College of Design

Students in the “American Philanthropy” freshman seminar have selected KindTree Productions, a Eugene-based nonprofit organization, to receive a $5,000 grant from Wells Fargo.

Students learn to practice the fundamentals of charitable giving by partaking in the annual course, which is offered through the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management. Groups form to consider local nonprofits that either applied for the grant or were nominated by students. Students visit the nominees to gather information and craft an argument that their organization is most deserving.

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.

A student-designed and created drinking cup from the ARTC 410 “Prototyping and Manufacturing” course may end up on a table in Carson Dining Hall or the A&AA Willcox Hearth in the future.

The experimental course, under way in winter 2014, combines the disciplines of product design and ceramics and introduces students to social practice, design, and manufacturing. The class instructs students to formulate a design for a cup that is suitable for UO campus food vendors.

A free conference designed to give an intimate look at the leadership journey of prominent leaders making a difference will take place Friday, March 7, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., in Portland. The half-day, interactive “Exploring the Leadership Path” conference, hosted by the University of Oregon Arts and Administration Program, offers the opportunity to hear from and engage with local arts and culture sector leaders.

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.

Professor Kingston W. Heath, director of the UO Historic Preservation Program, will be keynote speaker at “The River and The Rail: A Symposium on Enterprise and Industry in New Bedford,” February 15-16 at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The conference addresses the historical evolution of the port of New Bedford as a manufacturing and commercial center. Heath’s talk is entitled “Whalers to Weavers: New Bedford’s Promoted and Neglected Legacies.”

Michael E. Walsh was on track to teach English as a second language in Kenya on a Peace Corps mission when the Vietnam War took his career on an unexpected detour in 1966. He was at Columbia University, training for the Peace Corps at the Institute for Education in Africa, Teachers College, when his draft number came up.

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.”

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.

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.