For Immediate Release
Washington, D.C., March 9, 2007 — The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced today the 19 recipients of the 2007 Housing Committee Awards. The AIA’s Housing Awards Program, now in its seventh year, was established to recognize the best in housing design and promote the importance of good housing as a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit, and a valuable national resource.

The 2007 jury consisted of Jury Chair, Katherine Austin, AIA; Don Carter, FAIA; Jane F. Kolleeny of Architectural Record; Lisa Stacholy, AIA; and LaVerne Williams, AIA. The award recipients were selected from a record 236 submissions. The recipients will be recognized May 3 at the AIA 2007 National Convention and Design Exposition in San Antonio.

The jury recognized projects in four award categories: One/Two Family Custom Housing, One/Two Family Production Housing, Special Housing, and Multifamily Housing.

The DESIGNhabitat 2 House in Greensboro, Alabama received the Special Housing award. It recognizes outstanding design of housing that meets the unique needs of other specialized housing types such as single room occupancy residences (SROs), independent living for the disabled, residential rehabilitation programs, domestic violence shelters, and other special housing.

The DESIGNhabitat 2 Studio in the School of Architecture at Auburn University is headed by David W. Hinson, AIA. This home is the first designed for Habitat for Humanity to integrate high design quality goals, climate-appropriate design features and energy performance with the modular construction process and offers valuable lessons and perspectives for future initiates to integrate modular construction and affordable housing development.

“Well thought out spatial organization and environmental factors included for really efficient energy consumption. Organization of the house is simple and really responds to its environment…wonderful…sophisticated simplicity,” the jury said.

Click here for the full article.

The Professional Advisory Council for the Architecture Program will host a symposium on Integrated Practice and Architectural Education on Friday, March 2nd at the School’s Center for Architecture and Urban Studies in Birmingham, AL.

Integrated Practice refers to the dramatic shifts which are occurring in the profession as a consequence of evolutions in project delivery and the digital technologies associated with virtual modeling – such as BIM and parametric modeling – which both drive, and respond to, these changes. This symposium aims to help broaden our understanding of these new technologies and how they may change both the way architects practice and he way we educate future architects.

Symposium presenters include Michael LeFevre, AIA of Atlanta-based Holder Construction, Marc Simmons of Front, Inc based in New York City, and Daniel Friedman, FAIA, Dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Washington.

Download the symposium-schedule.pdf for details of schedule and program.

The Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians
Annual Meeting
Auburn University
Auburn, Alabama
September 27-30, 2006

The twenty-fourth annual meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) will take place in Auburn, Alabama from September 27-30, 2006. Our host will be Auburn University’s College of Architecture, Design, and Construction. The full program begins Thursday with morning paper sessions held at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center, followed by the annual business lunch. After lunch, we will take a short walk to visit the Applebee House, one of Architectural Record’s ‘Houses of 1956,’ designed by Auburn alumnus Paul Rudolph (1918-1997). We have arranged special access to the interior of this private residence for SESAH participants. Paper sessions will resume after the visit and will culminate in a plenary session on the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the built and social environments of the Gulf Coast. A reception and buffet dinner will be held Thursday evening at downtown Auburn’s St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, a building designed by noted Alabama architect Frank Lockwood.

Friday morning will be devoted to a tour of nearby Tuskegee University. Ellen Weiss of Tulane University, an expert on architect Robert R. Taylor and the historic campus of Tuskegee, is organizing this tour. Robert R. Taylor (1868-1942), who graduated from M.I.T. in 1892, was the first African-American to receive a degree in architecture. He spent much of his career at Tuskegee, as an instructor and as campus architect. We will visit several of his buildings, including The Oaks (1899), the house he designed for Booker T. Washington. Our tour will also include the chapel designed by Paul Rudolph in 1969. We will return to Auburn for paper sessions in the afternoon.

The keynote address will be given on Friday evening at the Jules Collins Smith Museum in Auburn. Our keynote speaker is Dell Upton, David A. Harrison Professor of Anthropology and Architecture at the University of Virginia. Dr. Upton’s research focuses on American architecture and material culture. His award-winning books include Holy Things and Profane: Anglican Parish Churches in Colonial Virginia (1986) and Architecture in the United States (1998). He is currently working on a book on civil-rights memorials and urban politics in the American south.

The keynote address will be followed by a reception hosted by the College of Architecture, Design, and Construction and an opportunity to view the exhibits in the museum galleries. We have arranged for several shows to be on view that will be of interest to SESAH members: Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses; Sambo Mockbee and the Rural Studio; and the art collection of Bridgehampton, New York architect and Auburn alumnus Preston T. Phillips, part of the Auburn Collects series.

On Saturday, we are offering two daylong bus tours. Robert Gamble, Senior Architectural Historian with the Alabama Historical Commission, will lead a tour of Montgomery, where we will visit many architectural landmarks including the Alabama State Capitol (1851, with additions of 1870-72 and 1905-1911; restored and enlarged 1992) and Maya Lin’s Civil Rights Memorial (1989) at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Robert Gamble has also arranged for the SESAH group to visit several significant private houses normally closed to the public.

We are also offering a Saturday tour of western Alabama to visit the Rural Studio and the vernacular architecture of the region. Founded by Auburn professors D.K. Ruth and the late Samuel Mockbee, the Rural Studio is a program run by the School of Architecture at Auburn University. Our visit will focus on the community projects, public buildings designed and constructed by fifth-year thesis students. For more information on the Rural Studio, go to www.ruralstudio.com.

Registration forms and additional information about the meeting will be available at the beginning of June at www.sesah.org.

SESAH 2006 BRIEF SCHEDULE
(Subject to change)

Wednesday, 27 September

Self-guided walking tour of downtown Auburn and the Auburn University campus

5:00 – 7:00 p.m. No-host bar reception

5:30 p.m. Board meeting and dinner

Thursday, 28 September

8:30 – 10:00 a.m. Session One
1A. American Civic Structures
1B. Modern Sacred Architecture
1C. Domestic Ideals

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Session Two
2A. University Landscapes
2B. Modernism
2C. Iconography and Ornament in Architecture Culture

12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Business Lunch

1:30 –3:00 p.m. Visit to Paul Rudolph’s Applebee House

3:00 – 4:30 p.m. Session Three
3A. Tourism and Architecture
3B. Rethinking Modern Architecture
3C. Pedagogy

4:30 – 6:00 p.m. Session Four
4A. Mercantile, Industrial, and Post-Industrial Landscapes
4B. Unraveling the Textile in Modern Architecture
4C. The Ancient World

6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Plenary Session
The Effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Built Environment

7:15 – 9:30 p.m. Reception and Buffet Dinner
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church

Friday, 29 September

8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Tuskegee University Visit

1:30 – 3:00 p.m. Session Five
5A. Ways of Living
5B. 1960s/1970s
5C. Gardens and Parks

3:15 – 4:45 p.m. Session Six
6A. Style and Identity in American Architecture
6B. Cities
6C. New Approaches to the Built Environment

5:30-6:30 p.m. Keynote Address
Dell Upton, David A. Harrison Professor of Anthropology and Architecture at the University of Virginia

6:30 -8:00 p.m. Reception

Saturday, 30 September

Tour One: Montgomery, Alabama
Tour leaders: Robert Gamble, Alabama Historical Commission and J. Scott Finn, Auburn University

Tour Two: Western Alabama
Vernacular Architecture and Rural Studio Community Projects

For additional information about SESAH and the 2006 Annual Meeting in Auburn, Alabama, please visit www.sesah.org or contact SESAH 2006 Chairperson Nina Lewallen at lewalns@auburn.edu.