Mark G. Cahill

20222022

Interior Framing, Beams and Studs for Ophthalmology Office, New York, NY

DAVID KOCH, RA (B.Arch. ‘82)

After graduating from Penn State, I began as a draftsperson for a small architectural firm. When their work dried up after a year, I found a similar position with what is now EwingCole, a multi-discipline A/E design firm. There ever since, I became registered in 1986 and progressed to senior project architect. Most projects were small-to-medium-sized health-care-related projects where I was project architect; on larger projects, I was responsible for a defined part under a more-senior project architect. Nine years ago, I moved to the IT department, first as design technology manager and now as a BIM technical expert. While the practice of architecture has not changed radically during my career, the tools with which we do our work, and the way it is transmitted to the contractors has changed. Initially, all work was done manually, mostly ink-on-mylar overlay drafting. Then computer-aided drafting arrived, and eventually became BIM. Rolls of prints shipped overnight gave way to PDFs sent via email. Now some projects have cloud-hosted electronic project models accessed by the contractors. AutoCAD gave way to AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP, which gave way to Revit. Rolls of blueline prints that had to be shipped overnight to contractors gave way PDFs sent via email or other electronic means. And now we have some projects where the electronic project models are hosted in the cloud, and contractors have access to those models. The computerization of the design process resonated with an interest in computers that I had had since college, and mastering that became a focus of mine, eventually resulting in that career shift nine years ago.

Waiting Room, Ophthalmology Office, New York, NY

Architecture is not just beautiful renderings or gorgeous shots of expertly manipulated light and space, but is also about slabs, beams, studs and coordinating room for ducts, pipes and conduits so that those wonderful spaces can function.

The featured project is my last project as a project architect; I chose it because of the intense involvement I had on it. A New York City hospital was “poaching” an ophthalmology practice. I joined the project in early May, as it was transitioning from schematics directly to contract documents; with an occupancy goal of Labor Day. A construction manager was already on board and demolition began while documents were developed. After six intense weeks of project documentation and weekly team meetings, construction began. On most projects I would be on site once a week; I was on-site and/or in our New York office four days a week from mid-June through project completion, working closely with the entire project team. We got close to substantial completion by Labor Day; the ophthalmology practice wisely allowed the contractors to complete the work before occupying in midSeptember. The first image is a reminder that architecture is not just beautiful renderings of expertly manipulated light and space, but is also about slabs, beams, studs and coordinating room for ducts, pipes and conduits so that those wonderful spaces can function as well as please the senses. The second shot is of the primary waiting area, as the furniture was being placed. Credit for the interior design goes to Lyudmyla Matyushko. David Koch

Bui l di ng Inform ati on M anagem ent Expert Ew i ng Col e

I am not certain I had a clear vision of what I expected my career to be when I was a student, other than becoming a registered architect, but even then I knew I had no intentions of ever starting my own practice. I managed to achieve both of those goals. I feel fortunate to have had Professor Inserra for thesis studio. He certainly got me to stretch my design abilities that year. He met with each of us at the end of the year, and he gave me some good advice that I would like to pass on to you. Knowing that the early years in an architectural career were likely to be quite different from the design focus in school, he urged me to stay in contact with the more designo ri en ted of m y f el l o w students, so as not to lose si g h t of th at part of architecture. I was probably not as successful at following that advice as Professor Inserra would have liked, but perhaps that advice will be h el pf ul to th e c urrent students at Penn State.

PATRICIA KUCKER, M.Arch, Ed.D. (B.Arch. ‘82, Univ. of Pennsylvania M.Arch. ‘83, Vanderbilt University Ed.D. ‘19)

I graduated from Penn State with my B.Arch. in 1982 and headed directly to graduate school at UPenn because I felt that the design process was just beginning to make sense to me. I wanted to continue to be challenged, and in new ways. When I arrived at Penn, I met classmates that were far more knowledgeable about topics outside of architecture, yet less skilled in developing architectural solutions to the ideas that they could discuss. I often spoke up at our studio pin-ups. This was unusual at Penn but a practice I brought from Penn State. After Penn, and when I interned at the office of GBQC, I continued as an invited design critic for reviews, then adjunct teaching for several Philadelphia architecture schools. This made for long weeks in the office and at a school but having my own firm offered more flexibility. The economic downturn of the late 80’s hit everyone hard and I chose to leave practice in Philadelphia and begin a new career focused on teaching.

My full-time teaching career began in a coordinated studio setting at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte (UNCC), with a focus on building systems, materials and detailing in the second year of the undergraduate curriculum. My experience and pedagogical focus on material systems then became the foundation for the first model of NAAB comprehensive design coursework at the University of Virginia. My studio teaching often includes the constituent role of the site and landscape. This embrace of the site comes from so many fruitful engagements with landscape architecture faculty at the University of Virginia and this influence can be seen in my early publications. I have offered seminars, required courses and graduate and undergraduate design studios focused on tectonics as the marriage of spatial, formal and techno-material means. This student design work was widely published, exhibited and was awarded in the mid-late 90’s and continues to be an approach I share with new collaborators. As a result my studio pedagogical has developed and changed in new ways to become mutually informing.

While teaching in the design studio, I coach my students to develop a critical authorship of their work to develop their capacity for learner agency. With this proposition, I am interested in cultivating students to critically navigate (and evaluate) their value laden framework of complex design decision20222022

I am interested in cultivating students to critically navigate (and evaluate) their value laden framework of complex design decision making.

making. When teaching the comprehensive design studio at the University of Cincinnati, we held this approach and used the large-scale section drawing/section perspective/wall section as a location for examining a range of complex and interdependent issues that connect system and detail, space, materials and experience. Using the section drawing as an instrument for design inquiry was published from my early studio pedagogy and is a practice that continues and has developed with numerous collaborators.

My coaching focus and various modalities for design investigation led me to offer a section of the thesis studio while at the University of Cincinnati and serve on thesis committees. During my career I have taught at the beginning, middle and end of the design studios in both graduate and undergraduate programs. I also served as a NAAB visiting team member and team chair and enjoyed seeing how different programs teach similar content while also being innovative.

My role in higher education began with a passion for the studio and then resulted in leadership roles as a studio coordinator, department head, graduate program director, assistant school director, associate dean, provost and interim school director. With so much of my career in education, I then decided to return to earn a doctorate in higher education leadership and policy at Vanderbilt University. I was the oldest student in my graduating class! It has been an incredible pleasure to return to serve the Stuckeman School as interim director over the last few years. Patricia Kucker

Director, Teaching Professor Penn State Stuckeman School

My role in higher education began with a passion for the studio and then resulted in leadership roles as a studio c o o rd i n a t o r, d e p a r t m e n t head, graduate program director, assistant school director, associate dean, provost and interim school director.

Thinking across the curriculum and making connections for faculty and students has been part of my teaching experiences and resulted in faculty-coordinator roles that led me into academic leadership. An expert from the nomination for the outstanding teaching award in the College of DAAP (2009) identifies some of these qualities.

“…[N]ot just because she is outstanding on her own by herself in a classroom, but because of her effectiveness at dramatically improving the quality and interconnections across all years of the graduate and undergraduate architecture curriculum. Not only is she a great teacher for our students, she is a true teacher’s teacher as well.”