The University of Miami School of Architecture presents the exhibition, Cuban Architects at Home and in Exile: The Modernist Generation co-curated by Professors Victor Deupi and Jean-François Lejeune at The Coral Gables Museum. The project launches a partnership with the museum and explores how modernity and modernism impacted the architecture in Cuba and how it has survived in the island. The aim of the exhibition is to understand 20th-century Cuban architectural culture in its widest context. Indeed, this project is not just about Cuba, as the architects under consideration spread Cuban culture beyond the confines of the island to countries such as the US, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, France, Spain and many more. The exhibit will focus on several Cuban architects and artists whose work represents the challenges that their generation had to face to establish themselves in a country on the verge of dramatic change, and then as expatriates in various foreign countries.

The exhibition is centered around 8 main topics: Architectural Education & Practice; Art, Architecture & Design; La Casa Cubana, including both the historical house and the modern; Making the City, including the historic city, civic space & civic buildings, and commercial & residential; and Tourism and Leisure. Architects featured include: Carlos Artaud; Daniel Serra Badué (1914-1996); Eugenio Batista (1900-1992); Emilio Fernandez; Emilio Sanchez Fonts (1921-1999); Enrique Fuentes; Evelio Govantes & Felix Cabarrocas/Enrique Govantes (son) & David Cabarrocas (nephew); Enrique Gutierrez & Raul Alvarez; Eugenio Batista (1900-1992); Frank Martinez; José Gelabert & Rosa Navia; Héctor E. Carrillo; Hilario Candela; Hugo Consuegra (1929-2003); Manuel Gutiérrez; Gabriela Menéndez; Mario Romañach (1917-1984); José Martín Domínguez Esteban (1897-1970); Max Borges Recio (1918-2009); Nicolás Arroyo Márquez (1917-2008); Nicolás Quintana y Gómez (1925-2011); Ricardo Porro Hudalgo (1925-2014); Victor Morales; Oswaldo Tapia-Ruano (1930-2014); and others.

Visitors will see original documents, drawings, models, photographs, letters and other ephemera from public and private collections. Many artifacts come from the personal collections of Cuban architects and their families. Lending institutions include CINTAS Foundation, the Bacardi Archives, HistoryMiami, the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami, Miami Dade College, University of Pennsylvania, and the UMSoA. Videos will portray the Cuban architects’ private lives, examples of Cuban architecture throughout the island, and details about the events in 1959 that affected the profession and teaching of architecture in Cuba. The exhibit will be on display from November 3, 2016 through February 26, 2017.

On Friday, October 28 the UMSoA sponsored the 10th anniversary Golf Tournament at the Biltmore Hotel. Dean el Khoury, Associate Dean Carmen Guerrero and Development Officer Leandra Hayes welcomed 140 players on the  golf course and a record number of sponsors. Despite the cloudy day the players enjoyed the tournament which ended with the most successful raffle and auction cocktail to date. The event raised nearly 100K. The School and the Rome program are grateful for the Golf committee’s hard work, in particular to new members George Cuesta of Cuesta Construction, Chris Hernandez and to longstanding member Robert Behar, whose efforts are hard to beat! The Golf Tournament has become an SoA tradition which began 10 years ago by Emeritus Professor Tom Spain to bring alumni together in the name of the School’s Rome program.

The USGBC Students organization here at SoA organized two trips this fall. The first one provided the opportunity for nine students to attend Greenbuild, an architectural industry conference and expo focused on sustainability, held in Los Angeles, California on October 4-8. The second trip was for eight students who attended the UN Habitat III Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development held in Quito, Ecuador on October 17-20. The conferences provided students the opportunity to network with industry professionals and leaders from around the world, where they positively represented the UMSoA and gained valuable business connections. Students on the Los Angeles trip met with representatives from hundreds of sustainability-focused architectural material and service suppliers, sat in education sessions focused on highlighting emerging trends in the industry, and even saw Bjarke Inkels of BIG speak. On the Quito trip, students attended exhibitions, meetings and fairs, saw public interventions organized around the city and toured Ecuador. USGBC Students would like to thank Dean Rodolphe el-Khoury who funded the trips, along with SAFAC at the university level. This provided the unique opportunity for students to experience different architectural landscapes and cultures, broadening their education. We encourage everyone to take advantage of conferences USGBC offers every year which provide the opportunity to extend learning outside the classroom and broaden horizons. If you would like to be involved with USGBC Students, join them on Orgsync or email mde13@miami.edu.

Why do 60 SoA students and faculty travel annually to the panhandle of Florida 600 miles from the U's Coral Gables campus to comb the Gulf of Mexico's beaches, climb the 30 feet natural sand dunes, stay 4 days and 3 nights in several vernacular cottages at the Town of Seaside, FL touring the natural and urban environments; and finally, end the Legacy Tour with an all class student-made dinner with Gumbo? In short, for an immersive learning experience of new towns inspired by traditional and time-tested principles of architectural and urban responses to the natural environment. Focusing on the site analysis of Seaside, Rosemary Beach, and Alys Beach--3 light imprint developments within short distances located at State Road A30, and designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk and Co. in the 1980's and 1990's--offers students a window into resilient-vernacular architecture and urbanism proven to respond to climate, ecology, topography and the relationship of the built environment to a larger context. The purpose of the studio's research was to center on light imprint development strategies in support of the University of Miami's climate initiatives spearheaded by President Julio Frenk and Dean Rudolphe el-Khoury of the SoA. Led by SoA faculty, Oscar Machado, Jaime Correa, Jorge Trelles, Steven Fett, and Ricardo Lopez, walking tours, documentation, and a conversation with the Town Founder of Seaside, Robert Davis were part of the schedule. The students came back from the tour commenting positively of the learning experience. A sophomore student, David Holmes said, "The Seaside trip was an excellent way for us students to learn about new urbanism. Living and studying in a place where everything you could need was within a 5 minute walking distance was a refreshing change from Miami's automobile driven urban fabric and moment of realization for me in understanding how cities should be designed." The studio has placed the Florida peninsula at the epicenter of its academic work to hopefully shine a light on sea-level-rise and climate change as a primary focus for the education of the architect.

Students in ARC 601, Introduction to Urban Design, traveled to Charleston, South Carolina in early October, to visit the studio project site. With Andrew Cogar and David VanGroningen (UMSoA alumni) of Historical Concepts, the studio sponsor enabling the trip, the students visited the historic downtown and neighborhoods of Charleston as well as I’On, a new urban community and two urban infill projects currently under construction. Presentations were made by Christopher Morgan of the City’s planning department; Nathaniel Walker, historian, College of Charleston; Jason Crowley, South Carolinas Coastal Conservancy; and Vince Graham, developer I’On and Earl's Court. Accompanying the students were Professors Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Andres Duany.


Last month, two SoA student were honored with awards! Donnie Garcia-Navarro (pictured above, far left) was awarded with the AIA Student of the Year at the AIA Design Award Gala. Lorena Knezevic won the first place award for the SARA NY Scholarship and an all-expense paid trip to New York to attend the Awards Gala on November 30. Please join us in congratulating Donnie and Lorena!


The 14 Rome Program students who participated in the Fall 2015 studio, under the direction of Associate Professor Jaime Correa, have published a new book called Six Inch Squares of Rome. The innovative book design documents the emergent construction of the 1:1 scale Fontana dei Libri drawing currently on display at Professor Correa's exhibit (RE)imagining Urbanism, at the Korach Gallery. The drawing will be displayed until November 30, Monday-Friday (8:00 am - 7:30 pm). A limited edition of the book will be sold to book collectors and the proceeds will be applied to the Rome Program Scholarship Fund.

In addition, a new book (scheduled for to be published in 2017) by Routledge Press, in London, will include a full chapter by Associate Professor in Practice Jaime Correa. The book, titled Global Perspectives in Heritage Conservation: Expansive Scopes, Plural Engagements, Empathetic Approaches is a collection of essays by 30 scholars and practitioners exploring the global complexity, guises, and potential of heritage conservation. Going from Tokyo to Cairo, Shenzhen to Rome, and Delhi to Medellin, this volume examines a vast range of topics. Professor Jaime Correa's chapter, "Formal order out of informal chaos: a Latin-American dialogue between the official practice of urban heritage conservation and the concept of self-organization," counter proposes the idea of HeritageConservation arguing that cities are intrinsically transformable - they have no immutable form nor do they have a superior state of equilibrium. As a consequence, cities cannot be designed or controlled from the top for they are the aggregate emergent result of multiple individual decisions, taken continuously with or without synchronization, at the bottom. His chapter documents the new type of Latin-American bottom-up heritage conservation currently happening in Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and Chile.


Many of South Florida’s most historic and architecturally significant neighborhoods are vulnerable to flooding and sea level rise. The Center for Urban and Community Design at SoA is responding to this reality by collecting data on housing stock, creating guides for residents to protect their homes, and working with cities and foundations to develop new standards. During last month’s, ‘Cane Talks, We Are One U' event, Research Assistant Professor Sonia Chao discussed UM partnerships to advance strategies for the resilient neighborhoods of tomorrow. Chao is the director of the Center for Urban and Community Design at the University of Miami’s School of Architecture, where she also serves as a research associate professor. She is known for her work on resilient architecture and sustainable design in South Florida and throughout the Caribbean basin. Chao founded and leads the Resilient Miami Initiative, which engages faculty from several institutions of higher education and government officials to envision resilient design solutions for historic neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County. To view more, visit U ‘Cane Talks.


The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art Florida Chapter gave the Addison Mizner Award 2016 on Pedagogy to Professor Emeritus Vincent Scully & Professor Catherine Lynn for their lasting contribution to the teaching of Architecture, Urbanism and Historic Preservation. The award was received on their behalf by Professor Carie Penabad. This year's Addison Mizner jury participants included Robert Adams, Dan Lobitz and Associate Professor Penabad. Associate Professor Teofilo Victoria’s office de la Guardia Victoria Architects also received an Addison Mizner Award for Renovation and Addition (pictured above, Ocean House by DLGV Architects). For a complete list of winners, visit the ICAA.


Assistant Professor Jacob Brillhart recently published Voyage Le Corbusier: Drawing on the Road. Brillhart authored the book with a forward by Jean-Louis Cohen. Voyage Le Corbusier collects for the first time a compendium of sketchbook drawings and watercolors of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret--a young student who would go onto become the singularly influential modernist architect Le Corbusier. Between 1907 and 1911, Jeanneret traveled throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, carrying an array of drawing supplies and documenting all that he saw: classical ruins, details of interiors, vibrant landscapes, and the people and objects that populated them. Jacob Brillhart excavates the "visual thinking" of the twentieth century's pioneer architect, reproducing a selection of 175 drawings from these early sketchbooks. For Brillhart, the images themselves are the best argument for the importance of seeing and "drawing in order to see"--not only because they show the roots of Le Corbusier's later practice but also for their relevance to the study of design today, which tends to jettison drawing instruction in favor of computer-based modeling software. Brillhart traces Jeanneret's steps, revisiting architectural history while providing a physical and intellectual road map for students, travelers, and lovers of art and architecture. Purchase the book, here.

November 9, 2016 – Pizza With the Dean
Join Dean el-Khoury for pizza and a conversation at 12:15 p.m. in Glasgow Hall.

November 9, 2016 – Juan Domingo Santos, Tecnoglass Lecture
Join Juan Domingo Santos, an architect and a Projects lecturer at the Granada School of Architecture for a Tecnoglass Lecture at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 9 in Glasgow Hall. Santos’s work and research focuses on landscapes undergoing transformation and architectural operations involving heritage buildings. He is the designer of The Water Museum (pictured above). The lecture is co-sponsored in part by the Foundation for Contemporary Architecture and the Cosentino Group.

November 10, 2016 – Viz UM 3rd Annual Symposium
The Viz UM 3rd Annual Symposium will be held on Thursday, November 10, 2016 from 4-7 p.m. at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center, 6200 San Amaro Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33146. Guest speakers include Colin Ware and Martin Krzywinski. Register for free.

November 12, 2016 - Ensayo CUJAE Papers at Neushop
This Saturday, November 12, at 5:00 p.m., Neushop will host SoA Professors Jorge Trelles, Luis Trelles, Rafael Fornés, Ricardo López and Chris Mader to give a glimpse into a set of research projects that they have each been working on in relation to Havana, Cuba. Each one will present a brief paper that has been selected for a conference at CUJAE University in Havana, and a discussion is sure to follow. The architects will be discussing mapping techniques, methods of documentation of historic buildings, master planning and architectural education, all in relation to current work being done in Havana. Please RSVP here. For more information, contact SoA student, Nicolás Delgado Alcega or visit Neushop event page.

November 16, 2016 - Yoga with Kathy Wheeler
Alpha Rho Chi presents Yoga with Assistant Professor in Practice Kathy Wheeler, Ph.D. on Wednesday, November 16 in the 2nd floor Jury Room at SoA, from 6-7 p.m. Please bring your own mat. The next session will be held on November 30.