Return to e-Newsletter Index

College News

Runstad Center Team Wins NAIOP Competition
The University of Washington won first place in the 2011 NAIOP (National Association of Industrial and Office Properties) Real Estate Challenge on March 30.  Team members (from left) MSRE student Katlin Jackson, MSRE/MUP student Katie Porter, MLA student Boting Zhang, and MSRE student Julia Levitt took home the prestigious Bob Filley Cup as well as the People's Choice award.

A unique competition between the University of Washington, Washington State University, and the University of British Columbia, students from each university's real estate program compete from mid-January through late March to create and present a development proposal for a multi-faceted and challenging real-world project.  The challenge culminates in formal presentations before NAIOP members, university representatives, a judging panel of industry leaders, and member sponsors before the winning team is announced.  Read the Runstad Center team’s winning report here.

CBE Students, Faculty, and Alumni Shine at Living City Competition
A team of graduate architecture students and a team of designers led by Assistant Professor Gundula Proksch both won significant awards in the Living City Design Competition, while two other teams with CBE connections each received the Living Building Commuity Choice Award.  Held in Vancouver, BC in late April, the competition called for teams worldwide “to create powerful visualizations of how existing cities might be transformed to achieve and transcend the Living Building Challenge 2.0, the built environment’s most rigorous performance standard.”

Comprised of graduate architecture students Andy Brown, Rob Potish, Jonathan French, and Ryan Heltzel-Drake and taught by Affiliate Assistant Professor David Strauss, the competition studio known as “Atelier G40,” which took its name after the space in Architecture Hall, captured second place in the challenge; their scheme proposed a new vision for Bellingham.  Several other CBE faculty, including Proksch, Assistant Professor Rob Corser, Associate Professor Thaisa Way, and Affiliate Associate Professor Susan Jones FAIA, assisted Strauss by giving significant studio reviews on multiple occasions.  The studio received a $25,000 prize for placing second.

Team [GU], which was comprised of Proksch, Josh Brevoort, Lisa Chun, Mac Lanphere (B.A. in Architectural Studies ’07, MArch ’09), Lauren McCunney (MArch ‘10), and Cameron Hall, won the Images that Provoke Award.  The jury commented on how the team’s submission “makes the viewer feel physically transported into an imagined reality.”  The GU Team received a $5,000 prize.  Read the Seattle PI blog entry.

 The Miller|Hull Partnership team, which included CBE alumni Brian Court (MArch ’02), Adam Amsel (MArch ’09), Jeff Floor (MArch ’90), and Sian Roberts (MArch ’92) along with Architecture Professor and Chair David Miller FAIA, received the Living Building Community Choice Award for its project “Fight for Your Right of Way.”  Helmed by Lesley Bain of Weinstein A|U and Affiliate Associate Professor Susan Jones FAIA of atelierjones, the International Sustainability Institute Team, which also included graduate landscape architecture students Ginger Daniel, Pam Emerson, and Jenny Hampton; Associate Professor Nancy Rottle; Affiliate Faculty Ray Gastil; and CBE alumni Annika McIntosh (MLA ’09), Liz Stenning (MUP ’08), and Stephanie Weeks (MArch ’09), received the Living Building Community Choice Award for its project “Pioneer Square: Living Green+Blue.

BLA Program Ranked Fourth in Nation
DesignIntelligence’s Dean's Survey ranked the University of Washington BLA program fourth in the country in the 2011 edition of America's Best Architecture and Design Schools.  The UW program was cited for its urban ecological focus, substantive community engagement, and Green Futures Lab.

Scan|Design Master Studio Re-Envisions Seattle Waterfront
Last fall's interdisciplinary ScanlDesign Master Studio turned its lens on one of Seattle’s hottest topics—the Central Waterfront.  Student teams addressed a new salmon-friendly seawall configuration; an on-grade road replacement for the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct; near shore and shoreline habitat; stormwater treatment and re-use for district energy; pedestrian, bicycle, and boat connections to the city and bay; a new ferry terminal; and over nine acres of new park lands.  The studio’s focus on quality public space and waterfront design was supported by a study tour to Denmark and Sweden in August that was funded by the ScanlDesign Foundation.  Associate Professor Nancy Rottle (Landscape Architecture) and Professor Sharon Sutton (Architecture) led the studio, with Master Teaching from Bianca Hermansen of Gehl Architects in Copenhagen.   The final document showcasing the studio’s designs is available for download on the ScanlDesign Master Studio web site.

Scan|Design Interns Blog on Activating Alleys, Seattle Snapshots
2010 Scan|Design Foundation Interns Jenny Hampton and Mary Fialko, both students in the College of Built Environments, completed their internship with Gehl Architects in Copenhagen last fall; read about their investigation of the urban design potential of Seattle's alleys here.  The second pair of ScanlDesign Foundation interns, Louise Holst and Emilie Kjeldsen Kjaer from the University of Copenhagen, is currently working at SvR Design in Seattle; see Seattle from a Danish point of view here.

UW NECA Chapter Wins Second in Green Energy Challenge
The UW National Electrical Contractors Association Chapter (NECA) won second place in the Second Annual Green Energy Challenge in October.  The UW team members (pictured left to right) were Logan Ordona, Casey Stulc, Justin Ripkin, Korey Dunkel, Andrea Haluptzok and Nick Lopez.  The Green Energy Challenge invites teams of students studying electrical construction, engineering, design, and management to conduct an energy audit of a nearby commercial or institutional facility in need of energy-efficiency improvements.  Based on their energy audit findings, teams then submit a preliminary design of an energy retrofit that could include alternative energy sources.

Return to e-Newsletter Index