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Faculty News

Ochsner Captures Furniture Studio’s 23 Years of History in New Book 

In his new book Furniture Studio: Materials, Craft, and Architecture, Professor Jeffrey K. Ochsner explores the 23-year history of the Furniture Studio through the experiences of the students and faculty involved in this distinctive course. From the UW Press description: Furniture Studio explores the origins, methods, results, and influence of the unique and highly successful furniture design and fabrication studios offered by the University of Washington Department of Architecture. The furniture program, initiated by Andris Vanags, is an immersion into the role of materials, design, and making in architectural education. Students directly engage the physical properties of materials, and the knowledge gained through this engagement enriches the design and fabrication process. The experiences of its graduates reveal that the studio fosters creative thinking that truly integrates design and making. Read more in the UW Today.

Thaïsa Way Awarded Research Fellowship at Penn State  

Penn State announced that Associate Professor Thaïsa Way, Ph.D., ASLA, is the inaugural A.E. Bye/Landscape Architecture Archives Research Fellow for Penn State’s Department of Landscape Architecture, Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.As a landscape historian, Way will research the drawings, papers, photographs and videos of 20th-century American landscape architect A. E. Bye, as well as the work of his contemporaries, John Bracken and Stuart Mertz. 

Lynne Manzo Chairs Annual EDRA Conference in Seattle 

Lynne Manzo, Associate Professor with the Department of Landscape Architecture, is this year’s chair of the annual EDRA43Seattle Conference and EDRA Great Places Awards. EDRA (The Environmental Design Research Association) is an international, interdisciplinary organization founded in 1968 by design professionals, social scientists, students, educators, and facility managers. This year’s conference theme was “Emergent Placemaking,” and featured Denis Hayes, President and CEO of the Bullitt Foundation, as the keynote speaker on Thursday, May 31. Denis addressed "Urban Design to Nurture Human Potential” in his remarks. For more information, visit the EDRA website. 

Jeff Hou Presents Lectures Near and Far, Publishes Book Chapter… and Blogs! 

Jeff Hou, Associate Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, was on the lecture circuit this spring, traveling to Stockholm, New York and back to Seattle for his presentations. Prof. Hou also found time to write a book chapter included in an edited collection published this spring. Prof. Jeff Hou presented a lecture titled “Insurgent Public Space” as part of the City Axioms Forum hosted by the Stockholm University in March. He traveled to New York in April to be a panelist at the “Working with People” symposium at the New School in New York. He was also a speaker for the Future of Asian Cities series at the Seattle Asian Art Museum this spring, together with Dan Abramson of the Urban Design and Planning Department, on the topic of “Messy Urbanism: Bottom-up Placemaking in Asia.” Jeff’s latest publication, titled “Modeling Landscapes,” appears in Representing Landscapes: A Visual Collection of Landscape Architecture Drawings, edited by Nadia Amoroso (2012). The chapter features work of CBE landscape architecture students at UW and explores physical modeling as a medium for representation and design. Lately, Jeff has also been blogging for the Website of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility – http://www.adpsr.org/blog -- on issues of public space.