Architecture

Saint-Gobain, a manufacturer of sustainable building products, is partnering with Associate Professor Ihab Elzeyadi, who directs the UO’s HiPE lab, to assess the impact of building design on occupant experience, measuring factors such as indoor air quality and thermal, acoustical, and visual comfort. The test site is Saint-Gobain’s new headquarters, which was designed to function as a “living laboratory” where the performance of its products can be measured and evaluated on an ongoing basis.

Competing against professional design firms, a UO student team placed second in the international Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) competition to design a civic artwork that also generates carbon-free electricity and water.

The award for their project, “Cetacea,” was presented Thursday, October 6, at the Greenbuild conference in Los Angeles, California. Smithsonian.com featured the project Oct. 5.

Architect magazine named ZGF Architects, founded in Portland, Oregon, the No. 1 design firm nationwide—both overall and in sustainable design. Five of the firm’s current partners are graduates of the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts and more than 70 A&AA alumni work for ZGF globally.

“I felt like there was something missing,” Tinker Hatfield, BArch ’77, tells Sneakernews in its September 12 issue, remembering how he has helped design Duck athletes’ traveling gear since 2011. “I felt like there could be this excitement driven by leveraging the history of the Jordan Brand.” In the Sneakernews story, Hatfield looks back at the entire line of Air Jordan shoes from 2011 to today’s Air Jordan XIV, including a peek at his design sketches.

Four UO architecture students—Alex Kendle, Michael Meer, Greg Stacy, and Benjamin Wright—garnered second place in the 2015–16 Timber in the City: Urban Habitat Competition, as reported in the Portland Business Journal. The four competed against 846 students with their project called Hybrid Domains. The UO’s second-place win earned them $7,500. Their faculty sponsors, who included Judith Sheine and Mark Donofrio, received $5,000.

Media outlets are highlighting an award for a City of Springfield parking garage concept developed in part by UO architecture students.

A UO architecture professor weighed in on the National Association of Home Builders’ stance on building codes in a July 6 BloombergView feature story, “Inside the Lobby Against Tougher Homes”.

In early June, eleven cars from a 96-car Union Pacific oil train jumped the tracks and derailed in the Columbia River Gorge near Mosier, Oregon.

The wreck released oil onto the tracks, sparked a fire that burned through much of the night, and billowed a plume of black smoke into the sky.

Three alumni from the UO Department of Architecture and one adjunct faculty member have earned the highest professional honor granted by the prestigious American Institute of Architects (AIA). 

Amy Miller Dowell, Ron van der Veen, Jay Raskin, and William Murray were elevated to the College of Fellows in the AIA during an investiture ceremony at the organization’s national convention in Philadelphia in May.

UO architecture students could have ‘etymology’ to their lesson plan during the recent excavation for a house they are building in west Eugene.

“When we excavated for the foundation, we found a deep refuse pit containing old tires, a washing machine, and all kinds of indescribable debris,” says Associate Professor Rob Thallon. “This kind of thing might have something to do with the origin of the word ‘pitfall.’ ”