ENVirons (Summer 2017)

TA B L E OF CONTENTS

Upfront . . . 2 Dean’s Note . . . 3 Student Projects . . . 4 What Are You Doing This Summer? . . . 12 On the Career Path . . . 14 FAQ . . . 18 Transition Time . . . 19 In the Know . . . 20 Faculty Notes . . . 22 ENV Bookshelf . . . 25 Calendar . . . 26 Photo by Professor Andrew Wilcox, Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture OUTSIDE/IN 1,000 MODELS charrette at the ENV Gallery.

Photo by Assistant Professor Katrin Terstegen, Department of Architecture

2

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 1

UP FRONT

DEAN’S NOTE MANAGING EDITOR

Samantha Gonzaga ART DIRECTION

John Curry / Smartpill Media

Welcome to Commencement 2017

COPY EDITOR

Gary C. Fong

EDITORIAL CONSULTANT

Kateri Butler

COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN Michael Woo

Dean Michael Woo (far left in white shirt) introduces U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (second from right), standing next to architect Dion Neutra (far right).

Congressman Helps Neutra VDL House Celebrate Designation as National Historic Landmark The Neutra VDL House’s listing as one of the newest National Historic Landmarks was celebrated at an April 23 reception highlighted by remarks by Congressman Adam Schiff.

Schiff was instrumental in pushing for the designation along with Sen. Diane Feinstein. The Neutra VDL House was among 24 national historic landmarks added to the registry in the final days of President Barack Obama’s administration.

“I was so proud to have fought for the inclusion of Neutra VDL Studio and Residences on the National Historic Landmarks registry, and gratified to see it come to fruition,” says Schiff, whose district includes the 3,500-square-foot property. “Its significance is beyond regional or architectural. Its place in history as a gathering place for prominent figures in music, art and politics, coupled with its value to practitioners and scholars of the design field, demonstrates Richard Neutra’s legacy as a part of the country’s vibrant cultural heritage. We are all so happy to see this day finally come.”

Michael Woo, dean of the College of Environmental Design, served as the master of ceremonies in a short program leading up to the unveiling ceremony. Speakers included architect Dion Neutra and Raymond Neutra, sons of Richard Neutra, and Linda Dishman, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Schiff and Dishman commended Department of Architecture Professor Sarah Lorenzen, resident director of the VDL House, for her efforts to ensure that the house remains a resource for practitioners and students of design and architecture.

The Neutra VDL Studio and Residences has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 2009. Its listing in the NRHP marks it as a historic site worthy of preservation.

There are more than 90,000 NRHP properties listed, of which 534 are in Los Angeles County.

One of the few residential examples of mid-century modern architecture on the national list, the former Neutra family home and design studio is owned by the Cal Poly Pomona Foundation and managed by the College of Environmental Design.

When the Neutra family donated the home to the state, the university was asked to use the house to educate students and the public about Southern California’s heritage as a laboratory for modern architecture. Richard Neutra was an active teacher in Cal Poly Pomona’s Department of Architecture during his last year.

The Neutra VDL Studio and Residences is located at 2300 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles.

It is open for Saturday tours from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Learn more at www.neutra-vdl.org and www. neutrahistory.org.

Dean

Is there a word that drives you nuts whenever you hear someone

Martin F. Sancho-Madriz

use it? For me, that word is “mentee.”

There are perfectly well-intentioned people who use “mentee” to refer to someone who seeks advice from a mentor. But mentor is not based on a verb describing an action. The English word mentor has a distinguished pedigree dating to Homer’s “Odyssey,” referring to the character Mentor who was the trusted tutor and advisor to young Telemachus, the son of Odysseus the king, while Odysseus was away from home fighting in the Trojan War. Even with the benefit of your education from Cal Poly Pomona and ENV, you would be well-advised to also recruit one or more mentors who can give you advice along the way.

Some of you already have found a mentor. It might be your faculty advisor or the instructor of your favorite course. It might be your supervisor from a summer internship. The most important quality of

Associate Dean

Professor George Proctor

Chair, Department of Architecture

Associate Professor Ray Kampf Chair, Department of Art

Professor Andrew Wilcox Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture

Associate Professor Dohyung Kim Chair, Department of Urban and Regional Planning

Professor Kyle D. Brown Director, Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies

Jenkins Shannon

Senior Director of Development

ENV ONLINE env.cpp.edu

FOLLOW ENV

facebook.com/cppenv twitter.com/cppenv

ON THE COVER

A drone image by Seth Van Der Linden (‘15, landscape architecture) captures a flock of landscape architecture students who appear to take flight along the Los Angeles River at Taylor Yards in Cypress Park (see page 4 for more).

ABOUT THE FONT

Dean Michael Woo displaying a framed copy of Max Podenski’s “The Vernacular Architecture of Los Angeles.”

a mentor is reliable accessibility. If you find yourself in a dilemma or have a professional or personal question hanging over you, a mentor is someone you can turn to who will answer your phone call or respond to your text message. Your mentor may be a friend, but a mentor should possess the additional quality of wisdom and generosity of spirit, enabling him or her to share that wisdom with you when you are hungering for it.

My advisor in city planning graduate school was someone who, on the surface, might have been an unexpected choice as a mentor. Dr. Leonard Duhl did not have a degree in urban planning — he was a psychiatrist with expertise in mental health and developmental disabilities.

Recruited by President John F. Kennedy to work on mental retardation issues at the federal level, Duhl was on the scene when the War on Poverty and an unprecedented federal attack on urban problems were launched during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.

With his combination of expertise in federal policy and his psychiatrist’s understanding of human behavior, Duhl turned out to be an ideal choice to advise an impressionable young planning student who was trying to understand the relationship between social change and personal change. A few years later, when I was ready to enter the job market, Duhl referred me to one of his former War on Poverty colleagues who offered me my first real job.

I encourage you to cultivate a mentor (or two) and invest some effort into maintaining the relationship. You also could play an important role in somebody’s life by serving as a mentor to someone coming up behind you. Don’t just be a mentee. Be a mentor.

MICHAEL K. WOO Dean, College of Environmental Design mwoo@cpp.edu

Neutraface is a family of fonts designed

by Christian Schwartz, released by the type foundry House Industries in 2002, based upon the architectural lettering specified by Richard Neutra.

A very special thank you to Juliana Terian (’80, architecture) for her generous gift that has made this magazine possible, and for her continued support for the College of Environmental Design.

Printed by Chromatic Inc.

2

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 3

STUDENT PROJECTS

Ideas and Visions Coming Out of ENV Classrooms FUTURE DESK LAMPS TAKE SPOTLIGHT

GLASSWORK MEETS CAMPUS LANDSCAPE Third-year landscape architecture students participated in the Landscape+Glass Installation at Garcia Center for the Arts in San Bernardino, adding a touch of delicacy and whimsy to the center’s environs.

Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture students Ryan Clark and Michael Yu, along with Cal State San Bernardino students Yuchen Gu and Melissa Johnson, used mirrored glass tubing and dual Velcro to install their work at the center’s northern fence.

“Breathing Tree” by Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture student Devon Patterson and CSUSB students Spencer Baisden, Jessy Gamez and Rinoi Imada, incorporates blown glass, jewelry wire and nails on the easternmost tree of the center’s western lot.

“Cascada de Colores” by Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture students Diego Vasquez Solis and Xiomi Yamauchi, along with CSUSB students Mayra Chan, Mariah Conner and Alejandra Escoto, used colored flat glass and wire to decorate the center’s front eastern façade.

Shant Charoian, a junior majoring in architecture, was among more than two dozen students in Professor Hofu Wu’s ARC 472 System Integration course who constructed their version of “Tomorrow’s Futuristic Desk Lamp.” The designs were submitted to the Luminaire Design Competition organized by the Los Angeles chapter of the Designer Lighting Forum.

(DIS)EMBODIED MAPPING WORKSHOP Second-year landscape architecture students participated in a mapping workshop using drones that was led by Assistant Professor Rennie Tang, alumnus Seth Van Der Linden (‘15, landscape architecture) and landscape architect Jean Yang. The April 23 workshop was field work for their project site, the G2 parcel of Taylor Yards in Cypress Park.

The exercise involved physical tracings on the ground (embodied) and movement patterns captured from above using a drone (disembodied). Van Der Linden and Yang led the drone component of the workshop funded by Cal Poly Pomona’s SPICE (Special Projects for Improving the Classroom Environment) grant.

TRANSIT PROJECTS COLLIDE WITH GENTRIFICATION Kam Fung Lau’s (’17, urban and regional planning) senior project was one of two winning entries in the 2017 SCAG/Esri Story Maps Student Challenge. Lau’s project asserts that a relationship exists between gentrification and light-rail transit. Transit-oriented development brings substantial demographic and land-use changes to neighborhoods; such gentrification can increase rents in urban areas or force people to commute from the suburbs.

“The introduction of light-rail transit may stimulate a process of gentrification and potential displacement of existing residents,” Lau writes.

MORE 4

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 5

STUDENT PROJECTS

PHOTO SERIES QUESTIONS PERCEPTIONS STUDENTS PLAY SHELL GAME FOR CLASS How fast can you build a geodesic shell structure? Students from Assistant Professor Marc Schulitz’s ARC 341 and ARC 499 classes twice constructed a shell structure in the ENV Gallery in Building 7, part of a project funded by Cal Poly Pomona’s Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity faculty grant program.

Sophomore graphic design student Dikran Matevosyan wants the viewer to decide if the person in his photo series “Melt” is serene, fighting or suffocating.

Shot for a photography course taught last quarter by lecturer Juliana Rico, Matevosyan explains that the subject in front of the lens represents people and society immersed in melting-pot culture.

“As time progresses, we begin to mix and clash and add another layer of culture,” he explains. “The colors flow and blend together in these photos in the same way cultures begin to blend together. Culture accumulates layer after layer, and in the end all the colors are not only visible but also combine with one another to create something new altogether.”

SHARING SKETCHES AS INDIVISUALS Part of the Department of Landscape Architecture’s 60th anniversary lineup, IndiVisuals showcased a “yearlong odyssey of visual notation/thinking/dreaming/observations” expressed in the sketchbooks of more than 50 students. The January exhibition, held in the ENV Gallery, saw the moleskin books suspended in the space, allowing visitors to browse through pages populated with drawings from field trip sites, projects and scenes from the Italian countryside as seen by students who spent a semester abroad in the department’s Italy Program.

ON THE

GRID

Scholarship and Fellowship Awards

HAIL THE VALEDICTORIAN Hannah Schramm (’17, graphic design) is the McPhee Scholar and valedictorian for the College of Environmental Design Class of 2017. The honor, named after Cal Poly Pomona founding President Julian McPhee, is given to an undergraduate student from each college graduating with the highest grade-point average. The award is made possible by an anonymous donor who worked alongside McPhee during the post-World War II growth of Cal Poly Pomona.

LUMINARIES OF LUMINAIRE Three juniors from Professor Hofu Wu’s ARC 472 System Integration course were named finalists for this year’s Student Luminaire Design Competition, organized by the Los Angeles chapter of the Designer Lighting Forum. Gia Luong, Eduardo Martinez and Larry Phong will receive a combined $5,000 in scholarships.

ART + LANDSCAPE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Developed in collaboration with conceptual artist Mel Chin, the inaugural fellowship program gives landscape architecture students insights about contemporary practices that connect art and landscape. The fellowship was awarded to Galina Novikova, Ivan Ochoa, Cristina Plemel, Chris Valenzuela and Iliana Valenzuela, who each received a $1,000 stipend.

Throughout the 2016-2017 academic year, the students worked with Chin on the project “The TIE that BINDS: The MIRROR of the FUTURE,” which entailed assisting with the implementation of drought-tolerant gardens designed by the artist on yards throughout Los Angeles.

MORE 6

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 7

STUDENT PROJECTS

WATER TREATMENT PLANT GETS NEW VISION For his senior project, Franco Chen (’17, architecture) tackled the “natural and the artificial — an active contestation of the picturesquely divine against the naive progression of man.” His redesign of the Vernon Water Treatment Facility reimagines the facility as a structure better integrated with its surroundings.

MAKING A SPACE CONNECTION Ryan Keenan (’17, architecture) pitches a vision for the expansion of USC’s Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for the Arts, Technology and Business of Innovation. With admissions to the USC academy rising, there is a need to expand the program’s amenities from the single floor it occupies.

“The connector is a structural system that acts as a synthetic cloud, aiming to physically connect the entire project. In this case, the connector is a re-imagined 3D space-frame system which structurally supports and hosts in the infill buildings. The identifier is a series of façade systems that express individuality within the project. In this case, the identifier is broken down into three levels of identification. The first level of identity seeks to support the building in the larger context of South Park. The second level of identification seeks to support the school in the context of the building. The third level of identification seeks to support the individual in the context of the school,” Keenan writes.

1,000 MODEL STUDENTS HIT GALLERY Second-year undergraduate and first-year graduate architecture students built and installed more than 1,000 models at the ENV Gallery. This model-making charette conceptualized by Assistant Professor Katrin Terstegen served as a tool to intuitively explore “possible architectural propositions without the constraint of program and site. Using these ideal and generic shapes as a point of departure, the models can then be adapted to the specific requirement of a building program.”

SERVICE LEARNING OFFERS REAL-WORLD CHALLENGES Students from Associate Professor Alyssa Lang’s spring 2016 Graphic Design III partnered with 826LA, a nonprofit organization that supports youths ages 6-18 with their creative writing skills. Using a Service Learning Fellowship provided by Cal Poly Pomona’s Center for Community Engagement, Lang and her students designed and printed custom promotion items to help the organization boost its volunteer base. Students produced a poster series, brochures, button and bag, as well as digital graphics for the organization’s website and future design materials. The winning design was the work of students Dylan Abuel, Morgan Cheung, Richard-Alan Hollien III, and Matthew Roldan.

“The course was filled with real-world challenges — budget, deadlines and working as part of a team,” Lang says.

“The class was divided into six teams, each proposing their own vision aligned with the creative brief presented by the client. One of the most interesting challenges for the students was working as part of a team.”

MORE 8

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 9

STUDENT PROJECTS

POLY-KROMA CELEBRATES THE BEST OF FINE ARTS, GRAPHIC DESIGN AND ART HISTORY Poly-Kroma is an annual event comprised of three simultaneous shows featuring pieces — a sample of which are seen here — by art history, fine art and graphic design majors that are direct results of coursework completed by students in the Department of Art. The Poly-Kroma 2017 Art Department Senior and 2D3D Shows are the outcome of the capstone experiences of undergraduate students in the program. 2017 Industry Night showcases senior graphic design portfolios and collateral material from the Professional Practices in Graphic Design capstone class. The student portfolios include work from the totality of the student’s experience at Cal Poly Pomona, representing the progressive accomplishments achieved throughout the curriculum.

Poly-Kroma also features abstracts of original scholarly research papers by art history majors, the culmination of two quarters of guided independent studies. Meanwhile, the 2D3D Juried Art Exhibition displays art and graphic design work by students at all academic levels. Two-dimensional artforms include painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, poster design and book-making. Three-dimension works include pottery, ceramics, sculpture, assemblage, and installation art. Poly-Kroma runs through June 11.

ON THE

GRID

2017 ENV Award Winners

DEAN’S AWARDS FOR OUTSTANDING STUDENT FROM EACH DEPARTMENT

Noel Vasquez Architecture

Summer Furzer Art

Amanda Flores

Landscape Architecture

Colleen Fisher

Regenerative Studies

David Peña

Urban & Regional Planning

AWARDS BY DEPARTMENT ARCHITECTURE Henry Adam Medal and Certificate

Alejandro Sanchez Atineh Movsesian Christopher Rosa LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Howard O. Boltz Award for Outstanding Senior

Estevan Castaneda Senior Design Student Award

Juan Prieto Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Aaron Ackerman URBAN & REGIONAL PLANNING American Institute of Certified Planners Award

Shelly Jordan Undergraduate

Brie Jones

Graduate

Graduate

Merit Awards and APA Membership

AIA Certificate of Merit

Harold Arzate Kevin Bianco Miguel Del Rio Jacob Francis Monique Garibay Kam Fung Lau Serena Liu Renzo Pali Luis Rubalcava Priscilla Yi

Noel Vasquez Undergraduate

Nicholas Rosas Graduate

Alpha Ro Chi Bronze Medal

Ariel Mascarinas Tau Sigma Delta Bronze Medal

Jerrin Garcia

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

2017 Diana Divelbess recipients

Ryan Keenan Undergraduate

10

ART

Kathryn Brun

Commencement / Summer • 2017 11

W H AT A R E YOU DOING THIS SUMMER ?

Students and Faculty Share Their PLANS

“This summer, I will be reading, reading, writing, writing and planning a bicycle ride along the Pacific Coast Highway from my sister’s house in Trinity County (northern California) back to Los Angeles.”

—Assistant Professor Courtney Knapp, Department of Urban and Regional Planning

“I have accepted the invitation by Mercy Housing to intern for their real estate department as a project assistant intern. I am excited to learn the real estate process from acquiring land to getting a certification of occupancy.

I believe housing is a human right and I am excited to be working with a national affordable housing developer this summer.”

—Gloria Gutierrez, sophomore majoring in urban and regional planning

“I will be interning at SWA Laguna Beach for the summer. I will take part in construction documentation, schematic and conceptual design development, largescale urban design projects and simultaneously working with different design groups.”

—Nermeen Aboudawood, junior majoring in landscape architecture

12

“I will be taking a family

trip to Hawaii and then enjoying working on lettering, calligraphy, quilling and bookbinding in my newly remodeled backyard art studio.”

— Associate Professor Alyssa Lang, Department of Art

“Clean my house!”

—Elizabeth Zangenberg, senior majoring in art history major with a minor in Native American studies

“I will be contracted as a recycling coordinator by Athens Services to help the City of Los Angeles reach its goal of achieving 95 percent solid waste diversion by 2025.”

—Elektra Grant, lecturer, regenerative studies

“Practice Spanish with my daughter, Revit courses on Lynda.com, go back to working out and healthy eating. Haven’t landed an internship—yet.”

—Francisco Benitez, junior majoring in architecture

“I’ll be experiencing Canadian urbanism by visiting Vancouver, Toronto, and Montréal in June.”

—Ryan Shepard, sophomore majoring in urban and regional planning

FROM STUDENT TO TEACHER At the end of August, Alejandro Sanchez (’17, graphic design) will travel to Madrid, Spain, to teach English in a program through the Council of International Education and Exchange. “ENV was an amazing program and through it I made everlasting friendships and memories,” Sanchez says. “I really enjoyed school and if I could, I would stay longer. But it is time to move on and prosper, and hopefully be able to give back to the program for all it has done for me.”

THE WRIGHT STUFF Galina Novikova, a junior majoring in landscape architecture, was one of two students selected from a nationwide pool of applicants for the summer Fallingwater Landscape Internship in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. She will work closely with the resident horticulture specialist on projects in and around the house museum environment of Fallingwater, a masterwork designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Novikova, a Wright admirer, will help implement design schemes around the site’s woodland garden landscape in the 5,000-acre Bear Run Nature Preserve, where the house is nestled.

IVY LEAGUE TRAINING Alvaro Huerta, assistant professor of urban and regional planning, will participate in a summer workshop hosted by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning at Harvard University. The ACSP Junior Faculty Workshop for Faculty of Color is organized by the group’s Committee on Diversity to provide early career tenure-track faculty the skills to thrive in the planning teaching field.

Huerta will join other professors interacting with senior faculty from various ACSP institutions from June 22-24. The workshops will focus on development of research and publishing agendas, effective service and teaching, and long-term career planning.

THANK HEAVENS Denise Nugent (’16, architecture) will spend her summer traveling through Asia, Europe and South America for architectural research.

Nugent earned the Cavin Family Traveling Fellowship, an annual competition that awards $12,000 to recent graduates and emerging professionals to further their education through foreign travel-study. After an intense four-day charrette, Nugent bested a highly competitive group of recent graduates from the departments of architecture at the University of Oregon and Cal Poly Pomona.

Her winning entry, “Relics,” explored the relationships of architects and the cosmos dating to antiquity, and focused on the designers of observatories and other astronomical structures. View her winning entry at www.cavinfellowship.org.

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE Alexia Mackey, a junior majoring in civil engineering with a minor in regenerative studies, will be in Durban, South Africa, for eight weeks to participate in a sustainable sanitation project as part of the U.S.-South Africa Partnership under the International Research for Students program in environmental engineering. She and Monica Palomo, assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, will join students, faculty and researchers from San Diego State University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal to study advances in decentralized water treatment at the Newlands-Mashu field site.

This isn’t Mackey’s first time working overseas on sustainable water projects. She and her mother have volunteered for the international nonprofit Earthwatch Institute on two trips. In 2008, the pair joined an expedition in the Bahamas collecting and analyzing water quality samples from harbors, the open ocean and near population centers to analyze the human impact on aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity. In 2015, they were in Malaysian Borneo to assess rainforest configuration, and to evaluate the destructive effects of deforestation and palm oil plantations on biodiversity, soil conditions and water quality in the rivers impacted by soil runoff. They also partnered with international volunteers and local researchers to measure restoration progress.

“My mother is a lifelong environmentalist and raised me to be an environmental steward, so I made sure that was integrated into my career,” Mackey says. “As an engineering student, I think that water fields are vital, now and especially in the future. I intend to continue focusing on water conservation, quality and sanitation. So yes, water issues are certainly something close to my heart!”

June-July: renew real estate broker’s license.

July-September: Negotiate deal with land owner to put architectural documents on property and sell. Use funds for land acquisition and architectural document preparation to build high-end homes in 2019.

—David Swann, second-year master’s in architecture

“My summer plans include the following: travel to the Dominican Republic; teaching summer courses in globalization and evolution of cities.”

—Abishek Tiwari, lecturer, Department of Urban and Regional Planning

“I’m getting married, going to Morocco and learning Arabic.”

—Professor Lee-Anne Milburn, Department of Landscape Architecture

“More play time with my kids, watch the Confederations and Gold Cup.”

SUMMER INTERNSHIPS A summer internship is a proven tool for ENV students to apply Cal Pomona’s learnby-doing philosophy to working in the real world. For many ENV students, an internship can provide a gateway to a permanent job and a fulfilling career. Under the leadership of chair Andrew Wilcox, the Department of Landscape Architecture has been especially successful in helping students find internships this summer:

AARON ACKERMAN (third-year MLA) Mia Lehrer + Associates in a full-time position

KRISTIN MISA SULLIVAN (third-year MLA) Roger’s Gardens Landscaping

CRISTINA PLEMEL (first-year MLA) U.S. Forest Service

NERMEEN ABOUDAWOOD (third-year BSLA) SWA Group

COLLIN NG (third-year BSLA) Rios Clemente Hale Studios

HYUNJI KIM (third-year BSLA) MJS

PAUL SPITTLE (second-year MLA) Architerra Design Group

JUSTIN DEVESTA (second-year MLA) Savage Land Design

JINGWEI ZHOU (second-year MLA) ATA Architects (Beijing, China)

ALEXANDER JAUREGUI (first-year MLA) Best Plants Direct

KENNETH RODGERS (third-year BSLA) Lifescape Design Build

TIMOTHY CURRAN (second-year MLA) Pomona Unified School District

RACHEL WELLS (second-year BSLA) Albert A. Webb Associates

GALINA NOVIKOVA (third-year BSLA) Fallingwater (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright)

ESTEVAN CASTANEDA (fourth-year BSLA) AHBE Landscape Architects

AMANDA FLORES (fourth-year BSLA) AHBE Landscape Architects

—Delmer Guillen, ENV instructional support technician

Commencement / Summer • 2017 13

ON THE CAREER P AT H

ENV Alumni Talk Turning Points and Lessons Learned

PUSH THE BOUNDARIES Although I graduated just a year ago, I am growing as a designer and learning new things every day. There were two key turning points for me. The first was my internship. I interned for two years starting the summer before my third year in the landscape architecture program. I did more than just work on landscape projects — I got to do some architectural planning and a little bit of civil engineer work (of course, all of that was supervised). Those two years taught me a lot, and the support that everyone in the office gave me while I balanced being an intern and going to school full-time gave me the confidence and energy to finish college on a high note.

Before I was an intern, I was the office secretary. At the time, all I wanted was experience in the field, whether or not I was going to design or draft. Being secretary at a multi-disciplinary design office (architecture, landscape architecture, planning and civil engineering), I actually learned a lot and got to help with tasks for each department.

Whatever position you are in, take it in full and push the boundaries of what you can learn. There will always be something to learn from any experience. I would constantly ask questions and I learned much about all the disciplines.

My second turning point was a student honor and merit award presentation. Every year, the Southern California Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects holds student honor and merit award presentations. The department of landscape architecture nominates a certain number of students to present to a panel of professionals from the field. I was one of six students from the undergraduate program to be nominated in my senior year. I was nervous on the day of the presentations, and I did not expect much afterward. But that same day, I got a job interview request from one of the jurors via email. That job interview became an offer for a fulltime position, which is where I am working.

Everyone’s story is different. Try to network as much as you can and be yourself. It is a stressful time for soon-to-be graduates (Do not be like me and not have a portfolio done before interviews.). Take any opportunity that comes your way, no matter how big or small. Don’t get discouraged if a door closes on you — something better will find its way.

—Nicole Nguyen (’16, landscape architecture), landscape designer, BGB Design Group; secretary, American Society of Landscape Architects, Southern California Chapter.

AT YOUR SERVICE My career path is evolving and perhaps always will be. If you enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll want to improve and influence your profession, and leave your mark. I am working in the public sector and one moment stands out.

As a member of the planning division in an Orange County city, I reviewed plans for a single-family residence and sent a letter with corrections on zoning and landscape plans. A few days later, our office received the revised plans and that evening I got a phone call from the future buyer of the home. She explained how badly she needed her plans looked in order to secure financing on the home. It was 5 p.m. Quittin’ time, and up to this point I hadn’t yet stayed after hours in the office for any reason. However, I understood this woman’s urgency and how important it was to her. To me, it was just another set of plans, but to her it was her dream. Mind you, this was during the Great Recession when banks heavily scrutinized home loans.

This was a turning point for me because I hadn’t yet realized what it was like to be a public servant. I stayed an extra hour that evening to review and approve the plans. When she found out, she was very grateful. I realized that while some of these projects may be bland or standard to me, every set of plans has a back story and it may be very important to the future homeowner or the small business startup or the coffee shop owner or the industrial artist. It may be their livelihood. Whether you’re an architect, landscape architect or a planner, and whether you end up working in the public or private sector, it’s imperative that we who are designing or guiding the development of our environment view every project as if it was in our own neighborhood, workplace or home. Every single project will be important to someone’s life. We must pour our passion into each one and serve our clients well.

After all, we’re Broncos.

—David Schlegel (’10, urban and regional planning), associate planner, Shasta County Resource Management Department

PASSION IS VITAL Since graduating in 1995, I realize how lucky I’ve been in my career. There have been many turning points that contributed to my development, both personally and professionally. All of them occurred as a result of two important factors: the challenges I faced and how my passion for graphic design enabled me to transform those challenges into achievements.

Passion is the key, as both a motivator and as a force of change. Without passion, you cannot be the best you can be. Fortunately for me, I learned that lesson early on, allowing passion to be my guide.

Today, there are so many career options in the graphic design field, and technology is evolving the profession at an incredibly fast rate. When I first started out, I was willing to do whatever it took to get my foot in the door. When an opportunity presented itself at a small educational publisher, I jumped at it — working there during the day as a print designer and working nights at the Foote, Cone & Belding ad agency.

During that time, I learned a very important lesson: graphic designers are problem solvers. That’s a big part of the job description. We’re hired to listen to the client, identify their concerns and needs, and resolve any issues. Once I understood that, I strived to deliver customer satisfaction, finding ways to increase my skills so I could provide the best service.

It was at this juncture that my passion led me to discover motion. Unlike static imagery, motion allowed me to tell a more complex story over a period of time.

That —combined with other mediums — can deliver a more complete and valuable solution for the client.

My passion for motion also gave me the confidence to take more career risks, leading me to a job opportunity at Fox Sports. I may have exaggerated my résumé slightly, but I was confident I could meet the challenge, trusting my passion to overcome any potential technical shortcomings.

The switch from ad agency to broadcast was one of the biggest turning points in my career. It paved the way for me and my future partners to open our own motion house, MFactor Inc., which was an unforgettable experience and an important step in my professional growth.

Today, I’m on a new adventure, helping to create and grow the team at Elder Tree, a new ad agency. I could not be happier with where my passion has led me and I’m especially grateful to all the people I’ve met and collaborated with along the way. It’s incredibly important to have that network in order to trade ideas, learn from each other, and help each other to succeed.

Follow your passion. Not only will it take you on an exciting career path, but it will also ensure a lifetime of fulfillment.

—Marc Kazlauskas (’95, graphic design), creative director, Elder Tree

MORE 14

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 15

ON THE CAREER P AT H

Frongerparken in Rick Walker’s Oslo neighborhood

GAINING THE TOOLS My career choice was made in Oslo, Norway. I had just left UCLA in 1969 and was thinking that I’d study architecture at Cal Poly Pomona. My dad, a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, recommended the school as he respected many of the professors. He expected that the university would be accredited by the time I finished my classes.

I decided to visit Norway before enrolling at Cal Poly Pomona to see if what I had heard about the Norwegian culture from my college professor was true. Oslo was a city still recovering from the German occupation of World War II, with new construction that focused on housing that was quite spartan. There was a severe housing shortage and growing pains in a society where the future held tremendous opportunities. Oil had been discovered and that made people nervous because the anticipated influx of wealth had the potential of changing the culture, which many Norwegians felt was already doing quite well.

The Cal Poly Pomona School of Environmental Design [the official name before the university changed the names of its schools to colleges] was focused on physical design practice in those days, which fit well with where I wanted my career to go. Living in Oslo for three years taught me that a well-ordered, moderately dense and accessible urban environment was an exciting place to live.

Having experienced my childhood in suburban Altadena and West Covina, I had no experience living in an urban environment. Oslo changed that. I lived for three years in an apartment in the Fronger District with the King’s Palace just a few blocks away. The center of the commercial, business, cultural and government districts were just minutes away by foot. The city had the bones of a well-functioning urban capital. Trains, trollies, buses and, to a lesser extent, cars provided easy access to the city of 481,500 people.

Upon my return to the university, Cal Poly Pomona gave me just what I needed to conduct my professional life in a creative and knowledgeable manner. No matter how varied my assignments were or what types of properties I was working with, Cal Poly Pomona had given me the tools to develop professional and supportable recommendations, and opinions for significant land-use decisions and property valuations.

Now retired, I am enjoying the fruits of my career and planning background. Living near the first off-ramp on I-84 east of downtown Portland, I walk 10 minutes to the Max Light Rail Station to hop a train for $1.10 to Portland State University, where I have free access to university classes in all subjects of interest. I walk to my library, barber, doctor, dentist, restaurants and a movie theater, as well as the neighborhood pub all within the Hollywood District of Portland. You can say that Cal Poly Pomona gave me the tools to conduct my career, and the knowledge to pick a neighborhood that supports my particular interests and needs.

A JOB OFFER ON THE SPOT Just after graduation, I began interviewing. I hadn’t interviewed since being an intern a year or so earlier.

This time it was for real — a job where I would be paid to participate on a team producing projects that get built.

Needless to say, I was a little anxious. I relied on my communication and presentation skills learned from studio and my academic training, and carried a solid portfolio and huge excitement about the opportunities ahead and my vision to become an architect.

The interview was winding down and to my surprise the hiring manager asked if I could start that day. I said yes, then drove home to get lunch and my tools. I could hardly believe what had just happened. I was thrilled to be starting my professional career that very day.

Along the way — with a couple of scars from earlier economic recessions — I was confident and determined to team with my architect husband, just the two of us.

It was a bold decision, a true turning point in my career with plenty of challenges, like learning “do-or-die” networking and outreaching to keep projects and finances flowing, devising a new level of financial planning to survive and grow a practice, and, most important, supporting each other to define our unique skills while sharing the position of “boss.” I took my exams and earned my license. Now being an architect, my vision was unfolding with new rigor.

Early in those years, at the suggestion of a well-known architect Betsey O. Dougherty (Look her up and find a way to meet her if you don’t already know her.), I joined the AIA Orange County Chapter, became a board member and later its president. I learned so much from my colleagues and committee activities, greatly expanding my understanding of the role that architects, landscape architects, engineers of all specialties, environmental specialists, city officials and the public have in shaping our communities. It is from our collaborative participation that our living, working and recreation spaces evolve.

My husband and I grew our firm and take on the projects we enjoy. I also consult and work with other firms.

I am a former city official, and actively participate in the community as a board member for various organizations while raising our family. This keeps me reinventing and redefining myself, my skills and my joys for our practice and my soul.

Move forward and keep learning – always.

TAKE A RISK Initially, I planned to follow in my father’s footsteps (Jeff Collier, ’82 urban and regional planning) and practice planning in local government after graduation. However, in my sophomore and junior years, I had an opportunity to intern as a land planner with RBF Consulting, which exposed me to a variety of disciplines, including environmental planning, construction management and all forms of civil engineering from transportation to land development.

I enjoyed being involved daily with a wide variety of challenges, realizing how integrated these different disciplines are and how critical it is to work together to create a successful project. After college, I worked for seven years in local government planning, but my passion for being involved in an environment where challenges come quick, and vary significantly from day to day, led me to take a risk and join a respected real estate development company in 2014 as a project manager. I am responsible for projects from initial concept through construction.

I love having the ability to work with a variety of stakeholders (city governments, residents, nonprofits) and consultants (engineers, landscape architects, architects) on a daily basis to overcome challenges and develop projects that better our communities.

—Adam Collier (’07, urban and regional planning), project manager, Lewis Management Co.

–Kimberly Stuart (’89, master’s in architecture), principal, Stuart Architecture, Inc.

—Rick Walker (’76, urban and regional planning)

16

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 17

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

ASK a Librarian!

In the spring quarter, Kai Smith, the University Library’s subject librarian for the College of Environmental Design, launched “Ask A Librarian!,” a pilot program in Building 7. For one hour every Wednesday, students and faculty had access for informal sessions with her to get answers about research methods, thesis writing and formatting, and free citation and image database resources available to them.

Smith has extensive experience in academics and arts research, from reference support and collection development, to the management of visual resources with a focus on visual literacy, copyright and fair use, and creative commons licenses. She brings a wealth of experience shaped by a diverse background working in academia, museums and the public sector. Smith has held workshops for faculty at Notre Dame University and the University of Michigan, and contributed to digitalization efforts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

WHAT DOES AN ENV LIBRARIAN DO? As the ENV librarian, I support the research needs of faculty, students and staff in the College of Environmental Design. This involves support in person, via email and by phone. I help students develop stronger searching strategies.

I teach students key searching strategies to help them work smarter, not harder. In addition, I help students discover and use the library’s resources such as Document Delivery, which is an interlibrary loan system that can search for a resource and send a scanned article to a student or faculty member’s account or deliver a requested book to the circulation desk for pick up.

WHAT RESEARCH TOOLS DO FACULTY AND LECTURERS HAVE ACCESS TO? Faculty and lecturers have access to all the databases the library subscribes to in addition to open-source resources. They can access databases through the website or curated online resource guides that I developed for ENV. These are sorted by majors or specifically designed for classes.

HELP! I’M WORKING ON MY THESIS THIS SUMMER. Students have access to the library and support with their thesis through the library’s thesis prep workshops available throughout the quarters. In addition, student can access alumni theses and senior

projects through the library catalog and scanned full text versions through Bronco Scholar, the library’s online repository. I am available all summer to help students find sources and develop enhanced searching strategies.

WHAT IS ZOTERO AND HOW DO I MAXIMIZE MY USE FOR MY RESEARCH PAPERS/PROJECT? Zotero is a free citation manager embedded in your browser that helps you collect citation information and makes it easy to create a bibliography and to do in-text citations in Microsoft Word, Google Doc and Libre Office. I teach workshops to faculty and students throughout the year. I offer in-person workshops and, for faculty, webinars through the Faculty Development Center. I created an online resource guide to support anyone who wants to learn Zotero. To find out about the next workshop dates or to access the guide, check http:// libguides.library.cpp.edu/zotero

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COPYRIGHT VS. FAIR USE VS. CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE? Copyright is the protected right from the creator or owner of a work to provide permission to others to use their creation. The library subscribes to a number of databases to provide faculty and students access to copyrighted work for educational use.

Fair use is a doctrine from a U.S. law that permits limited use of a copyrighted material without securing permission. In certain mediums, this can be a gray area to determine how much can be used. You can learn more about fair use in the visual arts at the College Art Association’s Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in the Visual Arts: http:// www.collegeart.org/pdf/fair-use/best-practices-fair-use-visual-arts.pdf Creative common licenses are alternatives to copyright. There are six different licenses: attribution by (CC BY), Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA), Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND), Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC), Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) and Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeriv (CC BY-NCND). Another “license” includes public domain, which is to share one’s work and have it reused and remixed by anyone. These licenses give you more freedom over how you (as the creator) might want your work used by other. Learn more about creative commons at https://creativecommons.org/licenses

COUNTDOWN to Semester Conversion

TRANSITION TIME

What Students Need to Know About the Transition From the Quarter System The 2017-2018 academic year will be the last time Cal Poly Pomona operates under the quarter system. By this time next year, the university will launch the conversion to the semester calendar.

Cal Poly Pomona has operated on a quarter system since 1938, and is one of six campuses in the California State University system to make the transition in the next seven years.

The merits of a semester system can’t be overlooked, according to university President Soraya M. Coley.

“At its heart, this change will be a gift to future generations,” Coley notes in her letter to the campus community. “The benefits of conversion are very clear, especially in supporting our student success initiatives.

The semester system allows for more in-depth projects, richer learning experiences, and closer relationships between faculty and students. A semester calendar better aligns us with other colleges and universities.

Virtually all community colleges are on semesters, enabling students to more easily transfer course credits and complete their degree.”

Here are the TOP THREE QUESTIONS asked by students enrolled in the quarter system: WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE SURE I’M READY FOR THE TRANSITION? Advising is available for all transition students in summer 2017. Make sure to schedule a meeting with your faculty advisor to discuss your study plans and utilize your Individual Academic Plan and MyPlanner to stay on track.

WILL MY QUARTER UNITS COUNT TOWARD MY DEGREE AFTER SEMESTER CONVERSION? University officials say that every effort will be made to make sure that the units earned in the quarter system will still count toward degrees that will be awarded to students graduating in the semester system. Read about Cal Poly Pomona’s commitment to transition students through semester conversion in “Our Pledge to Students” at www.cpp.edu/~semester/students/pledge.shtml

DO THE NUMBER OF UNITS I NEED TO GRADUATE CHANGE UNDER THE SEMESTER SYSTEM? Yes. Currently, students need to have 180 units to graduate — 45 units per academic year over four years, or 15 units per quarter. Under the semester system, students must complete 120 units to graduate, breaking down to 30 units per academic year over four years (or 15 units per semester).

Learn more about Cal Poly Pomona’s semester conversion schedule at www.cpp.edu/~semester/index.shtml.

Got a question for Kai Smith? Contact her at kasmith@cpp.edu or (909) 869-6349.

18

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 19

IN THE KNOW

FALL 2017

Meet the ENV IAP Ambassador

TRANSITION TIME

Orientation for New Students

MICHELLE PEREZ HELPS PLOT PATHS TO GRADUATION

FIRST-TIME FRESHMEN ADVISING SESSIONS

A multitude of helping hands guided Michelle Perez to the College of Environmental Design. Now, the first-year urban and regional planning student wants to pay it forward by helping fellow students navigate the academic deadlines that can overwhelm students — especially those who share her experience as the first in their family to attend college.

Eager to take on a leadership role, Perez found her niche after meeting Student Success ambassadors from Cal Poly Pomona’s Office of University Advising when she dropped in for Dessert with the Dean, the quarterly informal gathering for ENV students and faculty hosted by Dean Michael Woo. The ambassadors were promoting the newly launched Individualized Academic Plan (IAP), a useful online tool that enables students to organize their classes by term. Perez volunteered and trained to be ENV’s IAP ambassador, a student guide who promotes the use of the tool among peers to achieve a singular goal: graduating on time.

“I’m always that resourceful friend that tries to help you out,” Perez explains. “I’m an EOP [Educational Opportunity Program] student, and I feel like the extra support makes the difference. Some students are very shy to ask for help, or, in my instance, everything is always new. Asking questions is always good, and if I can be helpful then I’m happy to do it.”

Think of the IAP as a visual roadmap listing the sequence of classes — general education, prerequisites and critical core courses — that students in every major need to complete. For students to generate an IAP, they must use the complimentary online program MyPlanner on BroncoDirect. After inputting the courses they plan to take now and in the future, their schedule it reviewed by a faculty advisor. The IAP is generated after its approval.

The extra effort gives students the ultimate time-saver by ensuring that they don’t overlook registering for important classes.

“It’s important to plan ahead,” Perez says. “For example, if URP 299 is only offered in the fall, the IAP is helpful when it tells you that there is a pre-req for that class and when exactly that pre-req is offered.”

Data from the IAP also helps the university gauge the demand for courses and enable administrators to efficiently schedule them. Students will be better served by the timing of available courses when they are aligned with their progress in their respective majors.

Perez will begin holding office hours at the beginning of the fall quarter at the ENV Student Success Center in Building 7, room 200. Students are welcome to schedule appointments by emailing mnp@cpp.edu.

DATE

DEPARTMENT

TIME

ADVISING

COMPUTER LAB

June 29

All Departments

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

July 6

Art Only

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

July 11

Architecture Only

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

July 27

Landscape/URP Only

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

August 3

All Departments

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

September 11

All Departments

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

September 15

All Departments

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

TRANSFER STUDENT ADVISING SESSIONS DATE

DEPARTMENT

TIME

ADVISING

COMPUTER LAB

July 18

Landscape/URP Only

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

July 25

All Departments

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

August 1

Art Only

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

August 15

Architecture Only

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

August 29

All Departments

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

September 11

All Departments

9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery

3-1122 • 3-1632 • 3-1640

Learn more about the IAP by visiting www.cpp.edu/~advising/iap and MyPlanner at www.cpp.edu/~advising/myplanner.

Photos by Kyle W. Sam (second-year architecture major) 20

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 21

FA C U LT Y NOTES

In and Out of the Classroom

ARCHITECTURE COLLABORATION Lauren Bricker, professor of architecture, and Keiji Uesugi, lecturer in the department of landscape architecture, are collaborating in a fall exhibit at the Don B. Huntley Gallery on Francis Dean, co-founder of the international design firm EDAW. The show is part of the Department of Landscape Architecture’s 60th Anniversary festivities.

Dean, who established EDAW with partners Garrett Eckbo, Don Austin and Edward Williams, became a faculty member after he retired from EDAW in 1976 and continued teaching until 1989. The College of Environmental Design is the keeper of a large collection of Dean’s drawings, held in reserve in the ENV Archives curated by Bricker.

Students in the ARC 499 Special Topics class co-taught by Bricker and fellow architecture Professor Luis Hoyos will have their physical and digital models featured in “Albert Frey and Lina Bo Bardi: A Search for Living Architecture,” an upcoming exhibition at the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Architecture and Design Center. Read more about it on page TK #.

STRUCTURED LEARNING As part of a project funded by Cal Poly Pomona’s Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity faculty grant program, students from Assistant Professor Marc Schulitz’s ARC 341 and ARC 499 classes constructed a shell structure in the gallery of Building 7 — twice. The ambitious project’s goal was to build a timber grid shell using a network of geodesic lines.

Schulitz will present a research paper on the project in September at the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures in Hamburg, Germany. The annual symposium’s theme is “IASS 2017: Interfaces – Architecture. Engineering. Science.”

PROJECT MUK WINS AIA AWARD MUK, a serenely galactic residential project in the Mulholland inner corridor co-designed by Professor Axel Prichard-Schmitzberger’s firm Domaen with Arshia Architects, received this year’s AIA-LA Residential

FELICE ANNIVERSARIO, CSU FLORENCE!

Award for Single Family Residential-Medium. This is the project’s second award from the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The project snagged the 2016 AIA-LA Merit Award last fall.

Professor George Proctor, chair of the architecture department, and architecture students Michael Flores and Dominic Aliotti rubbed elbows with international dignitaries at the 50th anniversary of CSU Florence, the California State University’s longest-running international study abroad program.

The three-day celebration in late April was initiated in the ornamented halls of the 13th-century Palazzo Vecchio, once the official seat of Duke Cosimo I, a scion of the Medici dynasty. Opening ceremonies, Proctor says, lasted half a day, “and starting nearly an hour after the scheduled time, broken up with a 30-minute piano and operatic tenor performance — Espresso per favore.”

Flores and Aliotti were the only students invited to speak at the ceremony. Flores shared his insights on life as a student in Florence, while Aliotti presented a black-and-white film outlining the history of CSU Florence made in the style of Italian cinema.

In attendance were Florence Mayor Dario Nardella and Deputy Mayor Christina Giachi; U.S. Consul General Abigail Rupp; CSU International Programs Director Leo Van Cleve from the Office of the Chancellor; CSU Florence Director Kevin Fagan; architect and critic Gianni Pettena, professor of history of contemporary architecture at the University of Florence and CSU Florence; and Superstudio founder Cristiano Toraldo di Francia.

CSU Florence occupies two floors of a 19th-century palazzo near the Piazza Beccara.

Each year, a faculty member from one of the 23 CSU campuses is selected to direct the program and serve as a link between the students in Italy and their home institutions. Students in the yearlong academic program select an area of concentration from seven tracks: Architecture, open only to architecture and landscape architecture students at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; art history; ancient history and classics; studio art; social science; or Italian language and literature.

PODCAST PROJECT Audrey Sato (’09, master’s in architecture), lecturer in the department of architecture and principal architect at SATO Architects, received the 2017 Association for Women in Architecture Foundation Professional Development Fellowship at the May 17 “Imagining L.A. 2017 AWA+D Symposium.”

“My fellowship project will be a podcast dedicated to interviewing inspirational local women in architecture, providing insight into both the everyday and extraordinary challenges and successes they encounter,” Sato says. “Given the unbalanced ratio of women in leadership roles to young professionals, the podcast’s main goal is to provide greater access to a wide range of successful female architects and practitioners.”

A launch date has not been set. While Sato develops programming, she is open to the ENV community’s nominations of inspiring female architects to interview. Contact her at aksato@cpp.edu.

THE JURY’S OUT Rennie Tang, assistant professor of landscape architecture, served on the jury of the 2017 Cavin Family Traveling Fellowship, organized

by Robert Alexander, assistant professor of architecture. The annual competition pits the talents of recent architecture graduates from Cal Poly Pomona and the University of Oregon in a four-day charrette for the chance to win $12,000. This year’s winner is ENV alumna Denise Nugent (’16, architecture).

Tang served alongside Frank Clementi (’86, architecture; FAIA, AIGA), a lecturer in the department of architecture and a partner at Rios Clementi Hale Studios; Catherine Jones of Design, Bitches; Steven Christensen (AIA, LEEDS AP) of Steven Christensen Architects; Heather Scott Peterson, interim assistant dean and associate professor from the School of Architecture at Woodbury University; and Erin Moore, associate professor at the Department of Architecture & Environmental Studies Program, University of Oregon.

ENV FACULTY ADVISOR OF THE YEAR Alyssa Lang, associate professor and the first associate chair in the art department, was named the 2017 Outstanding Faculty Advisor in the College of Environmental Design. She was honored in a May 4 university-wide awards ceremony at the Bronco Student Center that recognized exceptional faculty and staff advisors and an advising program.

IDENTITY & PLACE Within a three-month span, Alvaro Huerta debated a conservative talk-show host on live television, moderated an artist lecture and zipped around Los Angeles as a guest speaker on panels about immigrant issues.

Huerta, an assistant professor of urban and regional planning, kicked off April as a presenter at “Transformational Resistance: Understanding the Origins and Impact of Anti-Immigrant Politics” at Santa Monica College. His topic was “Anti-Mexican Hysteria in the United States.”

He organized and moderated his brother Salomon Huerta’s artist lecture at the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery.

The internationally acclaimed Salomon Huerta was one of four artists whose portraiture work was featured in the exhibition “About Face.”

Huerta gave a lecture titled “From Tijuana to East Los Angeles to Academia: Life Lessons from a Scholar” at TEDxCPP; the theme was “Uncharted Territory.” He was a keynote speaker at Legacy L.A.’s Fourth Annual College and Career Day at Ramona Housing Project, his childhood stomping grounds. He also gave a keynote speech (“From the Barrio to the Academy”) at the From the Barrio to Action Conference at UC Santa Barbara.

Huerta held his ground with host Jesse Lee Peterson on the Feb. 9 episode of “The Fallen State.” The episode can be watched at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YJQenl091c.

PICS PICK Two of graphic design Professor Crystal Yachin-Lee’s photography works, “Stare” and “Home Alone,” were chosen for the 32nd “Made in California” juried exhibition. The two pieces are among 92 artworks (selected from 1,075 entries) on display at the Brea Art Gallery through June 30. “Stare” also is the cover image for the exhibition’s visual collaterals. Learn more about the exhibition at www.cityofbrea. net/Index.aspx?NID=685

BUNGALOW DREAM Julianna Delgado, professor of urban and regional planning, received a Historic Preservation Award from the city of Pasadena on May 25.

She restored her 1921 Colonial Revival bungalow in Bungalow Heaven, the city’s largest and oldest landmark district. Her Mentor Avenue home is listed on state and national registers. Juan de la Cruz, the Bungalow Heaven representative to Pasadena’s Historic Preservation Commission, nominated Delgado.

“In the 1950s, an earlier occupant decided to ‘modernize’ it by removing all the original windows and covering the original redwood siding with transite asbestos shingles, popular at the time, among other tragic moves. It was both brave on our part to attempt to remove the asbestos — who knew what we’d find underneath — and once the asbestos was removed, a not-inexpensive labor of love repairing and repainting the original redwood siding.”

MORE 22

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 23

FA C U LT Y NOTES

BOOK SHELF

A STATE-OF-THE-ART UPGRADE A classroom in Building 13 will undergo a dramatic transformation over the summer, thanks to a $65,000 grant from Steelcase Education, the schools division of the global furniture, design, and technology company based in Michigan.

The Department of Art at Cal Poly Pomona was among 15 institutions nationwide selected by Steelcase Education to receive an “active-learning” grant to upgrade and modernize a classroom that can be configured to accommodate classes, lectures or convert into a study space. More than 900 colleges and universities applied for the Active Learning Center grant.

Steelcase Education and art department faculty plan to assess the impact of the newly designed space over a twoyear period. The goal of the active-learning classroom is to foster an environment that encourages collaboration and creativity. The classroom’s design and installation is slated for completion by fall quarter.

“Our goal is to help students learn to become both creators of content and creators of visuals across a wide array of platforms,” says Professor Sarah Meyer. “Our long-term goal is to pilot and demonstrate to all faculty the integration of active learning into pedagogy with collaborative student projects, visiting scholars, and teleconferencing interviews and critiques with international industry partners.”

The art department’s graphic design program is ranked in the top 50 in the nation by Animation Career Review.

“Cal Poly Pomona was chosen because of a demonstrated commitment to active learning,” says Craig Wilson, director of market development for Steelcase Education. “Research shows that space impacts behavior, and these classrooms will help a new group of professors and students explore the learning possibilities an interactive space can bring.”

HIGH-IMPACT ART Sarah Meyer, professor of graphic design, was a panelist at the College Art Association Annual Conference in New York City on Feb. 17. The CAA is the world’s largest professional association for visual artists and art historians.

Meyer presented “LEGO: Building High-Impact Practices with Innovative Partners” in the panel session “Entrepreneurship as Research, Teaching, Learning, or Service.”

She spoke about the 18-week project involving 140 students and five professors from Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Fullerton and the University College Nordjylland, plus Fortune 500 companies LEGO and UST-Global. The collaboration sought to create “mobile think tanks” that specialize in innovative solutions for visual communications problems. Students designed and modeled user experience and brand strategies for print, e-commerce and mobile devices.

The experience was a prime example of interdepartmental collaboration on local and international levels.

The project earned Meyer, along with associate professor Melissa Department of Art faculty, left to right: Professor Sarah Meyer, Associate Professor Melissa Flicker and Assistant Professor Anthony Acock

Flicker and assistant professor Anthony Acock, spots on Cal Poly Pomona’s Wall of COOL (Celebrating Outstanding Opportunities for Learning), which lauds course design and development using technology.

ON IDEALISM Richard Willson, professor of urban and regional planning, won the Communications Initiative Award at the 2017 Inland Empire Section of the American Planning Association. He was honored for his blog series, “Launching Your Career: A Guide for Idealists.”

“The planning profession is rooted in the optimistic idea of betterment: transforming communities from the ground up to achieve livability, sustainability and social justice,” reads Willson’s introduction. “Attaining this entails a healthy measure of idealism. However, it also requires that young planners are realists, prepared for long timeframes, ethical dilemmas, warring stakeholders and red tape.”

Read his advice for young planners on striking that balance between idealism and realist at https://www.planning.org/careercenter/idealistblog.

Must-Reads Featuring ENV Faculty ENV

“INCENDIARY TRACES”

by Hillary Mushkin (Pomona College Museum of Art, 2017)

A 136-page book of illustrations gathered from a series of public “draw-in” events over five years, featuring a drawing by Professor Andrew Wilcox, chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. Wilcox was also interviewed for a PBS special inspired by the book.

“LATITUDES: AN ANGELENO’S ATLAS”

by Patricia Wakida (Heyday, 2015)

A cartographic journey as seen through the eyes of 19 Southland writers who trace the complex histories of Los Angeles. Among the essays is “Stalking Carp”

by Professor Andrew Wilcox, chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture.

Faculty’s Recommended Summer Reads RICHARD WILLSON, professor of urban and regional planning and an expert on transportation and parking issues, recommends

“Beyond Mobility: Planning Cities for People and Places,”

by Robert Cervero, Erick Guerra and Stefan Al (Island Press,): “‘Beyond Mobility’ is about prioritizing the needs and aspirations of people and the creation of great places. This is as important, if not more important, than expediting movement.”

“Cartographic Grounds: Projecting the Landscape Imaginary,”

by Jill Desimini and Charles Waldheim (Princeton Architectural Press, 2016) and “Landscape Infrastructure: A Base Primer,” by Pierre Belanger (Routledge, 2017). Both of these books take readers around the world and provide new perspectives of seeing the landscape, says landscape architecture ASSISTANT PROFESSOR BARRY LEHRMAN. “Isn’t summer about travel?” “Postcard America,” by Jeffrey L. Meikle (University of Texas Press, 2016) ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ALYSSA LANG, associate chair of the Department of Art, suggest Meikle’s hefty and heftily illustrated tome about the cultural significance of colorized “linen” postcards popularized in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s.

On PROFESSOR ANDREW WILCOX’S list: “When Mountain Lions Are Neighbors: People and Wildlife Working It Out in California” by Beth Pratt-Bergstrom, “The Shape of the Journey: New and Collected Poems” by Jim Harrison and “Bestiary: Poems” by Donika Kelly

24

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Commencement / Summer • 2017 25

ON CAMPUS

Calendar

JUNE 10: College of Environmental Design

pre-Commencement reception. Open to all members of the Class of 2017 and their families from 6 to 7 p.m. in Building 7 Atrium.

JUNE 10: College of Environmental Design 2017 Commencement from 8 to 11 p.m. in the Quad.

JUNE 10-11: PolyKroma 2017 family weekend.

Noon to 4 p.m. W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery.

THROUGH JUNE 11: PolyKroma 2017 annual

JUNE 19-JULY 25: First five-week summer

THROUGH JUNE 11: “Los Angeles Design Festival 2017.” Honoring the

session. www.cpp.edu/summer

tember 16 test. Registration is $8. www.cpp. edu/~testcenter

JUNE 24: Ink & Clay 43 submission deadline.

SEPTEMBER 13-27: Add/drop period for fall

Ink & Clay is open to artists in all 50 states.

The exhibition will be documented through an on-line catalog and a printable PDF file.

Unique among juried exhibitions, Ink & Clay is celebrated annually and recognized by artists and collectors for its quality and diversity. http://inkclay43.com

JUNE 29: Graduation Writing Test registration deadline for July 15 test. Registration is $30.

SEPTEMBER 16-OCTOBER 26: Ink &

Clay 43. Established in 1971, Ink & Clay is an annual competition of printmaking, drawing, ceramic ware, clay sculpture, installation and mixed media utilizing any variety of “ink” or “clay” as a material. The exhibition is sponsored by the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery and is underwritten by the generosity of the late Col. James “Jim” H. Jones and Bruce Jewett, with additional support from the Office of the University President. http://inkclay43.com

JULY JULY 4: Independence Day. Campus closed.

ing Project exam. www.cpp.edu/~testcenter

JUNE 12: Summer add/drop period begins.

JULY 15: Graduation Writing Test. www.cpp.

SEPTEMBER 21: Start of fall quarter.

JUNE 13: Staff Appreciation Day Reception

from 7:45 to 9:30 a.m. in the Bronco Student Center, Ursa Major.

JUNE 19-AUGUST 31: Ten-week summer session. www.cpp.edu/summer

mer session. www.cpp.edu/summer

edu/~testcenter

SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 4: Labor Day. Campus closed.

SEPTEMBER 8: Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project registration deadline for Sep-

SEPTEMBER 16: Mathematics Diagnostic Test-

OCTOBER OCTOBER 1–NOVEMBER 30: Initial filing

period for undergraduate admission applications to the CSU system (including Cal Poly Pomona) for fall 2018. https://www2.calstate.

At the Huntley Gallery: The ENV Permanent Collection

“Weathered Splendor,” from the Don B. Huntley Collection of Western Art

26

Panoramic scenes of the Wild West. Iconic toys. Working drawings by revered architects.

Entrusted with thousands of cultural artifacts and documents, the College of Environmental Design is the keeper of rarities valued by students, scholars and practitioners of the design disciplines.

Visitors can peek inside this treasure trove throughout the summer and fall at the Don B. Huntley Gallery when it hosts the “College of Environmental Design — University Permanent Collection Exhibition,” a celebration of arts, design, industrial design and architecture.

Visitors will be treated to selections from each of the collections that have been acquired by the college, the ENV Archives and the departments of art and architecture. The collections featured in the show are the Col. James Jones Memorial Art Collection, the

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

JUNE 22: American Planning Association — Los Angeles Chapter Awards Gala. An annual ceremony celebrating the best of planning in the Los Angeles area, it is a gathering of the region’s most active and innovative urban planning professionals. Award winners include professionals from cities, agencies, nonprofits and consulting firms. This year’s keynote speaker is Christopher Hawthorne of the Los Angeles Times. 6 p.m., Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. http://apalosangeles.org/newsevents/events/?entry=996

quarter.

art department shows. A three-week series of exhibitions at the Don B. Huntley Gallery and the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery celebrating the best of the department’s fine arts, graphic design and art history students.

JULY 2-AUGUST 31: Second five-week sum-

city’s status as a global design capital, multiple design celebrations will be hosted throughout the Fashion District. Among them are the Triforium Project tour at Fletcher Bowron Square; the LAX><DET conversation connecting Los Angeles and Detroit creatives at ROW DTLA; the New California Craft design show; and de LaB’s Making LA Together, which will feature teams pitching projects that address issues of transportation, water, density and community in Los Angeles in front of an audience. https://www.ladesignfestival.org

Bruce Jewett Collection of Beatrice Wood Ceramics, the Raymond Burr Collection, the Don B. Huntley Collection of Western Art, the Channing Gilson Mid-Century Industrial Design collection, the Ink & Clay collection, the University Art Gallery Collections, and the College of Environmental Design Archives and Special Collections featuring the Neutra VDL House.

Exhibition Dates: Through Oct. 5.

Location: Don B. Huntley Gallery, University Library (Building 15), fourth floor, room 4435.

Summer Hours: Monday through Thursday from noon to 4 p.m. Closed Friday.

Fall Hours: Monday through Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. Closed Friday.

Admission: Free and open to the public.

JUNE 23-25: “Dwell on Design 2017.” Held each year at the Los Angeles Convention

Center, this exhibition/conference showcases the best in modern design materials, furniture and accessories, home technology, and international designs. World-class speak“Central,” by Ethan Snow ers, continuing education classes for interior design professionals, and talks for design-seeking consumers are part of the weekend-long program. Tickets start at Castiglion Fiorentino in rural Italy edu/attend/admissions/Pages/apply$20. Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S Figueroa to-the-csu.aspx St., Los Angeles. https://la.dwellondesign.com OCTOBER 7-15: “Amici di ENV: THROUGH JUNE 25: Julius Shulman Institute Tour of Castiglion Fiorentino.” The presents “Todd Eberle: Empire of Space.” WoodCollege of Environmental Design is bury University Hollywood Outpost (WUHO) honors partnering with the Department of photographer Todd Eberle, an acclaimed New York Landscape Architecture to sponsor a City-based photographer, with an exhibition of his week in Castiglion Fiorentino, Itawork, “Empire of Space,” curated by Audrey Landreth. ly. The location of the longest-running A collection of portraits includes Julius Shulman, Osinternational program in the college, car Niemeyer, Florence Knoll Bassett, Hillary Rodham Castiglion Fiorentino has been home Clinton, Donald Judd, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Zaha to students of landscape architecture Hadid, Annabelle Selldorf, Herzog & DeMeuron, Rem for 25 years. The trip will provide Koolhaas, David Adjaye, Peter Zumthor, Massimo & an opportunity to connect to the Lella Vignelli and Martha Stewart. WUHO, 6518 Holcommunity and landscape, and has lywood Blvd., Los Angeles. http://wuho.architecture. proven to be fundamental to the edwoodbury.edu/?p=2137 ucation of generations of landscape architecture students. The excursion JUNE 30: 2017: “Tall Building Performance” stualso offers an opportunity to explore dent research competition deadline. Organized by parts of Italy that are off the beaten the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the path as well as the Santa Chiara Study Center. competition is aimed at students working in groups under the guidance of a professor https://env.cpp.edu/la/amici-di-env that focus on a relevant research question on tall building performance. The winning PROFESSOR ANDREW WILCOX, CHAIR, DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

JUNE

JUNE

OFF CAMPUS

OCTOBER 20: Last day to apply for fall Commencement.

design receives a $20,000 prize. http://ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/CTBUHCompetitions/ tabid/3068/language/en-US/Default.aspx

OCTOBER 21-JANUARY 11, 2018: “De-

JULY

partment of Landscape Architecture’s 60th Anniversary Special Project: Francis Dean Archives Show at the Don B. Huntley Gallery.”

The department is developing an exhibit to showcase work from the Francis Dean Archives. The works have been stored in the ENV archives and have not been sorted or reviewed. This project will include highlights from the archived collection, interviews with associates and other numerous works illuminating his role at Cal Poly Pomona and at EDAW.

THROUGH JULY 3: Coca-Cola Bottle Design competition. Designers over the age of 18 are invited to create the new metal Coca-Cola bottle, creating a handy product with an easy-to-drink system. The winning design will be announced at the end of October.

Up for grabs is a $3,200 cash prize. https://desall.com/Contest/CocaCola-Bottle-Design-Award/Brief

JULY 17: “Connecting the City: People, Density and Infrastructure” student design com-

petition deadline. This competition organized by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) seeks solutions to the challenges of tall modern buildings, including mass urbanization and climate change. Prizes for winning submissions include $24,000 in cash and travel stipends. http://www.ctbuh.org/Default.aspx?alias=www.ctbuh.org/competition

MORE Commencement / Summer • 2017 27

OFF CAMPUS

Calendar

Architecture Students Leave Their Mark at Palm Springs Art Museum

AUGUST AUGUST 20, 2017-FEBRUARY 18, 2018: “A Universal History of Infamy.” A

project involving 16 Latino and Latin-American artists whose practices challenge disciplinary boundaries takes place at three venues: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica and Charles White E. S. in MacArthur Park. Artists in the exhibition consider the frictions between visual art and other disciplines and research methodologies such as anthropology, history, linguistics, literature, and pedagogy materialized through architectural interventions, sculpture, photography, drawing, media installation, and performance. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. http://www. lacma.org/art/exhibition/universal-history-infamy

SEPTEMBER THROUGH SEPTEMBER 3: “California-Pacific Triennial.” The Orange County Museum of Art’s exhibition explores the topic of architecture and the temporal precariousness of the built environment. Among the issues to be addressed are the recording of history and preservation; the concept of home and displacement; and the influence of global power, economics, and political systems on global construction. OCMA, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. https:// www.ocma.net/exhibition/2017-california-pacific-triennial SEPTEMBER 17, 2017-APRIL 1, 2018: “Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985.” A groundbreaking exhibition and accompanying book about design dialogues between California and Mexico. Its four main themes — Spanish Colonial Inspiration, Pre-Hispanic Revivals, Folk Art and Craft Traditions and Modernism — explore how modern and anti-modern design movements defined both locales throughout the 20th century. Half of the show’s more than 250 objects represent architecture, conveyed through drawings, photographs, and films to illuminate the unique sense of place that characterized California’s and Mexico’s buildings. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/found-in-translation

SEPTEMBER 23-24: Los Angeles Green Festival Expo. The festival is the coun-

try’s largest and longest-running sustainability and green-living event, bringing together innovative brands, national and local businesses, pioneering thinkers, and conscious consumers in one place to promote the best in sustainability and green living. Meet more than 200 exhibitors, learn from 50 inspirational speakers, indulge in delicious vegan or vegetarian food and learn how to live a sustainable lifestyle. Tickets are $10-$19. The Magic Box at The Reef, 1933 S. Broadway, Los Angeles. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/los-angeles-green-festival-expo-tickets-31069374335?aff=es2

SEPTEMBER 23-26: 2017 American Planning Association Chapter Conference.

Themed “Capitalizing on Our Diversity,” this weekend-long event will be hosted at the Sacramento Convention Center. 1400 J St., Sacramento, CA 95814. http:// www.apacalifornia-conference.org

OCTOBER OCTOBER 23-23: American Society of Landscape Architects 2017 Annual

Meeting and Expo. The Los Angeles conference and expo is the largest trade show in the industry and the best-attended event of the annual meeting, featuring hundreds of new products, services, technology and design solutions. http://socal-asla.org/2017-annual-meeting

28

ENVirons • The Magazine of the College of Environmental Design

Model of the Lina Bo Bardi-designed Cirel House constructed by fourth-year architecture students Alex Valdez and Youstina Youssef.

In September, the craftsmanship of Cal Poly Pomona architecture students will be featured in a sprawling exhibition exploring the works of Swiss-born architect Albert Frey and Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi at the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Architecture and Design Center.

Twenty students from Professor Lauren Bricker and Professor Luis Hoyos’ ARC 499 Special Topic: California Architecture class spent the spring quarter working with the museum’s curators to build five physical models and draft five digital models of the modernist homes designed by Frey and Bo Bardi.

The exhibition is the Palm Spring Art Museum’s contribution to the Getty’s “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA,” an exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles.

Although Frey and Bo Bardi’s paths did not cross during their careers, their aesthetics and approach to urban design found common ground in their embrace of Southern California’s social and environmental idiosyncrasies, and the ways in which communities shaped its denizens and the climate shaped the terrain.

The project divided students into five teams that were each assigned a Frey or Bo Bardi house to research. The class had lectures with museum curators and visited the iconic Frey II House in Palm Springs, an 800-square-foot home built into the side of a mountain. A boulder protrudes into the living room/bedroom area of the house.

“The process has to do with establishing common language of the material and the interpretation of the houses,” Bricker says. “A lot of the issues had to do with physical context, climate, and design philosophies. The scale is small enough that the students can conceptualize a whole project and have an opportunity to introduce design elements.”

Exhibition Dates: Sept. 22, 2017 to Jan. 7, 2018 Location: Palm Springs Art Museum, Architecture and Design Center, 300 S. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA. www.psmuseum.org Hours: Thursday from noon to 8 p.m.; Friday through Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed on Wednesdays.

Admission: Free.

OUTSIDE/IN 1,000 MODELS charrette at the ENV Gallery.

Photo by Assistant Professor Katrin Terstegen, Department of Architecture

Commencement / Summer • 2017 31Summer

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona College of Environmental Design, Building 7 3801 Temple Avenue, Pomona, CA 91768 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

Non-Profit Org. US Postage

PAID Cal Poly Pomona