38°84: Issue 002

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stories of design + place

T H E R.J. R E Y N O L D S B U I L D I N G 1 9 1 7 A N N O D O M I N I | 2 0 1 9 A N N O R E N O VAT I O

ISSUE 002


HOMECOIM The College of Design Moves (Back) to the Reynolds Building

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Inside Front Spread V4


IMING

The College of Design (formerly the College of Architecture) left its home in the Reynolds Building to move to its new residence in Pence Hall. As former Professor Richard Levine shared, “I was told that we would be in Pence Hall for only three or four years and then we would be moving into a new building.” That was 1965.

In December, the Capital Projects Plan, which includes the adaptive reuse of the Reynolds Building for future occupancy by the College of Design, was presented to the UK Board of Trustees. With more than 141,000 gsf of historically significant space, the Reynolds Building will not only encompass one of the most significant preservation and adaptive reuse projects on campus but will provide an all-inclusive space for the College’s current and forthcoming programs. Over the years there have been a number of studios in the College focused on bringing this building back to life for us — including studios from Professors Bruce Swetnam, Mike Jacobs and Marty Summers. The College has been trying to find its way home since 1963 when the College was first in residence at Reynolds. In spring 2018, students in Bill Massie’s architecture studio were charged with adapting the Reynolds Building, and this studio exercise once again galvanized the validity of this project.

Reimagining Reynolds in Studio Like professors before him, Massie instructed students to rethink the Reynolds Building — a former warehouse for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. — that sits on the western end of UK’s campus. Massie, who is also the Director of Design Technology (see page 24), had one caveat. “I said to the students ‘We’re going to look at Reynolds as if we’re actually going to do the project,’” he explained. “But where I really restricted them was dealing with the existing structure.” And by “dealing,” he meant that students had to use the original bones of the building, currently intact. The option to take it down to masonry and essentially build a brand-new building was not on the table. continued on page 80

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Issue 002

So, where did 38°84 come from? Geographically, the latitude and longitude of the University of Kentucky is 38.0406° N, 84.5037° W. We trimmed that down to keep things simple, but the essence is the same: we are here to celebrate the Bluegrass Region and the impact our college, our university, our city and our state has upon the world. Our design students are taking what they learn here and

38°84 is published for alumni, faculty, staff The Magazine of the College of Design at the University of Kentucky

38°84, but it won’t stop here.

University of Kentucky. Copyright ©2018. All rights reserved. 38°84 Vol 2, Fall 2018. No part

Dean Mitzi R. Vernon

of this publication may be reproduced without written consent of the College of Design at the University of Kentucky. Want to make

Editor Julie Wilson

sure your name is on the alumni list to receive

Designer Daniel Livingston

remona.edenfield@uky.edu.

Contributing Photographers Shaun Ring Clay Cook Direct comments or questions to: Director of Communications UK College of Design 112 Pence Hall Lexington, KY 40506-0041

translating it into projects that can have a global impact. We start at

and friends of the College of Design at the

future issues of 38°84? Send inquiries to: Director of Philanthropy Remona Edenfield at

The University of Kentucky is committed to a policy of providing opportunities to people regardless of economic or social status and will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, veteran status, or physical or mental disability.

ABOUT THE BACK COVER The new Gatton Student Center on UK’s @UKCoD

campus marries the old and new – adapting

@ukcod

to live in unison with the new facility. A

@ukcod

portions of the old student center building number of College of Design faculty, alumni and students were involved in the new Student Center, which opened in spring 2018. Professor Mike Jacobs – whose firm Omni Architects was selected to design the $175 million project – and SOI alumnus Eileen Jones – a principal at Perkins + Will, which guided the interior of the center – were among the many designers involved in the renovation and expansion. Photo by Frank Döring.

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Table of Contents


Contents

/018

/042

/056 The Dean Distilled /005

Congressional Mettle /042

What’s New at the College of Design /006

Hands-on Preservation /046

The Kentucky You Should Know /012

Studio Culture /048

Student Achievements /014

Faculty Work /050

Student Work /016

Inclusion by Design /054

The Welcome Card /018

Alumni News /055

Beginning With the Past /020

Going to Bat /056

Digital Savant /024

Honorable Mentions /060

CoD Prepares for Product Design Program Launch /026

Faculty Research /068

Design on a Global Scale /028

Events /072

Community Engagement /032 Find a Life for Yourself /040

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Giving Forward We are on the cusp of the most transformational moment in the 50+ years of this college. Design has always been indispensable in connection to the human experience as you can see from the multiple examples in this issue. Now, we need your support as we broaden the scope of our future. Visit design.uky.edu/give to make your gift. To have a conversation about how you can have the greatest impact on the future of the College of Design, contact Director of Philanthropy Remona Edenfield at remona.edenfield@uky.edu.

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Capital Projects: The Reynolds Building The Reynolds Building will provide a rare opportunity to have a flagship building that champions adaptive reuse on UK’s campus. Naming opportunities will be available.

Student Support For travel or scholarship needs

Teaching & Research Support Endowed Chairs, Professorships and Directorships

Outreach & Community Engagement Tangible design opportunities that uphold UK’s land grant mission

The Dean Distilled_V7


The Dean Distilled Recasting Reynolds

I grew up at the center of the R.J. Reynolds industry in North Carolina. As a child of the 1960s, I saw tobacco as benign; even in my young mind I understood it as an economic driver. Working for R.J. Reynolds was broadly understood as the most profitable job for the middle to upper classes in Winston-Salem. The reputation wasn’t about tobacco, it was about the benefits to employees. Not until late last year did I fully appreciate what Reynolds had done for the regional economy beginning in the early 20th century (continuing even today) and what his wife Katharine, in turn, had done for the company employees, social reform, and then art and education. She named the family estate, Reynolda House, which years later would open to the public as one of the best museums for American art in the United States. I realized when visiting the museum last year that my undergraduate education was possible because of her philanthropic vision. I was privileged to be a recipient of the coveted Katharine Smith Reynolds Scholarship, which financed my entire undergraduate education. Katharine spent three years (beginning in 1897) at what is now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, formerly known as the Woman’s College, where she adopted the radical notion that educated women could change the world.

Revisiting my personal history with the Reynolds legacy: adaptive reuse... from economic engine to empowering workers to philanthropy to education. The Reynolda House was completed in 1917, the same year that saw the completion of the Reynolds Tobacco building now located on the University of Kentucky’s campus. It was also the year when Richard Joshua (R.J.) Reynolds became gravely ill, dying later in 1918 after a lifetime driven by philanthropy. In 2015 when I first arrived in Lexington, an early stop was in front of the Reynolds Building at 349 Scott Street. There was rapid rumor of its demolition. I stood and looked up at the engraved lintel over the front door, revisiting my personal history with the Reynolds legacy: adaptive reuse...from economic engine to empowering workers to philanthropy to education. Three and half years later, we reimagine Reynolds — the building — aiming to celebrate the economic history and the philanthropic spirit of R.J. and Katharine Smith Reynolds by recasting it for design education. We preserve history to learn from it and to reuse it. We adapt. Please join us in celebrating this moment of opportunity for the College of Design. Help us build a sustainable and energizing atmosphere for future generations of students. It is the gift that continues to give; my small story is a testament to that life cycle. We will do what we do best: design, build, preserve, and educate. This new opportunity will ensure the continued elevation of the College as a community partner and economic driver for the greater Commonwealth.

Mitzi R. Vernon, Dean 38º84

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W H AT ’ S N E W

DESIGN FOR EVERY ONE

HDI Universal Design Certificate Comes to the CoD HDI 350: Universal Design is a new course housed in the School of Interiors. In collaboration with the Human Development Institute, HDI 350 is one of the pillars to complete the Universal Design Certificate. Principles of universal design are utilized in built, virtual, and learning environments; this mode of thinking gives designers the skills to design for all abilities. This interdisciplinary course is available to all students at UK, despite major, whether they are participating in the certificate track (12 credits) or not.

Preservation Chair Publishes New Book Published in February 2018, “A New Plantation World: Sporting Estates in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1900-1940” was written by Dan Vivian, chair of the Department of Historic Preservation. The book chronicles the making of upper-class sporting retreats amid the decaying remains of plantation slavery in a region that played a crucial role in sparking the Civil War and the major conflicts of Reconstruction. In opposition to many historical accounts, Vivian found that the new plantation owners neither found inspiration in the mythology of the southern past (at least initially) nor simply turned old plantations into hunting retreats. Instead, northerners rehabilitated existing buildings and landscape features, added new elements, and styled the resulting ensembles for aesthetic coherence. Ultimately, the book is about one chapter in Americans’ remembrance of slavery and celebration of “the South.”

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What's New at the College of Design


Rendering of Town Branch Commons, a public-private partnership featuring a strip of Bluegrass running through downtown, linking the city’s two major trails, plus a signature downtown park. The project, slated for completion in 2021, will have a lasting impact on Lexington.

MUED Program Offers New Opportunity for UK Students With an eye toward growth, the College of Design recently announced its new Master of Science in Urban and Environmental Design (MUED) program. Starting in fall 2019, this new graduate program will be dedicated to helping students think critically about emerging urban and environmental design problems through real-world projects and future-oriented ideas. Students will be introduced to the complexity of urban, rural and small-town environments — from the varying spectrum of stakeholders to the bounds of existing infrastructures — and promotes an interdisciplinary approach to designing sustainable communities. The curriculum is studio-based to develop an ethic of collaboration and critical thinking among students, faculty and community members. From these relationships, projects emerge that seek inventive ideas to specific design challenges. Students take a diversified sequence of electives that includes history and theory of urban and environmental design, visualization techniques, policy analysis, and socioeconomic research.

2) Sustainability, Adaptability and Resilience; and 3) Urban Systems (e.g., Urban Ecology, Data Analytics and Infrastructure Design). Students without an undergraduate design degree take 37 credit hours; those from design backgrounds need 30 credit hours to graduate. As the complexity of design challenges within the built environment grows, the need for diverse teams of professionals and community members dedicated to addressing these challenges also grows. With an MUED from the College of Design, students will have the skills and knowledge to inspire visions of social, economic and environmental sustainability at multiple scales using innovative principles and techniques for effective community design. For more information, visit design.uky.edu/ urban-and-environmental-design.

Students choose from one of three concentrations: 1) Town Design, Main Streets and Rural Communities;

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Welcome New CoD Faculty The College of Design has attracted several new faculty members in the past year, and we are excited to welcome them to our team. In the School of Interiors, new faculty include: Gregory Marinic, Director of Graduate Studies in Interiors and Interim Director of the School of Interiors; Lecturer Christine Mobley; Instructor Brad Fister; and Senior Lecturer Barb Young. In the Department of Historic Preservation, Emily Bergeron has joined the faculty as assistant professor. The School of Architecture welcomes Instructor Brian Richter and Assistant Professor Angus Eade.

SOI Professor Patrick Lee Lucas Earns Spot in Provost Faculty Fellowship Program Patrick Lee Lucas has been accepted into the inaugural Provost Faculty Fellowship program. He was chosen based on his commitment to and expertise in the area of student success. As part of the program, fellows will work with members of UK Student and Academic Life (SAL) to identify and execute projects that support its mission. Due to the time commitment involved in this prestigious appointment, Lucas has stepped down as the Director of the School of Interiors yet will remain a full-time faculty member. Gregory Marinic, who is currently the Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Interiors, has been named Interim Director.

HP Professor Doug Appler Receives NEH Grant Assistant Professor Doug Appler, who teaches in the Department of Historic Preservation, was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant for his project “Reassessing the History of Urban Renewal in the United States, 1950–1975.” The grants include the first awards made under NEH’s new Infrastructure and Capacity-Building Challenge Grant program, which will support infrastructure projects at 29 U.S. cultural institutions in 20 states and the District of Columbia. The collaborative research grant for $42,000 will allow Appler to continue to develop urban renewal scholarship that explores geographies other than that of the stand-alone project in major central cities. Appler is a former practicing city planner, a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala from 2000-02. He holds a doctoral degree in city and regional planning from Cornell University, a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from Virginia Tech, and bachelor’s degrees in history and political science from Virginia Tech.

Azhar Swanson Elected to University Senate Director of Student Services Azhar Swanson was recently elected to the University Senate Committee as the Admissions & Academic Standards representative. Swanson, whose term is from 2018-2021, is one of several members of the UK Advising Network elected to serve on its Executive and University Senate Committees.

CoD Faculty Participate in Everything Is Science Festival The College of Design participated in two events during the inaugural Everything Is Science festival, April 26-28, 2018. Associate Dean for Students Bruce Swetnam shared insight into the building of Kentucky Native Cafe on Thursday, April 26. And Director of Design Technology Bill Massie spoke about “Life in Space” at Pivot Brewing.

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What's New at the College of Design


Summer Studio Project at Henry Clay Estate This summer, SOA Instructor Brian Richter’s studio designed Indefinite Kindred, a project that focused on contemporary design processes, conventional building materials and historical context. Located at Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate in Lexington, the intentional design elements carry a delicate textural dissolve, both in reference to the diversity of trees found at Ashland as well as the shadows produced by their canopies.

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FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: DAN VIVIAN

Social Justice in Historic Preservation Drives New Department Chair

Department of Historic Preservation Chair Dan Vivian, who came to the College of Design in July 2017, sees social justice as the critical element that will drive preservation education forward in the coming years. “The social justice dimension of historic preservation is the most interesting and active part of the field these days,” Vivian explained. “Social justice is a way to create a more tolerant and inclusive society going forward because of the perspective it gives us, and what it forces us to see about the relationship between past and present.” For some, the connection between preservation and social justice isn’t necessarily clear. But if you think about it from Vivian’s perspective, the two are inherently intertwined. “Physical places don’t say anything by themselves, so interpretation is everything,” he said. “Traditionally, historic preservation specialists were more interested in preserving, but why places matter is really most important.” Take the recent focus on Confederate statues across the country. Should they stay, or should they go? “It’s probably been the single most effective episode in compelling Americans to face the reality of its legacy,” Vivian said. And that legacy includes a dark underbelly. “It’s an effective vehicle for making Americans realize to the extent that slavery was a fundamental part of this country’s founding.” Vivian explains this sentiment with an anecdote from his own upbringing. Growing up in central Virginia, Vivian was immersed in a region that has a strong penchant for historical education — Monticello, Colonial Williamsburg, just to name a couple. But it wasn’t always the complete story that was told.

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“When I grew up and went to Monticello, it was all about Jefferson’s genius, the architecture,” Vivian explained. “Now, the enslaved people who lived there, more than Jefferson, are an essential part of the story. How do you tell the story of a place legitimately if you leave out all the black people? It’s driven by intentional and unintentional bias.” This omission of relevant history creates an incomplete narrative, and that misinformation manifests in ways that has a lasting impact. Take for example the concept of inequality, which is inarguably rising in the United States and in many places internationally. This inequality influences how people interact… or don’t. “The idea of a democratic egalitarian society requires a historical perspective that inspires, and provides a sense of a common experience,” Vivian said. “If we lose that, things begin to crumble.” Yet he feels historic preservationists can play a role in redirecting this perspective. “There is a difference between telling a compelling narrative that gets at the inherent conflict of history rather than telling uncritical histories about pretty buildings,” Vivian said. Because this same inequality that divides people inherently circles back to the places in which we live. What's New at the College of Design


“A lot of evidence shows the most equitable places in American cities are those with the broadest mix of buildings,” said Vivian. “The neighborhoods where the greatest range of buildings from different periods tend to equate with social diversity. New developments tend to create less diversity.” So, Vivian’s role in preparing the next generation of preservationists for this perspective is what motivates his decisions for the program. From an increase in lectures and workshops by faculty and outside speakers to more hands-on experience for students, the historic preservation program is looking to the future to ensure students will be equipped to facilitate this modern take on preservation.

“Traditionally, historic preservation specialists were more interested in preserving, but why places matter is really most important.”

Vivian also noted that, because of this evolving notion of preservation, employment opportunities for preservation specialists are growing significantly. Specializations in energy consulting, sustainability, even real estate with an emphasis in preservation tax credits are niche markets that offer viable career paths for historic preservation students. “If you’re well-trained, creative and self-starting, you can make a huge difference in ways that have not been available until relatively recently,” he said.

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KENTUCKY

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The Kentucky You Should Know


The renovation of the 1899 former Fayette County courthouse, with a price tag of more than $32 million, recently won a state preservation award from the Kentucky Heritage Council. The building is now home to VisitLex’s Visitors Center, the Limestone Hall event space, and a restaurant and bourbon bar.

OPPOSITE: The restored dome inside the former Fayette County courthouse rotunda.

As a proud member of the Kentucky community, the UK College of Design prides itself on playing an active role in the lives of its neighbors and addressing issues concerning the state. And we stand in good company. With our foothold in Lexington, the College of Design can engage with the city in an even stronger way now that it has qualified as a University City (universitycities.org). University Cities share a common personality: • they attract highly educated people • they enlist innovative economies with high rates of entrepreneurship • they support a larger than average arts and cultural scene • they host large nonprofit sectors that indicate a vibrant civil society As the name implies, a University City has a major research university at its core, and that’s one of the ways the College of Design extends its expertise. As you will see on page 50, our faculty are actively working on projects that have the capability of a positive ripple effect throughout Kentucky and beyond.

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The state’s allegiance to higher education helps to fuel the growth and development mentality. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the share of adults 25 years and older with at least a bachelor’s degree is 42 percent in University Cities, compared with 29 percent for the nation as a whole. For Lexington, a city of 300,000, that makes a strong impact. What elevates Lexington as a University City from its former “college town” days is the trend of the newly degreed making their home in the city as opposed to leaving after graduation. We have many alumni in that category, and we’re proud that Lexington continues to evolve into a city that prioritizes development to increase these numbers. Lexington is a city that leverages design for the betterment of its residents. In addition to the renovations of the former Fayette County courthouse, the new and expanded Lexington Convention Center and the Town Branch Commons development are also in the works, and are scheduled to be completed by November 2021. It’s clear to see why Southern Living magazine recently named Lexington one of the South’s Best Cities in 2018.

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STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

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Moontower Festival (A) Students in Jordan Hines’ summer studio created a temporary tower installation for the Moontower Music Festival in fall 2017. The project afforded the students an opportunity to integrate their academic interests into a professional setting centered around client feedback and public use. This experience proved challenging because the overall schedule was much faster than a typical studio and this helped the students encounter the fast-paced decision-making required in the design/build process. Students were also challenged with testing their designs using digital computer models, small-scale physical models, and 1:1 mock-ups so that at any given moment the studio was able to check issues of buildability and budget and adjust accordingly. The most successful part of the project was the students’ ability to use a limited budget and limited schedule to produce work that isn’t suggestive of these limitations, but rather they made a better project because of them. Having a project outside the university also helped provide buy-in from the students because they understood the importance of communicating the value architecture can bring to a project with a sensitivity to materials and place.

SOA Students Elected Habitat Officers (B) Congratulations to two SOA students who were selected to serve as officers of the University of Kentucky Habitat for Humanity Campus Chapter. Rachel Crosslin is the new Co-President and Abbie Winfield is this year’s Secretary. All College of Design students are encouraged to participate in UK’s Habitat for Humanity chapter.

Montre’ale Jones Awarded Gaines Fellowship (C) With multiple plates already spinning in the air, School of Architecture student Montre’ale Jones realizes that he is going to have to make room for one more. This March, Jones was one of only 12 undergraduate students to be awarded a prestigious Gaines Fellowship.

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“With only 12 students campus-wide receiving a Gaines Fellowship, this makes quite a statement about Montre’ale’s work as an architecture student and potential in his future career,” said School of Architecture Director Jeffrey Johnson. The goal of the Gaines Center for the Humanities at the University of Kentucky is to balance students’ academic focus on science and technology with a healthy dose of humanities to ensure both sides of the brain are fully engaged. These fellowships are awarded to students in their junior and senior years and come with a stipend of $2,000 in the junior year and $3,000 in the senior year. And with great stipends come great responsibilities. Juniors are required to take part in a four-hour seminar each semester as well as complete a jury project that benefits the community. During their senior year, fellows will work on an independent study project that requires anywhere from six to 15 credit hours. Luckily, Jones is no stranger to hard work. Although this is his first year at the University of Kentucky, he is a junior by credit hours, having completed two years at Hopkinsville Community College. Jones left Hopkinsville, his hometown, with two associates degrees and a CAD (computer-aided design) certificate. Jones’s future plans are to earn his Master of Architecture degree, gain firsthand experience at a firm then funnel that knowledge into humanitarian architecture. “I come from a low-income family, so I want to be in a place where I can help others and be an inspiration for other African American males,” he said. “Montre’ale is a consummate example of the College’s mission to strengthen its efforts toward inclusivity,” said Dean Mitzi Vernon. “The more emphasis we put on diversity and community engagement, the greater impact our College can have campus-wide and beyond.”

2017 AIA OVR Competition Award (D) The UK College of Design team won the Merit Award in the 2017 OVR Adaptive Reuse University Student

Student Achievements


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Competition for their presentation at the Ohio Valley AIA Convention. Students included: Michael Foster, Christopher Mancuso, Drew McGurk, Andrew Meyer, Mallory Rabeneck, and Alex Short.

Merchandise Mart by touring showrooms such as Teknion, Herman Miller and the Mohawk Group, but also by meeting and forming relationships with executives and sales representatives from the nation’s leading furniture and finish manufacturers,” explained Claire Jackson, a third-year interiors student.

CoD Teams Represent at Design Slam (E) Congratulations to the winners of Design Slam 2017, our very own UK AIAS team! These students from the College of Design competed in the event at West Sixth Brewing and won the coveted Golden T-square. The AIAS team was in competition with local architecture firms and received the most votes for their compelling design. And in third place was the Historic Preservation student team, which included Candi Rhinhart, Heather Doerge, Chip Oakley and Brad Fister. Proceeds for the event went to Lexington Habitat for Humanity and AIA East KY.

Students Network at NeoCon 2018 (F) School of Interiors Lecturer Chris Birkentall traveled to Chicago with 12 students to attend NeoCon during its annual conference June 11-13, 2018. Held every June at The Mart in Chicago since 1969, NeoCon, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, serves as the commercial design industry’s launch pad for innovation – offering ideas and introductions that shape the built environment today and into the future. During the show, students were able to network with industry professionals while learning of new career opportunities in interiors. Student Briana Wulfeck was nominated by the local chapter of the International Interior Design Association to participate in a six-hour design charrette during NeoCon, giving her a chance to display her skills in front of professionals scouting new talent. The experience is an immersive opportunity for students to think beyond what they might consider to be their career path after graduation. “I have brought back with me knowledge of product and industry, not only gained from being able to experience the

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SOI Student Earns First Place Award SOI student Brooke Holley won first place for her project, “Freedom of Fluidity,” in the 53rd annual Oswald Research & Creativity Competition in December 2017. Through the UK Office of Undergraduate Research, the competition’s objectives are to stimulate creative work by undergraduate students and to recognize individuals who demonstrate outstanding achievement.

CoD Students Chosen to Showcase Murals in New Residence Halls Six UK students from the College of Design were selected by a panel of judges from UK Housing in fall 2017 to have their artwork featured in two new campus residence halls — Lewis Hall and University Flats. Students were given specific colors and themes and instructed to submit one or more designs to be judged. The winning designers included: Emily Corner, Lauren Delvanthal, Chris Mancuso, Jessica Moore, Jacqueline Sanchez and Sarah Zezima.

Several Students Awarded with AIA Scholarships The following students earned a 2018 AIA Kentucky Scholarship: Jeffrey Akers, Christian Anthony, Robert Allen, Susie Gibson, Abisai Martinez and Emily Wolfe. These students were the recipients of the 2018 AIA East Kentucky Scholarship: Daniella Boger, Alexander Parham and Kadin Setters. Congratulations to all these deserving students!

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Student Work A Nurses station rendering by Emily Hozza for Professor Lindsey Fay’s ID 421 Healthcare Design Studio B Armchair design by Erin Kerr for Professor Jill Leckner’s ID 359-559 studio C A phone booth project rendering by Emily Hozza for Professor Lindsey Fay’s ID 421 Healthcare Design Studio D/E Models for Professor Anne Filson’s spring 2017 architecture studio by Halsey Winn F Work by Emily Wolfe for Professor Brent Sturlaugson’s ARC 254 studio G 21c Museum Hotels Project Art Shed by Kenneth Riggs for Professor Jeffrey Johnson’s ARC 658 studio.

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Student Work


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THE WELCOME CARD Veronica Polinedrio, a 2012 graduate from the School of Interiors, is a native of Italy but came to Kentucky to earn her bachelor’s degree in interior design. And in what has become a repeat affair at the College of Design, she fell in love with Michael Haas, who earned his bachelor’s in 2009 and a master’s in 2011 from the School of Architecture. They married in 2016, and despite her legal union with Haas, a native Kentuckian, it took Polinedrio two years to get her Green Card. The obstacles of this process were not lost on her despite having all of the proper paperwork and required identification. She’s seen worse. 18

SOI Alum Designing Platform for Asylum Seekers The Welcome Card


Veronica Polinedrio (far right) with the Welcome Card team.

Polinedrio’s education continued in Stockholm, Sweden, for her master’s in experience design. She arrived in 2015 at the height of the refugee crisis. In that year, Sweden gave asylum to more migrants per capita than any other country in Europe; more than 160,000 refugees escaping wars in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. A prescient path began to form, one that organically led Polinedrio to come up with the idea for The Welcome Card in 2016. Part of the problem with processing applications for asylum is the antiquated methods still used – old-fashioned forms in triplicate. The Welcome Card would change the game with its digital platform, allowing asylum seekers the opportunity to log in and

the idea. But what really opened her eyes to the real barriers refugees faced was speaking with them directly. Convincing them to talk openly with her and her team was a challenge, but their insights led them to further understand the hardships as well as the needs, only serving to better enhance the design. “It’s difficult for me to ignore the human side of this situation,” said Polinedrio. Next steps found Polinedrio coming back to the University of Kentucky to work with students and faculty at the School of Art & Visual Studies in the College of Fine Arts. In spring 2018, they contributed to the design and workflow of the solution, resulting in its current iteration.

“Immigration policies, time and again, lack a human approach, when they should rather be the most humancentered obligation to our fellow men.” Veronica Polinedrio navigate their own case status via mobile and desktop applications. Sometimes information is enough to keep spirits high during the process; waiting for asylum can take anywhere from nine to 18 months. The app would also give asylum seekers access to existing public services, such as transportation, language courses and networking events. In addition to giving refugees the ease of access, The Welcome Card can also alleviate the workload for immigration agents. “They would get a lesser load in calls so they can focus on processing the applications,” said Polinedrio. The first prototype of The Welcome Card led to an invitation of research support from the IKEA Foundation and the United Nations to further develop

As most good ideas do, The Welcome Card has taken years of iterations to develop, particularly due to all of the recent policy changes. She has since set up The Welcome Card as a nonprofit and plans to take the platform to pitch to immigration services. Although this crisis is not new, Polinedrio credits the media with shedding greater light on the issue. “It’s effecting children and that’s when people really start to get interested,” she said. But as witnessed during her time in Europe and the United States, Polinedrio has seen this interest materialize into action, and she hopes The Welcome Card will further assist in making real-world change.

How Does the Welcome Card Work? Step 1: Upon arrival, asylum seekers place a request for asylum and get registered with the national migration agency. Registered asylum seekers receive one Welcome Card per individual (based on age) to be used during the asylum application process, as both an identification card and as a key to their case status. Step 2: Using RFID technology, the card is unique and personalized for the user. It can be carried by its owner to be utilized for communal activities and publicly available services in the area where they reside.

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Step 3: When tapping the Welcome Card on an RFID chip reader, or by using the login credentials, asylum seekers can access their individual asylum application case status online or on a smart device. Step 4: With direct access to their case status and updated information at their fingertips, asylum seekers and refugees can now access communal activities as part of the public services available in their area. For more information or to support this project, visit thewelcomecard.org

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The National Museum of African American History, flanked by the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Photos by Alan Karchmer/NMAAHC

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Beginning with the Past


BEGINNING WITH THE TSAP Former CoD Faculty Captures History of New African American Museum

For Mabel O. Wilson, former professor at the College of Design, architecture is as much about the narrative as it is the building. So, when she was asked to write about the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., she dove into the story of the people and cultures that would be represented there. Her first book, “Negro Building: Black Americans in the World of Fairs and Museums,” written in 2012, connects architecture to the early museum movement. This experience opened the door for her to pen “Begin with the Past: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture,” which chronicles not only the actual facility, but the obstacles encountered to get the museum off the ground. “A critical quest in a lot of my work deals with hidden, complicated histories,” said Wilson, who is a professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture,

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Planning and Preservation and a senior fellow at the Institute for Research in African American Studies. “The museum is a way to educate people as well as a platform to share their views.” While the exhibits inside chronicle history back to 1915, it’s the physical structure that also has a story to tell. “The design does a lot of what Bunch says references history in plain sight,” said Wilson of the museum’s founding director, Lonnie G. Bunch III. For example, the Corona — a thick, metal screen — that covers the three-tiered building is an ode to the historic iron work often found in African American communities in New Orleans. Erected on the National Mall, the museum’s top floor gives visitors a clear and intentional view of the Martin Luther King Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. Again, all a part of the strong, historic narrative of African Americans.

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While the exhibits inside the museum chronicle history back to 1915, the physical structure of the building also has a story to tell.

In 2017, the museum was named Design of the Year in the Beazley Designs of the Year competition, an awards program organized by the Design Museum in London. Wilson, who also has her own design studio in New York called Studio &, was part of Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s team that became a finalist to design the museum. In the end, designed by Adjaye Associates in partnership with The Freelon Group, Davis Brody Bond and SmithGroupJJR, the museum contains a large cache of African American artifacts collected specifically for this building. Because the Smithsonian did not have a collection, it was up to Bunch and his team to gather the artifacts. “They had to find the people, the items kept in a box or on a shelf,” explained Wilson. “Essentially, it was an effort in cultural preservation.” Two years after its opening on Sept. 24, 2016, the museum continues to sell out, and Wilson believes she knows why. “It’s a story people don’t know. It reminds us that we need to remember our history.”

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Beginning with the Past


Yet it is one of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged regions in North America. Because UK sits at the doorstep of Appalachia, the College of Design was inspired to establish Studio Appalachia as a catalyst for positive change through community engagement. The studio pursues design research projects that address issues which have confronted the Appalachia region for decades. As a land grant, Research-1 institution, UK is strategically positioned to serve communities in the Commonwealth and beyond.

appalachia

At 500 million years old, Appalachia is one of the oldest environments on earth and home to 25 million people.

To learn more, visit design.uky.edu/studio-appalachia 38ยบ84

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Photo by Shaun Ring

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Digital Savant


Bill Massie Brings His Passion for Technology to the College of Design

You know you have a well-rounded design enthusiast when, despite their title at the college being Director of Design Technology, he is adamant that students also incorporate analog methods into their design practice. Bill Massie, who joined the College of Design in fall 2017, has an extensive background in architecture — both in practice and in academia — but it’s his research and passion for technology, and how to marry it with the analog method of making, that brought him to the University of Kentucky. He cites the study of Canadian professor and philosopher Marshall McLuhan as an analogy. “He predicted everything from the Internet to global connectivity, but his understanding was always a cautionary tale,” said Massie. “He was always suggesting that when something becomes obsolete, a certain drawing technique [for example], we lose information.” Hence Massie’s propensity to incorporate digital and analog study in his classes. He sees the need for hands-on scale modeling as an essential part of the learning process. “It allows you to understand the materiality,” he said. “That’s something computers let you graze over.” Because today’s students are so digitally driven, Massie feels it is part of his job to ensure they are not using it as a crutch; his goal is to get students to think critically about technology and not just consume it. “My role is not opening the door for technology to flood in, it’s already here,” he said. “It’s about filtering and sifting through technology to say these are the ways it will make systematic change in the way we design.”

Multidisciplinary Tools Currently in the College of Design, there are three active programs: Architecture, Historic Preservation and Interiors. While each program touches the other in some respects, Massie believes the technology element is something that can aid in uniting these programs even further for a more deliberate crossdisciplinary experience.

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“I’ve always felt technology is a kind of binding agent,” Massie explained. “All of the tools of a design education are basically digital, and that genie is not going back in the bottle. And with everyone using the same tools, this is a big opportunity to bring the units closer together.” As Massie explains, today’s more contemporary practices include at least two or more of the programs in one setting. A contemporary architecture practice has interior designers and preservationists; same for an interiors office that has historic preservationists and architects. “A lot of the disciplinary boundaries are being redefined, and that is a fundamental result of technology,” he said. “That’s what I’m interested in trying to help do, which is to remove the barriers between the disciplines.” Now that the college is near the finish line of developing the new Product Design program and the beginning class of Urban and Environmental Design, Massie sees the additional investment in technology as a moment of ubiquity. From the new CNC machine to the vacuum former and robotic arm, the building blocks are now in place. “Product design is possibly one of the most exciting disciplines now because it really is a completely digitally augmented discipline.” He explains it like this: 20 years ago, there may have been five toothbrushes in the store from which to choose. Today, there are hundreds because companies can develop new prototypes at a meteoric rate. “We’ve always been able to design new products and get them to market, but now the distance to design and market has shortened dramatically,” said Massie. “And that’s the exciting part, not just what’s going to happen in product design but how product is going to influence the rest of the disciplines.” Students are now able to use this technology to experiment, then immediately examine to determine if there’s a better, stronger iteration to be had. “I think it will have the effect of one way being a liberating addition to the college and also a grounding one.”

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CoD Prepares for Product Design Program Launch

As the University of Kentucky College of Design explores ways to expand its academic reach, the idea of product design rises to the top as a fundamental program to attract new design-driven students. In the same lineage as the college’s current programs — architecture, historic preservation and interiors — product design, also known as industrial design, will provide another scale of design exploration. To think forward about product design education situated in the 21st century and specifically in Kentucky and at UK, Dean Mitzi Vernon held a Product Design Roundtable in September 2017, inviting deans from tangential colleges across UK as well as external academic leaders and industry professionals to help conceptualize the new program. “There is a palpable opportunity to do something very specific with medical device development and health care service in the product design realm,” Dean Vernon explained. “With UK’s distinguished healthcare campus as our neighbors, we have the resources to develop a product design graduate program that offers students a unique career path. And there is no formal degree offering for undergraduate product design in the Commonwealth. We can do both.” Hartley Feld, RN, faculty in the College of Nursing and a participant at the roundtable, was excited to see more opportunities for nurses and nursing students to apply their knowledge of the community and patient care environments to innovations in product design. “[Nurses] have a unique vantage point to identify 26

design that could improve the safety, health and wellbeing of their patients,” Feld said. “Many nurses are out-of-the-box thinkers but may not have the opportunity to see themselves as innovators. This new design program has amazing potential to engage a new generation of interdisciplinary healthcare professionals.” Guigen Zhang, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), was another academic participant in the two-day roundtable. For Zhang, the cross-disciplinary opportunities with the College of Design are an obvious extension of BME’s long-term plans. “I see joint efforts between the BME Department and the College of Design, as well as other colleges, would allow us to take advantage of the existing strengths on campus to quickly build new programs,” he said. “This will attract and retain more students, including women and underrepresented minorities, to learn, work and earn to their full potential.” In fact, BME is near the finish line for its four-year Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. In conjunction with the College of Design, the College of Engineering is working on a dual-degree program that provides a broad educational and experiential background for students choosing to work in a unique and upcoming field of biomedical product design and development. “This collaborative venture between the College of Design and the College of Engineering to produce a new design-driven Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Product Design


Product design at the University of Kentucky will create unique collaborative opportunities between the fields of design, healthcare, engineering and more. ABOVE: Participants of the roundtable discuss the potential for a product design program at the University of Kentucky .

Engineering program is a result of the University of Kentucky’s dedication to cross-disciplinary education,” said College of Engineering Dean Rudolph Buchheit. “The results of this collaboration will be new research and innovation, and enabling educational programming to prepare engineering and design professionals for careers in the healthcare industry.” With the College of Design having UK’s healthcare consortium for guidance and engagement, the impending product design program is well primed for a successful launch. Stephen Melamed, professor and founding chair of Industrial Design and associate director of the UIC Innovation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, attended the Product Design Roundtable last fall and believes the UK College of Design is ready to execute its own program. “UK is well positioned to add ID to its offerings, already having established an independent College of Design, having new leadership with the installation of Dean Vernon, and addressing an identified need to offer this kind of curriculum to benefit the potential student population of the area as well as address the future economic needs of the state of Kentucky,” he said.

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Melamed believes user experience (UX) lies at the heart of any successful product design program, which is why Dean Vernon is placing particular emphasis on this aspect of the curriculum. “Only when products (both physical and digital) deliver a unique experience and address latent human needs through thoughtfully delivering user benefits well defined through unique features will there be a successful outcome,” he explained. This emphasis on the human-centric angle also appeals to industry professionals such as Bryce Rutter, a renowned international expert in ergonomics for product design and founder and CEO of Metaphase Design Group, who also attended the roundtable. “Developing the well-rounded designer who understands the fundamentals, design-thinking skills and ergonomics of design is crucial,” Rutter said. “With the College of Design interacting with engineering and the medical school, it has a lot of traction. You’ll get people already predisposed to want to go to a university that has these interdisciplinary facilities.”

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DESIGN

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Design on a Global Scale


Inside the circular walkway atop the ARoS art museum in Denmark.

The Benefits of Education Abroad Span the Globe

For some, the act of taking the steps to attend the University of Kentucky is crossing the great divide from the rural known to the unknown of an urban center. For others, UK’s urban setting is familiar, if not just down the road from their suburban neighborhood. As students come to the College of Design with varying backgrounds, the idea of going one step further — to an international outpost for additional study — can be intimidating. But the take-away results in a student with a design vision beyond the bounds of the university.

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Patrick Lee Lucas, an associate professor in the School of Interiors, is also the director of international studies for the College of Design. Yet before he came on board to take a more strategic approach to planning education abroad efforts, the College of Design had enacted facultyled programs for more than 30 years.

first airplane ride for that matter. And to discover these experiences together with fellow students and faculty, the impact is immeasurable. “The networks they form are far broader and more rich, more diverse, more global,” said Lucas. “And that can only mean positive things for the future as a society.”

Studies have taken place in such international locales as Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, France and Italy, just to name a few. While these locations are dream destinations in and of themselves, it’s really their power of place that imparts a new sense of reality for those students who participate.

Lucas himself, who was awarded a position in the Attingham Summer School in England during the summer of 2017, realizes the benefits of studying abroad on a personal level. “It is as true for faculty as it is for students,” he said. “It has immeasurably enriched my teaching. It’s a refresher, a re-energizer, and an opportunity to move in a new direction.”

“There’s a phrase we use in Education Abroad, a notion of intercultural confidence,” explained Lucas. “Students need to understand cultural mores and ways of expressing that come into the built environment, which you won’t know if you’re not on the ground.” Even though an education abroad experience is short, around 3-4 weeks, the immersive nature of the experience embeds itself into a student’s long-term thinking. Take Venice for example. “Until you’re there and smell the smells, and realize the whole city is floating on a set of stones, until you get your feet wet because you’re having to walk through that, you haven’t really experienced Venice,” said Lucas. For many students, this foray into international culture is often their first. Where in Lexington they may be able to walk to campus from their dorm, while on an Education Abroad excursion, this may be their first experience taking public transportation, or even their

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Design on a Global Scale


LEFT: An aerial view of Delft in South Holland, Netherlands. BELOW LEFT: Interiors student Allison Hoffman looks out over the Arno River in Florence.

While the education abroad experience has a positive influence on students’ work while in college, it’s the literal impact it can have on a student’s post-graduate career that further underscores its value. Erin Kerr, a graduate of the School of Interiors, spent a semester in Copenhagen while at the College of Design (see below for details of her experience). Today she works for Gensler, a company widely recognized as the world’s leading collaborative design firm. It is also the largest, with offices all over the world. “Imagine how the interview went for her,” said Lucas. “These [education abroad] experiences are a significant value to a company. They are going to be more interested in talking to someone who has done the global experience.” The College of Design’s efforts are a part of UK’s larger Education Abroad and Exchanges, as well as the Confucius Institute; yet the college remains as No. 1 in the greatest percentage of students undertaking an education abroad experience during their undergraduate education — 41% for the class of 2017.

Luckily, the College of Design has supporters who understand the value that global experiences can have on the future of design. The Zolondek Travel Award is a scholarship available to students in their third year of undergraduate study or above. Students receiving the award will visit various significant cultural and design-relevant sites in several cities, then submit a portfolio of their work upon their return. The documentary reports of all students who take the challenge will be archived in the College of Design Library. This generous opportunity makes travel abroad available for students who might not otherwise have the means to take part in the program. All of this adds up to a more diversified workforce as well as future professionals who can tackle design challenges with a global mindset. “We need to inspire future designers and leaders to tackle the world stage and come to some new ways of working with our global neighbors,” said Lucas.

SOI Alum Erin Kerr Shares Her EA Adventure Following is the travel log of SOI alum Erin Kerr that she wrote during her trip to Copenhagen in the fall of 2016. My semester at DIS Copenhagen has been incredible. DIS Copenhagen is for American students to study in Copenhagen, and has many core course majors to choose from. I am in the Furniture Design studio, which has been life-changing; for the past few months, I have been learning about furniture and building my final project, a flat-pack lounge chair. Our studio is nine students from across the United States with varying majors. We have studio twice a week; the first half of the semester we learned about furniture design, history, designed our final project, and toured Danish furniture showrooms, and the second half we have been in the woodshop building our projects. We have gone on two long field trips: several days in Western Denmark touring factories and historical buildings, and a week in Helsinki and Stockholm, learning about the cities, touring museums and more factories, and going in saunas and jumping in frozen lakes for hours. One of the most informative things I have learned this semester was when the president of Karl Andersson & Söner told us that designers always email them CAD files of their designs, and then the company decides to produce them or not. Going into this semester I assumed the majority of companies reached out to designers, or created new pieces based off their employees’ designs, not through receiving unsolicited

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designs over email. This changed my perspective on how to get my designs out there, and how many more options there are for me as a designer. DIS understands that students want to travel around Europe, and they provide three one-week travel breaks. One of those breaks is with your core course – we went to Helsinki and Stockholm – and the other two breaks are your personal travel breaks. This semester I have been lucky enough to travel to Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, London, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Stockholm, Berlin, Munich, the Faroe Islands, as well as thoroughly explored Denmark. But of the places I have traveled to, Copenhagen has been my favorite; it immediately felt like home. A few of these cities I traveled to alone. Although I have traveled alone before this semester, traveling solo to countries where you do not speak the language and you do not have working data to help navigate the city really helps you become independent and aware of your surroundings. Prior to my semester abroad, I knew I wanted to go into furniture design following graduation, but these past four months of living in one of the most design-centric cities in the world has completely confirmed my love for furniture design and desire to work in the field. I would love nothing more than to move back to Copenhagen eventually and work with furniture.

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comm unity engage ment College of Design Students Find Value in Hands-on Learning

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It’s one thing to talk about theoretical issues in a classroom setting. It’s a whole other perspective to see a project in action — feet on the ground, all hands on deck, bringing to life a potentially life-changing design that can have ripple effects far beyond the project site. This sentiment is one that rings true throughout the College of Design. While students get the necessary instruction from their professors, discussing history and theory to ensure a solid foundation, it’s the action of being physically involved in the project construction that gives students literal experience for their future careers. Several studios in the College have taken part in projects that went from paper to production, and students have been able to take part every step of the way.

Community Engagement


Downtown Lexington In Associate Professor Jason Scroggin’s architecture studio, students married the necessity of a built environment with the notion of play. ARC 599, an elective titled Fabricating Play, focused on the development of full-scale installations that present new ways to interact with built form. The project title – One Light, Two Light, Red Light, Blue Light (1L2LRLBL) – is an interactive LED installation situated in a downtown Lexington bus station. 1L2LRLBL emerged from a prompt by the Downtown Lexington Partnership to enhance the waiting area of the city’s main bus terminal. The proposal utilizes an existing glass block wall as a canvas for an interactive light installation to create a playful environment for children (and adults) waiting for the buses. The glass blocks are lit from behind by a grid of LEDs arrayed on milled Plexiglas sheets and are activated by a series of Arduinos controlled by a Rhino/Grasshopper interface with two Xbox Kinects. These Kinects are mounted on the facade of the building and receive

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video data of people who step into an area differentiated by painted tiles on the ground. As moving bodies occupy the frame, the images transmitted are converted to simple pixelated shapes that turn the LEDs on and off in real time and change their color based on proximity of the bodies (near and far), effectually mirroring the passers-by with a colorful “8-bit” version of themselves. 1L2LRLBL was funded with $18,000 through The Play Everywhere Challenge Grant organized by KaBOOM! Inc., a District of Columbia nonprofit organization that helps communities build playgrounds for children. The project was executed in collaboration with LDDA, Lexpark, The Lexington & Fayette County Parking Authority (LFCPA), and Lextran, The Lexington Transit Authority, to install the permanent interactive installation in the downtown Lexington Transit Center.

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Community Engagement


Port-au-Prince, Haiti FACING PAGE: CoD students and faculty travel to Haiti to build a playground for girls at Chez Moi orphanage. The playground is part of a larger project to renovate the entire orphanage. ABOVE: The finished playground at Chez Moi orphanage.

In April 2016, six students in Professor Bruce Swetnam’s architecture studio went on an inaugural trip to Chez Moi orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was severely damaged in 2010 by an earthquake that registered a magnitude of 7.0. These students experienced firsthand the needs of the young people who lived there as well as their culture to fully understand how best to renovate the building. Immersed in the environment that the girls at Chez Moi lived in on a daily basis was essential for the students to grasp what was needed in a new building. “The interaction with the client, communicating whether by observation, it definitely would serve architecture education better if you could interact more with your potential client,” explained Abbi Evans, one of the original six who is now a graduate student in the School of Architecture. “It gives you this filter that you’re going to have to have when you’re a professional.” Lauren Delventhal, also one of the first group of students to go to Haiti, agreed. “Right before we had left

Congratulations to the students in the Haiti architecture studio, who were recently named International Winner in the 2018 AIA Film Challenge for their film “Freedom to Play,” which showcases the playground that was built for the girls at the Chez Moi orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

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for the trip, we had all made assumptions based on how they would congregate, or how they would like to live,” she said. “But really being down there and seeing it for yourself just reinforced the decisions we were making.” This in-person observation was essential in making the most of the materials they had to rebuild the orphanage. “I think I speak for all of us when the second we got there, the project took a 180,” explained Nick Hodges, now a graduate of the School of Architecture. “There were just so many things that being there changed the way we thought about the project. Things that we thought were important were not, and the opposite.” It was this opportunity to work in the field that made architecture a reality for Hodges. “We had to experience the site, the climate, to make it realistic,” he said. “That was also the first time I had a lot of experience truly doing site investigation. Up until that point, it was all very theoretical. [The project] changed a lot having things in context.” After the first trip to Haiti, the students knew there was more they wanted to do, so they took the initiative to create the Big Blue Crowdfunding project “Humanitarian Architecture: Empowering Haitian Orphans” as a means to raise funds for a second trip to Haiti as well as purchase additional building materials. Through donations from alumni and other interested parties, the students exceeded their crowdfunding goal and were able to return to Haiti last spring and build a playground structure for the girls at the orphanage.

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Southland Drive Several students in the College of Design have been able to see projects come to life in their own city of Lexington. “Retrofitting the Retro,” a Southland Drive case study that included a planning and design exercise presented in collaboration with the Department of Landscape Architecture in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and the Department of Historic Preservation and the School of Interiors in the UK College of Design. During Design Week, students in the three programs looked at options for redesigning Southland Drive to be less automobile-centric and more pedestrian/bicycle friendly. Rakeem Bradshaw, a recent graduate from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, submitted the winning entry to the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Division of Planning’s design competition during his final year as a landscape architecture student. Funding for the “Retrofitting the Retro” pop-up construction

of the winning entry was provided by the Blue Grass Community Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Donor Advised Fund. “So, a pop-up is a very small-scale thing and we challenged the students after they had done this larger master planning class, and said here is a design competition — tell us what you’ve learned from these lessons and bring them down to a smaller scale. What would you do if you only could use a few parking spaces? And how would you engage the residents to this area? How could you start to connect the new planned sidewalks and people to the businesses that are already nearby?” said Brandi Peacher, a design specialist with the LFUCG Division of Planning and College of Design alumna. Interiors students Mallory Stein and Veronica Steen were also finalists, along with Bradshaw, for the project, and professors Patrick Lee Lucas and Rebekah Radtke led the SOI team.

Students in two CoD programs looked at options for redesigning Southland Drive to be less automobile-centric and more pedestrian/bicycle friendly. 36

Community Engagement


Pop-up Park At the corner of Maxwell Street and South Limestone lies an uninhabited piece of prime downtown real estate with essentially no purpose in life but to serve as an impromptu smoking section for people in the area. SOI Assistant Professor Rebekah Radtke knew that greenspace could be so much more, so she developed a hands-on design workshop to identify implementable design ideas that can connect campus to downtown and have a significant and positive impact on the community.

LEFT: A student entry by Mallory Stein for the pop-up space on Southland Drive, aimed at making the area more pedestrian/ bike-friendly. RIGHT: Community workshop attendees provide insight and feedback on potential concepts for the repurposing of a green space at the intersection of Maxwell Street and South Limestone.

Radtke invited a group of students, civic leaders and university professionals to get together for a communityfocused workshop with the common thread of creating a meaningful impact on a diverse group of people. This initial workshop on Feb. 9, 2018, invited key community stakeholders to create design proposals that reflected their vision for the space.

feedback. Radtke also received a grant from the Knight Foundation to implement the project. “Community-driven, inclusive processes for engagement in design is essential to building better places to live. As designers, we are responsible for creating spaces that reflect these ideals,” said Radtke. “We can create empathetic ideas that address the needs of our communities, that are interdisciplinary, and can be implemented on a variety of scales to amplify voices in our community, resulting in transformative designs that teach us new ways to think about where we live.”

After two months of design planning, the group reconvened to review several options. Discussion during the workshop resulted in such ideas as Adult Playground— with cornhole, hula hoops and game boards — to Planting Peace, with a small garden for rest and contemplation. The final project chosen was by Cameron Ginter, a senior architecture student. The design, titled Cultivate Canteen, was driven by Ginter’s concept then adapted by all of the students with community

“Community-driven, inclusive processes for engagement in design is essential to building better places to live.”

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louisville In partnership with the City of Louisville and Portland Investment Initiative (Pii), the UK College of Design launched its first mobile satellite studio in West Louisville in fall 2017. Through an invitation and meetings with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer in 2016, Dean Mitzi Vernon established the inaugural studio-away experience as a mobile studio designed to integrate students into the physical and cultural environment of the project. Operating as a studio inside the project neighborhood, students are able to engage with the residents, community organizations and other key groups to address the needs of the area. “What better opportunity to give students than a chance to sit inside a place and be a part of its reshaping, to understand the community and build inside it,” explained Dean Vernon. “This is the beginning of a dynamic relationship between Louisville and the College of Design as we move to build a studio that anchors with it historic preservation and urban design.” Studio Louisville is directed by Associate Professor David Biagi. “The lessons these students will learn — from needs assessment to community development — give them a head start in the real-world dynamics of design,” said Biagi.

Studio Louisville will offer courses in architecture, historic preservation and urban design. In its inaugural year, Studio Louisville engaged members of the Portland neighborhood of West Louisville to explore how architecture and urban design reflect and foster community identity, health and resiliency. To help with these efforts, the College of Design sponsors a keynote figure for each year of the studio through the Brown-Forman Visiting Chair Endowment. In its first year, Studio Louisville was honored to host internationally renowned architect and MacArthur fellow Jeanne Gang and her office, Studio Gang, as the recipient of the endowment. Gang, with her firm in Chicago, has been actively involved in the instruction for Studio Louisville. To have someone of this caliber engage with students has been an unequivocal experience. “Studio Gang embodies a rare ability to translate a community’s perception of place into an actionable vision for their future,” said Biagi. With help from Studio Gang, the skills developed for the Portland neighborhood project can be translated to other urban areas and new designs as Studio Louisville advances to its next iteration.

Planned to have long-term impact on the communities in which it serves, Studio Louisville gives students in the College a unique approach to design thinking. “The students are really the future generation of design,” said School of Architecture Director Jeffrey Johnson. “Having been given the opportunity to explore the potential and power that design can have, that’s what’s really valuable.”

Dan Wood, FAIA, LEED AP, co-founder and principal of WORKac in New York, is the recipient of the 2018 UK College of Design Brown-Forman Visiting Chair Endowment. He will be working with Studio Louisville students on the continuation of the Portland neighborhood project in West Louisville. Wood was the 2013-14 Louis I. Kahn Chair at the Yale School of Architecture, and is currently an adjunct associate professor at Columbia GSAPP. 38

Community Engagement


TOP: Aerial view of “shotgun” houses in the Portland neighborhood of Louisville. MIDDLE: Student models of row house design concepts for Portland. BOTTOM: Jeanne Gang critiques student work in the studio.

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FIND A LIFE FOR YOURSELF An Open Letter to Design Students from SOA Alum Donny Weber College is hard. There’s never enough time to get your assignments done, studio lasts forever, and those completion dates are always out there looming over you like the Grim Reaper! Your roommates are slobs; your girlfriend or boyfriend is mad at you because you’re always at Pence Hall. You need more money, but working a part-time job is almost impossible. Stayed up way too late last night! Mom is mad because you don’t answer your cell phone or her texts. Then there’s always that one guy or girl in class that makes it all look so easy! Most weeks it’s hard to get through to Friday, much less look ahead at where all this drama may lead you. Sound like your life? Just so you know, that was my college life too; well, everything except for the cell phone and texting. We were prehistoric back in 1973 when I graduated from UK with my degree in Architecture. So, fast forward 45 years… here I am. I am the President of Weber Group Inc. Google it and you will see it is the design/build company my brother Tom and I started in 1983. We are the real deal, a real company! We’ve got departments, department managers, a COO, a CFO and even a Director of Communications and New Business Initiatives. We’ve got a huge shop, offices, trucks, and all sorts of equipment. We work all over the world for people like Disney, Nickelodeon, Crayola, Great Wolf Lodge, NASA and the Kennedy Space Center. We work in zoos, aquariums and museums. We build realistic looking spaceships, 40-foot tall howling wolves, we even made the world’s largest mint julep glass! We have designed and built over a half billion dollars of multi-family housing all over the United States. There are more than 75 of us at Weber Group. We have health insurance, a 401K plan, company picnics. We even have a company flag!

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So how did that happen? Was it fate, destiny or the luck of the draw? There’s a scene in the movie Forrest Gump where Tom Hanks, who plays Forrest, is standing at Jenny’s grave reflecting on their lives together. He says… “Jenny, I don’t know if Momma was right or if, if it’s Lieutenant Dan. I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.” I agree with Forrest. Looking back, I can tell you that in my career it was definitely both. So how do you get from where you are now to where I am, or more importantly where you want to be? While none of us can control or predict the future, my experience has taught me that there are a few things you can do to make your trip more successful and, more importantly, fulfilling and satisfying for you. After all we’re talking about your life here! You can’t control your destiny, but you can control where and how you spend your time. As a young graduate, I thought I wanted to move to the city, live in a cool trendy neighborhood, and work on important projects at the hottest firm in town. Everything happened according to plan and, guess what, I was miserable. Turns out that I didn’t really fit in or like the work at the “hottest” firm. Although I didn’t admit this to myself (I was living the dream, after all), eventually the truth came through in my attitude. I’m sure you can figure out what happened next… I got fired. Depressed? Of course. Embarrassed? Absolutely. After all, my idea of what I THOUGHT my career should be was shattered. After some soul searching, I decided to let it all go and start doing what I really liked. I began working with a good friend on small remodels and house additions. We were in a humble spot, but I was doing good work and having lots of fun. A few years later, my brother Tom and I started our own design build company. Our first job was a $5,200 porch enclosure, and the rest is history.

Find a Life for Yourself


“You can’t control your destiny, but you can control where and how you spend your time.”

The lesson here is: be honest with yourself about the type of job that will make you happy and go find it. Don’t compare yourself to others. What works for them may not be right for you. Admittedly, this often takes a little trial and error, but when you are in the right place, you will know it. Lesson two: Just show up and keep showing up every day! I know this sounds simple, but sometimes continuing to fully show up is the most difficult part of working. Face the fact that you will have to deal with unpleasant situations, tough issues, and difficult people even in your dream job. If you commit to truly showing up, to truly engaging each and every day, you will find that you are more than equal to any task. Most of our fears and failures are created by not dealing with problems when they arise. Lesson three: Be flexible and take chances. Recognize an opportunity when you see it and go for it. Several years into my career, we were approached by a theme park developer looking for a design and construction company to build out his park. It certainly wasn’t what we were doing, and we had no experience or even awareness of that industry but we were intrigued and curious. So much so that we followed those feelings. Imagine how different Weber Group would be today had we not. Fourth and final: Be balanced with your life and your career. You can have the most successful career possible; awards, praises from colleagues and the industry; and a 5-star résumé, but if you don’t balance that with your personal life you will end up a lonely, old person. I had the privilege of working side by side with my brother for 35 years and I am blessed with a wonderful wife, two amazing children, and two incredible grandchildren. Nothing beats that. Find a life for yourself, not just a career.

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Photo by Clay Cook 41


CONGRES METTLE 42

Congressional Mettle


In any position, whether at a firm or in private practice, you always have someone to answer to. Even if you are the owner, your clients, for all intents and purposes, are the boss. For Eugene Poole Jr., a 1985 graduate of the School of Architecture in the College of Design, he has more than your average number of supervisors; 535 to be exact. “We serve Congress, that’s our client,” said Poole.

SSIONAL SOA Alum Eugene Poole Earns Top Spot as Architect for U.S. Capitol Dome Project 38º84

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As the lead architect for the U.S. Capitol Dome restoration project in Washington, D.C., all of Poole’s bosses are literally under one roof — the same roof he was tasked with refurbishing to its original glory. In 2008, after a brief phone interview — all of 10 minutes — Poole was selected for the restoration project, and moved from Columbus, Mississippi, where he was the architect at the Columbus Air Force Base, to D.C. And he had all of 14 days to get there. “I had never been to the East Coast, never been to D.C. I’m a Kentucky boy, and my wife is from Mississippi,” he explained. “From the mole hill to the mountain in two weeks.”

Schooled in Architecture Before arriving in the hallowed halls of Congress, Poole’s journey began in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He grew up in this southwest Kentucky town and earned his associate’s degree in science from Hopkinsville Community College before attending the UK College of Design.

“Some days I would go and literally be there three days, day and night. But to be honest with you, we were right at home. Once you’re in there, we’d figure out knowing we’re all in this together,” Poole explained. “It becomes a family, even though it’s competitive.”

Despite his artistic tendencies, Poole thought it better to diverge from that path to one with perhaps a more secure future. That’s when a local architect caught his eye. “I knew architects did something really special, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was,” he explained. “I knew they drove really nice cars and wore very nice suits and lived in very nice homes, and I said that’s something I’d like to do.”

This tenacious environment would invariably help him craft a persistent work ethic.

But there was some prep work that needed to be done first. “Preparing for the admissions exam, building the models, getting ready for that was grueling,” he admitted, though receiving his SOA acceptance letter in the mail made it all worth it. Like all incoming students, Poole was introduced to studio life. What does 3 o’clock in the morning look like in Pence Hall? This isn’t a riddle – ask any student in the College of Design and they are more than likely able to give you a direct reference, as they’ve been in Pence at every hour on the clock, day and night.

Professional Milestones Poole’s career has been studded with an impressive array of iconic structures. From such themed restaurants as Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood in the public sector to his time as lead architect in the Air Force, Poole has touched multiple points of the architecture spectrum, from public to private. After serving two years in UK’s ROTC program, Poole eventually became the base architect at the Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. Admittedly not the most creative of environments, his precision with the base’s facilities caught the eye of several visiting dignitaries during the Air Force’s 65th anniversary celebration. This moment in time led to a head’s up about the position at the Capitol. The Jurisdiction Executive position to be exact.

ABOVE: Eugene Poole (left) with UK President Eli Capilouto. LEFT: Restoration in progress at the apex of the U.S. Capitol Dome.

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Congressional Mettle


While the U.S. Capitol Dome restoration was one project, there were actually more than 200 individual projects within that massive undertaking that Poole oversaw on a daily basis. ABOVE: Restoration also included the artwork and intricate architectural details inside the Capitol Dome. ABOVE RIGHT: An elaborate scaffolding engulfs the U.S. Capitol Dome during its restoration.

A phone call. An application. Another phone call, then two weeks later, the notice that he got the job. Sometimes the government can work really fast. What makes Poole’s selection for the position even more monumental is that he is the first African American jurisdiction executive in the history of the Capitol building. He is also the first African American project manager in the history of the Capitol. And with the title comes great responsibility. “I’m responsible for all of the executive actions that take place from the day-to-day standpoint, dealing with budget, coordinating with the House and with the Senate,” Poole explained. While the U.S. Capitol Dome restoration was one project, there were actually more than 200 individual projects within that massive undertaking that Poole oversaw on a daily basis. More than 200 projects that a guest on any given day would never have seen. “All of this work is taking place, but you never see it. You never smelled any paint fumes, you never heard any noises, you just came in the next day and it was done,” he said. “Basically, we were ghosts.” Although unseen, the work involved in the restoration was massive. Elements of the project included: • New drawings of the dome • Electrical, mechanical and code upgrades • Restoring the dome to its original colors • Upgrading the skirt of the dome, which houses the wiring, piping and plumbing Interestingly enough, it was this plumbing that sparked the entire restoration project in the first place. Actually, it was one single drop of water. “A drop of water made its way through the outer dome to the inner dome, then the water trickled down and hit the rotunda floor of the U.S. Capitol,” Poole explained.

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“That set off bells and whistles, that was the trigger that started the project.” While careful rules of conduct were followed to ensure the dome’s current historic fabric stayed intact, Poole and his team were also thinking about the future of the dome: what type of impact will climate and landscape changes have on the structure? What will that look like 100, 200 years from now? Thinking about the future is something Poole does often, and that frequently manifests in him giving back to the next generation. His mentors during school, those who gave their time to him, is part of what he credits for his success. “Look to mentors who are doing what you are aspiring to do. Mentors hold the key. I sought those people out,” said Poole. “You can find mentors in a lot of different places. You can find them in your church, books, pull up and read someone’s biography on the internet. Young people just have to have a willingness to seek that information out.” In fact, Poole has added motivational speaker to his résumé, giving him the opportunity to impart his own wisdom to future generations. “I love to empower kids because they’re still teachable,” he said. “Young people who still have stars in their eyes and want to ascend, they will listen to logic.” Now that the renovation of the dome is complete, Poole has moved on to other Capitol Building tasks. But will Washington, D.C., now become his permanent residence? “I see Washington having its place in our life. Will I be there forever? Clearly no,” he said. In fact, his next move may be upward. “My wife asked me ‘Where are you going to work after this?’ and I said I guess I’m just going to have to find a job on the moon because I can’t get much higher than that.”

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Photos by Shaun Ring

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Hands-on Preservation


HP Field School Offers Opportunity for Students to Put Study Into Action

HANDS-ON PRESERVATION In June 2017, students in the Department of Historic Preservation in the College of Design wrapped up some of the first research collected on a mid-century neighborhood as part of the nation’s first hybrid field school in historic preservation. The Department of Historic Preservation’s HP 676: Field Methods in Heritage Conservation was designed to provide online students the opportunity to enhance their studies in a course offering a hands-on experience documenting and interpreting the geographical, architectural, sociocultural, economic and historical aspects of the Greater Gardenside area in Lexington. The field school, part of an online 12-hour graduate certificate available in historic preservation at UK, gives its students a rare opportunity to apply their lessons in a real-world scenario. There are other field schools in the country for historic preservation, but the College’s was the first hybrid field school in the country to offer one as part of an online course.

During the first unit, students were able to be taught entirely online with readings, content videos and assignments designed to prepare them for nine days of field work. For the second unit, students worked alongside visiting instructors employing both traditional and emerging technologies in the field. Because historic preservation is a very interdisciplinary field, the field school instructors included a landscape architect, a cultural geographer, an architect, folklorist and archaeologist. To build on its success, the Department of Historic Preservation is revising the Field School format to make it accessible to more students for the next edition in the summer of 2019.

The hybrid field school, offered as part of an online course in historic preservation, is the first of its kind in the country. 38º84

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STUDIO CULTURE Perspectives from Students and Faculty For those outside of the design world, explaining studio culture is the ultimate enigma. For prospective students who peek into a studio space while on a tour of the College of Design, they are likely to be greeted with a different perspective than what they’ve seen at other schools.

Photo by Shaun Ring

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Studio Culture


Among the flurry of bustling students deeply engrossed in their current studio projects, prospective students will also see: faculty popping from desk to desk with instruction on software techniques, students — though technically in competition with each other — collaborating on ideas to better their projects, and the occasional mini-fridge with enough caffeine to keep them going until the witching hour of finals week. “It’s as close to a professional design space as you’ll see in an educational setting,” said Associate Dean of Students Bruce Swetnam.

I feel like what is so great about studio culture is definitely having like-minded peers that want to not only succeed but will also go to lengths to help you succeed as well. Just ask around if you do not understand certain aspects of the computer programs, how to work the laser cutter or other machines in the shop, or do not know where to find materials. There is also the amazing Design Library that I feel like many forget but doing some research in the many books and articles the library offers is a great resource you can use for a project. It is the collaboration of students, professors and faculty that make the College of Design so great.”

But exactly what studio culture is can be defined differently by those familiar with its impact. So, the best way to get a clear perspective on studio life is to hear it directly from those involved.

Rebekah Radtke, Assistant Professor in the School of Interiors

Helen Turner, Assistant Professor in the School of Interiors “For me, studio is a place of thinking, exploring, making and collaborating. Aside from the standard spiel about every student having a dedicated desk and 24-hour access and a relationship with professors, it is a place for them to get to know one another and themselves as designers. While learning from one another, they grow and develop together, often generating lifelong friendships in the process. It is a place and culture unlike any other on campus.”

Rachel Crosslin, third-year School of Architecture student “I think what is so special about architecture school is the studio culture. You start off your freshman year with around 12 of your closest friends, with one thing in common: you want to study architecture. And you’ll be starting off doing the same crazy project that introduces you to architecture with the same professor. It never starts off making any sense, but once you figure it out together, it makes you a much stronger group. I think going through the process together of working towards something new enables you to make this bond. Studio will be your home for the next few years. While you’re scheduled to be in studio for four hours a day on M/W/F for actual studio, you’ll find yourself there studying for physics or calculus with your studio mates late on a Tuesday night before the exam. You will also find yourself going in there around lunchtime to see if any of your friends want to grab a quick bite before returning to work. You’ll find yourself there ordering a pizza for everyone pulling an all-nighter the week before final reviews. These are just a few examples, but I think you understand my point. I’m pretty sure I spent more time in Miller Hall my freshman year more than any other building on campus (including the hours spent asleep in my dorm).

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“Super important to have a safe space for sharing ideas, critical thinking and active listening. Helps us to understand each other to better understand ourselves so that we can create design that serves others in a meaningful way. It’s a space to try test ideas, mobilize them, and refine them before shared to a broader audience. It is built on trust and understanding that design is hard, but we are passionate about it and in this together, which builds lifelong friendships.”

Forrest Lyerly, an undergraduate student in the School of Architecture “If I had to explain studio life to an incoming or even possible current student who has yet to hit ‘that zone’ of a studio, it would best be described as an initial sense of curiosity paralleled with some nervousness. But as you grow and develop your skills personally and collectively, studio becomes more than just a classroom setting; I view studio as the ongoing continuation of your mindset towards the design industry. Everything around us started from someone’s idea, how will you add to it?”

Patrick Lee Lucas, Associate Professor in the School of Interiors “A free-wheeling place where possibilities are explored, the design studio stands at the center of design practices large and small. Students work with faculty one-on-one at desk reviews or critiques. Students receive peer feedback from classmates. Students collaborate in groups of varying size. Activities include making models, drawing, talking about ideas, diagramming, writing, photography, digital software. The studio is also the hub where students bring information and ideas from other classes and their life experience to the worktable, computer screen, and collaborative space in the studio. Students work in tandem with faculty and with each other in studio, as well as on sites in the community and in fabrication spaces elsewhere on campus. The studio serves as the crossroads for all these inputs and outputs as a creative hub, a center for all of these activities.”

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Faculty Work A SOA Instructor Mike Jacobs, president of Omni Architects, which was part of the design team behind the new UK Student Center B SOA Instructor Brian Richter’s project, Hudson Woods, which is a design build located in the Hudson River Valley in New York C The Red Bench project by SOI Senior Lecturer Barb Young D “The Future Medicine Cabinet” by SOA Associate Professor Liz Swanson E Project by SOA Instructor Peyman Jahed, principal at Buell Fryer McReynolds Jahed Inc F The Intertwining — a sculpture by SOA professors Mike McKay and Liz Swanson — will reside at the Louisville International Airport G “Stardust” drawing by SOA Associate Professor Mark O’Bryan H “Cloudline” installation by SOA Associate Professor Liz Swanson I “Grow,” a project for the AIA Cincinnati Bike Shelter Competition by SOI Interim Director and Director of Graduate Studies Gregory Marinic J Chicago Micro-housing Community project by SOA Instructor Jordan Hines K MakerBot project by SOA Associate Professor Gary Rohrbacher. 50

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Inclusion by Design

Promoting Diversity and Inclusivity in the Academic and Professional Worlds of Design The College of Design held its first diversity and inclusion event — Inclusion by Design: Navigating Identity in the Field — for students, faculty, staff and alumni on Feb. 26, 2018. Partners and alumni of the College of Design shared their insights and journeys as men and women of diverse backgrounds in the fields of architecture, interiors and historic preservation. Our panelists included: Randall Vaughn of Gray Construction; Cynthia Johnson of Louisville Metro Government, Veronica Polinedrio of The Welcome Card; and Jouse Tejeda of Luckett & Farley.

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“Inclusion by Design” was a significant step in bringing to the table a vivid discussion about diversity and inclusivity in the academic world and in design professions. We are grateful to our panelists for being so open to share their personal and professional narratives. From gender to socioeconomics, race to religion to creed, there are multiple ways that designers encounter the issues and opportunities of diversity.

Inclusion by Design


ALUMNI NEWS

Architecture Alumni Participate in Lexington Art League Exhibition Several faculty and alumni were selected to exhibit in “Expanding Fields,” an exhibition that ran from February to March 2017 at the Lexington Art League. “Expanding Fields” was an exhibition of art by architects, curated by Cat Wentworth, former director of Institute 193 and a College of Design alum. The intent behind the exhibition was to broaden the understanding of architecture beyond the conventional notion of building buildings. In recent decades, architecture has found new inspiration and outlets in an ever-widening variety of disciplines, and the boundary between architecture and other disciplines appears more blurred. School of Architecture alumni who exhibited include: Haviland Argo, Rebecca Cox, Joanna Grant, Sarah Heller, Erin Ruhl, Ainsley Wagoner and Jonathan Ware. This exhibition went beyond traditional representations of architecture — plan drawings, architectural models, or renderings — and instead presented works that stand on their own and together serve as a sampling of sensibilities that are unique to the language of architecture.

SOA Alum Mallory Rabeneck Joins Legat Mallory Rabeneck, the newest member of the Chicago studio, is Legat’s first UK College of Design graduate. Rabeneck got a taste of architecture in high school, but it wasn’t until she experienced introductory programs in the College of Design and shadowed architects that she chose architecture as a major. Last May, the Louisville native earned her B.A. in Architecture. She graduated summa cum laude... in three years! At Legat, she’s started with Revit drawings for the vestibule entrance at the British International School of Chicago. Rabeneck chose Legat because the firm “not only desires a purposeful aesthetic, but also emphasizes sustainability and tries to include the community in the design process.” Outside architecture, Rabeneck loves outdoor activities. For instance, she used to go rock climbing with her dad at Kentucky’s Red River Gorge, a beautiful canyon system with sandstone cliffs, rock shelters, waterfalls, and natural bridges.

Sean Selby’s Firm Honored for Retail Design Sean Selby, a SOA alum and principal at Arrowstreet Inc. in Boston, and his team were recently awarded a Gold accolade in the Retail Store Design category at the 2017 U.S. Design and Development Awards. The honor was given for Arrowstreet’s work on the 38º84

Target small-format store at Packard’s Corner on Commonwealth Ave. Presented by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), the 2017 U.S. Design and Development Awards recognize excellence, innovation and creativity in the U.S. retail real estate industry.

Lewis Receives AIA Young Architects Award Erin Sterling Lewis, AIA, is a recipient of a 2018 Young Architects Award. She is a 2002 graduate of the School of Architecture in the College of Design. The AIA Young Architects Award honors individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the architecture profession early in their careers.

Tarrant President Emeritus Retires Martha Tarrant, a 1979 College of Design alum, retired after a 39-year run at RossTarrant Architects in Lexington, Kentucky. President Emeritus Tarrant joined RossTarrant as her first full-time position after graduating from the College. She received the AIA Kentucky Distinguished Service Award in 2008 and was the first female recipient of AIA Kentucky’s Oberwarth Gold Medal in 2016.

Recent HP Grad Joins National Parks Service Michael Hogan recently became an architect and project manager for design and construction at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Hogan received his BArch in 2006, MArch in 2007, and a Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation in 2017, all from the College of Design. He was employed at RossTarrant Architects from 2007-2018. Hogan’s duties at Sequoia and Kings Canyon include projects involving renovation and new construction, rehabilitation of historic structures, and management of several National Register of Historic Places-listed properties.

CoD Alum to Oversee Town Branch Commons School of Architecture alumna Brandi Peacher (BArch 2007, MArch 2010) recently became the director of project management for the LexingtonFayette Urban County Government where she will oversee the projects within Town Branch Commons. She will primarily focus on the Town Branch Commons Corridor project, which will be a 3.2-mile walking, jogging and cycling trail.

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School of Architecture Grad Launches Niche Company to Help Protect Bat Populations 56

Going To Bat


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Getting your undergraduate degree then building houses — that’s a logical step for many recent architecture graduates. But houses… for bats? “It’s not at all what I expected to do,” said SOA alum Harrison Broadhurst with a laugh. “I would say bat houses was at the bottom of the list.” After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in 2014, Broadhurst went to work for Nomi Design in Lexington, Kentucky, but also worked with his friend Chris Rännefors in the evenings on their shared idea on protecting the bat population. Then BatBnB was born. Let’s go back to their respective childhoods: Broadhurst’s mother was a science teacher, so she instilled in him a passion for conservation. Rännefors has fond memories of building bat houses with his father growing up. Then what sealed the deal was the ever-growing Zika virus scare that ramped up in 2016. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than 5,000 reports of people with the Zika virus, causing the World Health Organization to declare the Zika virus a global public health emergency. The Zika virus is transmitted to humans mainly through mosquito bites. “So, we planned some other solutions

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for how to solve the mosquito problem without having to use chemicals,” Broadhurst explained. Despite it being a rather small niche, there were already bat houses on the market, so Broadhurst and Rännefors reached out to those they feel are the best in the bat business — Merlin Tuttle, founder of Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation, and Rob Mies, former executive director of the Organization for Bat Conservation. “We describe him as the Beyoncé of bats,” said Broadhurst. From the original ideation stage to multiple rounds of prototyping, the two worked with these consultants to determine the best features to incorporate into their bat house. OK, one problem solved. The other problem? “Well, bats aren’t portrayed well in the media,” said Broadhurst. “So, we had the challenge of rebranding bats.” Their goal? To elicit empathy for bats’ dwindling population as well as excitement for the problems they can help reduce. From white-nose syndrome — an emergent disease impacting bats that is spreading through a large portion of the United States — to the decline in places for bats to roost, the bat population is facing several factors that could continue to impact its numbers.

Going To Bat


However, bats can eat 1,000 mosquito-sized insects an hour, which makes them good neighbors. Building a safe home for bats is something both Broadhurst and Rännefors are well-equipped for, so combining the BatBnB unit with education on the bat population sparked so much interest that their Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign was a success; in fact, they raised 344% of their original goal. The partners have been featured on The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation on CBS, which features makers creating solutions for real-world problems, as well as Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch, a pitch competition show by Entrepreneur magazine. Thanks to BatBnB’s success, Broadhurst has since moved to Boston and is now working on the company full-time.

BELOW: Harrison Broadhurst (left) with his business partner Chris Rännefors.

Although Broadhurst credits much of his skillset to his time at the College of Design, it was also the physical environment that helped him achieve success with BatBnB. “Overall looking at a problem and figuring out how to develop a design solution, that was a big factor,” he said. “No school is ever going to completely prepare you, but the College of Design takes it very seriously. It taught me a lot and gave me a good level of comfort so I could look more, could keep digging into the problem.”

• To date, BatBnB has shipped more than 500 houses to 48 states and seven countries. • There are three models of bat houses from which to choose. • The houses can be hung from the side of a house or barn but need to be in an area that gets six or more hours of sun a day. • The bat houses are made of Western red cedar, which the manufacturer sources from the Northwest United States and Canada. • The interior surfaces of each unit offer gripping grooves for climbing and hanging while a chamber passage inside allows the inhabitants to move from chamber to chamber. • Ventilation openings on the sides keep cool air flowing in the lower half while the upper half stays heated, giving bats options for climate control. For more information, visit batbnb.com. Readers can use code MICROBAT at checkout to receive 20% off the final purchase price.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS

Professor Bruce Swetnam Honored With 2018 Great Teacher Award Each year, the University of Kentucky Alumni Association recognizes six professors for outstanding teaching. Bruce Swetnam, Kentuckiana Masonry Institute Endowed Professor in the School of Architecture, was one of the 2018 recipients of the Great Teacher Awards. He was nominated by his students and honored at a reception in January 2018.

Swetnam Becomes Associate Dean for Students In addition to his role as professor in the School of Architecture, Bruce Swetnam has joined the College’s leadership team as the Associate Dean for Students. “Bruce’s work ethic and passion for student achievement made him the obvious choice to fill this role in the College,” said Dean Mitzi Vernon. “We are grateful for his enthusiastic service.”

SOA Professor Wallis Miller Honored by Society of Architectural Historians Congratulations go out to School of Architecture Professor Wallis Miller, who won the 2017 Journal Article Award from the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. The honor, in recognition of her article “Points of View: Herbert Bayer’s Exhibition Catalogue for the 1930 Section Allemande,” comes with high praise from the members of the selection committee. They were “impressed with Miller’s study as a complex and multi-layered article about a seemingly small topic (an exhibition catalog). It entailed not only discussing the architectural spaces in the original exhibition but also the layout and construction of the exhibition catalog and the ways the catalog interacted with the architectural spaces themselves.” Committee members marveled at Miller’s way of finding so many layers in such a focused topic. “This announcement came as a complete surprise, but I am honored to have been chosen,” said Miller. “The scope of work for this project was challenging since reference material was limited, although it was nonetheless insightful in interpreting the experience of the exhibition.”

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Honorable Mentions


Interiors Professor Joe Rey-Barreau Inducted Into Lighting Hall of Fame In honor of his decades-long involvement in educating others in the discipline of lighting design, associate professor Joseph Rey-Barreau, AIA, IES, was recently inducted into the American Lighting Association’s Hall of Fame at their annual conference. The ALA is the trade association representing the residential lighting industry in North America. For more than 20 years, Rey-Barreau has written hundreds of courses and seminars for ALA’s members. He has traveled across the United States and Canada on behalf of the association to conduct lighting workshops as well as develop online training courses. “It’s been a very satisfying and professionally rewarding

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experience for me to provide educational content for this group,” he explained. “The past few decades have been a dynamic time in the lighting industry, and there is much focus being placed on lighting education.” Over the course of his 30+ years as an educator, Rey-Barreau, a faculty member in the School of Interiors, also has written and presented a broad range of continuing education programs focused on lighting design for architects and interior designers.

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SOI Receives Multiple Honors From IDEC At the recent 2018 Annual Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Conference in Boston, faculty members from the School of Interiors were honored with multiple awards. A) IDEC’s highest honor, the Arnold Friedmann Educator of Distinction Award, was given to Allison Carll-White, a professor in the School of Interiors and an adjunct professor in the Department of Historic Preservation. This award is presented to a current or former IDEC member in recognition of significant, sustained and distinguished contributions in interior design education. B) Assistant Professor Rebekah Radtke received the 2018 Media Award from IDEC for her work on the residence halls post-occupancy evaluation project and the ample media coverage it has received. This award is given for recognition of the content of an outstanding media piece that exhibits excellence in addressing issues of the discipline of interior design including practice, research, and education.

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C) Finally, congratulations go to Assistant Professor Lindsey Fay and the School of Interiors Faculty for the 2018 Teaching Excellence Award. This award was in honor of the School of Interiors’ professional practice initiative — the Interiors’ Internship and Externship Programs — and its complementary courses. The award was accepted on behalf of the entire School of Interiors faculty. IDEC is recognized as the leading association and authority on interior design education. “The School of Interiors has continued to make strides toward excellence, and the honors they received at this year’s IDEC conference validate their efforts,” said Dean Mitzi Vernon. “I am particularly delighted by Professor Carll-White’s achievement, as this is the highest honor IDEC bestows.”

Honorable Mentions


Sustainability Challenge Accepted

Still #1 The College of Design remains in the #1 spot as the UK college with the highest participation in Education Abroad.

Congratulations to the following CoD faculty, recipients of 2018 Sustainability Challenge Grants: Julie Riesenweber, Daniel Vivian, Doug Appler and Robert Travis Rose from the Department of Historic Preservation; Chris Birkentall and Helen Turner from the School of Interiors; Greg Luhan and Brent Sturlaugson from the School of Architecture. The program is designed to engage multidisciplinary teams from the University community in the creation and implementation of ideas that will promote sustainability by simultaneously advancing economic vitality, ecological integrity and social equity. Projects involving these faculty members totaled more than $126,000 in grant funding this year.

Historic Preservation Chair Shares Insight With 2018 Lecture Series Dan Vivian, chair of the Department of Historic Preservation, conducted a spring 2018 lecture series in Louisville that focused on current topics impacting the preservation field. Lectures included: • New Visions: Agendas for Historic Preservation in the 21st Century • Preservation and Climate Change in the Ohio Valley • What Everyone Who Cares About Preservation Should Know About Marx • Why Difficult Histories Matter “The lecture series tackled subjects central to the theory and practice of historic preservation at time when there is broad consensus that the field is changing rapidly, and its future is uncertain in many ways,” explained Vivian. “The basic goal was to get people to think differently about preservation and consider why it matters, given the challenges now facing communities large and small.”

A Fine Fellow Patrick Lee Lucas, associate professor of the School of Interiors, was one of 41 fellows to complete the fourth annual Bluegrass Academic Leadership Academy last fall, conducted by the Bluegrass Higher Education Consortium. The purpose of the academy is to encourage faculty and staff to consider leadership career paths as well as provide guidance in developing the skills that are requisites for effective institutional leadership, which ensure a sound and successful future for their institution and the Bluegrass Region.

Dean Vernon Speaks at IDSA Medical Design Conference Dean Mitzi Vernon was asked to speak in January at the IDSA Medical Design Conference in 2018 about the impending product design program in the College. A member of IDSA since 1996, Vernon shared her vision of incorporating the University of Kentucky’s medical resources with product design to amplify the university’s already lauded healthcare services. “With UK’s distinguished healthcare campus as our neighbors, we have the resources to develop a product design graduate program that offers students a unique career path. And there is no formal degree offering for undergraduate product design in the Commonwealth. We can do both.”

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Architecture Professor Mike McKay Inspires with “Singularities” February 2017 saw School of Architecture Associate Professor Mike McKay’s exhibit — Singularities — come to life at the UK Art Museum. “Over the course of my career, I have consistently sought opportunities to examine how formal processes of design can have an immediate and visceral impact upon the viewer/user of its outcome,” explained McKay. “I am interested in architectural work that affects the senses and challenges one’s perception of space.” The architectural form created from two specific vantage points of the installation engaged the space of the museum and changed characteristics (form, light, color) as visitors moved in and around the work.

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Honorable Mentions


Exhibit Columbus Features SOA Faculty and Students Led by Associate Professor David Biagi and Assistant Professor Martin Summers, the School of Architecture in the UK College of Design took part in the University Installations portion of Exhibit Columbus, August 24-26, 2017, in Columbus, Indiana. Exhibit Columbus included 18 outdoor, site-responsive installations that complement Columbus’ revered masterpieces of modern architecture while showcasing the future of design education. The design brief for Exhibit Columbus Biennial stated that the University Installations “represent the state of architectural education as well as speculate on the potential to be a catalyst for changing the way we design and build in the Midwest ... expanding design literacy through education.” Within these ambitions, Indelible Pattern(s) is challenging and didactic, telling multiple, simultaneous stories. A single habitable space is an initial impression, organized by a hanging swarm canopy above and an inscribed deck below. Visitors who slow down, contemplate and observe, discover this subterfuge concealing a complex set of interacting spaces and patterns that recontextualize the site. Columbus’s

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Modernist History is formally absorbed via regulating lines within the context. At a distance, the hanging swarm reveals pixelated volumes that appear and recede as one moves. Other patterns and geometries subtly allude to indelible cultural landmarks. In contrast, voids pierce the installation to clearly frame iconic vertical moments contrasting the horizontality of the region. Without a single story or simple answers, visitors are left with lingering questions and personal discoveries that are felt beyond the temporary exhibit. Applied research regarding direct-to-manufacture processes, digital workflows, minimum waste, and integrated modeling were critically deployed producing a living laboratory of current and future practice. Parametric tools evolved with the design and designed parametric workflows tested the limits of an integrated model as construction document, minimizing construction drawings. The project used the design model to model a pedagogy that blurs academia and practice — producing a living laboratory of current and future practice that prepares student participants for their next step.

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Greg Luhan: University Research Professor + Undergraduate Research Mentor In the span of one year, Dr. Gregory Luhan has made a substantial impact in the research realm at the University of Kentucky. In May 2017, Luhan was designated as one of 16 University Research Professorships for the 2017-18 academic year. Then in June 2018, he was one of three recipients of the University of Kentucky 2018 Excellent Undergraduate Research Mentor Award.

For instance, Luhan’s Resonance House project was the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certified house in Kentucky (certified silver in 2008) and served as a model in the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) pilot program for LEED for Homes. This student-built project brought together the core principles of his research methodology while preparing students to transition into architectural

Luhan credits UK’s mission to “improve the lives of Kentuckians” as the motivation behind his approach to research and teaching. A John Russell Groves Endowed Professor of Architecture professor in the School of Architecture and the Department of Historic Preservation, Luhan lets altruism drive his mode of architecture, both in research and studio. He credits UK’s mantra to “improve the lives of Kentuckians” as the motivation behind his approach. “This advocacy drives my research initiatives, cultivates an appreciation of the rich and vibrant cultures across the state of Kentucky, and presents new opportunities for research and design that preserve and disseminate knowledge through writing and building,” explained Luhan. Luhan’s studies have taken him to earn degrees from Virginia Tech (bachelor’s in Architecture), Princeton University (master’s in Architecture) and Texas A&M (Ph.D. in Architecture), but it’s his time in the College of Design that has allowed him to take advantage of UK’s land-grant mission to develop projects that will benefit communities throughout Kentucky.

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practice successfully. Most notably, these factors center on: design, emerging digital technologies, critical theory, pedagogy, practice, and academic-industry partnerships intersect. And since the mentor award is a student-nominated award that recognizes UK faculty members who demonstrate an outstanding commitment to mentoring undergraduate researchers, Luhan’s approach is evidently resonating with his students. Thinking about how his projects will have a long-term impact on future generations, Luhan falls back on the “from research to realization” approach. “My research addresses real-world environmental problems and provides creative and visual perspectives that pave the way for comprehensive sustainable solutions,” he said.

Honorable Mentions


MUED

Master of Science in Urban and Environmental Design For more information, visit design.uky.edu/urban-and-environmental-design

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The Master of Science in Urban and Environmental Design (MUED) at the UK College of Design is dedicated to helping students think critically about emerging urban and environmental design problems through real-world projects and futureoriented ideas. The one-year program introduces students to the complexity of urban, rural and small-town environments through studio-based curriculum. With an MUED from the College of Design, students will have the skills and knowledge to inspire visions of social, economic and environmental sustainability at multiple scales using innovative principles and techniques for effective community design.

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F A C U LT Y R E S E A R C H Douglas Appler Urban Archaeology, Municipal Government and Local Planning: Preserving Heritage within the Commonwealth of Nations and the United States. Improving the relationship between archaeology and local government represents one of the next great challenges facing heritage management worldwide. This book explores the experiences, both positive and negative, of cities in the United States and the Commonwealth of Nations that have sought to develop municipal archaeology programs.

Emily Bergeron

and offer advanced medical training to Ecuadorian and U.S. health students and faculty. This research additionally serves as a spring board to rekindle U.S. and Ecuadorian relationships after a decade-long challenging diplomatic relationship. Examining Efficiency in the Healthcare Environment at UK Chandler Medical Center. The focus of this research was to analyze the impact of hospital design layouts on the delivery of efficient care and the resultant level of caregiver satisfaction. Two units were examined to measure the impact of walkability, room usage, allocation of time, and visibility on efficiency in the care environment. The research was featured in HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal.

The Price of Conservation: Benefits, Burdens, and Threats of National Parks and Conservation Areas. “Natural Resources & Environment,” Vol. 33, No. 2 (Fall 2018).

Jordan Hines

Local Justice: How Cities Can Protect and Promote Environmental Justice in a Hostile Environment. “Natural Resources & Environment,” Vol. 32, No. 3 (Winter 2018).

Tri An Vietnam War Memorial. Top three winning entry for this international design competition.

The Continuing Battle for Blair Mountain: Using Preservation for Environmental Justice. Presented at Appalachian Studies Association Annual Meeting, April 8, 2018.

Jeffrey Johnson

Christina Birkentall Historic Preservation as Sustainable Future. Chris Birkentall is working on the Sustainability Grant in conjunction with Historic Preservation, researching eight buildings on UK’s campus for continued viability and accessibility corrections, while maintaining the architecturally historic significance of the buildings. Work began in a second-year interiors studio and will continue during the summer with the help of two graduate students in HP. Final recommendations will be sent to the Capital Development Facilities group at UK in June 2019.

Allison Carll-White Emergency Nurses’ Perceptions of Efficiency and Design: Examining ED Structure, Process, and Outcome. Efficient and quality healthcare delivery are impacted by interactions among the Emergency Department’s (ED) physical structure, processes, and outcomes. Examining the interrelationship between these three components is essential for assessing quality of care in the ED setting. Published in “Journal of Emergency Nursing,” 2018. Shifting Landscapes: The Impact of Centralized and Decentralized Nursing Station Models on the Efficiency of Care. The focus of this research was to analyze the impact of decentralized and centralized hospital design layouts on the delivery of efficient care and the resultant level of caregiver satisfaction. Published in “Health Environments Research & Design Journal,” 2017. Using Systems Theory to Examine Patient and Nurse Structures, Processes, and Outcomes in Centralized and Decentralized Units. The goal of this study is to apply a systems theory a to understand how changes in the built environment relating to communication impact structure, process, and outcome factors of a hospital unit. Published in “Health Environments Research and Design (HERD) Journal,” 2018. An Investigation of Communication Patterns in Centralized and Decentralized Nurses’ Station Units. A presentation at the Center for Health Design Conference, Orlando, Florida, November 2017.

Lindsey Fay Community Health Design for Ecuador. The University of Kentucky Colleges of Design, Health Sciences, and Public Health in partnership with Hombro a Hombro in Ecuador are working to demonstrate the value of U.S. and Ecuador partnerships through expanding medical capacity and services in the town of Santo Domingo. This collaborative design project is working towards expanding an existing clinic to a new building that will house a medical laboratory, a rehabilitation center, and a women’s wellness center, expanding oral health capacity, and introducing primary care ultrasound to Ecuador. This research aims to improve community health

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Moontower. Design Build studio.

Megablock Urbanism. The Megablock is the default planning solution for accommodating the rapid growth of cities in China. These self-contained walled enclaves have taken over the fabric of the city. Megablocks are spatial instruments with social, cultural, environmental, and economic implications, operating between the scales of architecture and the city. The research focuses on the forces that have created it, the consequences it has on the city, and the opportunities it has in shaping the urban landscape in the future. Future of the Museum in China. To match its counterparts worldwide, China has been on a museum building spree over the past number of years, constructing between 100 to 400 new museums annually. With this proliferation of new museums and cultural facilities, are there trends that can be identified that might mark a paradigm shift in how the museum project is defined? Are there new roles – socially, culturally, politically – that the museum is playing? What new architectural forms and spatial organizations are being invented to accommodate these new ambitions?

Patrick Lee Lucas “Co-eds + T-Squares: Interior Design Education and Home Economics,” Shaping the American Interior: Structures, Contexts, Practices (2018). In this book chapter, Lucas examines the trajectory of interiors programs that originated within the home economics programs across the country. Curating Technology for Learning (with Helen Turner). In this article, Turner and Lucas discuss the innovations surrounding the development of the award-winning history/ theory sequence in the School of Interiors. Published in Accessibility, Technology, and Librarianship, American Library Association (2018).

Gregory Luhan Dayton Eugene Egger – The Paradox of Place: In the Line of Sight. This research contributes to the genre of architectural representation books, specifically related to travel abroad programs and the direct connection to lessons learned from those excursions to local contexts. The book, published by ORO Editions, contains an Introduction by Richard Blythe, a foreword by Kenneth Frampton, essays by Gene Egger, Mitzi Vernon, Paul Emmons, Mark Blizard, Michael Obrien, Gregory Luhan, and an afterword by Frank Weiner. The book features over 240 images of Europe, Central America and the rural coal towns of Virginia and West Virginia by Egger and his students. eCAADe – MicroHybrids. This comprehensive project-based research investigation uses both drawing and modeling to challenge conventional design space to reveal an immersive framework that develops, evaluates, and assesses both graphics and three-dimensional information at full scale. This research provides a framework that seamlessly negotiates analog and digital means of communication and prototyping germane to today’s increasingly complex built environment.

Faculty Research


ACSA - NK-NM | Hybrid Digital-Physical Hardware Design for Designing and Enhancing User Experiences. This research investigates ways of integrating a hybrid digital-analog hardware protocol platform – No Keyboard, No Mouse (NK-NM) – into the design studio context. The study examines the influence of the NK-NM platform on pedagogy, research integration, user experience, and aesthetics within a simulation-based feedback loop to iteratively explicate design artifacts.

Mark O’Bryan

CAADRIA - No Keyboard, No Mouse |Hybrid digital-analog hardware design for enhancing design UI and UX. The No Keyboard, No Mouse (NK-NM) project advances research in the domain of physical computation and human-machine interaction by using both digital simulation and hands-on investigations. The research uses a hierarchical design process between a master and second designer to enable designers with limited design knowledge to produce validated design outcomes.

“Integrating Revit in the Beginning Design Studio.” Paper to be presented at the DCA Design Communication Conference in Cornell University Fall 2018.

RWJF - Investigating the Capacity of a Re-Envisioned Cooperative Extension System to Build a Culture of Health. This Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded ($142,667) multidisciplinary research project explores how Land Grant Universities (LGUs) can improve a culture of health by utilizing and enhancing the traditional Cooperative Extension System (CES) as its infrastructure for effecting positive change. The research examines the feasibility of this transformative model not by just one LGU but as a CES national platform. Sustainability - Integrating the S.KY BLUE Solar House Into the UK Organic Farming Unit. This University of Kentucky Office of Sustainability funded ($47,118) multidisciplinary research project will integrate the S.KY BLUE Solar House into the UK Organic Farming Unit. It embraces the three pillars of sustainability by reducing energy costs through solar power generation and geothermal climate control technologies and expanding awareness of these technologies through student educational activities and extension-based programming. AIA-AAJ - Re-Envisioning Juvenile Justice Educational Environments: Inspire. Integrate. Innovate. This research offers a fresh perspective for transforming juvenile detention projects into specialized educational facilities that respond to various site conditions, incorporate high-performance features, and offer accessible, activity-based, sensory-rich, developmentally appropriate and flexible environments – all designed to address the unique needs of incarcerated youth. The projects bridge education to entrepreneurship that allows juvenile offenders to gain skills, training and assets, which afford them the opportunity to pursue an alternative lifestyle, beyond the one from which they came.

Mike McKay Positioning. Invited to give a lecture and workshop at The University of Tennessee School of Architecture. The Intertwining. The artwork is inspired by the fabrication and sculptural forms of bourbon stills, an example of the craftsmanship that has long defined Louisville as a dynamic center of industry and celebration. Suspended within the Louisville International Airport’s rotunda, the gold-coated steel structure hovers lightly, designed to create an optical experience for passersby, regardless of their distance, vantage point, or pace. As one moves toward and around the work, various moiré effects and spaces emerge into view, recalling the flow of clouds or birds in flight. Produced with Liz Swanson. Apologue. Apologue is a collage series that engages contradictions of seeing and apathy. New adjacencies are formed through critically positioned content that confront our place within the world. The work is culturally driven and rooted in narrative as a vehicle to confront the effects of conflict. Published in Arte Laguna Arte Prize Catalogue 2018.

Wallis Miller Architecture on Display: Exhibitions and the Emergence of Modernism in Germany, 1786-1932. The book argues that architecture exhibitions had a modern character long before the 1920s, and they were influential in architecture’s becoming modern. With changes to installations and the search for a broad audience, exhibitions showed that the emerging modernity of architecture rested in changes to architecture’s definition and its relationship to other disciplines, such as art and design, rather than in a commitment to a specific style.

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“Visualization Principles in Beginning Design Studio.” Paper presented at Scotland Glasgow School of Art, at the EAEA European Association Conference. “Aggregated Housing in Second Year Design Studio.” Paper presented at the WSSA Western Social Sciences Association Conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Award-winning image “Stardust” will be featured in the Architecture in Perspective 32 catalog and exhibition in Houston, Texas, Fall 2017. Drawing received the Award of Excellence in the rendering section at the Architecture in Perspective 33 Conference from the American Society of Architectural Illustrators. Award-winning image “Mystery Hotel” will be featured in the Architecture in Perspective 33 catalog and exhibition in Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles, California, Fall 2018. Drawing received the Award of Excellence in the rendering section at the Architecture in Perspective 33 Conference from the American Society of Architectural Illustrators. Commissioned Work Addition to Midcentury Modern Norman Sweet House - Kissel Residence, Louisville, Kentucky. Urban Design Project-Hancock Green Consulting Work with URBAN1 and Weyland Ventures in Louisville Kentucky.

Rebekah Radtke Urban Design 859. In this community workshop course, design students from architecture and interior design have been tasked to use community engagement methods to address a community need. We focused our efforts on a vacant lot located at the corner of Maxwell and Limestone, a key location that is highly underutilized. As the gateway to our campus and the nexus of the intersection between campus and downtown, it has unlimited potential to serve the University of Kentucky students and faculty, Good Samaritan Hospital visitors, and the downtown population. Utilizing diverse research methods and collaborative design processes, students have identified how design can positively impact our community using campus as a living laboratory to explore new ideas to activate public spaces. Grants for Park Radtke, R. (2018). University of Kentucky Office of the Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration. “Community Workshop: Pocket Park Project” ($2,500 Funded) Radtke, R. (2018). Bluegrass Community Foundation. “Community Workshop: Pocket Park Project” ($2,500 Funded) Radtke, R. (2018). Herman Lee and Nell Stuart Donovan Trust Grant. “Community Workshop: Pocket Park Project” ($15,000 under review) Radtke, R. (2018). Downtown Lexington Partnership. “Community Workshop: Pocket Park Project” ($2,500 Funded) Radtke, R. (2018). LFUCG Parks and Recreation. “Community Workshop: Pocket Park Project” ($2,500 Funded) Reimagining Living and Learning Spaces on Campus: Interior Design Educators Council Media Award 2018. National recognition for the publication, “Reimagining Living and Learning Spaces on Campus.” This award recognizes one outstanding media piece that exhibits excellence in addressing issues of the discipline of interior design including practice, research and education. Design Week. Multidisciplinary Design Studio with Landscape Architecture and Historic Preservation, partnering with all Lex Council Members and Districts. Radtke, R., Peacher, B., & Segura, A. (2017). Bluegrass Community Foundation. “Off the Table and On the Streets” ($1,200 funded) Radtke, R., Peacher, B., & Segura, A. (2017). Lexington Fayette County Urban Government. “Off the Table and On the Streets” ($1,200 funded)

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Tunnel Project. Rieske-Kinney, L., Bibbs, G., Radtke, R., Segura, A., & Webber, K. (2017) Sustainability Challenge Grant. “Connectivity promotes community: Refurbishing a major pedestrian conduit to improve safety, aesthetics, and sustainability” ($20,000 funded)

array of five Rainbow Massimals. Each object demonstrates a transformation of color as you move around and through the traveling herd. Featured in “Play: Toys Reimagined as Art” at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia, Sept. 10, 2017 - Feb. 18, 2018.

Gatton Sustainability Study. Radtke, R., Lee-Post, A., Sturlaugson, B., Swetnam, B., Kim, Y. (2017) Sustainability Challenge Grant. “Measuring Up: Sustainability Assessment of Campus Buildings at the University of Kentucky” ($42,990 funded)

Massimals (2010). Massimals is a set of 1:1 design objects that serve as prototypes to examine how physical form can engage the public realm. These constructs are abstractions of animal forms built in the manner of massing studies produced in an architectural design practice. Featured in “Play: Toys Reimagined as Art” at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia, Sept. 10, 2017 - Feb. 18, 2018; and Expanded Fields at the Lexington Art League in Lexington, Kentucky, Feb. 24 - March 24, 2017.

Conference Presentations Mantooth, R., Radtke, R., & Pasalar, C. (2018). “Understanding the Built Environment in Higher Education Settings.” Paper presented at the International Association People-Environment Studies, Rome, Italy. Radtke, R. & Lucas P. (2018). “Activating Students and Community: Sustainable Urban Design Strategies.” Peerreviewed presentation at the Annual Conference of the Urban Affairs Association, Toronto, Canada. Radtke, R. & Lucas P. (2018). “Blurred Lines: The Interior in/and/for the City.” Peer-reviewed presentation at the International Conference on Design Principles and Practices, Barcelona, Spain. Radtke, R. & Turner, H. (2018). “Using Immersive Design Pedagogy to Engage Communities and Advocate for Sustainability.” Peer-reviewed presentation at International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability, Cairns, Australia. Turner, H. & Radtke, R. (2017). “The Design Process for Collaboration and Transformative Sustainable Learning.” Peer-reviewed presentation at International Journal of Art and Design Conference, Dublin, Ireland. Radtke, R. & Lucas P. (2017). “Retrofitting the RETRO: A Faculty, Student, and Community Design Collaboration.” Peerreviewed presentation at Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference, Birmingham, Alabama. Radtke, R. & Lucas P. (2017). “Teaching Community Engagement through Tactical Urbanism.” Peer-reviewed presentation at Environmental Design Research Association Annual Conference, Madison, Wisconsin. Orthel, B., Day, J., Radtke, R. Seidler, D. et al. (2017). “What We Teach is Changing.” Peer-reviewed presentation at the Interior Design Educators Council National Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Radtke, R. & Sicker, S. (2017). “Not Your Mother’s Dorm Room: Making Sense of a Place on Campus.” Peer-reviewed presentation at the Interior Design Educators Council National Meeting, Chicago, Illinois. Radtke, R., Fay, L., & Lucas P. (2017). “We Can Work It Out: A Gentle Immersion Framework.” Peer-reviewed presentation at the Interior Design Educators Council National Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.

Julie Riesenweber Rethinking Preservation/Rethinking Pope Villa. By starting with Pope Villa, a dwelling designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe and built in Lexington in 1812 for Senator John and Eliza Pope, this research strives to operationalize a cultural landscape approach so that historic places might be preserved and interpreted in innovative ways. How might multiple meanings and referents influence a building’s or landscape’s physical preservation and interpretation?

Jason Scroggin Cloud Garden (2014). The Cloud Garden is a series of big soft clusters that invite visitors to play in, on and around its voluptuous shapes or simply relax in the company of others. Featured in “Play: Toys Reimagined as Art” at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia, Sept. 10, 2017 - Feb. 18, 2018; and Expanded Fields at the Lexington Art League in Lexington, Kentucky, Feb. 24 - March 24, 2017. To be published in “Blow Up!: Inflatable Design,” London: Phaidon Press, 2019. Massimals: 2D (2017). Massimals: 2D is a set of hand-drawn ink axonometric drawings of the original Massimals series on archival paper. Featured in “PRHBTN” at the Lexington Art League in Lexington, Kentucky, Oct. 13-27, 2017. Rainbow Legion (2017). Rainbow Legion presents a linear

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Rainbow Massimal: Mini-mal (2012). Rainbow Massimal: Mini-mal is a scale model of the full-scale Rainbow Massimal completed in 2012. Both the model and the full-scale version are manufactured out of one material utilizing a simple fabrication technique and create a visual transformation of color and shape as one walks around the object. Featured at Institute 193 in Lexington, Kentucky, Aug. 31 – Sept. 12, 2017. Gojira My Dreams (2017). “Gojira My Dreams” resides on the 15th floor of the 21c Museum Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky. Upon leaving the hotel elevator you are greeted by an 8-foot tall translucent egg-crate massing model inspired by the character and stance of Godzilla. Exhibited May 23, 2017-present. Massimals Legion: ReSurfaced (2017). “Massimals Legion: ReSurfaced” presents a linear array of Massimals that procedurally distort the recognizability of the shape. The unique character of each form is defined by the varying thickness of the diagonal contoured plates that comprise its mass. Featured at ReSurfaced 2017 in Louisville, Kentucky, Summer 2017. Turf Herd (2017). “Turf Herd” is a set of large interactive puzzle pieces encased in shells of colorful AstroTurf developed with UK CoD architecture students for ReSurfaced 2017, an event organized by City Collaborative in Louisville, Kentucky. The project seeks to expand the possibilities of built form and potentially how we interact with buildings. Featured at ReSurfaced 2017 in Louisville, Kentucky, Summer 2017.

Brent Sturlaugson What You Don’t See Matters: Supply Chain Capitalism and the Architecture of Production. In the corporate literature of Georgia-Pacific, the trademark “What You Don’t See Matters” refers to the branded building products used in many light construction projects. Understood in the context of supply chain capitalism, however, the phrase takes on new meaning. This paper examines the supply chain of plywood sheathing in the material transformation of sub-bituminous coal. Banal by Design: Silicone Joint Sealant and the Supply Chain of Architectural Production. Since the mid-20th century, silicone joint sealant has become increasingly popular in large-scale construction projects. Application of silicone joint sealant occurs where unlike materials meet, and the purpose of this product is to control the transmission of air, water and sound. Essentially, silicone joint sealant acts as a mediator. Given the ubiquity of this product in the built environment, this paper examines the supply chain of silicone joint sealant to enroll seemingly disparate landscapes into the same architectural system. Like the product itself, this paper seeks to establish relations between unlike parts in the supply chain of construction, acting as a mediator between building material, labor conditions, environmental regulations, and capital flows. Presented at the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting in New Orleans. You Don’t Work, You Survive: The Politics of Spatial Production on Pine Ridge Reservation. Demonstrations such as those at the Oceti Sakowin Camp on Standing Rock Reservation illustrate the ongoing struggles over multiple scales of spatial production on American Indian reservations in the United States. Lesser known, however, are the everyday struggles of reservation residents, including those of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on Pine Ridge Reservation. There, the history of spatial production at the domestic scale offers a lens through which generations of political contestations can be read. Using both archives and interviews as evidence, this paper argues that housing on Pine Ridge not only registers the shifting landscape of power relations between the tribe and the federal government, it also serves as a site of political resistance. Accepted for presentation at the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments Biennial Conference in Coimbra, Portugal.

Faculty Research


Martin Summers Indelible Patterns. Summers and David Biagi co-taught a design build studio to develop an installation for Exhibit Columbus. The project is a direct application of Summers’ Disruptive Continuity and camouflage/glitch pattern research. After the studio, the project was further developed by PLUS-SUM Studio and constructed. Parts of the project were featured in multiple locations as part of Exhibit Columbus in Columbus, Indiana. SYMBIOcity – Iskandar-Puteri, Supercity 100YC. Summers and Tobias Armborst led a studio focused on masterplanning Medini, Malaysia. Summers was initially invited to lead a design team for the Malaysia Biennial but the venue was later changed to be part of the 2018 Venice Biennale Sessions. After the studio was completed, PLUS-SUM Studio furthered the research and project for the final submission. Grey Matter – Louisville Children’s Museum. Summers/ PLUS-SUM Studio’s design “Grey Matter,” originally for the Louisville Children’s Museum International Ideas Competition, received an honorable mention in the 2016 AAP Architecture Prize (now the Architecture Masterprize). Louisville Children’s Museum. An abstract drawing of the formal strategy linked to the public space of PLUS-SUM Studio’s Louisville Children’s Museum competition was accepted into an exhibition titled, “Rejected: Architectural drawings and their stories,” at TEAM B’s office in Cincinnati. The exhibition focused on projects that did not win their respective competitions. Point of Departure: Place Making and Identity Via Integrated, Didactic & Sustainable Transit Shelters. Summers/PLUS-SUM Studio’s design “Point of Departure,” an ongoing research project to realize a sustainable transit shelter on the University of Kentucky campus, received an honorable mention in the 2016 AAP Architecture Prize (now the Architecture Masterprize). Point of Departure (with Disruptive Continuity research included as part of the essay). The Point of Departure project was accepted for inclusion in SCI_Arc’s online academic journal titled, “Off Ramp 12: Tolerance.” The essay explores the transit shelter project and its multi-layered research agenda. The essay also briefly discusses the Disruptive Continuity exercise Summers uses as a pedagogical foundation to his architecture studios. Book Review of “M” by Morphosis published in the ACSA’s new journal, TAD Technology | Architecture + Design, Issue 1:1. Summers was invited by Chris Ford, Associate Editor of “TAD, Technology | Architecture + Design,” Issue 1:1, to submit a book review on the newest monograph from Morphosis Architects, “M.” The narrative focuses on the importance of the monograph to architectural culture told through a personal journey. Objectspace[s] + [ _. A cross-country, multi-time zone, multi-software collaboration exploring architectural design through the lens of drawing, modeling, 3D printing and the errors of translation between people, tools and software. A final digital “print” and 3D “prints” were exhibited as part of a group show titled, “RESOLUTION: The Digital Print,” at Jai & Jai Gallery, Los Angeles. Disruptive Continuity – Solutions in(Form)ed via Iterative Digital Process. A solo exhibition at CEL Center for Architecture + Design St. Louis from Feb. 27 - July 1, 2017. The opening night included a presentation by Summers to contextualize ongoing research into design pedagogy and its relationship to professional practice. Work from PLUS-SUM Studio was shown along with select student work from Summers’ architecture studios. Le Procope_Glitch02. Shown in the “Expanding Fields” exhibition curated by Catherine Wentworth at the Lexington Art League, which focused on “essential architectural elements and highlights its ability to crossover successfully into the art world.” Le Procope_Glitch02 is an extension of architectural research into glitch and camouflage, visually disrupting formal coherence with a new type of pattern coherence, dissolving figures and producing perceptual ones. The exhibit was held Feb. 24-March 24, 2017.

Regina Summers

Emerging from an Appalachian heritage rethought through an architectural education, the work explores techniques of drawing and scripting combined with digital fabrication and sustainably based materials. Products can be designed with infinite variation and minimal environmental impact, welcome in both contemporary and traditional homes.

Liz Swanson Blueprints for Future Outlaws. “Blueprints for Future Outlaws” is an ongoing project that explores the spatio-political relationship between regimes and those who resist. Inspired by the crisis of Donald Trump’s candidacy and subsequent election, the work examines how architectural space is used as a tool for both oppression and escape, and advocates for social justice and human rights. Red Square. Swanson’s narrative, Red Square, has been selected for inclusion in Julio Bermudez’s forthcoming book, “Extraordinary Experiences of Architecture. Stories of our most profound encounters with buildings and places.”

Helen Turner Teaching Sustainability + Teaching Sustainably. An interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary workshop focused on creating a network of UK faculty that can harness the native wealth of talent and information throughout the University. The workshop can also facilitate the exchange of ideas and practices about teaching sustainability and implementing sustainable methods into their curricula. The workshop was given $47,085 in funding through the UK Sustainability Challenge Grant. Curating Technology for Learning: A Faculty View (w/ Patrick Lee Lucas). As design faculty, we recognize a wide range of abilities and approaches in learners and we advocate for creativity, a messy process, and often open-ended opportunities for young designers. We unveil approaches to providing equitable access to quality resources through technology from our perspective as faculty members working with and recognizing librarians as partners and willing participants in the academic enterprise. Published in Accessibility, Technology, and Librarianship, American Library Association (2018). Old Material…New Material. Design education provides a unique and transferable lens to explore inquiry-based collection, documentation, exhibition and repurposing of discarded materials, to render new insights and re-imagine pedagogical practices, wherein learning and deliverables truly reflect the values and discourse of sustainability. Published in The Journal of Sustainability Education, February 2018. Chapter in The Interior Urbanism Reader. Obscuring the bounds of interior and exterior, the ancient Roman domus, or house, is examined as a progressive system of contexts within which a blurred compendium of urban and residential experiences exists. Publication in The Interior Urbanism Reader in process. Sustainability in Higher Education: Achieving Multidisciplinary Collaboration through Interior Design Processes. Produced with Rebekah Radtke and featured in the “International Journal of Sustainability in Economic, Social and Cultural Context,” Volume 14, Issue 2. The Design Process for Collaboration and Transformative Sustainable Learning. International Journal of Art and Design Education Conference presentation. Presentations at the Interior Design Educator’s Council Conference What Does a Tree Have to Do With Interior Design? No Codes, No Problem: Residential Design as a Framework for User-centered Design Wickedness, Millennials and the Undergraduate Thesis Top Gun Approach to Concept Design First-year pedagogy, design and construction of a tree crutch for a historic Bur Oak tree at McConnell Springs in Lexington, Kentucky. Project jointly funded by LFUCG Citizen’s Environmental Academy and the UK Student Sustainability Council.

Re-Create: Craft reimagined. The research combines contemporary design and fabrication processes with traditional craft to produce fabric art and home products.

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CoD EVE NTS

Pence Workshop Café Design Charrette / 2018 College of Design Career Fair / Creative Mornings featuring Dean Vernon / 2018 Historic Preservation Symposium 2018 AIA NYC Reception / End of Year Show 2018 / Land Grab Screening Pence Workshop Café Design Charrette Director of Design Technology Bill Massie led a design charrette in Spring 2018 for CoD students. The goal of the charrette was to conceptualize what a café on the garden level of Pence Hall might look like. Developed from the winning entries, the workshop café is now complete! 72

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2018 College of Design Career Fair The College of Design held its inaugural UK Design Career Fair in April 2018, allowing students to network with industry professionals. The College hosted 25 leading firms and organizations at the fair. 74

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Creative Mornings Dean Mitzi Vernon was the guest speaker at the April 2017 Creative Mornings event in Lexington, held at the Kentucky Theater. She discussed her research in product form. 38ยบ84

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2018 Historic Preservation Symposium The 2018 Historic Preservation Symposium “Storytelling Through Design� explored the topic of the connections between art, architecture and history. Speakers included Jerome Meadows, the Selvage Collective, Rebecca Bush, a panel addressing public art projects in the Ohio Valley and a keynote address by Alan Ricks of Mass Design Group.

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AIA NYC Reception The UK College of Design hosted its annual alumni event at fxcollaborative in New York during the 2018 AIA Convention. 38ยบ84

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End of Year Show The 2018 End of Year Show brought together students, parents, faculty and alumni to celebrate the work produced by the College.

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Land Grab Encourages Energetic Discussion of Urban Space With standing room only, the film premiere of Land Grab at KMAC in Louisville on Sept. 7, 2018 was a resounding success, with UK President Eli Capilouto, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and dozens of College of Design students and guests in attendance. After the screening, Marshall Brown and John Hantz — two leading urban thinkers — engaged attendees with a discussion about the future of urban space in American cities. 38º84

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Homecoming Continued from page 1

“In his typical enthusiastic disposition, Bill jumped in full throttle to tackle the realistic, adaptive reuse of this primitive and gorgeous structure,” said Dean Mitzi Vernon. As students began their projects, the realization of the diamond in the rough that is Reynolds became ever apparent. “Once they built the physical models, they really started to understand,” said Massie. “They began to see how beautiful the structure was.” Elvia Lopez, a second-year architecture graduate student, built the model featured on the front cover. Her focus was directed on creating a collaborative working space at the core of the Reynolds Building. “The current structure didn’t really allow for very open space,” she said. “So, in order to do that, I began to change the structure to fit the space.” Essentially, Lopez created an open environment in the center of the building then shifted the existing structure around it. “Elvia came up with a very intelligent and compelling tactical approach. All of the timber that would be removed from an area of the building that was not going to be used would be directly repurposed,” explained Massie. “In short, she was adding and subtracting what was there to develop an amazing social space.”

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Lopez created a large atrium space in the central core of the building, and each individual studio looks into it from each side. “I asked myself what you would want from the space: if it was an entry, do you want it open? If it’s an office, do you want it closed?” she explained. Then the upper levels house offices and review spaces, which also look down into the atrium/collaborative work space. “So, you’re always overlooking every process of the stages of design,” she said.

Elvia Lopez, an architecture graduate student, works on her model for a reimagined version of the Reynolds Building.

Just as Massie had suggested, Lopez embraced the focus on the preservation of Reynolds. “It’s a historic building so I didn’t want to eliminate too much but I wanted it to be more pleasing for whoever will occupy it,” she said. Despite the parameters of repurposing the Reynolds Building, students expanded the boundaries of what the new version of Reynolds could actually encompass. From private sector retail outlets to graduate student housing to even a microhotel for commuting students to stay after late nights in the studio, the concepts integrated into the Reynolds studio project lead to a true reimagining of the College of Design student experience.

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THE REYNOLDS BUILDING Capital Projects

The Reynolds Building is capable of housing our current and expanding programs in a way that cultivates open and interdisciplinary education. With its storied past and substantial physical space, Reynolds can become a flagship building that not only champions adaptive reuse but can serve as a venue for greater faculty research, public symposium space and an exemplary pillar of Lexington’s historic preservation efforts. With the enormous square footage of Reynolds, there are multiple naming opportunities for those who give during this pivotal moment in the College of Design’s history. Naming opportunities, ranging from $25,000 to $2,500,000, are available for many areas within the Reynolds building, including: • Lecture and studio spaces

• Maintenance Endowments

• Technology, Fabrication and Innovation space

• Design Library

• Center for Design History

• Public, social, community, exhibition and outdoor spaces

• Center for Rural Preservation

• Dean’s and Admissions suites

To learn more about being a philanthropic partner in realizing the Reynolds Building, contact Director of Philanthropy Remona Edenfield at remona.edenfield@uky.edu.

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