennessee’s modern architecture for more than fifty years. His work created much of Knoxville’s skyline and helped to shape a large part of UT’s campus.

He founded the firm that is now McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects & Interior Designers Inc. in 1965 in Knoxville. He retired in 2010.

Among the UT buildings that Bruce and his colleagues designed are the Humanities Complex, Clarence Brown Theatre, John C. Hodges Library, the Veterinary Medical Center, Andy Holt Tower, Communications Complex, and the pedestrian bridge across Cumberland Avenue.

Bruce and his son, Doug, designed the Art and Architecture Building after winning a statewide competition in 1977.  The firm has led several other projects including the College of Law building and renovations, expansions of Neyland Stadium, and the Howard Baker Center.

Bruce and his wife, Elizabeth, were married for sixty-eight years.

Bruce attended Princeton University and then enlisted in the military. He earned his architecture degree from the University of Michigan. Bruce played a role in helping to establish UT’s School of Architecture in 1965. The McCarty family has supported the College of Architecture and Design for many years.

Bruce has served on the college’s board of advisors and also taught a fifth-year thesis class. The building’s primary auditorium is named for the family.

Doug is a graduate of UT’s architecture program and serves as president of McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects. Bruce’s granddaughter, Lauren, received her architecture degree from UT last year.

Bruce received the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2001 for his contributions to the university.

To read his obituary, visit the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Read more about his life at Wikipedia.

UT architecture graduates also were recognized by professionals as the fifth best hires by firms residing within UT’s classified fourteen-state region, according to the annual report, “America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools.”

The professionals were eligible to select and grade students from programs anywhere in the nation. Among the schools UT outranked in the poll: Cornell, Louisiana State University, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Notre Dame.

DesignIntelligence is noted as the most important and respected poll in the country for the design disciplines. Its rankings are equivalent to those of the US News & World Report or the Princeton Review grading systems, which do not evaluate design programs.

In 2011, it ranked the UT architecture program as a top 20 program in the nation.

The national school rankings are based on surveys from professionals, deans, and chairs from 351 academic programs. DesignIntelligence’s professional practice survey queried 392 field-related organizations, 282 of which are architectural or architectural/engineering firms.

The professional survey asked participants which schools had the best-prepared graduates, based on their hiring experience in the past five years.

“Central to our academic mission is preparing our students to be excellent in the profession,” said Scott Poole, dean of the UT College of Architecture and Design. “Our design-build projects, such as the New Norris House, the UT Solar House, and the Haiti Studio, have allowed our college to build an extensive record of collaboration across disciplines. These projects have raised standards for architecture and design in the region, promoted new strategies for sustainability, and extended the reputation of the university within the state of Tennessee and across the nation.”

The rankings reflect the college’s growing profile. Last year, DesignIntelligence also named Poole one of the “25 Most Admired Educators of 2012.”

Continued growth of the college’s programs will be seen in some major developments proposed over the next two academic years. These additions include new graduate degrees in urban design and development and a joint Master of Architecture/MBA program, as well as the appointment of world-class faculty scholars. The Barber-McMurry Visiting Professor—a nationally recognized practitioner—and the Governor’s Chair—an expert with research focuses in urban design and emerging clean energy practices—will begin teaching in 2013.

UT architecture students also have the added advantage of a lower tuition rate compared to the national average. UT’s architecture program is $9,692 for in-state students and $28,182 for out-of-state students. Nearly 75 percent of UT’s architecture and design students receive some sort of financial assistance or scholarships.

To learn more about the UT College of Architecture and Design’s programs, visit arch.utk.edu.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The L’Exode Secondary School welcomed its first students in September in the island nation’s town of Fond-des-Blancs, located seventy miles outside of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. Sixty seventh and eighth graders are enrolled.

The school, constructed as part of UT’s Haiti Project, is intended to serve the region of Fond-des-Blancs as an urban migration post for Haitian school children and their families affected by the January 2010 earthquake, which occurred near Port-au-Prince.

The school’s opening marks completion of the first phase of the project, which includes five first-story classrooms, restrooms, and the cafeteria/meeting hall.

“The experiences of the faculty and students who worked on this project in Haiti have been rich beyond measure,” said John McRae, professor and former dean of the UT College of Architecture and Design, who spearheaded the Haiti Project.

McRae, together with Chris King, adjunct faculty member, taught the special studio course where an interdisciplinary team of nineteen students created the designs for the school. McRae attended the school’s grand opening in September along with Jeremy Mefford, a recent UT graduate in civil engineering who was in the class that worked on the school design.

“The visits to the country and community of Fond-des-Blancs, and meeting the people, together with the collaboration with our Haitian partners, has provided a significant level of service learning as well as the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people in need,” McRae said. “Virtually everyone would agree that, in the long run, it is education that will make the difference in Haiti. We are all thankful to have played a part in seeing this new school become a reality.”

The next two phases of the school’s construction will include a second story, male and female dormitories, on-campus faculty housing, a library, and an auditorium. When completed, the 30,000-square-foot complex will serve 500 Haitian children.

Groundbreaking began in May 2011. The construction was under the direction of Jean Thomas, executive director of the Haiti Christian Development Fund. All of the work was done by Haitian contractors with the exception of the cafeteria trusses, which were built on site by volunteers from the United States.

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CONTACTS:

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

John McRae (865-974-5267, jmcrae1@utk.edu)

The competition, in its third year, encourages designs that demonstrate the greatest impact to the built environment using the least possible means.

This year’s theme is “performance specification” and requires entrants to reimagine a space outside the UT Art and Architecture Building into a theater, classroom, assembly area, or other communal space.

More than 100 student submission were received and evaluated.

The 2012 MAX_minimum student winners, which together worked on a project called “Garden of Shadows,” were: Jessica Bub, a freshman from Virginia Beach, VA; Amanda Gann, a graduate student from Kingston Springs, TN; Margaret Jamison, a senior from Brentwood, TN; Chloe Lane, a sophomore from Memphis, TN and Shehreen Saleh, a graduate student from Columbia, MO, for their project, informally named “Garden of Shadows.”

The winning students envisioned a series of spaces that incorporate nature, leisure, and learning. These include an outside projection wall for class lectures and films; a parking garage covered by a rolling landscape of trees and pedestrian paths, where students can test and research landscape renewal; and a roof-top communal space connected to a “green veil,” a cascading curtain of plants that shade stairway access to the roof.

“The jury had little question that this was the superior entry in this year’s student competition,” said Jennifer Akerman, faculty coordinator of MAX_min.

Beginning this year, students can also enter the professional-alumni competition by paying the entry fee and submitting a new design proposal. Teams participating in this portion of the competition must include at least one alumnus. They will be eligible to win prize money in addition to the Max Robinson Medal of Excellence.

Proceeds will benefit the Max Robinson Design Fund, which supports the competition and enhances the educational experiences of students and alumni of the college.

For more information on the program, visit the website or email maxmincomp@utk.edu.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The students accepted their awards in mid-October at the ASLA Conference held in Franklin, Tennessee.

Graduate students recognized with honors for their design studio projects are:

• Justin Allen from Chattanooga, TN
• Corrin Breeding from Athens, GA
• Jessica Bundy from Parrottsville, TN
• David Dalton from Knoxville
• Valerie Friedmann from Dandridge, TN
• Luke Murphree, from Greer, SC
• Patrick Osborne from Fall Branch, TN
• Michael Payne from Old Hickory, TN
• Brandon Smith from Knoxville
• Erin Tharp from Knoxville
• Phil Zawarus, from Glendale, AZ

Entries to the annual awards program were reviewed and critiqued by members of the ASLA Kentucky chapter.

Friedmann’s project, “Fountain City Sponge Park,” won an Award of Excellence in the Student Awards General Design category. The project proposed that the Fountain City Park and duck pond be enhanced as a multifunctional landscape to serve as part of the region’s environment-friendly stormwater management plan.

A project by Murphree and Osborne, “Solar Greenways,” won an Award of Honor in the General Design category. The design proposed the integration of an alternative energy infrastructure into the First Creek Greenway corridor to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Murphree, a second-year landscape design student, said, “‘Solar Greenways’ demonstrates the progressive abilities of landscape architects and students to respond to environmental issues such as climate change in a way that offers ecological, economic, and social benefits to our society.”

A collective studio effort, “Water Quality in the Knoxville MSA,” won an Award of Excellence in the Student Awards Planning and Analysis category. The project considers alternative approaches to stewarding regional water resources through landscape architecture. Allen, Breeding, Bundy, Dalton, Friedmann, Payne, Smith, Tharp, and Zawarus won this award.

Also in the Planning and Analysis category, Payne won an Award of Merit for his proposal to strengthen the connection between midtown and downtown Nashville through construction of a “deck park” over a sunken stretch of Interstate 40.

The UT Landscape Architecture Program, recently accredited by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board, is the first and only accredited professional landscape architecture program in Tennessee. It is a graduate-level program offered through a partnership between the College of Architecture and Design and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

To learn more about the UT Landscape Architecture Program, visit the website.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The event, from noon to 7:00 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 by October 1.

The open house also 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, tours of facilities, and opportunities for discussions with student leaders and program chairs. Participants also will visit the design studios during class time to witness the typical student experience, as well as see projects completed across all of the college’s disciplines and levels of study.

The day’s activities will close with a visit to the college’s multidisciplinary, design-build project, the Living Light House. The a solar-powered home that placed eighth in the world at the 2011 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is presently on display at the UT Gardens. A reception at the Ewing Gallery, featuring the drawing exhibition, Pencil Push, will follow.

For more information about the open house or to register, visit arch.utk.edu.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board notified leaders of the program, which began in 2008 through a collaboration between the College of Architecture and Design and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Its graduate-level curriculum focuses on the planning, design, and stewardship of constructed and natural environments.

Nearly all states, including Tennessee, require that license-seeking professionals in landscape architecture have professional degrees from accredited programs. UT was able to apply for accreditation after graduating its first class in May 2011.

“The university is proud to be a leader in the field of landscape architecture for the state and the Southeast,” UT Provost Susan Martin said.”We are pleased to offer our students, the state, and the industry a forward-thinking program of the highest caliber.”

Brad Collett, interim chair of the Landscape Architecture Program, called the accreditation “a milestone event for the entire university, our partner colleges, and the profession of landscape architecture in the state of Tennessee.”

“With enhanced national credibility and visibility, our faculty, students, and alumni now find ourselves at the threshold of seemingly limitless opportunities to make meaningful contributions to design in our communities and stewardship of our environment,” he said.

A team of external reviewers assessed the program by seven standards that included its educational values, curriculum, facilities, student and faculty accomplishments, and capabilities to achieve the program’s outlined long-term goals.

UT’s program offers three degrees: the Master of Landscape Architecture professional degree, the Master of Arts in Landscape Architecture, and the Master of Science in Landscape Architecture. The Master of Landscape Architecture professional degree prepares students to seek licensure, whereas the Master of Arts and Master of Science are offered for those who already have a professional degree in landscape architecture, or those who want to conduct research in landscape architecture but do not intend to pursue a career path that requires professional registration.

Over the last several years, landscape architecture students have participated in the New Norris House, the Haiti Project, and Living Light—the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon entry.

The program is a partner in a new $4.3 million grant given to the City of Knoxville through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities. Students are helping find solutions to stormwater quality and flash flooding issues in Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon, and Union counties.

The program is also part of a green infrastructure guide with the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission.

“The program is intent on delivering a solid education in the fundamentals of the profession,” Collett said. “But we also see advancing the design and stewardship of landscapes in our communities and enhancing the profession’s capacity and body of knowledge in Tennessee and beyond as central to our mission.”

UT officials credit partners from the Tennessee American Society of Landscape Architects, the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board, the Tennessee State Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners, and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture with helping to establish the program and contributing to its immediate success in many key areas.

Learn more about the UT Graduate Landscape Architecture Program.

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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 lecture series is composed of exhibitions, presentations, and films. The series, which is free and open to the public, provides opportunities to gain insight to the works and ideas occurring in the architecture and design disciplines today.

All lecture series activities will be held at the Art and Architecture Building, 1715 Volunteer Boulevard. Lectures will begin at 5:30 p.m. and films will be shown at 8:00 p.m. in the McCarty Auditorium. The exhibitions will be featured in the Ewing Gallery and Gallery 103.

Webcasts of the lectures are also available through the college’s website.

The semester lineup includes:

Lectures:

August 27: UT Associate Professor Brian Ambroziak and Andrew McLellan, an architect and writer from Charlotte, North Carolina, will speak about their collaborative practice, time[scape]lab, which explores architectural space and landscape through design, theory, and writing. This will take place in conjunction with their exhibit Confabulatores Nocturni.

September 17: Occupation by Brad Cloepfil, an award-winning architect and educator from Allied Works Architecture in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Cloepfil is well-known for his design of museums, including the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, the Seattle Art Museum, and most recently the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado.

September 24: Benjamin Ball of Ball-Nogues Studio in Los Angeles. Ball-Nogues Studio combines digital and physical modeling in the creation of architecture, art, and product design. The firm was named an “Emerging Voice” by the Architectural League of New York in 2011.

October 8: Jane Amidon, a professor of landscape architecture and the director of the urban landscape program at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, will discuss the emergence of entrepreneurial environments.

October 22: Architecture/Structure—The Art and Science of Building Design by John Zils, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. An architect, engineer, and former associate partner at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP in Chicago, Illinois, Zils has worked on many of SOM’s most iconic projects including the Hajj Terminal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The project was recently honored with the Twenty-Five Year Award from the American Institute of Architects.

November 5: Gregor Kalas, a UT assistant professor of architecture. An architectural historian, Kalas’ recent work examines medieval Benedictine monasteries.

November 12: Janusz Kapusta, an acclaimed Polish artist who lives in New York City, will lecture on his work, which will be presented as an exhibition in the Ewing Gallery. The lecture and exhibition is jointly sponsored by the College of Architecture and Design, the School of Art, and the Marek Maria Pienkowski Foundation.

Exhibitions:

August 20–September 09: Confabulatores Nocturni + Limited Vision, Ewing Gallery

August 27–September 21: Allied Works Architecture, Gallery 103

September 17–October 28: Pencil Pushed: Exploring Process and Boundaries of Drawing, Ewing Gallery

September 24–October 19: The work of Ball-Nogues Studio, Gallery 103

October 22–November 2: Architecture/Structure – the Work of SOM by John Zils, Gallery 103

November 1–November 14: Janusz Kapusta, Ewing Gallery

November 5–November 16: Finland Summer Program, the works and documented experiences of UT architecture and design students abroad, Gallery 103

November 18–December 12: The artworks of Joshua Bienko, Evan Meaney, Althea Murphy-Price and Karala Wozniak, Ewing Gallery

November 19–December 7: Florence Mini-term, Images taken during the college’s architectural photography summer course to Florence, Gallery 103

Films:

September 5: North by Northwest (1959) by Alfred Hitchcock.

September 26: Easy Rider (1969) by Dennis Hopper.

October 17: Paris, Texas (1984) by Wim Wenders.

October 26: Pulp Fiction (1994) by Quentin Tarantino.

November 7: No Country for Old Men (2007) by Ethan and Joe Coen.

November 28: Man on Wire (2008) by James Marsh.

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C O N T A C T:

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

David Fox

David Fox, a UT associate professor of architecture, has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to research and teach in Krakow, Poland. His term will begin January 2013.

Fox specializes in affordable housing design, urban residential development, freehand drawing and perception, and architectural photography. He has taught for many years in Krakow as part of the College of Architecture and Design’s study abroad partnership with Krakow Polytechnic.

During the 2013 spring semester, he will be teaching drawing and design classes in Poland.

The Fulbright Program is an international exchange initiative that awards about 1,100 grants to American scholars each year. Funded by the US government, Fulbright Scholars are chosen based on their leadership and academic merits and their abilities to teach, research, and share ideas that contribute to the betterment of international issues.

“Professor Fox is uniquely qualified for the opportunity provided by the Fulbright,” said Scott Wall, director of the School of Architecture. “His creative work, teaching, and research of the evolution of the modern city, sprawl, and the social and economic consequences of exponential urban growth dovetail nicely with the collaborative environment of the Krakow Polytechnic.”

Fox said the Fulbright was “a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow while working with great colleagues in an amazing city and region.

“It is exciting to consider what these incredible experiences will offer.”

In addition to his Fulbright, Fox’s work was selected last month as a winning design entry by a national peer-reviewed competition held by the Design Communication Association.

Since his arrival at UT in 1991, Fox has taught thousands of students at the university and area high schools through his community outreach project, the Urban Program in Sustainable Design Education (UPSIDE).

For his work with UPSIDE, Fox received the 2011 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Diversity Achievement Award, which honors efforts to achieve greater diversity in architecture curricula, school personnel, and student bodies. He was one of only two professors nationwide chosen for this award last year.

UPSIDE is a housing development program that brings together college architecture students, local high school students, and community foundations to design and construct homes with local families in neighborhoods that need revitalization. For more than ten years, UPSIDE has worked to bring long-term economic sustainability to neighborhoods across Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Clarksville, Tennessee.

Fox earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Auburn University and his master’s degree in architecture from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

To learn more about David Fox, visit his UT research profile at quest.utk.edu/tag/david-fox.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The ten-day event coincided with the 150th anniversaries of the US Department of Agriculture and the Morrill Act, which created land-grant universities. An estimated one million people saw the home and nearly 16,000 toured it during the festival.

The zero-energy home demonstrated the merits of solar-powered living when a large storm struck the nation’s capital on June 29, leaving thousands of residents without power and forcing the festival to close for a day.

Living Light maintained full-power during this time, producing twice the energy the house needed for all its normal day-to-day functions, such as powering its air conditioning, television, kitchen appliances, and lighting. Throughout its entire stay at the festival, the house was completely removed from the electrical grid and self-sustaining in all of its energy production.

The house was one of only seventeen projects selected to represent the nation’s land-grant universities at the Smithsonian festival.

“I’m proud that Living Light was there, illustrating our strength in finding alternative energy solutions,” Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek said. “It’s really a fitting way to show how UT is living up to the Morrill Act’s goals of bringing education to the masses and making the world a better place.”

Living Light’s visitors had the opportunity to experience the home’s sleek interior, cutting-edge technologies, and energy- and cost-saving features.

“People enter the home and their faces automatically light up,” said Lauren McCarty, a recent graduate from UT’s bachelor of architecture program. “Many visitors are stunned at how open and light the interior space is and are very impressed with the coolness, especially during 100-degree weather.”

Being on the National Mall for the July 4 holiday was a special treat for the Living Light team. As thousands of people huddled together to celebrate Independence Day, the team watched fireworks explode behind the Washington Monument from the house’s back deck.

“It was a wonderful moment for me, my colleagues, and my students,” said Edgar Stach, professor of architecture and the lead faculty member for the project. “After three years working on the Living Light House, the opportunity to see a project from UT on the National Mall, in such a visible way, was a great honor and a major achievement.”

Being at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival allowed UT to also provide tours to professional and government organizations, host an alumni day for graduates, and share the knowledge of Living Light faculty members through Smithsonian U., a series of mini courses and panel discussions taught by experts and teachers from the featured land-grant universities.

Six students coordinated UT activities for the festival. Those students were Kate Armstrong, a graduate student in architecture; Steven Davis, an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering; Peter Duke, a graduate student in architecture; Karl Hughes, an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering; McCarty; and Jason Pimsler, a graduate student in architecture.

Diane Bossart, the project manager and research associate for the Tennessee Tour, oversaw all the logistical items necessary to bring Living Light to the festival. The Tennessee Tour turns Living Light into a traveling educational exhibition that teaches K-12 students and industry professionals about cutting-edge sustainable science, technology, and design.

Living Light began with students and faculty in the College of Architecture and Design and was led by faculty members Stach, Richard Kelso, James Rose, and Barbara Klinkhammer of the college, along with Deb Shmerler in the School of Art, Leon Tolbert in electrical engineering, and Stan Johnson and Bill Miller in mechanical engineering.

More than 200 UT students and faculty across nine academic disciplines designed the house for the 2011 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, an international competition among collegiate teams. 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.

After the decathlon, Living Light began the Tennessee Tour. The tour is a joint effort of UT’s colleges of Architecture and Design and Engineering, and UT Extension, the outreach office of the UT Institute of Agriculture.

Contributions by Powell Companies, which provides trucking services to the house, Blaine Construction Corporation, which has been central in setting up and dismantling Living Light on the Tennessee Tour, the Tennessee Valley Authority, UT Institute of Agriculture Office of Extension, and the sponsorship of alumni and industry partners have been vital to Living Light’s success.

To read first-hand accounts about Living Light at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, see blog articles by UT students at livinglightutk.com/tag/updates/.

For more information about the house and its next stop on the Tennessee Tour—Chattanooga—visit livinglight.utk.edu/.

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C O N T A C T:

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

New Norris House

The New Norris House, a sustainable home designed by students and faculty of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Architecture and Design, garnered high honors this spring at the American Institute of Architects National Convention.

It received the Residential Architect Award of Merit in the single-family housing category and was one of only thirty-six projects chosen out of nearly 800 entries.

Faculty and alumni of the College of Architecture and Design also were feted at the convention, one of the largest global gatherings of architects and designers held annually.

The New Norris House also received an Award of Merit from the Gulf States Region of the AIA, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

The regional jury commended the home, saying, “The architect has incorporated many sustainable building elements with great economy and skill. This is a modern, sustainable design for contemporary living and thoroughly admirable for its efficiency and delight.”

Projects designed by firms in Tennessee received ten of the twenty awards given by the Gulf States at the convention. Each of those firms is led by alumni or faculty of the college.

Brandon Pace and John Sanders, UT instructors and founders of the firm Sanders-Pace Architecture, won an AIA Gulf States Honors Citation for design of Shelton Group, an office space for a progressive marketing agency. They also won an Award of Merit for Barrier Island House, a state-of-the-art home in Vero Beach, Florida.

In addition, Sanders-Pace received an AIA National Small Projects Award for the firm’s design of Cape Russell Retreat, a lakeside pavilion in Sharps Chapel, Tennessee.

UT professors Tricia Stuth and Ted Shelton received a Small Projects Award for their restoration and creation of three North Knoxville homes known as the Ghost Houses.

Pace, Sanders, Stuth, and Shelton’s winning projects were exhibited at the convention.

Other AIA accolades include four Gulf States Awards given to Archimania, a Memphis-based firm led by 1978 alumnus Barry Yoakum; a Residential Architect Award of Merit to 1995 alumnus Josh Shelton for his firm’s Echo Ridge Duplexes located in Topeka, Kansas; the naming of Keith Boswell, a 1980 alumnus and UT Architecture and Design board of advisor, as fellow of the AIA; presentations by 1977 alumnus Kem Hinton and 2008 alumnus Joseph Cole at the convention; and the induction of Brent Castro, a 2012 graduate, as a board member of the American Institute of Architecture Students.

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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)

Design Matters, to be held July 8 to 13 at the college, seeks to give students an understanding of how design impacts invention and human experience.

Camp participants will learn about design through field trips, drawing and model making, group discussions, and lectures from experts across the design disciplines.

“The camp is very focused on a particular way of problem-solving that requires students to listen hard, discuss intensely, and then rigorously execute,” said Matt Hall, Design Matters program director and lead instructor.

Participants will also get a glimpse into life as a college student. Campers will use the college’s facilities and studio spaces, design curriculum, stay in residence halls, eat in the dining facilities, and work directly with UT professors and students.

Students will also build a portfolio documenting their work at UT to use as a resource for future college applications.

The goal of Design Matters is to teach students real-world skills.

The design process is similar to the one used to create, test, and turn new ideas into products or spaces that people will use in their everyday lives. It is a nontraditional form of learning that encourages imagination, empathy, innovation, and collaboration to solve problems.

“Design is like a party—it takes a lot of good people for it to be successful,” Hall said. “The camp is fun because design and being creative is fun.”

Hall has taught both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in architecture and interior design at the college, including professional electives and digital technology courses. He graduated with Bachelor of Architecture from UT and a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

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

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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)

The festival, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the founding of land-grant universities and the US Department of Agriculture, will be June 27 to July 1 and July 4 to 8 in Washington, DC.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act on July 2, 1862, paving the way for rural and working-class Americans to gain access to higher education. UT benefited from the act in 1869.

One million people are expected to attend the festival and visit UT’s Living Light house during the ten-day event. It is co-sponsored by the National Park Service. All events are free.

Living Light seeks to teach festival goers about sustainable science, technology, and design. Other festival presentations will feature master gardeners, Hawaiian traditional healing, managing invasive species, and helping communities recover from natural disasters.

The festival program, “Campus and Community: Public and Land-Grant Universities and the USDA at 150,” will focus on four themes that reflect the current work of public and land-grant universities and the Department of Agriculture: reinventing agriculture, sustainable solutions, transforming communities, and building on tradition. About twenty-five land-grant universities are participating.

The program will cover an array of ways universities and the Department of Agriculture put research to action every day.

Living Light is a functioning energy-efficient, solar-powered house that competed at the 2011 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. The house placed eighth overall in the competition and earned high marks in the areas of architecture, energy efficiency, and engineering. More than 30,000 people have visited Living Light since it opened its doors. It is the only house from the solar competition to be featured in the Smithsonian festival.

“It is fitting to represent Tennessee’s land-grant university with a sustainable living project,” said George Dodds, associate dean of academic affairs and research for the College of Architecture and Design. “The Living Light project showcases the scholarship and outreach of outstanding faculty and students across multiple disciplines, exemplifying the excellent activities happening at the University of Tennessee.”

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is intended to increase public understanding and appreciation of the contributions and accomplishments of land-grant and public universities over the last fifteen decades. The festival will feature Smithsonian U., a series of mini-courses taught by master teachers, a discussion stage that promotes conversation about important issues affecting universities, music and dance showcases, and hands-on activities for families. UT and Living Light will contribute to several of these courses.

To learn more about the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, visit the festival’s website.

Learn more about the Living Light house at the Living  Light website.

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CONTACTS:

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

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

The New Norris House

LEED-platinum certification is the highest standard buildings can earn as a measure of their sustainability.

The achievement makes the New Norris House only the tenth LEED-platinum home in Tennessee and the first LEED-platinum project for the UT system.

“The Norris House is a prime example of the role the university has to play in providing leadership within the community,” said Glenn Richters, chairman of the board of directors of the East Tennessee chapter of the US Green Building Council. “The achievement indicates that the students went through a rigorous process, verified by an independent third-party entity. We greatly appreciate UT’s role in helping to set a new standard for building in East Tennessee.”

The LEED program rates a structure’s energy and environmental design performance in several principal areas. For example, the house must demonstrate efficiency in its building site, water, energy, atmosphere, and materials use. It also must have good environmental indoor air quality, a connection to its local environment and community, and be innovative in its design.

Receiving the LEED-platinum certification means the Green Building Certification Institute has approved the project.

The New Norris House features a rainwater collection system, an extensive native landscape, efficient heating and cooling equipment, and an abundance of environmentally friendly materials. The project is a technologically advanced reinterpretation of the historic homes built by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 as part of the New Deal Norris Dam project.

The 768-square-foot house, a collaboration of more than fifty students and faculty, took more than three years to complete.

The construction of the home was supported by many partners, including Clayton Homes, which worked with the team to design and manufacture the pre-fabricated shell of the house. Other partners included the Environmental Protection Agency, the UT Alliance for Women Philanthropists, UT Science Alliance, Johnson & Gaylon Inc. Contractors, General Shale Brick, TVA, Home Energy Basics, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The project was led by the UT 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 was the vision of UT architecture professors Tricia Stuth and Robert French.

“For a house of incredibly modest size and scope, the individuals, organizations, corporations and communities that have been impacted are extraordinary,” said Scott Wall, UT director of the School of Architecture. “In the process, our students have come to understand the fundamental interrelationships between people and place, between the idea of building and the importance of understanding the very real consequences of the building. We are enormously proud of this work and humbled by the recognition and conversation that it continues to generate.”

Since the project’s beginning, the New Norris House has received multiple recognitions, including a 2012 Residential Architect Merit Award for Single-Family Housing, a 2011 Honor Citation from the East Tennessee Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the 2011 Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education from the National Council of Architectural Registration Board, and the winning of the 2009 Environmental Protection Agency Prosperity and the Planet Competition.

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

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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)

On Monday, April 30, UT and the city will have a ribbon cutting to celebrate the progress, which includes repaving and the creation of new curbs at the entrance of the Odd Fellows Cemetery and Potters Field.

The 5:00 p.m. event will take place at the intersection of South Kyle Street and Kenner Avenue in East Knoxville. This event is free and open to the public.

Mayor Madeline Rogero and Dan Brown, former mayor and the sixth district council member, will speak to the community about the importance of this first step.

A 5:45 p.m. meeting will follow the ribbon cutting during which community members can offer feedback about a proposed demarcation wall. The meeting will be in the Dr. Walter Hardy Memorial Park, 2020 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.

“Though a repaving and new curb may seem minor to some, we have already seen a great reduction to the water runoff settling in the cemeteries and cars no longer use it as a space to pull over,” said Katherine Ambroziak, project coordinator and assistant professor at the UT College of Architecture and Design. “We cherish these small steps of progress.”

UT is working on a master plan for the cemeteries, which, prior to the start of the Odd Fellows Cemetery and Potters Field Rehabilitation Project, suffered from nearly a century of neglect.

Odd Fellows Cemetery, which contains about 6,000 graves, was founded around1880 as burial ground for Knoxville’s African American community. Potters Field, founded in 1850, was once designated for the city’s poor and has an estimated 18,000 graves.

No plot maps exist for those buried in the cemeteries, and many of the markers are missing. The grounds are overgrown and the soil eroded. Access to the cemeteries is also limited, making visitation difficult.

The project’s team hopes to transform the cemeteries and the surrounding land into a place of pride for the community. Ambroziak, her students, and others involved have worked to stop the deterioration of the cemetery grounds, produce land surveys, establish a plot map and database of those buried in the area, and design a memorial area that is easy to navigate with markers and paths.

This spring, Ambroziak worked with Sherry Cable, UT professor of sociology, and her social justice class to continue documenting headstones in Odd Fellows Cemetery. She also collaborated with Matt Hall, a lecturer in architecture, whose students designed and constructed physical models of the demarcation wall.

“Odd Fellows Cemetery and Potters Field belong to the community, and we have been fortunate that residents have been willing to share their stories and vision with us for what this land could become,” Ambroziak said. “No one likes to see the cemeteries in this state of neglect. By working together, I trust that we can reclaim this land and improve it for future generations.”

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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)

The one-year-old boy has centronuclear myopathy, a condition that primarily affects skeletal muscles, and will use the additions for wheelchair access to his home.

This is the first project of UT’s Freedom by Design program, a student service organization that is part of the American Institute of Architecture Students. The organization’s goal is to use students’ architecture and design talents to improve the homes of disabled or low-income people.

Lauren Bellamy, the co-captain and fundraiser for UT’s Freedom by Design, contacted East Tennessee Children’s Hospital about a potential project and was introduced to the boy’s family. The boy is wheelchair-bound and emergency personnel must move him in and out of his home for doctor visits.

“The way the house is built, there is no possible way for him to access the home once he becomes too big for his parents to carry him up the stairs,” said Jarod Dotson, a UT architecture student and the volunteer coordinator for the project. “We have built a ramp and decking system so that the child will have direct access from the driveway around to his bedroom on the main floor of the home.”

The project took seven months. The redesign includes replacing a deteriorating deck off of the living room and building a twelve-by-twelve-foot deck off the boy’s bedroom and a five-foot-wide ramp that’s wide enough for the wheelchair and for the person who will push it. The project also includes landscaping the ramp and deck area.

“This project has helped me understand how to take an idea from concept to reality,” Bellamy said. “It has also helped me better understand design through designing for others.”

Several East Tennessee businesses partnered with the architecture students on the project. Anderson Lumber of Alcoa donated the pressure-treated lumber, and Matt Flynn, a project manager of Christopoulos & Kennedy General Contractors, donated a weekend of his time to help with the early building stages.

“I am so proud of these students,” said Scott Poole, dean of the UT College of Architecture and Design. “Despite the difficulties of pursuing their studies, they found time to use their design knowledge for this boy and his family.”

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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)

The certificate programs and concentrations in high-performance buildings and conservation and stewardship begin in fall 2012.They join two other recently added areas of study: urban design and sustainability.

The four new concentrations address the leading building trends in architecture today. They acknowledge the need to design structures that are environmentally conscious, energy-efficient, and keep to current ideas and practices in preservation.

The UT Graduate Architecture Program offers both a professional and a post-professional graduate degree. These degrees are distinguished by the length and level of studies required.

Practicing professionals who have completed a bachelor’s degree may pursue the certificate programs. Master’s students may take the four certificate programs as concentrations.

Adding the specialty areas enhance offerings in the college’s graduate architecture curriculum and provide opportunities for professionals and master’s students to gain a specialization.

“We see these new certificate programs and concentrations as a way to better differentiate our graduate program from those of our peer institutions, to help us attract the best students and provide the best service to the state and region,” said George Dodds, chair of the Graduate Architecture Program.

The College of Architecture and Design currently has an ongoing partnership with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop technologies, design solutions, and materials for high-performance buildings.

“Professor Edgar Stach, who has long been a leading researcher in light structures, has spent the last few years focusing on ‘zero-energy’ design,’” Dodds said. “He is now leveraging the lessons learned through these projects into a new concentration.”

The conservation and stewardship concentration and certificate will teach students and working professionals about concepts in preservation that may range from individual buildings to large-scale restoration projects.

“The conservation and stewardship concentration and certificate are just the beginning of our college’s efforts to address a longstanding and unmet need in Tennessee and the region, ranging from the preservation of discrete buildings to large-scale issues of landscape restoration and regenerative practices,” Dodds said.

The UT Graduate Architecture Program is noted for a design-centered curriculum that promotes professional development through hands-on projects, cross-disciplinary learning, and in-depth research practices.

Enhancing UT’s graduate programs is a core goal in the university’s quest to become a Top 25 public research university.

Recent program activities have involved design-build projects such as the New Norris House, an award-winning LEED Platinum home, and Living Light, a zero-energy, solar-powered house. The College of Architecture and Design promotes course work at its urban design centers, as well, which include its Knoxville downtown studio and partnership with the Nashville Civic Design Center.

For more information, visit the Graduate Architecture Program website.

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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)