Architecture Lecture Series Archive
Past Events
September 13, 2024 | Elizabeth Diller, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, DS+R "Recent work: Diller Scofidio + Renfro"
Elizabeth Diller founded Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) with Ricardo Scofidio in 1981. The studio’s work has transformed much of New York City through large-scale planning and architectural initiatives including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the High Line. Diller also led two projects that have reshaped New York’s cultural landscape: the renovation and expansion of MoMA and The Shed. She has worked with cultural institutions around the world to expand access to the arts, from the ICA in Boston and The Broad in Los Angeles, to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s East Storehouse, currently under construction in London. Diller serves as a member of the UN Council on Urban Initiatives, and is a Professor of Architecture at Princeton University. Architecture, Not Architecture, a double-volume monograph on DS+R’s cross-disciplinary work, is now available for pre-order on Phaidon Press’s website.
October 18, 2024 | James Pfeiffer and Katie Nichols, BNIM "Relationship Building"
James Pfeiffer, AIA, LEED AP, is a Principal, award-winning designer, and creative collaborator at BNIM. James has led numerous projects that have set new standards in human-purposed, high-performance integrated design, including significant work with civic and academic institutions. His project leadership results in quantifiable positive outcomes for BNIM’s clients, from energy and water efficiency to improved occupant health and increased user productivity. James’ work has been recognized for design excellence and sustainable stewardship from national entities including American Institute of Architects, Architectural Record, and the U.S. Green Building Council.
Katie Nichols, AIA, LEED AP, is a Principal at BNIM with 20 years of experience who is focused on design excellence and advancing environmental restoration, resilience, and high performance. She leads project teams in a collaborative and communicative process to create a collective vision for transformative project outcomes. Her most recent work has included project leadership on the new Dr. E.J. and Margaret O’Brien Hall at Marquette University, home to the College of Business Administration. Katie also holds a key role in implementing BNIM’s Sustainability Action Plan and guiding conversations to advance equity and inclusion in the firm’s practice.
November 15, 2024 | Alex Ogata, Populous "Impermanent: Architecture as Event"
Alejandro “Alex” Ogata is a Peruvian-born architect and director of the Design Studio at the global design firm, Populous. As Studio director, he leads a team formed specifically to foster new ideas and push the boundaries of what is possible. A former Fulbright scholar and SOM Fellow; his work has been recognized through grants and awards from design organizations like Benetton’s Fabrica and Shinkenchiku-sha. Academically, he has lectured or taught at various universities including Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Howard, Stanford’s CIFE and UMKC’s Bloch business school. He lives and works in Kansas City, Missouri.
April 12, 2024 | Herminia Machry, Nilou Vakil & Amy Van De Riet "Women in Design: Practice, Research & Community Engagement"
Three KU professors will share their unique and multifaceted career trajectories, providing their perspectives and motivations to balance practice, teaching, research, and community engagement within the architecture and design profession. Herminia Machry will share insights about her gradual transition from large-scale architectural practice to teaching and research in interior design, where she promotes ways to bridge theory and practice by involving students and community partners in design simulations focused on healthcare. Nilou Vakil will introduce how her international background has informed her career – balancing an award-winning practice with an academic presence emphasizing community-based partnerships, service learning, and advocacy for women in design. Amy Van de Riet will share her professional focus on historical preservation and adaptive reuse in architecture, and how it enabled her to engage with local communities to collaborate on research advocating for historical legacy and racial equity. The panel will be facilitated by KU student Anna Dority, president of the Women in Design (WiD) committee at the School of Architecture & Design.
March 22, 2024 | Jennifer Siegal "Architecture is Modularity"
Jennifer Siegal and her firm, Office of Mobile Design (OMD), focus on “portable, demountable, and relocatable structures,” from homes to schools to stores. Utilizing industrial processes, prefabrication, and innovative material applications, OMD investigates how architecture can be more efficiently produced and nimbly deployed. Further, Siegal’s firm examines how mobile architecture can engage and adapt to the evolving realities and challenges of urban landscapes. Siegel is the editor of Mobile: the Art of Portable Architecture (2002) and More Mobile: Portable Architecture for Today (2008). She was the founder and series editor of Materials Monthly (2005-2006), published by Princeton Architectural Press. A monograph detailing her work, Jennifer Siegal, was published in 2005.
February 19, 2024 | Health + Wellness Symposium keynote by Phil Bernstein "Designing Healthy Environments through Artificial Intelligence"
Phil Bernstein, FAIA, is an architect and technologist who has taught at the Yale School of Architecture since 1988. From 2000-2016, Bernstein led BIM technology strategy and industry vision at Autodesk. Prior to Autodesk, Bernstein was a principal at Pelli Clarke & Partners Architects where he managed many of the firm’s most complex commissions including projects for the Mayo Clinic, Goldman Sachs, and Reagan Washington National Airport. He lectures, writes, and consults extensively on design practice, technology, and project delivery in the building industry. Bernstein is the author of Machine Learning: Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (2022), Architecture | Design | Data – Practice Competency in the Era of Computation (2018), and co-editor of Building (In) The Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture (2010 with Peggy Deamer).
More info about the 2024 KU Health + Wellness Design Symposium
Sept. 15, 2023 | Stephen J. Cavanaugh "DLR Group: Mass Timber Work"
Steve is a licensed architect who leads the timber research and design studio at DLR Group, a 1200-person multi-disciplinary design firm. His Chicago studio has completed four mass timber office buildings with developer Hines and currently has over 1,500,000 sf of mass timber projects in progress. Steve has built his 35-year career designing complex, technically-challenging projects including offices, hotels, mixed-use, and transportation facilities. A graduate of the University of Illinois School of Architecture, Steve’s large-scale project design experience was developed during his 10-year tenure at the international design firm Jahn, and subsequently at Goettsch Partners, where he served as Project Designer for numerous award-winning tower projects. Steve currently holds the position of North Central Region Design Leader and Principal at DLR Group, where his projects have received numerous design and sustainability awards including three AIA Chicago Distinguished Building Awards.
Oct. 20, 2023 | John C. Guenther "The Gateway Arch: An Illustrated Timeline"
John C. Guenther, FAIA, LEED AP has produced a distinguished body of architecture that contributes significantly to the built environment, with projects ranging from the adaptive reuse of historic landmarks to new projects that fit comfortably into their physical, environmental, social and historic context. His work has received over 50 national, regional, and local awards from the AIA and a diverse array of professional organizations, civic groups, and publications. John was a lecturer in the College of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis (2009-2013), publishing various books. His new book, The Gateway Arch: An Illustrated Timeline, takes a chronological look at the historical foundations of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, beginning in 1699 with the Louisiana Territory, with 90 historical events which led to the realization of the Gateway Arch and the latest refinements to the memorial grounds and new museum. As an architect, John seeks to contribute, through his designs, an architecture which serves and ennobles our lives, works with the environment and enhances our world. As a historian, he recognizes that we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.
Nov. 3, 2023 | Mack Scogin & Merrill Elam "MSME Portfolio"
Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam are the principals in Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects. Together they have, and continue to pursue, a self-referential architecture distinguished by situational differences. Each of their projects—diverse in type, size, and location—embodies a personal search for an architecture of expansive specificity. In addition to their practice, both principals lecture and teach frequently. Mack Scogin is past Chairman of the Department of Architecture and Professor Emeritus in Practice of Architecture, at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Recent projects include a Boathouse and Lodge at Gathering Place, Tulsa, Oklahoma for the George Kaiser Family Foundation; Jackson Park, Queens, New York for Tishman Speyer, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia, and the new United States Courthouse, Des Moines, Iowa.
Feb. 3, 2023 | Faculty Spotlight: Steve Grabow
Stephen Grabow is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of Kansas. As chair of the University Committee on Art in Public Spaces, he assisted in the design of the KU Vietnam Memorial with Doran Abel, an architecture student. He is the author of several books and numerous journal articles on architectural and urban design and is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Fulbright Commission. At KU he taught the principles of modern architecture, history of urban design, and architectural design studios for forty-four years and was a recipient of the Bradley Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Feb. 20, 2023 | Health + Wellness Symposium: Health, Equity & Architecture
The University of Kansas Institute of Health and Wellness Design 6th Annual Symposium presents Health, Equity & Architecture: A discussion of how architecture can bridge the gap between social equity and human well-being. Panelists will include Curtis Moody of Moody Nolan, Bonny Slater of Gensler, and Diamond Bronson of Hoefer Welker.
March 24, 2023 |Jonathan Heppner: "Timber Futures"
*80+40 Lecture, sponsored by Class of 1980 Architecture alumni
Jonathan Heppner has over 18 years of design and management experience working with significant civic and creative organizations. As a native Oregonian, his interest in timber detailing and construction led to his management role on Framework, the first mass timber high-rise project in the US to receive permitted approval. Heppner holds a BArch from the University of Oregon.
80+40 lecture: Sponsored by the Department of Architecture Class of 1980 alumni
*The 80+40 Lecture, sponsored by Class of 1980 Department of Architecture alumni, brings leading voices to campus each year to introduce students to vital issues in architectural design, research, and practice. Established 40 years after the 1980 class walked down the Hill at commencement, the 80+40 Lecture was developed by Becky Cotton, Mark Hugeback, and Bill Quatman. Read more about the 80+40 Lecture fund.
March 25, 2022 | Mark West
Mark West is an artist, builder, researcher and educator. He is the inventor of many fabric-formed concrete techniques and founded the first academic laboratory and studio dedicated to fabric formwork technology: the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (CAST) at the University of Manitoba. After teaching architecture and civil engineering for over 30 years at universities around the world, West now works independently at his Atelier Surviving Logic in Montreal.
West will also host a concrete casting workshop March 23-24 at the School of Architecture & Design’s East Hills Design-Build Center.
This lecture and workshop were made possible by the 80 + 40 Lecture Fund.
April 8, 2022 | David Brown
David Brown is a designer, researcher and educator based at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Architecture. As a practitioner and scholar, he investigates non-hierarchical, flexible and variable approaches to urban design. Brown’s work has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Chicago Cultural Center’s Expo 72 and the Chicago Architecture Biennial. In 2006, Brown curated the exhibition Learning from North Lawndale: Past, Present + Future at the Chicago Architecture Foundation (now the Chicago Architecture Center). Brown’s writing includes the book “Noise Orders: Jazz, Improvisation, and Architecture” and numerous essays.
April 29, 2022 | Trent Preszler
Trent Preszler is a designer, builder, winemaker and author. He is the founder of Preszler Woodshop in New York where he makes bespoke wooden canoes molded from hundreds of hand-cut wood strips, then finished with cast bronze trim and hand-stitched leather seats. His bestselling memoir, “Little and Often,” was a USA Today Best Book of 2021. A documentary about Preszler’s life, “Winemaker and Boatbuilder,” won a 2018 New York Emmy Award. His work has been featured in Esquire, Robb Report, Financial Times of London and The Wall Street Journal Magazine.
This lecture was made possible by the Sallie Casey Thayer Lecture Fund.
Sept. 9, 2022 | Kapila Silva:“Cities as Cultural Landscapes”
Kapila Silva is a professor of architecture at the KU School of Architecture & Design. His research focuses on the social, cultural and psychological aspects of architecture, urbanism and historic preservation. In geo-cultural scope, his work focuses specifically on non-Western traditions within the Asian context. In addition, he studies vernacular environments in the region, developing a theoretical framework to study those environments and deriving lessons for contemporary architectural situations, such as community design and post-disaster resettlement housing.
Sept. 29, 2022 | Dianne Lee: “Leveraging Stereotypes to your Advantage”
Dianne Lee is a construction management professional, author and advocate for empowering individuals regardless of gender, age, race or status. During this series event, she will discuss her book “Leveraging Stereotypes to your Advantage,” in which she shares her personal story as an Asian immigrant in a highly male-dominated industry. This event is co-sponsored by the KU architecture & design school and the following KU organizations: Center for East Asian Studies; Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity; the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging; and School of Engineering.
Oct. 21, 2022 | Jeffrey Huber of Brooks + Scarpa
Jeffrey Huber, FAIA, is a principal at Brooks + Scarpa, where he manages the firm’s south Florida office. Brooks + Scarpa is a multidisciplinary practice that includes architecture, landscape architecture, planning, environmental design, materials research, graphic, furniture and interior design services that produces innovative, sustainable iconic buildings and urban environments. A distinguished architect and landscape architect, Huber specializes in public realm projects that combine ecological, landscape, urban and architectural design. Huber’s research, teaching and professional work have garnered more than 75 national design awards, including multiple Progressive Architecture Awards, AIA National Institute Honor Awards in Architecture and Regional and Urban Design, American Society of Landscape Architects, American Architecture Awards and the American Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
Nov. 11, 2022 | Grant Gibson and Sean Lally: “Drawing & Representation Techniques in Architecture”
Grant Gibson is principal at CAMESgibson, Inc., a clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago and author. His work has been widely exhibited and recognized, especially in his home city of Chicago. In 2014, he was awarded an Emerging Vision Prize by the Chicago Architecture Club. Two projects by CAMESgibson have received Citations of Merit by AIA Chicago, and another was nominated for a Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize for Emerging Practices. Gibson is the author of “A Performed Memoir,” published and exhibited by the Graham Foundation in Jimenez Lai’s Treatise Series. He has taught undergraduate and graduate design and building technology courses since 2006.
Sean Lally is principal at Sean Lally Architecture, associate professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago and an author. Sean Lally Architecture is dedicated to engaging today’s greatest pressures — a changing climate and advances in health care and consumer devices that are redefining the human bodies that occupy our environments. Lally is the author of the “The Air from Other Planets: A Brief History of Architecture to Come” (Lars Müller). Lally is the recipient of the Young Architects Award from the Architectural League of New York and the Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize in landscape architecture from the American Academy in Rome.
Oct. 15 , 2021 | Fabian Jabro
Fabian Jabro is a founding principal of Standard Architects and brings to that role a decade’s experience as a builder. For 25 years he has helped keep the firm focused on collaboration and working a number of project types, including Little Island in New York City, Nutrabolt’s headquarters in Texas and Beam Center’s summer camp in New Hampshire. He is a hands-on principal involved in all of the firm’s projects.
Nov. 5, 2021 | Brian Alexander
Symposium on Challenges and Opportunities for Rural Healthcare
Keynote address by Brian Alexander, author of "The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town."
Panel discussion led by Tom Trenolone, FAIA, director of design at HDR Architecture.
Panelists: Chris Emond, CFO of Mat-Su Health Foundation; Charisse Oland, CEO of Cuyuna Medical Center; and Brock Slabach, COO of the National Rural Health Association.
Following the symposium, a reception will be held at 1:30 p.m. to dedicate the new Pulse Design Group Simulation Lab and Health & Wellness Studios in 400 Marvin Hall.
Nov. 19 , 2021 | BORDERLESS
Founded in 2016, BORDERLESS is an urban design and research studio focused on cultivating collaborative design agency through interdisciplinary projects. With emphasis on exchange and communication across disciplines, BORDERLESS explores creative and collaborative city design interventions that address the complexity of urban systems and social equity by looking at intersections between architecture, urban design, infrastructure, landscape, planning and civic participatory processes.
Feb 19, 2021 | Tyler Cukar (FXCollaborative Architects, LLP, New York)
Tyler Cukar, AICP, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP ND, is an Associate at FXCollaborative where he practices at the intersection of urban design, planning, and architecture. He approaches each project with an eye towards community and inter-connectivity by questioning ‘who’ in addition to ‘what’. He has worked on some of New York City’s largest planning projects, including regional growth strategies, district revitalization, scenario planning, and transit networks and stations. By understanding the social, economic, and physical, he shapes the organizational and programmatic concepts that define cities.
March 5, 2021| KU Faculty Spotlight: Chad Kraus, Dirt Works Studio
Chad Kraus is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Kansas and a licensed architect. He teaches architectural theory, architectural design studio, and the award-winning designbuild Dirt Works Studio. His scholarship concentrates on designbuild pedagogy and material research. He is the editor of the book Designbuild Education (Routledge 2017) and an editor of the journal Technology | Architecture + Design (TAD). Prior to teaching, Professor Kraus worked for Pritzker-prize laureate Shigeru Ban and studied architectural history and theory under Alberto Perez-Gomez at McGill University.
March 19, 2021 | Andrew Moddrell + Christopher Marcinkoski (PORT, Chicago)
Christopher Marcinkoski and Andrew Moddrell are founding partners of PORT, a public realm design practice comprising architects, landscape architects and urban designers. PORT's practice model is based on a belief that the public realm represents the most essential spaces of the contemporary city. By helping communities to reimagine and shape these spaces, the firm is actively creating the venues in which society and culture evolve and progress. For PORT, the public realm is the closest thing we have to equitable and democratic space in the contemporary city.
PORT’s projects have principally resided within two broad project types. The first is designing strategies for the management and occupation of large and complicated urban territories. The second is executing transformational projects for the underinvested spaces of existing cities. PORT's portfolio includes interventions that transform neglected urban spaces into places of social collection; development of bespoke urban furniture systems as frameworks for larger corridor transformations; planning and design of large urban parks; and conceptualizing regional development and conservation strategies.
PORT was recognized with the 2020 Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League of New York, given to a North American design practice with a significant body of realized work and the potential to meaningfully influence their field.
April 16, 2021 | Mae-ling Lokko (Director, Building Sciences Program, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY)
Mae-ling Lokko is an architectural scientist and building technology researcher from Ghana and the Philippines whose work centers on the upcycling of agrowaste and biopolymer materials into high performance clean building material systems for humidity control, indoor air quality remediation and water quality control applications. Lokko holds a Ph.D. and Masters of Science in Architectural Science from the Center from Architecture, Science and Ecology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and B.A from Tufts University. Lokko teaches on seminars on energy and ecology in relation to the built environment, upcycling and ecoeffective material life cycle design both at the SoA and at the Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology in Industry City, Brooklyn.
September 10, 2020 | COVID / Care / Community
How can architecture support responses to the current COVID-19 pandemic and other crises caused by natural and manmade disasters? This panel discussion will address the public health characteristics of the current COVID event, how the architecture community is responding to support community -wide initiatives, specific healthcare building strategies, and post-event disaster recovery efforts.
Speakers:
- Rachel Minnery, FAIA, Senior Director of Resilience, Adaptation & Disaster Assistance at the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- Molly Scanlon, Ph.D., FAIA, FACHA, Director of Standards, Compliance & Research at Phigenicenics; AIA COVID-19 Task Force member
- David Vincent, AIA, ACHA, LEED AP, Principal and Director of Health at HKS Architects
October 8, 2020 | Understanding VR in Architectural Design and Research
Virtual reality (VR) software is emerging as an important tool in creative design and for communications with users and clients. This session will explore the current state of the technology and how it can fit into the overall design process. Research into the effectiveness of this tool compared to other methods for client input will be presented along with insights into the future of VR.
Speakers:
- Callum Vierthaler, AIA, EDAC, LEED, architect at Pulse Design Group
- Deborah Wingler, PhD, EDAC, Health Research Lead, Vice President at HKS Architects
November 12, 2020 | The Future of Architecture
Current restrictions on travel, group meetings, and office work environments have resulted in radical shifts in the practice of architecture. Are these permanent changes in the way we work, are they temporary “blips” in the design process, or will there be some blend in virtual and traditional practice? This panel will explore the short and long-term implications from an industry-wide perspective and from practitioners leading large and medium size firms.
Speakers:
- Phillip G Bernstein, FAIA, NOMA, LEED AP, Associate Dean and Professor Adjunct at the Yale School of Architecture
- Heather Chung, MDA, Vice President and Healthcare Studio Leader at SmithGroup
- Richard Embers, AIA, ACHA, Principal at Pulse Design Group
Mar. 25 | Mark West
Mark West is an artist, builder, researcher, and educator. He is the inventor of many fabric-formed concrete techniques and founded the first academic laboratory and studio dedicated to fabric formwork technology – the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (CAST) at the University of Manitoba. After teaching architecture and civil engineering for over thirty years at universities around the world, West now works independently at his Atelier Surviving Logic in Montreal.
West will also host a concrete casting workshop, Mar. 23-24, at the East Hills Design-Build Center.
This lecture and workshop were made possible by the 80 + 40 Lecture Fund.
Apr. 8 | David Brown
David Brown is a designer, researcher, and educator based at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Architecture. As a practitioner and scholar, he investigates non-hierarchical, flexible, and variable approaches to urban design. Brown’s work has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Chicago Cultural Center’s Expo 72, and the Chicago Architecture Biennial. In 2006, Brown curated the exhibition Learning from North Lawndale: Past, Present + Future at the Chicago Architecture Foundation (now the Chicago Architecture Center). Brown’s writing includes the book Noise Orders: Jazz, Improvisation, and Architecture and numerous essays.
Apr. 29 | Trent Preszler
Trent Preszler is a designer, builder, winemaker, and author. He is the founder of Preszler Woodshop in New York where he makes bespoke wooden canoes molded from hundreds of hand-cut wood strips, then finished with cast bronze trim and hand stitched leather seats. His bestselling memoir, Little and Often, was a USA Today Best Book of 2021. A documentary about Preszler’s life, Winemaker and Boatbuilder, won a 2018 New York Emmy Award. His work has been featured in Esquire, Robb Report, Financial Times of London, and The Wall Street Journal Magazine.
This lecture was made possible by the Sallie Casey Thayer Lecture Fund.
Other past speakers include:
Dan Wheeler
Wheeler Kearns Architects, Chicago
Andy Brayman
Matter Factory & Boston Valley Terracotta
Health & Wellness Symposium: Sustainable Health & Wellness Design
Fall 2019
Jason Smith
Partner, Kierantimberlake Architects
Peter Landon
Founder & Principal, Landon Bone Architects
Bob Coffeen
Founder and Principal Consultant, Avant Acoustics
Julia Manglitz
Associate Principal and Historic Preservationist, TreanorHL
Health & Welness Symposium Lecture
HDR Architecture
Rick Sommerfeld
Director, Colorado Building Workshop
Alex Ilten
Design Director, Obscura Digital
Jane Huesemann and Steve Clark
Founding Partners of Clark Huesemann
Dennis Heath and Tim Cahill
Founding Principal of MBH Architects and Director of Architecture Design at HNTB
Bill Zahner
CEO of A. Zahner Co