The University of Miami School of Architecture is hosting its 2nd Annual Resilience Colloquium with a focus on the role of landscape in sea-level rise strategies for South Florida. Three speakers will describe share their work and perspectives, Rosetta Sarah Elkin, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, and co-director of the Master of Design Studies Risk + Resilience program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Greg Guannel, Florida Urban Conservation Director for The Nature Conservancy, and Isaac Stein, UMSoA alumnus (2014) and designer with West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture in New York City. After a panel discussion and moderated Q&A, Colloquium participants are invited to collaborate in a workshop on to explore specific concepts and strategies for one of Miami-Dade’s legacy landscapes as model for resilience. Table Facilitators include Miami-Dade’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces leadership, along with other engaged experts. The Colloquium will be held on Saturday morning, September 17, 2016. The program begins with a 9 a.m. continental breakfast & registration and follows with the Panel from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in Glasgow Hall. The Workshop will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Korach Gallery. 4 LUs/HSW. Co-sponsors include: University of Miami School of Architecture, The Nature Conservancy - Florida Chapter, American Institute of Architects, Miami Chapter, Miami Center for Architecture & Design. For more information, contact Denis Hector.

The Rome semester has taken off with 15 undergraduate students. The  semester will be guided by professors Jean François Lejeune, Christopher Chung, Carmen Guerrero and VisIting Professors Jan Gadyene and Salvatore Santuccio. Students will design a shelter to protect and display the model of ancient Rome built by Italo Gismondi in the 1930’s. The model extends more than 55’ across and since its construction, has been a widely used tool for interventions in the historic center of Rome. It is currently located outside of the city center and not available for viewing. The new shelter will be retrofitted along the newly renovated Via Forii Imperiali and will bring the model to a more visible location making it more accessible to tourists, scholars, professionals and the community at large. In addition to the architecture and urban design work, the students will also immerse in Roman histories, advanced drawing and incorporating imbedded technology into architectural analyses. Applications for next year in Rome are now open! Upload application flyer.

Professors Adib Cure and Carie Penbad’s firm, Cure & Penabad, was featured in DOMUS (Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, Edition #25, July-August 2016, print and digital version) for their project, Centro Educativo Buganvilia. Situated on the remote and beautiful southwestern coast of Guatemala, the new classroom prototype serves a growing rural community, that up until recently had limited access to formal education. The project is intended to provide a comfortable and stimulating learning environment for the children, capable of being easily and affordably replicated throughout the site as the school continues to expand. Thus the project was developed with a selective kit of parts, capable of being assembled, edited and expanded as needed. Built in concrete and steel, contemporary materials used in the vernacular constructions of the region today.  The new building houses five classrooms and a set of bathrooms.  Its overall form is a direct response to the particulars of the hot and humid tropical environment with a prominent metal roof that overhangs two and a half meters beyond the edges of the building.  Its base is lined with concrete benches that transform this outdoor area into an impromptu classroom as well. The project has won the AIA Miami 2015 - Honor Award and the AIA Florida 2015 - Honor Award for Unbuilt Work. Photo by Carlos Domenech.

SoA Professors Joanna Lombard and Denis Hector, along with the Nature Conservancy's Urban Conservation Director, Greg Guannel's project proposal, "Resilient Solutions: Putting the “Health” in Miami’s Health District" was selected as a finalist for the 2016 Miami Foundation’s Public Space Challenge. The competition uncovers the best ideas for creating, improving and activating parks, plazas and local gathering places. Everyone in Greater Miami, individuals, groups, for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations can participate. The proposed design would be located on Wagner Creek, an important arm of Miami River, that winds through downtown Miami and the heart of the city’s health district. Once considered the state’s grimiest waters, the creek is on the mend, with cleanup efforts now underway. But the health district -an area that supports over 100,000 people from all walks of life and houses the nation’s second largest concentration of healthcare facilities—lacks inviting green spaces. There are no trees for shade or grassy areas for people to enjoy, and the abundance of concrete only worsens flooding and pollution issues. The plan is to create beautiful natural areas along the creek—resilient spaces that allow people to connect with nature, support wildlife, and keep residents safe by reducing flooding. Not only will greenery along Wagner Creek make Miami more beautiful, but it will also improve resilience to climate change, and promote public health and wellbeing. By giving the people who work, live and visit here better access to outdoor spaces they can relax and have fun in, these green spaces will support the city’s efforts to be one of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities. Natural areas along the creek will help absorb storm waters that contribute to Miami’s persistent flooding issues and worsen pollution. So, the creek and other waterways will remain clean while Miami’s residents, homes and businesses are kept out of harm’s way. Miami’s wildlife will benefit too—with more habitat, birds and other wildlife can thrive.

Professor Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk has been invited to present a lecture, "Form-Based Codes: Regulating the Built Environment" at Zoning at 100: A Symposium for the Future, a one-day symposium that will explore how zoning may shape cities in the 21st century. This event will be held on September 15, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the NYC Bar Association and is eligible for Continuing Legal Education credits, AIA credits, and APA continuing education credits.

Professor Germane Barnes will be a panelist at the 2016 Common Field Convening Miami, taking place at the Little Haiti Cultural Center. Barnes’ panel discusses the topic of 'Gentrification and Sustaining Neighborhoods' where he will give a presentation of his work: developing communities with residents as assets, not hurdles. Common Field is a national network of over 350 visual arts organizations that will assemble in Miami Thursday, October 20 – Sunday October 23, 2016. Activities include panels, workshops, social events, and arts experiences that feature the Miami scene and will engage national issues of current importance to the field. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the link above. Scholarships are available to students who would like admission.

September 14, 2016 – Tecnoglass Lecture by David Waggonner
David Waggoner, New Orleans-based architect and urban planner, is president of Waggonner and Ball, an award-winning, internationally active architecture and planning practice located in New Orleans. The firm’s architectural work varies from historic preservation to modern institutional projects. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, David saw an opportunity for New Orleans to reinvent itself as a sustainable city that embraces its lifeblood, water. He championed a process that examines history, soils, biodiversity, infrastructure networks, and urban space, along with the forces of water. This combination serves as a holistic foundation for design, first developed during the Dutch Dialogues and continuing through the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan. He will present a Tecnoglass Lecture on Wednesday, September 14 at 6:30 p.m. in Glasgow Hall and via Livestream.

September 16 and 23, 2016 - Revit Workshop
Introduction to Revit will be held from 3:30 to 8 p.m. in Glasgow Hall. The workshop is mandatory for 3-year M.Arch. students. Download the program before you attend. Check your emails for project file download links.

September 17, 2016 - 2nd Annual Resilience Colloquium
The Colloquium will focus on the role of landscape in sea-level rise strategies for South Florida. See top story above for more details. Register now!

September 21, 2016 - APX's 2016-17 Panelist Series Event: Developing Presentation Skills
The Agamedes chapter of Alpha Rho Chi is holding the first event in their 2016-2017 panelist series, "Developing Presentation Skills" on Wednesday, September 21, 2016, 6:30 p.m. in Glasgow Hall. Panelists include Professors Adib Cure, Carie Penabad and Allan Shulman. They will share tips on executing a successful vocal presentation that compliments your project design proposals.

September 23, 2016 - Opening reception for Aurora Room and Type-topia at the Meetinghouse
Meetinghouse, a contemporary art space collective in the penthouse of the historic Huntington Building, announces the opening of its Fall 2016 exhibition series. Meetinghouse invites you to experience Aurora Room and Type-topia, two installations blending art and architecture. Aurora Room, is a collaboration between Miami based artist Emmett Moore and experimental architecture laboratory RAD-UM. Stemming from a mutual interest in the intersection of design and technology RAD-UM and Moore have produced an immersive and responsive installation addressing the psychological effects of the built environment. Visitors interact with sensor-controlled projections and color patterns based on a series of films developed in the 40s used to treat different forms of psychosis. Auroratone films were developed in the 1940s by filmmaker Cecil Stokes using audio waves on crystallizing chemicals and polarized light to produce soothing synesthetic visual effects.  The films were used to treat traumatized soldiers, juvenile delinquents and mental patients. Eighteen short films accompanied by music were combined to create a 30-minute long movie, Music in Color. Of the original 18 films, "When the Organ Played Oh Promise Me" is the only surviving film. With the help of The Academy of Arts and Motion Picture Sciences in Los Angeles and Walter Forsberg, an archivist based in New York the film was scanned and digitized for this project. The RAD-UM team includes Rodolphe el-Khoury and Christopher Chung with Haochi Zhang, Clarisse Lopez, Samantha Jimenez, & Zhengrong Hu. Toronto-based architectural firm Khoury Levit Fong, presents  Type-topia, an idealized and fictitious composite model city created from the collaged combination of nine of KLF’s public institutional projects. The interactive model, designed by architect Robert Levit and team members Dorsa Jalalian and Nick Reddon, calls attention to the iconic status of notable public spaces and buildings in shaping the identity of cities, highlighting the role that architecture can play in the constitution of a geography of monuments. Just as New York has been represented through its monumental icons, like the Empire State Building or Rockefeller Center, or Paris by the Eiffel Tower, Type-topia will be imagined through a series of graphic representations of its civic monuments. Using programmed 'Quick Response' barcodes, visitors can interact with each project proposal. The composite city, in effect, becomes a historical metropolis in which the iconic elements instantaneously become memorabilia of this fictive city, complete with travel posters and postcards. Please join us for this unique exhibition. Opening reception on Friday, September 23rd, from 7 to 10 p.m., and the show will run until October 21, 2016, by appointment.

September 23-24, 2016 - ICAA Intensive on Classical Architecture
As part of their sponsorship of ARC 601 (Introduction to Urban Design Studio), Historical Concepts is organizing an ICAA intensive on classical architecture on Friday, September 23, from 1 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, September 24, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., in Glasgow Hall. It is open to all students and others off-campus for a small fee and CEUs are provided. Register now!

September 26-30, 2016 - Open City Studio Show
Streetside Jury Room (former RADLAB), Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.