College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.
2011-12 BE Lectures
You are invited to join the UW College of Built Environments for a winter quarter filled with outstanding lectures.
Monday, January 9, 2012 - 6:30 pm - Kane Hall 120, UW Seattle Campus
George Suyama: Inspirations and Place
2012 Dean's Distinguished Lecture
Principal, Suyama Peterson Deguchi
Registration for this lecture appreciated. Please register online by clicking here.
Join us for a lecture, reception, and book signing with George Suyama, principal of Seattle-based architecture firm Suyama Peterson Deguchi. Long known for his Northwest Contemporary design, Suyama has devoted his 40-year career to exploring how nature defines architecture. He is inspired by modest architecture that articulates an elemental sense of shelter. In this lecture George will speak about his inspirations and place making, telling the story of a continuous search for truth.
George Suyama was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and received his Architecture degree from the University of Washington in 1967. After working for Northwest Modern masters Ralph Anderson and Gene Zema, Suyama founded George Suyama Architects in 1971 (renamed Suyama Peterson Deguchi in 2003). Suyama's practice has included custom residences, resorts, art galleries, performance theaters, restaurants, offices, retail spaces, and cultural/community centers. In addition, his practice has expanded to include interior and product design. In 2002, Suyama Peterson Deguchi launched 3x10, a showroom housed within their Belltown studio which features the firm's custom designed furniture, fixtures, and lighting. In 1993, Suyama was elected to the AIA College of Fellows, and he was awarded the AIA's highest honor, the prestigious Medal of Honor, in 2009. Suyama has served on many boards and commissions such as the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle Arts Commission, and the Pike Place Market Commission. He is currently the director of Suyama Space, a non-profit venue for installation art located within Suyama's Belltown studio. Founded in 1998, Suyama Space has received extensive media coverage, both locally and nationally, and has been lauded as one of the Northwest's pre-eminent contemporary art spaces. 2011 marks the 40th year of George Suyama's design practice.
Thursday, February 2, 2012 - 6:30 pm - Kane Hall 120, UW Seattle Campus
Theaster Gates: To Play a People's Music
This night, we will play and sing songs.
We will reflect and breathe together.
We will remember why sentiment was a necessary political tactic.
The nostalgic, the desperate and the mundane worked perfectly for love, revolution and trans-national belief accumulation.
It is melodic word, not just the spoken, that gives soul-power. Sound all alone has done so much. I want to be funk and gospel and soul.
I am curious about yourselves and how the podium might move us all if we ride together. 2 turntables and a mic recomposed. Maybe.
Theaster Gates is an artist with a background in urban planning and religious studies who works across artistic forms to create platforms for engagement and objects of belief. Gates' solo exhibition, "Theaster Gates: The Listening Room," is on view from December 9, 2011 through July 1, 2012 at SAM Downtown. We are pleased to offer this lecture in partnership with the Seattle Art Museum.
Monday, February 27, 2012 - 6:30 pm - Kane Hall 120, UW Seattle Campus
Nan Ellin: Good Urbanism
Join us for a lecture and reception with Nan Ellin, Professor and Chair of the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. We currently have the knowledge, the tools, and the will to make good places. Yet, their actual delivery remains challenging and all too rare. Nan Ellin advances a basic strategy for clearing the path toward good urbanism, enriching the conventional approach with an envisioning process that cultivates good ideas while leveraging the resources to realize them. Case studies demonstrate how this approach contributes to enhance the health and well-being of places and communities, as well as the efficacy and relevance of our professions.
Nan Ellin is Professor and Chair of the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning at University of Utah. She holds an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and has served on the faculty of ASU, University of Cincinnati, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), University of Southern California, and New York University. Ellin was a Fulbright Scholar in France where she carried out research for her dissertation on the European New Urbanism. Ellin's new book Good Urbanism (forthcoming early 2012) describes a paradigm shift in urban design and urban planning from sustainability to prosperity. She is also the author of Integral Urbanism and Postmodern Urbanism, collaborated with Edward Booth-Clibborn on Phoenix: 21st-Century City, and is the editor of Architecture of Fear. Ellin's collection of public scholarship, Desert Urbanism, can be found at http://tinyurl.com/DesertUrbanism. Her scholarly articles and essays have appeared in Journal of Urbanism, Journal of Urban Design, Lotus, History of European Ideas, Journal of Architectural Education, Design Book Review, Thresholds, Intersight, Urban Studies Review, The Hedgehog Review, Critical Planning, and the Encyclopedia of New York City. Ellin's work has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Serbo-Croatian, Korean, and Chinese. She was the driving force behind canalscape, an initiative working to create vital urban hubs throughout metropolitan Phoenix where canals meet major streets. Canalscape has received an Arizona Humanities Council Grant and an APA Arizona Award, and has been designated a Green Phoenix initiative by the Mayor and an Arizona 2012 Centennial Legacy Project by the Governor. At University of Utah, Ellin directs the Salt Lake City Workshop, working with students from around the university to envision best possibilities and catalyze positive transformation.