Architecture

Urban workshop completes Ukraine plan

Thanks to four years of transnational efforts by UO in Portland architecture students, the first two buildings of a new campus for Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) recently opened near the historic center of Lviv in western Ukraine.

UO architecture Associate Professor Gerald Gast and graduate students from the Urban Projects Workshop of the Department of Architecture in Portland developed the master plan for UCU’s new Stryiskiyi Park campus.

Studio redesigns Medford fire stations

Of the five existing fire stations in Medford, four are not up to modern building standards. Students in a UO winter 2014 term architecture studio are working to fix this.

The studio is co-taught by architecture Associate Professor Virginia Cartwright and Senior Instructor Jim Givens. Each student group, with both undergraduate and graduate students, is working on a plan for one fire station. Two sites will be partially remodeled, while the other two will be entirely rebuilt from the ground up.

Levenberg wins Hatfield Architectural Award

Laura Levenberg, a graduate student in the Department of Architecture, has received the Senator Mark O. Hatfield Architectural Award from the Architecture Foundation of Oregon (afo).  The award, announced in February 2014 for the 2013 award year, includes a $2,000 scholarship.


The award honors both architectural design and community service, two fields of “elemental importance” to Mark O. Hatfield, former U.S. senator and Oregon governor, the afo website states.

THA Architecture, founded by Thomas Hacker, named AIA winner

THA Architecture has been named the 2013 Region Firm Award winner by the American Institute of Architects Northwest & Pacific Region. The award recognizes one firm in the region that has made extraordinary contributions to the architectural profession and continuously elevates the quality of the built environment in the community.

A Machine is a Wetland for Parking in

“A machine is a wetland for parking in.”

The name for the winter 2014 term’s ARCH 484/584 course plays on the aphorism “A house is a machine for living in,” coined by 20th century Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier.

“It’s sort of an inside joke for architects,” said Brook Muller, A&AA associate dean and associate professor in the Department of Architecture.

Winter term library exhibit celebrates A&AA’s 100th

Two exhibits currently on display through winter term at libraries on the UO campus are of special interest to the A&AA community.

“Drawn to Design: Selections from the UO Architecture Student Drawing Collection” is at the Knight Library. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, this exhibit displays student drawings created during the first years of the UO school. Selected from A&AA Library holdings, different drawings will be exhibited throughout winter term.

NITC to fund UO sustainable public transit projects

Several research projects under way by University of Oregon faculty members have been slated for funding by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities.

These include public transit research programs created by UO faculty members in the Department of Architecture, the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management, and the Community Service Center.

‘Monuments Men’ movie has direct link to UO

The movie “Monuments Men,” which opens in theaters across the country Thursday, February 6, has a direct connection to the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts. The movie tells the story of nearly 350 architects, artists, art historians, curators, and museum directors who joined the U.S. military specifically to save cultural treasures from destruction by the Third Reich in the waning days of World War II. Two of these “art heroes” spent significant time in A&AA: Gordon Gilkey, MFA ’36, and Mark Sponenburgh, who taught art at A&AA from 1946-1957.