October 2011
ACSANewsDigest A Publication of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture
NORTHEAST DREXEL UNIVERSITY After 37 years on the Drexel faculty and 25 years of leadership Paul M. Hirshorn, AIA has retired at the end of the academic year 2010-2011. Hirshorn was Head of the Department of Architecture from 1986 to 2007, Head of the Department of Architecture + Interiors from 2007 to 2010 and served as Architecture Program Director this past year. Under his leadership the Arfaa Lecture Series was established, the Architecture Program’s off-campus studies programs were launched and the unique 2+4 architecture degree program was created. Paul Hirshorn has worked tirelessly for the Department, the Program and for Drexel University and we would like to thank and acknowledge him for his many contributions. Assistant Professor Dr. Ulrike AltenmüllerLewis, AIA has assumed the position of Program Director for Architecture in July 2011. Dr. Altenmüller-Lewis had served as Associate Director of the Architecture Program since she began teaching at Drexel in September 2008. This past spring Professor Altenmüller-Lewis won the prestigious Allen Rothwarf Award for Teaching Excellence, Drexel’ University’s highest teaching award. Erik Sundquist has joined the Department of Architecture + Interiors as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Architecture Program. Prior to his appointment at Drexel University, Sundquist taught at the Col-
lege of Architecture and the Arts at Florida International University in Miami Florida. As a practicing architectural designer he has collaborated with architects, artists, industrial designers and interior designers on high profile projects that span four continents. Eric Sundquist received his BA in Psychology and Economics from The University of Massachusetts, a MA in Political Psychology from SUNY Stony Brook and his MArch from Florida International University. In his teaching and research, he has explored the role of sustainability in professional practice and effects of digital based design on traditional notions of building tectonics and scale. Nicole Koltick has been promoted to Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture + Interiors. She coordinates the technology course work and digital initiatives in the Interiors Design undergraduate and Interior Architecture and Design graduate programs. Nicole Koltick received an M. Arch. from UCLA and a BFA, in Art with University Honors, from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a principal of the trans-dicsiplinary design firm lutz/koltick. Koltick’s current research interests include future speculation, robotics, computation, artificial intelligence and interactive environments. She is interested in exploring the boundaries between technology, science, the “natural,” the built environment and its inhabitants. Nicole Koltick works with complex and fantastical narratives as well as multi-agent systems and advanced computational strategies to envision new landscapes, environments and territories for inhabitation.
ACSANews Digest is published once monthly and is distributed digitally to all fulltime faculty in ACSA member schools via the ACSA Update membership email. These Regional School items were originally published on the ACSA website, which offers extensive coverage of member schools activities updated daily. Visit www.acsa-arch.org/ACSANews/read for more news. © Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture 2011
CORNELL UNIVERSITY Cornell University’s Milstein Hall – the first new building in over 100 years for the renowned College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) – opened its studios for students in late August with completion coming in October 2011. Led by OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu, who directs the New York office, and Pritzker Prizewinner Rem Koolhaas, the design for the 47,000-square-foot building physically unites the AAP’s long-separated facilities to form a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration. “Milstein Hall operates on many levels,” says AAP dean Kent Kleinman. “It redefines the entry for the northern edge of the campus; it provides a permeable boundary between academic space and the public; it offers extraordinary spatial relationships between internal programmatic elements; and it offers a landscape of studios that fosters a level of interaction between our undergraduate and graduate architecture students that we have never enjoyed before.” Milstein Hall’s large horizontal plate connects the second levels of the AAP’s existing Sibley Hall and Rand Hall to provide 25,000 square feet of studio space with panoramic views of the surrounding environment. Enclosed by floor-to-ceiling glass and a green roof with 41 skylights, this “upper plate” cantilevers almost 50 feet over University Avenue to establish a relationship with the Foundry, a third existing AAP facility. The wide-open expanse of the plate — structurally supported by a hybrid truss system — stimulates interaction and allows flexible use over time. Beneath the hovering studio plate, the ground level accommodates major program elements including a 253-seat auditorium, and a dome that encloses a 5,000 square foot circular critique space. The dome serves multiple functions: it supports the