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Fall 2019 Dean's Message

I am excited to share what has been happening at Woodbury School of Architecture. We have a lot to celebrate! Building on the success of our students, alumni, faculty, and staff, our School is growing. We have the largest incoming BArch class in recent memory, with over 90 new students entering into our BArch program in Los Angeles this fall. Here are some of our highlights.

Student Honors

Several of our students have, once again, distinguished themselves in national scholarship and award programs this summer. Interior Architecture student Ryanne Hawkins has won the 2019 Donghia Foundation Scholarship, a $30,000 award. She is the seventh Woodbury Interior Architecture student who has won this prestigious award in the past five years. BArch student Stephanie Green has been recognized with a 2019 ACSA Competition Third Prize award for her 3rd year studio project, advised by faculty members Bailey Shugart and Eric Olsen. Stephanie also won the 2019 AWA+D Scholarship Award.
 
Summer Studio Model

 

HOUSING+ Initiative

In response to a call by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti who invited deans of all architecture schools in Los Angeles to creatively address housing, Woodbury School of Architecture is proud to announce a new initiative. HOUSING+ is a year-long program of lectures, exhibitions and studio inquiries focused on this topic that is of particular relevance to our community. All faculty in the School of Architecture are invited to address the topic of housing in their courses in the 2019-20 academic year. Implicit in this initiative is a critique of our profession: many architects and designers have remained notably absent from this conversation, arguing that housing is a social issue, not an architectural one. We believe that housing is a critical architectural question as well as a basic human right. This initiative will culminate in a School-wide exhibition of the collected work of our students next spring, 2020. Dates for our lecture and event series, focused this year on housing, will be sent out in a separate email.

 

Design Lab + LAUSD Partnership

Design Lab, Woodbury School of Architecture’s seventh summer high school studio was taught by adjunct faculty member Cody Miner. Twenty-three high school students from across Los Angeles were introduced to the world of architecture in this five-week studio. Several LAUSD high-school students were offered scholarships, generously supported by our School Advisory Board members, and as part of a larger partnership initiative with LAUSD. Read more about the Design Lab experience here in a recent article. The Woodbury School of Architecture partnership with LAUSD includes a high school student mentoring program by our alumni with the STEM Academy of Hollywood, a LAUSD Pilot School.

 

2019 Summer Design Lab

 

Faculty & Staff News

Two of our faculty have recently completed books: Dr. Paulette Singley’s How to Read Architecture (Routledge), and Prof. Joshua Stein’s Trajan’s Hollow (ORO Editions). A warm welcome back to San Diego faculty member Marcel Sanchez-Prieto, who was awarded the 2018 Rome Prize in Architecture and spent the last year in Rome investigating ‘architectural divides, not as abrupt barriers, but as the transitional layering from public to private realms’. Director of Outreach Catherine Roussel was named a 2019 NCARB Scholar in Professional Practice, an honor shared by twelve other educators nationally. Professors Annie Chu, FAIA, and Joshua Stein will be taking leave of absences this year. Annie will be focusing on her professional practice, Chu + Gooding Architects, and Joshua has been offered the Mitchell Visiting Professor of Architecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Our 2019-20 Lecture Series kick-off is a Book Signing event at Hennessey & Ingalls on September 7th.

Alumni News

This spring, we awarded Woodbury School of Architecture’s first Distinguished Alumni Award to Sonny Ward (BArch ’02). Other recent news from our alumni includes a 2019 AIA|LA Residential Honor Award to alumnus Mark Lahmon (BArch ’98), and alumnus Greg Andrade (MSArch ’15) was recently appointed Themed Entertainment Design Professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Other recent news posts spotlight alumni accomplishments, including Janet Asuncion (BArch ’06), Abelino Gregorio (BArch ’19) and Genevieve Walker (BArch ’09). There are many ways our alumni are participating with our community: sending us news updates, establishing endowments, mentoring students, attending juries, and teaching. Find out more about our alumni through this link.

 

Venice Summer Studio 2019

 

Study Away

In the past several months, over 60 of our students have participated in multiple study away opportunities nationally and internationally. In the Spring, we had 5 San Diego graduate students visit Mexico City led by faculty member Jose Parral, 5 students traveled to Seattle with faculty Anali Gharakhani, 16 San Diego students went to Portland with Prof. Catherine Herbst, and 13 San Diego students to Albuquerque with Prof. Stan Bertheaud. This summer, nineteen LA and San Diego students spent four weeks studying in Venice, Italy with Profs. Paulette Singley and Eric Olsen. All of these students were supported by study away scholarships from Nick Roberts and Nielsen Scholarship Endowments. Join us on Friday, 4 October at 6:30 pm in the Wedge Gallery to see the work of the Venice study away studio.

 

Welcome

There’s something very special happening here at Woodbury. We are a school that welcomes students from a breathtaking range of backgrounds, and with intellectual and cultural diversity at the heart of our mission. Each of us – faculty, staff and administrators – is focused on helping our students produce exceptional design work, and are united in a generous belief in the power of good design to affect positive change for others. I invite each of you – students, faculty, alumni, staff, advisers and friends – to help us continue to build a joyful, safe and welcoming community.

With gratitude,
Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter

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