Faculty News

CBE Welcomes 4 New Faces
Four new faculty members joined our college community this fall quarter:

The Department of Urban Design and Planning welcomed Chair and Professor Qing Shen. Read his profile.

Assistant Professor Kate Simonen, AIA, joined the faculty of the Department of Architecture. Professor Simonen received both her M.A. in architecture and her M.S. in structural engineering from UC-Berkeley. She also holds a B.S. in architectural engineering from the University of Colorado-Boulder. She most recently held the position of associate professor in the Department of Architecture at the California College of the Arts. She is also the founder of an architectural and structural engineering firm that focuses on designing energy efficient and technologically sophisticated housing.

The Department of Construction Management welcomed Assistant Professor Omar El-Anwar.  El-Anwar received his Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois, where his primary research focus was on optimization of large-scale temporary housing arrangements after natural disasters. El-Anwar also holds an M.S. in construction engineering and management and a B.S. in civil engineering, both from Cairo University, Egypt.

Miller/Hull Picked to Design Bullitt Foundation's New Home
The Miller/Hull Partnership, the architecture firm co-founded by David E. Miller, FAIA, chair of the Department of Architecture, was selected from a field of 20 international, national and local firms to design the Bullitt Foundation’s new Seattle headquarters on Capitol Hill. Selection criteria for the project included experience in cutting-edge green design, a strong local presence and an understanding of the Pacific Northwest. The building’s design will include technically rigorous functions in geology, hydrology and solar applications, and is intended to be a model with the potential for replication in other urban sites in the Northwest.

Richard Haag's Legacy Subject of Research Grant
Landscape Architecture Assistant Professor Thaisa Way received a UW Royalty Research Grant to pursue her research on the work and legacy of Richard Haag, a seminal figure in the field of landscape architecture. Professor Emeritus Haag is the founder of the College’s Department of Landscape Architecture and former chair of the department. Way is currently filming some of Haag’s landscapes as a teaching tool and a way to explore movement in the landscape. She published a short piece on Haag’s own edible landscape, a part of his interest in nutrimental horticulture, in the September issue of Landscape Architecture magazine. Way plans to write a book on how Haag’s work has framed and shaped urban ecological design.

Runstad Center Report Looks at Sustainable Development
Chuck Wolfe, senior research fellow at the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies and a Seattle land use attorney, was the lead author on a new report that offers recommendations on what cities can do to spur sustainable development. The report was commissioned by the Quality Growth Alliance, whose members include the Urban Land Institute Seattle District Council, Cascade Land Conservancy, NAIOP and the College of Built Environments.  Get more information at www.qualitygrowthalliance.org and click on "Research.” 

Landscape Architecture Studio Project Selected for Biennale Rotterdam
Work from the Department of Landscape Architecture’s winter quarter 2009 community design studio, led by Associate Professor and Department of Landscape Architecture Chair Jeff Hou, was one of the 45 selected entries on display at the Parallel Cases Exhibition, a part of the fourth International Architectural Biennale Rotterdam, under the theme of Open Space: Designing Co-existence. The studio developed tactics and strategies to revitalize King Street, which connects Chinatown and Little Saigon in Seattle’s International District. The implementation of the plan is now being spearheaded by IDEAspace, a community-based design center run by Seattle Chinatown-International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda).

Steve Badanes: On the Road Again
Architecture Professor Steve Badanes, who holds the Howard Wright Chair in Architecture and Urban Planning, spent the summer of 2009 teaching and lecturing throughout the country and overseas. Badanes taught visiting design/build workshops at the Oregon College of Art and Craft and the Pacific Northwest College of Art, both in Portland, Ore., and at the Yestermorrow School in Vermont. Badanes’ 2009 spring/summer lecture circuit included the following locations: 2009 AIA Convention (San Francisco); Auburn Rural Studio (Alabama); Berea College (Kentucky); Boston Architectural Center (for the 17th Cascieri Lecture in the Humanities); Canova International Architect Encounter (Piemonte, Italy); Ecosa Institute (Arizona); and the Metropolis magazine panel on “Expanding Architecture” (Atlanta, Georgia).

David Streatfield Busy in 'Retirement'
Although technically retired from the Department of Landscape Architecture, Professor Emeritus David Streatfield continues to stay connected and active in the field. He is a member of a committee assembled by the Art Museum of the University of California, Santa Barbara that recently received a Getty Grant to conduct new scholarly research and prepare essays for a book featuring the work of Cliff May. Streatfield has also been a consultant historian on the restoration of Sicilian Court at Scripps College, Claremont, Calif., and reports that the restoration has been largely completed.