James Boyd-Brent's (Graphic Design) etching is featured in "The Twenty Views of Dundas," a series of prints, also reproduced in the Northfield News, depicting the small town's history.
Boyd-Brent's work is a view of the ruins of the Archibald Mill on the Cannon River, the former engine of the town.
Pat Nunnally (Landscape Architecture) has launched the Telling River Stories Web site, a collaborative project that populates the urban Mississippi River corridor with stories of how the city and the river have been jointly developed.
The Web site is part of the River Life: Mississippi and U project, a partnership of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, Institute for Advanced Study, Water Resource Center, College of Design, and Urban Studies Program. The River Life project connects University research, teaching, and civic engagement programs with off-campus partners who are working to reinvigorate the urban Mississippi River.
"Some schools of architecture could use a good architect"
By Thomas Fisher, The Chronicle Review, March 7, 2008
Dean Tom Fisher penning an overview of a new book he co-edited, Designing for Designers: Lessons Learned From Schools of Architecture (Fairchild Books, 2007), writes that many architecture students -- like the proverbial schoemaker's child who goes barefoot -- learn the best practices of their discipline in some of the worst buildings on their campuses.
The book's authors found that the three architecture schools whose building exteriors received the highest rankings "respected the context of the surrounding campus."
"Is architecture evolutionary, adapting to its context, or revolutionary, demonstrating new ways of being? Should buildings seek consensus within a community or challenge peoples' views of the world? As in other fields, the discipline of architecture has cycled back and forth between these positions, now so rapidly that both views often coexist within a single department (and are sometimes held by the same person)."
Fisher writes that while problems exist, their solutions are readily at hand.
The University of Minnesota Press has published Kristine F. Miller's (Landscape Architecture) Designs on the Public: The Private Lives of New York's Public Spaces. In the book Miller examines how design influences six of New York's most important public spaces, including Times Square, Trump Tower, the IBM Atrium, and Federal Plaza.
"Design is, in Miller's view, complicit in regulation of public spaces in New York City to exclude undesirables, restrict activities, and privilege commercial interests, and in this work she shows how design can reactivate public space and public life."
In an op-ed piece for the Hartford Courant, Dean Tom Fisher draws parallels between a modern outlet mall -- Wrentham Village outside of Boston, which Fisher refers to as a "village-in-a-vacuum" -- and fashion trends.
"Wrentham Village depends upon inexpensive oil, something that we almost certainly will never see again. As I drove into the parking lot, I noticed the sizable number of cars with license plates from neighboring states, and wondered when the day will come when it costs more to drive to such outlets that we can save on our purchases there."
Jeff Crump (Housing Studies) chaired the state legislature's foreclosure data committee. The final report (.pdf; 236Kb) of the committee is now available, and the Housing Studies program is mentioned in Appendix Three.
Brad Hokanson (Graphic Design) and MFA graduate Bert Fraher have published "Narrative Structure, Myth, and Cognition in Instructional Design" in the January 2008 issue of Educational Technology. The article examines Joseph Campbell's monomyth as a universal structuring form for learning and technology.
Hokanson's doorbell (.avi; 66.5Mb) is audible (and visible). The doorbell was designed and built by sound sculptor Norm Andersen from a variety of materials, and includes nine sound sources. It plays for approximately 20 seconds and includes an off switch for Halloween.
Steven McCarthy (Graphic Design) profiles his Commercial Rhetoric Art Project in the winter 2008 issue of AIGA Issues in an article entitled "Killing Me Softly with Great Graphic Design: the Commercial Rhetoric Art Project." The project offers a social, political, and economic critique by repurposing advertising material coming into our homes into a series of collages, montages, and assemblages.
"Commercial messages invade and try to take over our homes on a daily basis, attempting to persuade us to consume, consume, and consume some more. This infestation has been so gradual -- rather, we've been complicit with the enemy -- that we only feel bothered or slightly overwhelmed, but not outraged."
McCarthy writes that "one aspect of the project's message is that graphic designers have contributed to the problem of over-consumption by actually succeeding in their field."
C. Colston Burrell's (MLA, 1995) book Perennial Combinations: Stunning Combinations That Make Your Garden Look Fantastic Right from the Start (1999, Rodale Books) will be issued in paperback next month.
Burrell is a garden designer, writer, photographer, and the owner of Native Landscape Design and Restoration, located near Charlottesville, Virginia. He has authored 12 books on gardening including A Gardener's Encyclopedia of Wildflowers, which won the American Horticultural Society notable books of the year award for 1998.
Architectural writer and historian Jane King Hession (MArch 1995) has co-authored Frank Lloyd Wright in New York examining the period Wright lived in New York, 1954-59. In 1999 King Hession co-authored Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design.
Caren Martin (interior design) is the author of Interior Design From Practice To Profession: A History of the Profession (2007). Published by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), the 56-page booklet covers the definition of interior design today, a historical view of the development of interior design as a profession, and interior design in the 21st century.
Continue reading "Martin publishes history of interior design profession" »
Nancy Miller (Center for World Heritage Studies) has a package of articles in the January/February 2008 issue of Architecture Minnesota. The four-part package, entitled "Hallowed Ground," focuses on the architecture of St. John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
In the same issue, Miller's "Material Matters" examines the use of concrete to create rich textures and visually compelling surfaces.
Dean Tom Fisher shared an excerpt of his forthcoming book, Architectural Design and Ethics: Tools for Survival, in the January-February 08 issue of Architecture Minnesota. The book will be published in May by Elsevier/The Architectural Press.
Dean Tom Fisher and Nancy Miller (Center for World Heritage Studies) both have articles in the November-December 2007 issue of Architecture Minnesota.
In "A Tale of Two Bridges," Fisher writes about how "the I-35W bridge and the Guthrie Theater's 'endless bridge' reveal a shift in how we invest in our urban public spaces."
Miller, in an article entitled "On the Right Track," profiles a studio course led by Minneapolis architect William Conway which "examines the impact a light-rail line would have on northwest Arkansas."
Boston's art and architecture are explored in the AIA Guide to Boston: Contemporary Landmarks, Urban Design, Parks, and Historic Buildings and Neighborhoods (Globe Pequot Press, March 2008) by Michael Southworth (BArch '64; professor of urban design and planning at UC-Berkeley) and Susan Southworth. The book covers 700 sites and four centuries of Boston architecture, parks, urban design, and historic landmarks and neighborhoods.
Brad Hokanson (Graphic Design) has published "The Virtue of Paper: Drawing as a Means to Innovation in Instructional Design," a chapter in a book entitled The Handbook of Visual Languages for Instructional Design: Theories and Practices" (Hershey: IGI-Global, 2007). The article connects the visual exploration techniques of architecture with the methodology of instructional design.
The third issue (Fall 2007) of Emerging is available online and in your postal mail box. To receive a print Emerging subscription contact Anne Schultz, schultz@umn.edu.
Alex Terzich (Design Institute) has authored an article entitled "Yours, Mine, and the Future's: Google's Patent Search unlocks the value of proprietary information." The article was published in the November/December issue of The International Design Magazine (I.D.) (p. 50) and features a detail from Christopher Baker's (Design Institute; Art) American Toys (2007), a representation of 500 toy pistols patented in the U.S. over the past 150 years.
Brad Hokanson (Graphic Design) has authored an article on his creativity research entitled "By measure: Creativity in design." It was published in the October issue of the Journal of Industry and Higher Education.
Nancy Miller (CWHS) developed a map of mid-century modern buildings constructed in Minnesota between 1945 and 1970. The map, entitled "Minnesota Modernism," was distributed to all registrants at the annual meeting of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which was held in Saint Paul, October 2-6. A project of the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, the map was sponsored by the Midwest Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with matching funds from the Minneapolis and St. Paul chapters of the AIA, and a contribution from the College of Design. The maps are available in the College offices and in the School of Architecture office.
Kim Johnson (Retail Merchandising) has co-authored a journal article, "The U.S. apparel industry: Futuring with undergraduate apparel majors," published in Clothing and Textiles Research Journal.
Kim Johnson (Retail Merchandising) and Jeong-Ju Yoo (former graduate student) have coauthored "Effects of appearance-related teasing on ethnically diverse adolescent girls" in Adolescence.
Karen LaBat (DHA and Human Dimensioning Lab) published "Sizing Standardization" in a book edited by Susan Ashdown, entitled Sizing in clothing : developing effective sizing systems for ready-to-wear clothing (Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing, 2007). Ashdown completed her DHA doctoral studies with Marilyn DeLong as advisor, and is currently a professor at Cornell University.
Sauman Chu (DHA) has a chapter entitled "Digital game-based learning in higher education" accepted for publication in the Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology (forthcoming, IGI Global).
Jeff Crump (DHA) has published "Subprime Lending and Foreclosure in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties" in the Summer 2007 issue of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs CURA Reporter. Crump's research finds a more than 100% increase in Minneapolis foreclosures since 2006 with more than 50% of those foreclosures located in North Minneapolis.