Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet will be next year’s Life of the Mind common reading selection for UT freshmen.

“I invite the campus community to join the Class of 2017 in reading the book and participating in the discussion and related activities that will be held in the fall,” said Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Susan Martin in announcing the book’s selection.

Now in its tenth year, Life of the Mind is part of First Year Studies 100, a zero-credit, pass-fail class that gives students their first taste of college studies and requires them to complete online lessons on alcohol awareness, financial literacy, plagiarism, technology, civility, and succeeding at UT.

Before arriving on campus, freshmen are to read Eaarth and complete a written response. During Welcome Week, students will hear McKibben speak and attend a small-group discussion session led by a UT faculty or staff member. More details on McKibben’s visit will be announced soon.

Intending to select a book about sustainability for the 2013–14 academic year, Life of the Mind coordinators assembled a committee of faculty, students, and staff to select this year’s book. Although they considered a variety of nonfiction and fiction books, committee members said they chose Eaarth, published in 2010, because it was “clear and direct,” “a really powerful book,” and “accurate, timely, well-written, and well-researched.”

“McKibben’s name is synonymous with climate change,” said John Nolt, philosophy professor and member of the book selection committee. “It will be a huge benefit to our students to get to hear him speak.”

UT debuted its new sustainability major this year, making it one of the first large universities in the Southeast to offer such a program. The interdisciplinary curriculum is intended to equip students to be change makers in producing a sustainable society and environment.

UT is also well known across the nation for its student-initiated campus environmental fee, which funds sustainability efforts on campus.

Ruth Darling, assistant provost for student success and First Year Studies programs, said Eaarth should have wide appeal on campus.

“The theme of Eaarth relates so well to what UT represents and how we are thinking about sustainability,” she said. In connection with this theme, First Year Studies is partnering with the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment and the Tennessee Valley Authority to support a service-learning workshop for faculty planning to teach FYS 129 seminars that focus on some aspect of sustainability. More information about this opportunity and other initiatives, including Life of the Mind programming, will be posted soon.

McKibben has written ten books, including The End of Nature and Deep Economy that have helped shape public opinion about climate change, alternative energy, and the need for more localized economies.

McKibben formerly worked as a staff writer at the New Yorker and is a contributor to Rolling Stone, the Atlantic, National Geographic, and the New York Review of Books.

McKibben formerly worked as a staff writer at the New Yorker and is a contributor to various magazines, including Rolling Stone, the Atlantic, National Geographic and the New York Review of Books.

He has received Guggenheim and Lyndhurst Fellowships, as well as the Lannan Prize for nonfiction writing in 2000.

He is a scholar in residence in environmental studies at Middlebury College and lives in Vermont with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, and their daughter.

Life of the Mind committee members were Darling, committee chair; Chris  Cox, professor and associate department head in chemical and electrical engineering; Paul Erwin, professor and director of the Department of Public Health; Joanne Logan, associate professor in biosystems engineering and soil science; Thura Mack, library professor; Mike McKinney, professor of environmental sciences and director of UT’s new sustainability major; Nolt; Nate Sanders, professor in ecology and evolutionary biology; Tricia Stuth, associate professor of architecture; Stella Bridgeman-Prince, assistant director, Student Success Center; Melissa Shivers, assistant vice chancellor, Student Life; Michael Croal, graduate student in public policy administration and First-Year Studies graduate teaching assistant; and undergraduate student members Evan Ford and Elisabeth Spratt.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), an organization that annually honors architectural educators for exemplary work, has honored UT for having best practices in school-based community outreach programs and design-build projects.

UT Associate Professor Thomas K. Davis’s community outreach program, Collaborations in Transit-Oriented Development, received a Collaborative Practice Award. The honor recognizes programs that demonstrate how faculty, students, and community/civic clients work together to achieve common objectives.

Davis’s work is helping to produce a walkable, pedestrian-friendly Nashville, where the design of high-quality public spaces is emphasized. He worked with the Nashville Civic Design Center, a nonprofit organization that addresses the city’s urban design challenges; the Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization; and the MBA Real Estate Program at Vanderbilt University.

“Together these interdisciplinary teams explored the financial feasibility of transit-related development, based on significant stakeholder input,” Davis said.

Transit-oriented development, according to Davis, enhances the quality of life for residents, improves public health by encouraging walking, fosters economic development, and contributes to community character through the design of public space.

The New Norris House, a sustainable home developed by students in conjunction with architecture faculty members Tricia Stuth, Robert French, Samuel Mortimer, and Richard Kelso, received the Design Build Award. The honor recognized faculty for connecting curriculum with practical projects that address cultural, economic, social, or environmental sustainability.

The New Norris House is a learning project that has taken its student participants through the phases of design, construction, and evaluation. The home has earned LEED-platinum certification from the US Green Building Council, which makes it one of the most “green” homes in the state. The project has addressed energy and environmental design, water treatment, sustainable material use, community engagement, and issues in policy since its beginnings in 2009.

“Both awards reflect the UT College of Architecture and Design’s commitment to multidisciplinary learning and projects that improve people’s lives,” said Scott Poole, dean of the college.

“Innovation in practical fields of knowledge remains a vital aspect of our mission as a land-grant university,” he said. “Our teaching and applied research are having direct and lasting impact on the people and places, culture and community, environmental health, and economic vitality in the state of Tennessee and beyond.

“We are proud that our college’s focus on experiential learning, city building, and environmental stewardship is being recognized at a national level through these prestigious awards in architectural education.”

The ACSA represents more than 250 schools, where more than 5,000 architecture faculty are employed.

To learn more about the research and design of UT architecture faculty, 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 houses are featured in the March edition of Dwell, which hit newsstands February 1. They are the work of Ted Shelton and Tricia Stuth, assistant professor and associate professor, respectively, in the UT College of Architecture and Design.

The husband-wife team took an inexpensive approach to crafting contemporary, sleek interiors with exteriors that complement the character of the early twentieth century neighborhood where they live.

The project began in 2006 when Shelton and Stuth purchased a home in the historic neighborhood two miles outside of downtown. After researching the property, they discovered it had once contained three nearly identical houses. It inspired them to begin a design project to unite the architectural heritage of Knoxville with contemporary design, as well as re-establish the historic street pattern and density of the area.

The two new houses were built in the spirit of the original, 100-year-old structure that the couple initially purchased, preserved, and in which they presently live. The entire project, called “Ghost Houses” because they are reminiscent of houses that once stood in their place, meets Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation.

“The Ghost Houses provide a valuable lesson for us all,” said Scott Wall, UT director of architecture. “They resurrect the essential qualities of a sustainable community in three moves: subdivide, conserve, and build simply.”

Shelton and Stuth also used inexpensive materials like coated plywood, laminated oak intended for the beds of tractor trailers, white drywall, and polished concrete floors for the interior spaces. Reflecting and glowing with light, the homes’ interiors have an open floor plan, where rooms and levels flow together.

The Ghost Houses have won numerous awards throughout the project’s development, including the 2010 East Tennessee American Institute of Architects Honor Citation and the 2009 Award of Excellence by AIA Tennessee. Articles on the project also have been published in Forward, a national journal of the American Institute of Architects, and the Journal of Architectural Education.

Shelton and Stuth are co-founders of Knoxville-based architecture firm, curb, http://www.curb.cc. More information about the Ghost Houses and other projects by the faculty team can be found on the firm’s 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, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

Learn more about The Ghost Houses on Stuth and Shelton’s website.

Tricia Stuth

Tricia Stuth, an associate professor, was one of only three architecture faculty in the country recognized by the ACSA and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) with the 2009-2010 New Faculty Teaching Award. Avigail Sachs, an instructor in the School of Architecture, was recognized by the ACSA, along with the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE), with the 2009-2010 Journal of Architectural Education Best Scholarship of Design Article Award.

Stuth’s award is given annually to faculty who have demonstrated excellence in teaching performance during the formative years of their architectural teaching career.

“I am honored to receive this award and grateful to teach at a college and university that value teaching excellence,” Stuth said. “The award reflects the quality of our institution, and the faculty and students with whom I teach and research.”

Stuth, a registered architect in Tennessee, is a partner at the firm CURB and a member of Applied Research, with fellow faculty members Ted Shelton, Katherine Ambroziak and Brian Ambroziak. Her work, research and teaching focus on connections between design and context.

Sachs was recognized for her article “The Postwar Legacy of Architectural Research.” Each year, the ACSA and JAE honor an outstanding article published in the journal.

Avigail Sachs

“For me this is not only an honor but also an indication that what I have to say matters to people, which was the reason I wrote it to begin with,” Sachs said of her article. “As someone who has just finished her Ph.D. and is in her first teaching job, it is a great encouragement to keep up with the career I have chosen.”

Sachs specializes in the history and theory of architecture and environmental design, architecture education and professional practice. She also focuses on project management and building supervision.

Recipients of the ACSA awards are recognized as important contributors to the architecture field, according to ACSA President Tom Fisher.

“The new faculty teaching award winners, as well as many of those who won design, creative achievement, collaborative practice, housing design and JAE article awards, exemplify the best young talent in our field,” Fisher said. “Their work demonstrates the degree to which our discipline remains responsive to and speculative about many of the major challenges of our time.”

Stuth and Sachs will attend the 98th ACSA Annual Meeting in March 2010 in New Orleans for the presentation of their awards. Their recognitions also will be featured in ACSA’s 2010 Architectural Education Awards Book. For more information on their awards, visit https://www.acsa-arch.org/Newsletters/view.aspx?ID=55.

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C O N T A C T :

Kristi Hintz (865-974-3993, khintz@utk.edu)