The standard model for urban design and city growth, some A&AA professors argue, neglects a sizeable number of its residents.
Gentrification and makeovers within distressed neighborhoods can push out low-income communities by increasing property values; disabled, elderly, and handicapped populations are marginalized; and others, including children, are consistently sidelined, all in the name of progress that affects developing cities.
The UO Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI) has launched a two-year research initiative called "Framing Livability.” The project is partnering with the City of Portland, Portland Metro, Transportation for America, and the Natural Resources Defense Council on two grants from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities. The project seeks to answer how sustainability-focused community development efforts can best be communicated to gain public support.
Department of Architecture Head Judith Sheine is quoted in a The Guardian story about an innovative wood product poised to change how high-rises are built. A twelve-story building in Portland is being constructed with the product, cross-laminated timber, or CLT, which is “lighter, so it goes up easier and faster than concrete does … it’s also quieter in construction,” Sheine told The Guardian.
National engine of change. Making the most with the least. A ground-breaking nexus of innovation.
Those are just a few of the descriptions attached to the new Oregon Center for a Regenerative Future, a theoretical Portland site intended to house collaborative incubator spaces for the development of sustainable products, tech shops for public use, urban farms, and maker fairs, among a diverse list of other aspirations.
Department of Architecture Professor Alison Kwok is among the 25 Most Admired Educators for 2016, DesignIntelligence reports.
A lecture Professor Marc Schlossberg gave during his Fulbright year at Technion Israel Institute of Technology was highlighted on the school’s home page recently. Schlossberg spoke about the Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP), which he and UO colleague Associate Professor Nico Larco founded at UO and which Technion has adopted under the name The Urban Laboratory. It’s the first such project at an Israeli university.
Cascade Business News features the Sustainable Cities Year Program in Redmond in its current issue, noting that students are already preparing their midterm presentations. “Eight classes [of students are] working on six projects during the fall term. Then we will have a similar amount of projects for the winter term and for the spring term,” Heather Richards, Redmond’s director of community development, told Cascade Business News writer David Clewett in the November 3 story.
The 2015-16 Sustainable Cities Year Program (SCYP) with the City of Redmond officially kicked off with a gala celebration at the UO’s Ford Alumni Center October 1. During the yearlong partnership between UO and Redmond, hundreds of students and faculty members will pour 50,000 hours of work into applied projects with sustainability-focused solutions.
A prolific architect of Oregon buildings, and one of the first of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts' African-American graduates, now has his name permanently installed within Lawrence Hall. An annual $5,000 faculty award in his name is also being initiated.
The 2015-16 academic year introduces new faculty members to several A&AA departments and programs. The professors new to the school bring a wide spectrum of expertise and creativity in architecture, the history of art and architecture, arts and administration, and product design. They come to UO from schools including Istanbul Technical University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Denver, Stanford University, and the University of Minnesota.
Architecture
