vel Ferro Forester Forsyth Mergold Austin Morris
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01 The model of London showing all current proposed additions to the city on display during the Unconventional Computing and Architecture conference at the Building Center, London. Courtesy New London Architecture. 02 William Staffeld’s award-winning photo. 03 Susan Christopherson. 04 Traditional frame house in Cambodia. Photo: Michael Tomlan. 05 Jan Gadeyne. Photo: Robert Joy (B.Arch. ’72).
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As chair of the senior board of advisers for the Global Heritage Fund, Professor Michael Tomlan, director of Historic Preservation Planning, recently visited Cambodia to work with Hok Sokol, a Cambodian architect engaged in collecting, relocating, and retrofitting some of the oldest traditional frame houses in Siem Reap province. “The majority of the population of Cambodia dreams of owning or occupying an airconditioned concrete apartment or brick house with modern conveniences,” Tomlan says. “For most, living in a traditional single-room frame house built on tall stilts with a thatch or tile roof is difficult, as the houses require continuous upkeep. But by working with carpenters and masons, those who wish to enjoy affordable open-air living can still do so, while the traditional construction skills are kept alive among a new generation.”AAP
AAP photographer William Staffeld’s untitled photo was one of two top choices for the “People’s Choice” award, voted on by over 130 people who attended Ithaca’s State of the Art Gallery’s 21st Annual Juried Photography Show in March.
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Christopherson to Study Economic Impact of Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Drilling As the debate over the environmental safety of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania and New York continues, one issue has received little attention: the economic impact on communities of companies developing hundreds of wells. Susan Christopherson, the J. Thomas Clark Professor of City and Regional Planning, is studying the effects of natural gas drilling operations on the economy and infrastructure of rural communities over the Marcellus Shale rock formation, which extends from New York to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. A recent $100,000 grant from the Ithacabased Park Foundation will help fund Christopherson’s proposed $300,000 study, which will examine issues including the effects of increased gas drilling on schools, public health and safety, and transportation systems, “and the cost to communities, relative to the income to be derived from drilling,” she said. “The question is, ‘What is going to be the cumulative effect of this kind of activity?’” says
Christopherson, who specializes in economic development. “People are looking at this question from an environmental perspective, but almost no one is looking at it to assess its long-term economic effects.” Energy companies must use a procedure known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to penetrate the dense rock formation. The process involves pushing water treated with chemicals into wells at high pressure to induce cracking in the surrounding rock and release the natural gas. Pennsylvania has been issuing permits to companies that drill natural gas wells using hydraulic fracturing, but in New York, state officials are developing an environmental impact statement to assess the effects of drilling before any permits are granted. One example of the impact on communities where drilling will take place is the effect on road usage from increased truck traffic, Christopherson says. Trucks will need to transport water to the well pads and then move the contaminated water to disposal sites for treatment. Workers hired to drill the gas will also increase the populations of communities sitting atop the Marcellus Shale, increasing traffic on county roads. “Someone will have to pay to ameliorate the costs, which will include road deterioration, increased noise, and negative effects on air quality,” she says. “The question is, who pays and how?” Another question is the effect an increase in natural gas drilling will have on other industries in the region, such as agriculture and tourism. “We don’t want to negatively affect the other industries that are important to our economy to do this,” Christopherson says. “This is a region with small agricultural communities, many low-income people, limited government capacity, and little land use regulation. This kind of development presents citizens and local government with major challenges.” Christopherson worries about a “boom town” effect created by the surge of companies that want to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. “We have had many resource-driven booms in the U.S., like the Gold Rush, where you get lots of people coming into an area in order to extract natural resources and then leaving,” she says. Her hope is that gas drilling could create a long-term investment in the economy of the Southern Tier. “I think they could capture some economic benefit,” she says, “but it has to be done very carefully. There has to be planning to protect the environment. What people rarely recognize is that good environmental planning and regulation will also produce better economic outcomes.”AAP
MARIO SCHACK, FORMER CHAIR OF ARCHITECTURE, DIES AT 81 Mario Schack, Baltimore architect, Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor Emeritus, and former chair of the Department of Architecture, passed away on June 17 following complications after surgery. Schack taught architectural design at Cornell from 1963 to 1965, and then joined the young firm of Rogers, Taliaferro, Kostritsky & Lamb (RTKL) in Baltimore. At RTKL he was involved in large-scale urban design projects in Cincinnati and Baltimore, including St. Mary’s Convent in Annapolis, Baltimore County Library in Catonsville, the Southwest High School in Baltimore, and Charles Center South in Baltimore. In 1975 Schack returned to Cornell as chair of the Department of Architecture, where he worked with the late Dean Kermit C. Parsons to establish AAP’s center in Washington, DC. He was the center’s director until 1989. Schack also played a seminal role in the establishment of Cornell’s graduate Program in Real Estate, and advocated for the inclusion of design in the program’s curriculum. After completing his term as chair, Schack established his own architectural practice, MLS Associates, in Baltimore. In partnership with Perkins & Will, he designed the Snee Hall Geological Sciences Building (1982–84) on Cornell’s Engineering Quad. In 1993, he rejoined the Cornell faculty in Ithaca, served as director of graduate studies in the field of architecture, and was awarded the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Chair for Architecture. He retired in 2004. Schack received numerous design awards during his career, including one for the Geological Sciences Building at Cornell University. He was a registered architect in Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, and was inducted into the American Institute of Architects (AIA), College of Fellows in 1980. An active member of the AIA, he served as chairman of the Baltimore Chapter Public Education Committee from 1968 to 1970, and as treasurer of the Maryland Society of Architects from 1970 to 1972. Schack was born in 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. He began his studies in architecture at the Vermont Institute of Technology, after which he went on to attend Cal Poly, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, and finally Harvard University, where he received a master of architecture in 1961, and a master of regional planning in 1963. AAP
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