On November 9, 2007, Design Intelligence released its latest rankings of Undergraduate Programs in Architecture, and Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture rose from tenth place to #7 in the USA.

On November 8, 2007, the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) released its latest world rankings and Carnegie Mellon rose from 35 to an impressive 20th in the world.

David Lewis, the pioneering educator and founder of the firm Urban Design Associates, came to Pittsburgh from England in 1963 to establish one of the first urban design graduate programs in the country at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is now emeritus distinguished professor. At a time when it was fashionable to focus on the iconic value of individual buildings, Lewis saw a larger purpose for architecture in creating "components in the perpetual rebirth of cities." Lewis founded Urban Design Associates in Pittsburgh 1964 in order to develop these ideas in practice and to seek out and refine ways of engaging citizens in the design process.

In receiving the award, Lewis - an innovator in the development of charrettes and other methods of public participation -- stressed that he'd achieved nothing in his career alone. "The essence of urban design is teamwork. And by teamwork, I don't mean only the professionals. I mean the citizens, to whom all cities rightfully belong."

The Athena Medal is named for the goddess, defender of the city, weaver of fabric. It recognizes the legacy of pioneers who laid the groundwork for the New Urbanism movement and its efforts to reestablish traditions of valuable and enduring urban design and development from the scale of the building and block to the region. Lewis joins past winners Leon Krier, Christopher Alexander, Denise Scott Brown, Robert A.M. Stern, and Jonathan Barnett. While other medals have been presented at CNU's annual Congress, the award for Lewis was presented in Pittsburgh, in conjunction with a speech by Prince's Foundation Chief Executive Hank Dittmar, in part because of physical limitations on Lewis' ability to travel.

In his remarks, Lewis emphasized the importance of distinguishing between history and tradition in the practice of urbanism. "History is the study of the past. Tradition is the bridge between the past and the future. Unlike history, tradition is open-ended, forward-looking, and perpetually unfinished. It is the vital language that citizens use when they relate local heritage to what they want their community to become in facing the challenges of change.

"All of us learned to talk as children. Spoken language comes automatically to us. We seldom give a thought to the fact that most of the words we use are centuries old. Yet, in spite of the age of the words we use, we have little difficulty in expressing new thoughts every day of our lives. The same is true of urban language."

Read the full text of Lewis' acceptance remarks.

dggp Architecture
Jeff Davis, Kevin Gannon, Kent Suhrbier
Design Pittsburgh AIA, 2007 AWARD
Architectural: Honor Award

EDGE studio
Gary Carlough, Matt Fineout, Jonathan Golli, Jeff King, Mick McNutt, Dutch MacDonald
Design Pittsburgh AIA, 2007 AWARD
Architectural: Honor Award
Interior Architecture: Honor Award

Lubetz Architects
Art Lubetz
Design Pittsburgh AIA, 2007 AWARD
Architectural: Honor Award

Pfaffmann + Associates
Erik Hokanson
Design Pittsburgh AIA, 2007 AWARD
Architectural Detail / Craftmanship: Award of Excellence

Rothschild Doyno Architects
Ken Doyno, Dan Rothschild
Design Pittsburgh AIA, 2007 AWARD
Regional and Urban Design: Honor Award
Regional and Urban Design: Certificate of Merit
Open Plan: Award of Excellence

Studio d'ARC architects
Gerard Damiani
Design Pittsburgh AIA, 2007 AWARD
Open Plan: Award of Excellence

Visit the AIA Pittsburgh website to learn more.

JoonHo Choi, a doctoral student in architecture and a researcher in the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture's Intelligent Workplace (IW), is rethinking the traditional thermostat. Choi is designing a "smart" thermostat that adjusts a room's temperature according to what he calls a human body's "biosignals."

Choi installed a system of sensors in the IW that facilitates the wireless transmission of an individual's skin temperature and heart rate from an armband or wristband to the thermostat. The thermostat then changes the temperature according to the data received without anyone needing to adjust a manual thermostat.

"The biosensing control is a human-centered approach, which captures an occupant's needs for thermal comfort, and generates optimal temperatures to meet physiological desires of the user," Choi said. According to Choi, the human body has its own HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) system that keeps the body consistently at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The body's HVAC system uses skin temperature and heart rate to regulate body temperature. Choi's device monitors these biosignals and transmits the data wirelessly to the thermostat in a home or office.

Choi has completed the project's pilot study in the IW, an advanced, environmentally friendly and energy-efficient workplace atop Carnegie Mellon's Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall. He is now trying to improve the control system and to decide whether an armband or wristband is more convenient. The bands can be constructed using commercially available sensors and materials.

Choi's new thermostat can be used by anybody, but one of the product's target groups is the elderly, or people who cannot change their thermostats themselves.

"The 'smart' thermostat is a human support device that could be essential for the elderly. Elderly people are sensitive to thermal stress. This is due to their health conditions but also due to their inability to adjust the temperature without assistance," Choi said.

David Lewis, founder of Urban Design Associates and Emeritus Distinguished University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, received the President's Award from the International Downtown Association (IDA). Winners were honored in New York City on September 17, 2007 at the 53rd Annual IDA Conference and World Congress.

The President's Award recognizes a person who has changed the direction of downtowns, business districts, or communities in an important, significant, and positive way.

David Lewis is one of the great pioneers in urban design and architecture of the last fifty years. His early efforts for social change in his native South Africa, combined with his close association with major twentieth century artists, inspired him to enter the architectural profession in mid career in England.

Mr. Lewis came to Pittsburgh from England in 1963 to establish one of the first urban design graduate programs in the country at Carnegie Mellon University. He saw architecture "not as the design of separate buildings but as components in the perpetual rebirth of cities." This led Mr. Lewis to seek out and refine ways of engaging citizens in the design process.

David Lewis founded Urban Design Associates in 1964 in order to develop these ideas in practice. He also worked with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to devise the pro bono R/UDAT program involving citizens, architects, and professionals from other disciplines in the ongoing process of city building. These trailblazing efforts to revitalize our downtowns and neighborhoods transformed the architectural profession and established urban design and public participation as invaluable tools for communities to fulfill their goals.

For more information, contact Lori Sipes at Urban Design Associates (412-263 5200).

The Heinz Endowments has awarded $300,000 to create a Remaking Cities Institute (RCI) at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Architecture that will bring university, industry and community leaders together to make responsible, sustainable changes to Pittsburgh neighborhoods.

"The Remaking Cities Institute is being created to ensure and expand the education, community- visioning, and research efforts of Carnegie Mellon, and to strengthen its partnerships in the Pittsburgh region to catalyze the revitalization of urban regions, neighborhood by neighborhood," said RCI Director Luis Rico- Gutierrez, associate dean of Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts.

The Remaking Cities Institute will use a multidisciplinary work model to make decisions that bring aspects of land use, zoning, transportation, mixed-use development and neighborhood design together with urban geography, economics and policy. During the next year, the institute will use the grant to focus its attention on creating a vision for the former LTV site in Hazelwood and to study its potential for advancing sustainable development in neighboring communities and the region.

A key partner in the effort is the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management's Center for Economic Development (CED), which will allow the institute to leverage academic resources to better understand key regional economic-development issues. Carnegie Mellon's Urban Lab, an outreach program in the School of Architecture that uses faculty and student expertise to address urban-development issues in the Pittsburgh region, will also be an RCI partner. About 40 undergraduate and graduate students of different disciplines will create design proposals and policy strategies using the Urban Lab's design process. Through meetings and focus groups, the Urban Lab works with citizens and leaders in leveraging the energy and creativity of outstanding students to lay the foundation for professional engagement.

"We have high expectations for our work in Hazelwood," Rico-Gutierrez said. "Pittsburgh can become a model that demonstrates the proposition that university-industry-community collaborations can foster sustainable change economically, ecologically and culturally."

Rico-Gutierrez will continue to serve as associate dean of Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts, a position he's held since 2002. He joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1996.

This Fellowship is named in honor of Professor Delbert Highlands who taught courses in architectural design, design theory, and architectural history from 1964 to 2004 He has been widely recognized as a seminal teacher, whose skill, and understanding enriched the education of generations of students. Professor Highlands emphasized the individual, the particular, and the local in his teaching. His courses were grounded in authoritative scholarship and meticulously presented fundamentals, but always went further: asking students to think of this time, this place, this occupancy.

His teaching presented prospects for a life of work that were inspiring, and that would always present fresh challenges to learn more, to go deeper, to design buildings that truly engage our humanity. He has been a key influence in the lives of hundreds of graduates of the School of Architecture. In keeping with Professor Highlands? thinking and contributions to the School, the Fellowship will support the study of collections belonging to locales. There are, perhaps, endless possibilities: from the frescoes of a remote town, to the building vernacular of a whole province, to many things that have not yet been thought of. The common denominators will be the local, and the particular. Alumni of the School of Architecture of Carnegie Mellon University are eligible to receive this award. There is no age restriction, and applications from recent graduates and older graduates are welcome. It is intended that the experience of the Fellowship directly support the professional development of individual awardees to the end of contributing to the richness of our surroundings. Upon completion of the Fellowship, there will be an obligation for reporting and presentation, and the delivery of materials to a Fellowship archive. It is recognized that the form of reporting may vary significantly with the applicant and the subject matter. Applicants will submit a brief describing their proposals for travel and study. Applications will be judged in a blind review by a standing Selection Committee, appointed by the College of Fine Arts and the School of Architecture. The standards for selection will be, entirely merit-based. Eligibility: Only alumni of the School of Architecture are eligible to receive the award. There is no age restriction, but it is anticipated that most successful applicants will be in early or mid-career. Students in the final year of their studies may apply so long as they will have graduated by the time they would receive the award. Awardees cannot be enrolled in an educational institution during the award period. Faculty and employees of CMU, former Fellowship-winners, former faculty, and members of the founding committee are not eligible. Application: The application will consist of a maximum three-page typewritten statement of travel plans. Images may be part of the three-page application. Applicants should include a proposal for the presentation of their work following the completion of the award. Review: A blind review process will be used and the award will be based only on the merit of the proposal. A winner and an alternate will be chosen. A two-step process will be used: 1) A managing committee (two members, School of Architecture) will assure compliance with eligibility criteria and number applications to assure a blind review. 2) A Selection committee (even number of members) will name the winner and alternate. -Faculty member CMU School of Architecture -Architecture Practitioner, graduate of an institution other than CMU -Faculty member CMU Art History or History -Faculty member CMU Department of English -Faculty member CMU Schools of Art, Drama, Design or Music -Member of the Founding Committee or a former award winner Reporting and Impact on the School of Architecture: Recognizing that communication skills and interests will vary among awardees, latitude will be given to the ways in which awardees will contribute back to the school. Anticipated formats include lectures, seminars and exhibition. Ideally these would be timed to occur simultaneously with an announcement of the subsequent award-winner.

Every year, the Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture and the National Concrete Masonry Education and Research Foundation sponsor a design competition. The recipients of this year's awards and their prizes are as follows:
	1st Place Diego Taccioli $750 2nd Place Greg Tanski $500 3rd Place Rachelle Roll $250 4th Place Charles Helmstetter $125 Honorable Mention Paige Warman $100 Honorable Mention John Park $100 Honorable Mention Ryan Bottini $100

"Making A Living, Living Your Dream 2007? is the Career Center?s month-long focus on career development and opportunities for College of Fine Arts students. In the past, we?ve focused this event on 2 days in February. This year, to best meet the needs of our students, we?re expanding our events throughout the entire month.

The Fine Arts Job and Internship Fair will bring together students and employers in a range of fields including: art, architecture, animation, design, arts administration, theater, music, film and television, game design, publishing, writing, museums and other arts organizations, advertising and public relations, teaching and public service. In addition, we invite employers to return to campus on Friday, February 23, to interview our fine arts students.

The following firms will be attending the job fair on Thursday:
Arquitectonica, Astorino, Bergmeyer Associates, Inc., Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Buro Happold Consulting Engineers, P.C., Burt Hill, Clean Water Action, Clear Channel, David M. Schwarz/Architectural Services, Inc., Design + Construction Strategies, Elkus Manfredi Architects, Francis Cauffman Foley Hoffmann Architects, Gensler NY, HNTB Architecture Inc., IBACOS, Inc., IDC Architects, IOMEDIA, Looney Ricks Kiss, Architects, Mangan Group, NBBJ, Orbital Engineering, Inc., Perkins + Will, Perkins Eastman, Peter Margittai, Architect, RTKL, SOM, Urban Design Associates

The following firms will be staying for interviews on Friday:
Arquitectonica, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Buro Happold Consulting Engineers, P.C., Clean Water Action, David M. Schwarz/Architectural Services, Inc., Design + Construction Strategies, Elkus Manfredi Architects, Francis Cauffman Foley Hoffmann Architects, Gensler NY, HNTB Architecture Inc., IDC Architects, IOMEDIA, Mangan Group, NBBJ, SOM.

Interested students should contact Christine Gilchrist as soon as possible to sign up for an interview.

The Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture invites applications for 2 TENURE TRACK and 2 VISITING APPOINTMENTS. Appointments are expected to begin in the Fall 2007. Ranked in the top ten nationally, Carnegie Mellon offers a five-year accredited Bachelor of Architecture program, with post professional graduate programs in architecture engineering contruction management, building performance, computational design, sustainable design, and urban design. For more information, please download the following pdf.

Carnegie Mellon will be hosting Building A Sustainable Future, the 2006 AIAS Northeast Quad Conference in October. For more information, please visit the Quad Conference website.

The Pittsburgh Solar Decathlon house, "Pittsburgh Synergy," is a joint entry by four area schools - the Carnegie Mellon Schools of Architecture and Design, University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering, and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. The Carnegie Mellon Schools are returning for their second Solar Decathlon.

As they did in 2002, team members are building a multistory house to increase usable space in the 800 square foot footprint in dense urban environments, such as those found in Pittsburgh and in metropolitan areas throughout the United States. The design will feature a continuous service wall to emphasize the technical functionality of the house.

Learning from the experience of the Carnegie Mellon at the first Solar Decathlon, the 2005 design will be more reliable, affordable, and perform better than the previous house. The Pittsburgh team is also emphasizing modularity, flexibility, and adaptability in all of the spaces and building components. The team has submitted a proposal to the Carnegie Mellon administration asking it to fully fund the project in return for being able to use the house as the main visitors center for the university.

In 1906, the School of Applied Design at Carnegie Mellon University was founded as one of the first comprehensive arts learning institutes in the United States.

Please join us in celebrating 100 years of the College of Fine Arts!

For a complete event schedule and more details on these and other events, visit the Centennial Web site.

The students in David Burns? Parametric Design seminar have been invited to produce a site-specific installation in the 2005 BEYOND MEDIA International Festival of Architecture and Media which opens December 1st in Florence, Italy. This exhibition is ?devoted to the most advanced visualizations in architecture and to the debate on the relationships between the project and the media of communication.?

The roster of Parametric Design includes Dianne Chia, Josh Cummings, Geoff Di Beneditto, Stella Hsu, Xian Huay, Meredith Magin, Steve Mrdjenovich, Matt Piccone, Anne Roy, Jon Scelsa, Sarah Steinberg, Samantha Triolo, Noelle Weaver and John Wong. Eight of the students traveled to Italy to construct the installation.

Carnegie Mellon will join schools of architecture from Europe, Asia and North America including Columbia University, SCI-Arc, Princeton Universtiy, ETH (Switzerland), University of Applied Arts (Vienna), and others. Representing these institutions are courses taught by Zaha Hadid, Greg Lynn, Wolf Prix, Jesse Reiser, Ed Keller, William MacDonald and many others. In addition, the exhibition includes the work of thirty professionals from around the world.

The work of the students from CMU is a direct result of the theme of this year?s BEYOND MEDIA Exhibition, ?Script?. The students spent several months investigating the influence of contemporary media sources and the difficulty in deciphering and filtering the mass of information delivered. The result of this research led to a spatial construct that exploits the basic precepts of architecture, space and light. By utilizing common construction materials, the students have created a dynamic, fluid form that is inherently interactive, yet does not rely on projection, verbal information or any advanced technologies. The individual activates the installation by simply navigating the space and engaging the curvilinear form. The installation registers the presence of the individual by revealing the shadow of the human form on the opposite side. In this way, visual information is edited or filtered by the simplest of methods: light.

The schedule of events:
BEYOND MEDIA 05 - SCRIPT
8th International Festival of Architecture and Media

Florence, December 1 - 11, 2005
Ospedale degli Innocenti, Salone Brunelleschiano, Piazza Santissima Annunziata 12 Stazione Leopolda, Spazio Alcatraz, viale fratelli Rosselli S

Opening - December 1st, 2005
Ospedale degli Innocenti, Salone Brunelleschiano

Videos and international meetings - December 1 - 4, 2005 Ospedale degli Innocenti, Salone Brunelleschiano

Exhibits, workshops, events - December 1 -11, 2005 Stazione Leopolda, Spazio Alcatraz Ospedale degli Innocenti

For more information, please visit the following website.

The Pittsburgh Solar Decathlon house, "Pittsburgh Synergy," is a joint entry by four area schools - the Carnegie Mellon Schools of Architecture and Design, University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering, and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. The Carnegie Mellon Schools are returning for their second Solar Decathlon.

As they did in 2002, team members are building a multistory house to increase usable space in the 800 square foot footprint in dense urban environments, such as those found in Pittsburgh and in metropolitan areas throughout the United States. The design will feature a continuous service wall to emphasize the technical functionality of the house.

Learning from the experience of the Carnegie Mellon at the first Solar Decathlon, the 2005 design will be more reliable, affordable, and perform better than the previous house. The Pittsburgh team is also emphasizing modularity, flexibility, and adaptability in all of the spaces and building components. The team has submitted a proposal to the Carnegie Mellon administration asking it to fully fund the project in return for being able to use the house as the main visitors center for the university.

The Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture invites applications for two STUDIO-BASED, TENURE-TRACK positions at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor, with appointments beginning in the Fall of 2006. Ranked in the top ten nationally, Carnegie Mellon offers a five-year accredited Bachelor of Architecture program, with post-professional graduate programs in building performance, computational design, sustainable design, and urban design.

The School is seeking committed, innovative teachers who bring a dynamic mix of practice, research, and theory into design education. Studios follow an integrated, sequential curriculum. Successful candidates will be expected to have complementary knowledge and expertise to teach required and elective courses each semester. Applicants must hold an M.Arch degree, or a B.Arch with a graduate degree or commensurate practice experience.

Application materials should include a cover letter stating teaching goals and values, a complete curriculum vitae, a brief portfolio of exceptional accomplishments, and three references with full contact information. Except for full time practitioners who have not previously taught, experience in studio teaching should be demonstrated through course descriptions, assignments, samples of student work and student evaluations. Applicants should also include syllabi or well-developed one-page proposals for elective courses to be offered each semester and evidence of expertise in areas related to these courses. Application packages should be sent by 1 March 2006. Review of applications will begin immediately and remain open until positions are filled.

ICOMOS Canada is hosting a Congress at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada from September 29th to October 1, 2005. The topic is "The Significance of Setting - Conserving Monuments and Sites in Changing Canadian Cultural Landscapes". A Pre-Congress Charrette is also being held at Historic Fort York.

The School of Architecture's Graduate Program 2005/2006 Orientation will take place on August 22 - 26. Please visit the Graduate Orientation website for more information.

ICEBO 2005: 5th International Conference on Enhanced Building Operations

Carnegie Mellon's Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) and Texas A&M's Energy Systems Laboratory will jointly sponsor an international gathering for facility managers, building controls engineers, energy managers and engineers, ESCOs, real estate managers, building scientists, and government and utility project managers about achieving continuous performance improvement in existing buildings. Join us as a co-sponsor or attendee. For more information, visit the CBPD website.