Event from Virginia Innovation Partnership

Virginia Innovation Partnership:

“The Virginia Innovation Partnership (VIP) is a new statewide network that funds and mentors innovative teams and proof-of-concept projects at all of Virginia’s universities and colleges, with the goal of commercialization.  Attracting adequate venture capital funds and high-quality intellectual and business partners is a key to success. VIP will host the Virginia Ventures Forum to bring active venture capital and corporate funds to the VIP network, thus enhancing exposure of our i6-funded research to private sector investors and enhancing the deal flow to new ventures. This supports innovation, job creation, and increased GDP in Virginia based on new technology that is difficult to off-shore.

This year’s event will be again held in the Madison Building at the U.S. Patent and Trade offices in Alexandria, VA on Friday, September 12, 2014.  This full day event will showcase the funded VIP projects, offer keynote talks on the windows on the future, and provide periods of networking time. There is no cost to attend, but registration is required.”

~VIP

Click here to learn more or to register

Architecture Graduate Uses Ancient Painting Form to Shape Modern Buildings

University of Virginia:

“Anna McMillen reconnected with her childhood passion for making Chinese Literati art – plain ink paintings designed to express the artist’s spirit – and combined it with her study of architecture. The result was a better understanding of the importance of grasping the essence of an architectural project, she said.

McMillen, 21, of Chesapeake, graduated May 18 with degrees in architecture and urban planning from the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, as well as minors in architectural history and global sustainability. She studied the ink wash paintings in Shanghai last summer thanks to an Undergraduate Award for Arts Projects program.

The grant, modeled on the University’s successful Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards program, supports creative expression, such as filmmaking, writing and dance, providing students up to $3,000 for projects that expand their expression and showcase artistic accomplishments.”

~ Writes Ashley Patterson of UVA Today

Click here for the full story

Faculty Profiles: Kris Wernstedt

Virginia Teach:

“Kris Wernstedt is an Associate Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech’s National Capital Region campus in Alexandria. Prior to coming to Virginia Tech in August 2006, he spent 15 years as a Fellow at Resources for the Future, a non-profit organization in Washington, DC that conducts research and policy analysis on environmental quality and natural resources.

Wernstedt studies a variety of issues in environmental planning, management, and policy, with topical emphases on contaminated properties, water resources, and climate change and variability. His broad substantive interests include regulatory innovation, decision making under uncertainty, and institutional responses to risk. Research sponsors have included a range of foundations, think tanks, and federal agencies.

He holds both a Ph.D. and a Master of Regional Planning in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University, as well as a Master of Science in Water Resources Management from the University of Wisconsin.”

~Virginia Tech

Click here to learn more about Kris Wernstedt

Faculty Profiles: Damian Pitt

Virginia Commonwealth University:

“Dr. Pitt received his BS from the University of Tennessee in 1998, Master of Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon in 2001, and Ph.D. in Planning, Governance and Globalization from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 2009…

Dr. Damian Pitt’s work examines efforts to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through energy conservation, renewable energy use, land use and transportation policies. He has written several articles, professional and technical reports. Dr. Pitt’s academic background is complemented by substantive practical experience. Prior to resuming his doctoral studies, he served as a consultant for Cogan Owens Cogan, a nationally respected consulting firm in Portland, Oregon. While at COC, he led a variety of projects for public and private sector clients throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Dr. Pitt is committed to the pursuit of community-engaged research, which brings together the talent and resources of the university to work on diverse collaborations that benefit the people and communities of the commonwealth. His teaching incorporates students through service learning courses that have produced a number of energy and climate change planning documents for various localities. His most recent efforts included a series of research projects that used the community of Blacksburg, VA as a model for estimating potential energy consumption and GHG emission reductions through residential energy efficiency retrofits, alternative transportation and other local measures. By comparing areas with varying demographic and transportation patterns, Dr. Pitt’s research attempts to produce a flexible yet predictive model for local action planning that can be applied to different types of communities.”

~VCU

Click here to learn more about Damian Pitt

Faculty Profiles: Timothy Beatley

University of Virginia:

“Timothy Beatley is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, where he has taught for the last twenty-five years. Much of Beatley’s work focuses on the subject of sustainable communities, and creative strategies by which cities and towns can fundamentally reduce their ecological footprints, while at the same time becoming more livable and equitable places. Beatley believes that sustainable and resilient cities represent our best hope for addressing today’s environmental challenges. Beatley is the author or co-author of more than fifteen books on these subjects, including Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities (recently translated into Chinese), Habitat Conservation Planning, Native to Nowhere: Sustaining Home and Community in a Global Age, and Planning for Coastal Resilience. He has co-authored two books with Australian planner Peter Newman: Resilient Cities and Green Urbanism Down Under: Learning From Sustainable Australian Communities. Beatley’s book Ethical Land Use was declared, by the American Planning Association, to be one of the “100 EssentialBooks in Planning” His most recent book is Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning, which argues that cities can and must be designed to permit daily contact with the natural world. It identifies a variety of means for doing this, from green walls and green rooftops to urban forests and sidewalk gardens. Beatley recently collaborated on a documentary film about green cities and urban nature, entitled The Nature of Cities, which has been shown on PBS (Public Broadcasting System) stations all over the U.S. He also writes a regular column for Planning Magazine, called Ever Green, about environmental and sustainability matters. His research has been funded by a variety of agencies and organizations including the National Science Foundation, Virginia Sea Grant, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among others. Beatley holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MA in Political Science from UNC, a Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Oregon, and a Bachelors of City Planning from UVA.”

~University of Virginia

Click here to learn more about Tim Beatley

2014 AIA DC Unbuilt Awards

University of Virginia:

“The UVA School of Architecture was well-represented in the 2014 AIA DC Unbuilt Awards this year, with Assistant Professor Jeana Ripple winning two awards, including one Award of Excellence in Materials and Innovation as well as a Design Award, and graduate student Kurt West winning a Design Award. Congratulations Jeana and Kurt! See the all of the winning projects at: http://architecturedcblog.com/aiadc-unbuilt-awards-2014-winners/

Jeana Ripple, Breathe Wall, Award of Excellence in Materialsand Innovation [link]

Designed and prototyped as part of the Design-Driven Manufacturing program, Breathe Wall is an infrastructure-scale solution relying on microstructure-scale properties. BREATHE WALL uses charred Moso bamboo—a species that can be grown locally providing superior performance as a carbonized filter due to dense microstructure and high porous surface area—to create an air-purifying retrofit affixed to interstate sound barriers. Living within 300 feet of a major highway increases asthma rates by 8%. In the Washington DC / Baltimore area, a half-million people live within 300 feet of a major interstate and also within an EPA clean-air non-attainment zone.

Jeana Ripple, Evaporative Skin, Design Award [link]

Designed and prototyped as part of the Design-Driven Manufacturing program founded by Ripple (architecture) and Suzanne Moomaw (urban and environmental planning), Evaporative Skin passively conditions intake air in hot, dry climates. A durable, mold-resistant diamond grid disperses mechanically-delivered water droplets while gaining solar heat to increase airflow and evaporation, effectively acting as a large-scale version of a cellulose cooling pad.

Kurt West, POLYHUT, Design Award [link]

POLYHUT is a site-specific proposal exploring a narrative between offsite construction and architectural tectonics. The construction consists of 300+ CNC-milled multi-wall polycarbonate panels sandwiched together by a system of dowel rod connections that weave and intersect strategically throughout the assembly.   The combination of laminated translucent panels, dowel joints and light patterns create a visual and tactile experience.”

~ Matthew Pinyan, University of Virginia

The Rule of 5: How to Succeed in Local Government

How to Stick Out in Your Organization:

“When you’re just starting out in your career, it’s natural to want to figure out how best to progress and get ahead. For this article, I reached out to several colleagues, who are city managers, deputy or assistant city managers, working in communities across the country, who shared their strategies for impressing the boss.”

~ Writes Julie Underwood on Emerging Local Government Leaders

Click here to read her article

Register for the Healthy Environments, Healing Spaces Conference

University of Virginia:

“What do we know about how the environments in which we live affect our health? What are examples of projects, plans, policies and programs promoting health through design? What questions do we still have? On March 17th and 18th, landscape architects, architects, planners, and medical professionals will come together to talk about how designing healthcare facilities, community food systems, environments that promote aging in place, active urban form, and nature in cities can promote human health. Each speaker will present the latest in the field and forecast the future directions of the discipline. Respondents will follow up the presentation with critical questions and further insights.”

Registration is free.  Please register here. AICP credits available.

~University of Virginia, A-School

U.Va. Architecture Design Initiative Takes Multi-Disciplined Approach to Arctic Development

University of Virginia:

“Of the places on earth least likely to be developed, the Arctic would have to be at or near the top of the list. But that’s not the case, according to a design initiative under way at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, which includes an exhibition on display through Feb. 15. U.Va.’s Arctic Design Initiative says development of this northernmost frontier has already begun and expansion is the next step.

Matthew Jull, an associate professor of architecture, and Leena Cho, a lecturer of landscape architecture, began their Arctic research six years ago while in Rotterdam and brought the infant project to U.Va in the fall of 2012. They have since invited students to design for the unexamined impacts of the Arctic, creating a network of designers interested in exploring a new frontier. Through design studios, independent studies and seminars led by Jull and Cho, the initiative includes students at different levels in their academic careers.

The initiative’s focus is unique in that it is not just design-based, but also considers the impact of environmental, political, economic and cultural trajectories that remain disconnected by most designers. For Jull, who began his career as a research scientist before shifting to design, the connectivity between these various fields is inevitable.”

~Writes Ashley Patterson of UVA Today

Click here to learn more

A Strategy to Protect Virginians from Toxic Chemicals

University of Richmond:

“The University of Richmond School of Law announces the release of the first comprehensive report on releases and exposures to toxic chemicals in Virginia, 'A Strategy to Protect Virginians From Toxic Chemicals.'  Prepared by Professor Noah Sachs and law student Ryan Murphy, the report concludes that the Commonwealth should place controlling toxics at the forefront of its regulatory agenda to prevent accidents such as the coal ash spill near Danville this week and the chemical spill along the Elk River in Charleston, West Virginia last month.   The report addresses issues that have not received much attention in Virginia, including:

• Chemical storage along waterways
• The lack of a comprehensive state program for remediating contaminated sites
• Coal ash disposal and regulation
• Increasing DEQ's enforcement authority
• Toxics in consumer products”

 ~Writes Noah M. Sachs: Professor, University of Richmond School of Law

Click here to learn more

Slideshow: Route 29 UVa School of Architecture Vortex

University of Virginia

“During the first week of classes, students from the University of Virginia's School of Architecture participated in the third annual Vortex. The final projects presented a variety of designs for a future Route 29, including alternative modes of traffic, dense urbanization, and drone transportation of goods.”

~Writes Effie Nicholaou of Charlottesville Tomorrow

Click here to view the slideshow

Exhibit - Drone Art: Low Altitude Landscapes

University of Virginia

“Why does the sight of birds flying attract the eye? Is it the graceful movement, the surprising reminder of that third dimension, altitude? And how does the countryside appear as they're soaring over buildings and trees? This exhibit displays large photographs taken from a bird-sized remote control helicopter, showing wide panoramas from a few hundred feet up. John Vigour started taking these pictures a year ago because his model-aircraft Christmas present contained a built-in camera. The project took on a life of its own and evolved into a delightful revelation of the Virginia landscape.”

~UVA A-School

Click here to learn more

Cooper Center official 2013 population estimates for Virginia

Weldon Cooper Center

“Virginia Population Growth Slows - Population growth in Virginia slowed last year as fewer people moved to the state, but the commonwealth still outpaced the nation, according to the most recent official state population estimates from the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.

Virginia’s population grew between 2012 and 2013 by less than 1 percent, or 74,531 people, to increase the state total population to nearly 8.3 million. While growth last year was the slowest in Virginia since before the recession, the commonwealth still grew faster than the nation, which grew by 0.7 percent. Compared to other states, Virginia posted the 14th-highest growth rate and the seventh-largest numerical population gain.

Within Virginia, the large population gains were more than ever concentrated in urban localities particularly in Northern Virginia. While Fredericksburg is the fastest-growing locality since 2010, increasing by more than 15 percent, most urban localities in Virginia also experienced above-average growth, representing a change from the previous decade. Between 2000 and 2010, urban localities grew much more slowly than suburban localities in Virginia; in contrast, during the past four years, many urban areas are among Virginia’s fastest-growing localities, with Arlington, Fredericksburg, Harrisonburg, Radford and Richmond among the cities growing at a rate faster than the state since 2010.

Most localities that lost population or experienced natural decrease were located outside of the so-called “urban crescent,” which stretches from Hampton Roads to Richmond and up the Interstate 95 corridor to Northern Virginia. In Southwest Virginia, all seven coal-producing counties declined in population between 2012 and 2013.

The Cooper Center’s population estimates, prepared annually, are the official figures for the commonwealth of Virginia. The estimates are based on changes since 2010 in housing stock, school enrollment, births, deaths and drivers’ license issuances. They are used by state and local government agencies in revenue sharing, funding allocations, planning and budgeting.”

~Weldon Cooper Center

Click here for the full report

Arctic Design Initiative Exhibition

University of Virginia

“The Arctic Design Initiative, formed in 2012 at the UVA School of Architecture, is an interdisciplinary design research platform that explores architectural, urban and ecological futures of the rapidly changing arctic. It is the first of its kind in the U.S. and one of only a handful of programs worldwide to link design with natural and social science studies of the region.

The exhibition, which kick-starts and shares this effort with the School and the University, is a snapshot of collective research produced in the past year via fieldwork, conferences, and courses offered at the UVA School of Architecture, involving a wide array of arctic experts, colleagues and institutions, at home and abroad, as well as our undergraduate- and graduate-level architecture and landscape architecture students.

The eclectic narratives of the presented work show that the arctic is a dynamic, transnational, connected and contested region. Reinforced by the fast rate of climate change and globalization, it is rushing into a new, unprecedented era where its environmental, political, economic and cultural trajectories are unknown and must be tested. At this critical moment, the exhibition examines a range of issues, challenges and opportunities that are currently shaping and will continue to influence the region, as well as their long-term impact on its unique landscapes.” 

~ Co-Directors, Arctic Design Initiative:

Matthew Jull, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Architecture

Leena Cho, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture

Click here to learn more

Which concept from this year's UVa Vortex would you most like to see in your lifetime?

University of Virginia

“This year’s UVa Vortex had students in the School of Architecture envision new ways to address congestion and improve the U.S. Route 29 corridor.  Of these three big ideas... If you had to pick one, which of these three ideas would you most like to see in your lifetime?”

~Writes Charlottesville Tomorrow

Click here to learn more and vote

Urban Design Seminar Series

Conversations on the Public Realm in the D.C. Region

Jan. 28, Feb. 11, March 4, March 18 and April 1 from 7-9:30 PM

1021 Prince Street, Alexandria

The School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and the Washington Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC) are excited to announce our first interdisciplinary seminar series.  Over the course of the spring term, we will host five sessions exploring intriguing and challenging aspects of the public realm in the National Capital Region.

Speakers will include Virginia Tech faculty from planning, public policy, landscape architecture and architecture along with noted practitioner experts. Each session will include a presentation, a discussion period and a small reception. 

The seminars are free and open to the public, but for space planning purposes we would appreciate it if you would notify us of your attendance by sending an email to udseminar@vt.edu.

Jan. 28: African American Heritage: How is it Represented in the Public Realm and How Does it Affect Planning and Development in the D.C. Region?

Panelists include: 

Audrey Davis, Acting Director, Alexandria Black History Museum 

Nikki Graves Henderson, Director, Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation

Jane Freundel Levey, Director of Heritage and Community Programs, Cultural Tourism DC

Moderator:

Elizabeth Morton (Urban Affairs and Planning faculty)

Rapporteurs:

Derek Hyra (Urban Affairs and Planning faculty)

Matt Dull (Center for Public Administration and Policy faculty)

Feb. 11: Design Review: Opportunities and Complexities in Regulating the Public Realm

Panelists include: 

Roger Lewis, architect and critic for the Washington Post

Elizabeth Miller, Director Physical Planning Division at National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC)

Lee Quill, Founding Principal at Cunningham Quill Architects

Matt Steenhoek, PN Hoffman

Moderators: 

Elizabeth Morton (Urban Affairs and Planning faculty)

Susan Piedmont-Palladino (Architecture faculty)

March 4: The Cultivation of the Potomac River Landscape 

Paul Kelsch (Landscape Architecture faculty)

March 18: 4 Blocks: Lessons in an Urban Campus

Susan Piedmont-Palladino (Architecture faculty)

April 1: Arboreta Washingtonensis: Collecting Trees in the Public Realm

Nathan Heavers (Landscape Architecture faculty)

Ray Mims, U.S. Botanical Garden and head of the Sustainable Sites Initiative (invited)

The seminar series is jointly sponsored by the School of Public and International Affairs, the Urban Affairs and Planning program, the Washington Alexandria Architecture Center, and the new Urban Design Concentration, with the support of the Dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the Washington, DC Initiative (DCI).

University of Virginia

“On Monday afternoon, 300 students from the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture will walk up and down the area’s busiest traffic corridor to begin imagining how it might be redeveloped in the near future. The expedition along U.S. 29 will come near the start of the school’s third annual ‘vortex,’ a week-long workshop in which students apply their design training to reimagine an aspect of the Charlottesville-Albemarle County area.”

~Writes Sean Tubbs of Charlottesville Tomorrow

Click here to learn more

Virginia Tech's Urban Affairs and Planning

Virginia Tech's "Urban Affairs and Planning's (UAP) diverse programs and interdisciplinary faculty provide a wide range of professional specializations, including: Environmental Planning and Policy; Land Use and Physical Development Planning; Housing, Community and Economic Development; International Development Planning."

Click here to learn more about their program 

UVA Student's Documentary on US29

University of Virginia

A UVA Planning student created this short documentary on the various interpretations of Charlottesville's most notorious road, Route 29. Click here to watch this great video.

Going Mental: Architecture Professor Researches Everyday Travel and the Cognitive Map

University of Virginia

“Do you have a special way of getting to work or to a favorite restaurant? If so, then your cognitive map is doing its job. These routes are mental maps stored in the brain, and new research shows that what people store in their cognitive map often depends on their mode of travel.

Andrew Mondschein, who joined the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Architecture in September as an assistant professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, led a team that found “cognitively active” travelers, those driving a car or walking, have more accurate mental maps than “cognitively passive” travelers, such as car or bus passengers. The findings were published in the latest issue of ACCESS, which reports on research funded by the University of California Transportation Center.

In his article, ‘Going Mental: Everyday Travel and the Cognitive Map,’ Mondschein and his team show that cognitively active people have a greater awareness of where things like shopping centers, parks and potential employers are located in their cities and towns.”

~Writes Robert Hull of UVA Today

Click here to learn more

U.Va. Alumni Help Children on the Move Take Their Schools with Them

University of Virginia

“For many children around the world – refugees from conflicts, or migrants whose families chase work where they can find it ­– regularly attending a school is not an option. Building Trust International, a nonprofit that provides building support and design advice to charities and communities in need, concluded that if the children can’t get to the school, perhaps there was a way to bring the school to the children. In 2012, Building Trust sponsored an international design competition to create a solution for displaced communities who lack adequate buildings for schools. The goal was to create the opportunity for communities to establish buildings for educational opportunities in their temporary homes.

Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa, both of whom received master’s degrees from the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, designed a moving school for migrant and refugee communities of Southeast Asia, creating an opportunity for communities to establish an educational home away from home. As a result of their design’s ability to 'address the issues relating to simplicity, flexibility and the needs of this program to be relocated or adapted over time,' it was selected as the winner from hundreds of competitors.”

~Writes Ashley Patterson of UVA Today

Click here to learn more