Faculty News Michael Ashkin, associate professor, art, had an installation in a group exhibit at the Artsonje Center in Seoul, South Korea, from April 13 until June 23. He spent the early part of the summer as a Yaddo Residency Fellow. Associate Professor Victoria Beard, CRP, has been accepted into the Engaged Learning and Research Faculty Fellowship Program, a yearlong faculty cohort program designed to significantly enhance the capacity of Cornell faculty to conduct courses and develop research projects that directly engage the university with the community. Beard also presented a coauthored paper, “Using M&E to Support Performance Based Planning and Budgeting in Indonesia,” to the World Bank in January. Art department chair Iftikhar Dadi and his wife, Elizabeth Dadi, collaborated as part of a group exhibition titled Border Cultures: Part One (homes, land) on display in March at the Art Gallery of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. Their installation, Efflorescence, was a series of four neon and mixed-media flowers that focused on the concept of nation-states and how they ascribe symbols exclusive to themselves in order to characterize their singularity. Dadi also presented at a symposium titled “Contemporary Art In Cambodia: A Historical Inquiry,” held on April 21 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The one-day session, which focused on the emerging contemporary arts scene in Cambodia, was co-organized by Cornell University and the Center for Khmer Studies as part of Asian Contemporary Art Week. Visiting associate professor of art Bill Gaskins premiered his short film The Meaning of Hope at the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA) Film Theatre on February 16. The film examines the concept of hope through individual portraits of Detroit residents. In March, Assistant Professor Michael Manville, CRP, was part of a podcast on Freakonomics.com titled “Parking Is Hell.” Manville and other experts discussed the costs of free parking and parking reform movements across the country. Manville also published two new articles, “Turning Housing into Driving: Parking Requirements and Density in Los Angeles and New York” in Housing Policy Debate, and “Parking Requirements and Housing Development: Regulation and Reform in Los Angeles” in the Journal of the American Planning Association. Mark Morris, visiting associate professor of architecture, published two essays in two editions of Architectural Design: “iPastoral” appeared in an anthology issue titled “The New Pastoralism: Landscape into Architecture,” and “All Night Long: The Architectural Jazz of the Texas Rangers” appeared in an anthology issue on architectural drawing. Morris also delivered the kick-off lecture, titled “Paracosmic Overture,” at the “Future Cities 2: Other Worlds” conference in London in April. Jonathan Ochshorn, architecture professor and director of graduate studies, presented a paper titled “A Probabilistic Approach to Nonstructural Failure” at the Architectural Engineering Institute Conference at Pennsylvania State University in April. In May, Carl Ostendarp, associate professor of art, had an exhibit at the Elizabeth Dee Gallery booth at the Frieze Art Fair on Randall’s Island, New York City. In addition, Ostendarp’s work was included on the cover and in the catalog of Smile: Amerikanische Kunst, produced by the Kienbaum group. In February, Jenny Sabin Studio, the firm of Assistant Professor Jenny Sabin, architecture, unveiled a 52-foot-long knitted structure commissioned by Nike FlyKnit Experience. The exhibit, titled myThread Berlin, opened on February 20 in Berlin, Germany. Sabin also coauthored a paper with Simin Wang (M.Arch. ’13), titled “Simulating Nonlinear Nano-to-Micro Scaled Material Properties and Effects at the Architectural Scale,” which was accepted by peer review and presented by Wang at the annual conference on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design (SIMAUD) in San Diego. Mildred Warner, professor in CRP, received the David J. Allee and Paul R. Eberts Community and Economic Vitality Award in February. The award was presented at a research roundtable seminar, “Planning Across Generations.” In addition, Warner hosted an American Planning Association webinar for 400 planners on “aging in place” in February, and three sessions at the national APA conference in April. Her presentation to the Mayor’s Innovation Project in Washington, DC, in January, inspired syndicated columnist Neal Peirce to feature multigenerational planning in his weekly column on cities, “Cities for All: No Skipping Generations.” Also, Warner published issue briefs on “Planning for the Aging Population: Rural Responses to the Challenge,” “The Economic Importance of Families with Children,” and “Joint Use Agreements: School Community Collaborations” with Rebecca Baran-Rees (M.R.P. ’12) and Lydia Morken (M.R.P. ’12); coauthored a book, Rural Transformations and Rural Policies in the US and UK (Routledge); and published journal articles in Cities, Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of the American Planning Association, Government and Policy, and Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.
How We Teach: Architecture Pedagogy Featured in Puerto Rico Symposium In April, a cadre of current and former architecture faculty and alumni were the invited guests of the University of Puerto Rico’s (UPR) School of Architecture. The occasion was the second in UPR’s symposium series examining the teaching of architecture. “The Evolution of Pedagogy: Architecture at Cornell,” featured presentations and panel discussions with Professor Jerry Wells, associate professors Lily Chi, Andrea Simitch (B.Arch. ’79), and Val Warke (B.Arch. ’77), Visiting Associate Professor Jim Williamson, former associate professor Milton Curry (B.Arch. ’88), and alumnae Hansy Better (B.Arch. ’98) and Gae Buckley (B.Arch. ’79). The symposium was hosted by Francisco Javier Rodríguez, dean of UPR’s architecture school, who has been conducting ongoing research on various forms of architectural teaching pedagogy and their histories. The event was organized by Rodriguez, Simitch, and Williamson. The Cornell participants presented in pairs, with each tackling a time period or thread of design pedagogy evident in the school in the latter half of the 20th century and beyond. Simitch says that the structure meant that groups “gave a slice of the story that then came together to give the full picture of the past 50 years.” Wells and Warke led the first session, with Wells 1. Warke (left) and Wells during the symposium at the University of Puerto Rico. photo / provided
Professor Emeritus Charles Pearman Dies at 86 Charles W. Pearman, professor emeritus of architecture, died on May 10 at the age of 86. Pearman, who joined the faculty of AAP in 1962 and taught until his retirement in 2003, served as both associate dean and interim dean during his tenure. A recipient of the Martín Domínguez Award for Distinguished Teaching, Pearman was known as a patient, generous, and empathetic instructor. He regularly taught for Cornell in Rome, and was involved with the Cornell in Washington Program. Engaging his interest in a wide range of traditional and contemporary movements in Japanese architecture, Pearman led numerous summer program trips to Japan with Associate Professor Lenny Mirin. Pearman received his bachelor of architecture from the University of Michigan, where he also taught for several years. He is survived by his wife, Carol Skinner; his daughter, Marie-Laure Pearman; and his son, Peter Pearman.AAP
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focusing on the roots of the legendary Texas Rangers, of which he and Colin Rowe were a part. Warke discussed the arrival of O. M. Ungers on campus in the 1970s, and the effects the binary Urban Design and Architectural Design graduate programs had on undergraduate education. For their pairing, Simitch and Williamson presented case studies of recent undergraduate and graduate work in the context of shifting and expanding representational tactics. Alumnae and practitioners Better and Buckley showed the outbound influence that architectural pedagogy can have in other realms of design— including film production design and social practice. The use of expanded practices, informality, and urban design were the subjects of Chi’s and Curry’s lectures, as they explored the role of design in the context of environments not driven by—or subject to—planning. Sessions were moderated by Cornell alumni Maria Rossí (B.Arch. ’98), Jorge Rigau (B.Arch. ’75), Victor Níeto (B.Arch. ’06), Javier Isado (B.Arch. ’95), and Esteban Sennyey (M.Arch. ’82)—all currently practicing or teaching in Puerto Rico. A large number of Cornell architecture’s alumni were also in attendance.AAP
Sabin Earns Shared NSF Grant Assistant Professor Jenny Sabin, architecture, and Dan Luo, professor of biological and environmental engineering in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, are among the lead investigators on a new research project to produce “buildable, bendable, and biological materials” for a wide range of applications. The pair will share in a $2 million, four-year, National Science Foundation (NSF) grant with University of Pennsylvania researchers Randall Kamien, physics, and Shu Yang, materials science. The project is intended to bring new ideas, motifs, portability, and design to the formation of intricate chemical, biological, and architectural materials. The research will include cutting and joining nano-sized DNA-polymer hybrids, 3D printing, and geometric models on the macroscopic scale. Researchers also hope to illuminate new principles of architecture, materials synthesis, and biological structures, as well as advance several technologies—including metamaterials, sensors, stealth aircraft, and adaptive and sustainable buildings. A complementary goal is to generate public interest through an enhanced impact on science, art, and engineering.AAP