SHIFTING FOCUS

OFF THE COAST

HONORINGSUZANNE TURNER

DID YOU KNOW?

LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio is now a thriving reality

The Mississippi River can hum!

New York artist Nari Ward’s residency at LSU

2014 Summer

2 CONTENTS

CONTENTSFEATURES

06 From Ambitious Idea to Thriving Reality LSU’s Coastal Sustainability studio transforms research, planning, and design on the Louisiana coast

10 Mid City Studio: Food + ShelterArchitecture students work with St. Vincent de Paul on a workforce development project in Baton Rouge

14 Shifting Gears: From New York to Baton RougeNew York artist Nari Ward’s residency as Nadine Carter Russell Chair

32 All Roads Lead to ChinaThe LSU College of Art & Design and Hunan University’s College of Architecture pledge cooperation

Letter from the Dean Welcome to Quad!

A Year of Firsts

Four Minutes on ... Data-Driven Design with Andrea Hansen, 2013-14 Marie M. Bickham Chair

How It’s Made Articulated chair

Did You Know? The Mississippi River can hum!

Undergoing Reaccreditation Interior design establishes high standards in the profession

Where Are They Now? Dr. Marchita Mauck, art history professor emeritus

Honoring Suzanne Turner

Neil G. Odenwald Distinguished Professorship Plant systems remain prominent in the landscape curriculum

Five Things We Love about ... Hilltop Arboretum

Class Notes

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EDITORSAngela HarwoodJulie LeFebvre

WRITERSAngela HarwoodKristen Higdon

GUEST WRITERSLauren Brown Andrea HansenDerick Ostrenko

ART DIRECTORSLynne BaggettRod Parker

DESIGNERSGraphic Design Student Office Christina ChangMarci Hargroder

PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERSKevin Duffy Kristen Soileau, 2014 BFA candidate

Cover Image: Blackboard Numbers (2014) by Nari Ward; photograph by Kristen Soileau

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WELCOME TO QUAD!

Welcome to the first issue of the College of Art & Design alumni magazine, Quad! Naming the magazine wasn’t easy. We considered names like Review, Pinup, and Capstone to evoke common school experiences. We discussed names like Perspective and Pen + Ink, nostalgically alluding to media and processes of times past.  We looked at relevant and time-hallowed labels such as Locus and Studio but found them too generic and too worn from use to describe the unique qualities of art and design at LSU.  We walked along Latin and Greek avenues. We searched for those unique qualities and found them in three kinds of ancient quads—the Forum, the Agora, and the Atrium—only to return to the familiar Quad.  The Quad is like the Forum: A majestic Roman quad, evoking images of the Republic, Caesar, and imperial parades with “krewes” of legionnaires and chariots, the stage of formal activity and entertainment for the masses. In the American experience: forum, also known as the town square, where Main crosses Oak, site of the courthouse and city government. Metaphorically: an assembly of experts coming together to review, discuss, and perhaps even resolve, import-ant issues.  The Quad is like the Agora: A Greek forum, the site of both sacred and profane activities, a kind of ancient mall, com-bining shopping and the exchange of ideas. A multipurpose, informal quad of symposia and ancienttailgates before and after the games. The home of artisans, artists, merchants, philosophers, and teachers. The place to go to meet old mentors and friends or find out the latest in the life of the community and the world.  The Quad is like the Atrium: A smaller, more private forum/agora surrounded by a building, a Domus (another Latin title we considered), sometimes covered and protected from the weather. Courtyards and cloisters are variations of the

Letter from the Dean

atrium. You can find atriums around the world from Zen monasteries to, more recently, multistory hotels. The Design Building atrium is such a place. And it is literally a stone’s throw away from the LSU Quad.  But the Quad, above all, more than any other place, contains the collective memory of all LSU alumni. Quad: The College of Art & Design Alumni Magazine, will be less of a newsletter and more like the quad, a place for getting together under the live oak trees and celebrating life—past, present, and future—and the traditions of art and design.

Welcome home!

Dean Alkis Tsolakis

4 LETTER FROM THE DEAN

The LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio (CSS) was awarded a $200,000, two-year grant from the Kresge Foundation, a national organization headquartered in Detroit that works to expand opportunities in America’s cities through investments in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services, and community development. This is the first time the university has received a grant from this prestigious and highly competitive foundation.

In fall 2014, Associate Professor Jun Zou will be the first interior design faculty member to go on sabbatical. Zou is researching healing interiors for the elderly and regulations for elderly living in China, for which she has applied for a federal grant.

5A YEAR OF FIRSTS

Third-year student Atianna Cordova is the first from the LSU School of Architecture to receive the Ronald E. McNair Research Scholarship. As a 2014 McNair scholar, Atianna has been directed to choose a faculty advisor and to establish her own faculty-based research question. In her application for the scholarship, she proposed a multidisciplinary research project that would explore how cultural competence can help address the challenges of designing children’s homes within developing nations.

For the first time, first-year architecture and landscape architecture students shared a studio. The studio, taught by Greg Watson, associate professor of architecture, and Justine Holzman, adjunct professor of landscape architecture, was a major success.

The Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture hosted DredgeFest workshops at LSU—the first time the roving conference and workshop series has been held at LSU or in Louisiana. DredgeFest is a symposium, field expe-dition, and speculative design workshop about the human manipulation of sed-iments. The 2014 terrain was southern Louisiana and the Mississippi River.

The LSU School of Art faculty art show, Right Here, Now, was held for the first time at the LSU Museum of Art at the Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge from November 8, 2013, through February 16, 2014. Formerly, the faculty art show has been held in Glassell Gallery or Foster Gallery. Right Here, Now featured more than 85 faculty works, representing all of the studio areas taught and studied at the School of Art.

“Counting Chickens: The Landscape of Poultry Production in the American Broiler Belt,” by Forbes Lipschitz, was published in the first issue of Manifest: A Journal of American Architecture and Urbanism. Lipschitz joined the landscape faculty at LSU in fall 2013 as an assistant professor. Her essay examines the ecological and infrastructural dimensions of the American poultry industry, located in the 15-state region known as the Broiler Belt.

A Google search of the word sustainability brings up more than 42 million results in 0.35 seconds. Sustainability has become the new “it” word—everyone who is anyone is tossing it around. But what does it actually mean, and who is breaking ground? For the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio (CSS), a trans- disciplinary program of the College of Art & Design, College of Engineering, and the School of the Coast & Environment, sustainability is a mission to design systems that reduce vulnerability to coastal hazards, habitat degradation, and global environmental change.  In the dynamic Gulf of Mexico environment, sustainability is also a necessity. Louisiana’s risks for sea-level rise are multiplied by a combination of changing climate and natural- and human-induced land subsidence, which may be the most serious in the world. Increased storm action, the

continued loss of wetlands, and a one-meter rise in sea level could soon flood the barrier plain and place the cities of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles directly on (or in) the Gulf of Mexico.  Many of the challenges faced by Gulf Coast communities aren’t being solved because different fields of study cannot cope with the complexity of the problems alone. CSS was created in 2009 to bring together disciplines that normally work separately—architecture, landscape design, urban planning, engineering, and coastal sciences—to respond comprehensively to critical coastal issues.  Scientists and engineers have been studying coastal challenges for years, but designers add the “human factor” to the equation, said Jori Erdman, professor and director of the LSU School of Architecture and a member of the CSS Executive Advisory Committee.  “Designers have the ability to think about the challenges of coastal inhabitation differently and holistically. We frequently have to solve and address a number of complex issues in one proposal. Architects have always had to mediate between science and technology. Ultimately, if we anticipate a future in which people will continue to live and work in coastal conditions, designers and design thinking has to be part of the equation,” added Erdman.  Since its inception, CSS has transitioned from an ambitious idea to a respected and influential institution that is transforming research, planning, and design on the Louisiana coast. “Through our wide influence on education, practice, research, and governance, CSS is making a difference in Louisiana,” said Jeff Carney, associate professor of architecture and director of CSS. “We are positioning CSS as a national model for approaching coastal challenges,” he added.  The goals of the studio are threefold: education, design, and impact. Each project supported by CSS must have meaningful engagement with the studio’s guiding principles while working toward one or more of these goals. All projects engage at least three disciplines. Each CSS project deals specifically with issues pertinent to coastal Louisiana, and each project includes collaboration with community partners.

From Ambitious Idea TO THRIVING REALITY

6 FEATURE

 Through education, CSS is building the university’s capabilities to deal with coastal issues by creating a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment. CSS has begun several new teaching efforts and supports courses that abide by CSS principals.  Perhaps the most forwardthinking course supported by CSS, disturbed systems, was taught by professors of geology and geophysics, environmental and soil sciences, and landscape architecture. Six teams of students were asked to determine appropriate actions for a site near Port Fourchon, taking into account the highly dynamic quality of the Louisiana coastal environment, the compromised state of its ecological function, and the needs of the current landowners. Students developed a strategic plan for the site to meet goals at 5-, 25-, and 100-year increments. The students collaborated with Wisner Donation, which owns and manages extensive properties in the Port Fourchon area. The course increased student knowledge about damaging and eroding Louisiana coastal systems and managing and mitigating the problems.  CSS accepts applications for educational grants for projects, studios, and/or field trips that fit within the studio’s education goals. A. Hays Town Professor of Architecture Ursula Emery McClure led one such studio this spring.  Students in McClure’s LSU/Chevron studio were asked to design a shore base in Venice, Louisiana, to house oil refinery workers and operations. Shore bases typically exist in dynamic and eroding coastal conditions yet paradoxically demand a place of permanence. However, the oil and gas industry is part of humans’ means of existence, so the studio demanded that industry be a third component in a symbiotic relationship of industry, humans, and coast. The small project grant from CSS funded the students’ field trip to Venice and many of the studio costs.

 CSS also embraces cutting-edge ideas and pushes the boundaries of what is possible through design. The studio frequently participates in national and international design competitions to address real and conceptual problems.  In 2013, a CSS team of faculty and students in architecture, landscape architecture, and civil engineering placed as finalists for the ONE Prize, an annual design and science award that aims to explore the social, economic, and

ecological possibilities of urban transformation. The 2013 ONE Prize focused on severe climate dynamism (inspired by Superstorm Sandy in 2012) and called for proposals to “stormproof” cities with competent planning and ecologically

sound, socially responsible design solutions—the perfect task for a multidisciplinary program such as CSS.  The CSS team leaders were Jeff Carney; Bradley Cantrell, associate professor and director of the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture; and Liz Williams, CSS research fellow and graduate of the LSU School of Architecture. Several graduate students worked on the project as well. In the end, 20 projects were chosen as finalists out of 168 teams from more than 15 countries and five continents.  The CSS team entry, “Synthetic Mudscapes,” proposed multiple land-building practices to reintroduce deltaic fluctuation and the strategic deposition of fertile material to form the foundations of a multilayered defense strategy.  Carney stressed another of the studio’s goals is impact, “engaging in the state’s problems directly and affecting change in a tangible way.” CSS makes impact through planning and outreach. Staff and faculty actively participate as speakers and panelists across the state, and the studio is reaching audiences far and wide. “Because we are repre- sented by so many distinct departments, we are able to communicate in many circles,” added Carney.

“If we anticipate a future in which people will continue to live and work in coastal

conditions, designers and design thinking has to be part of the equation.”

– Jori Erdman

7FROM AMBITIOUS IDEA TO THRIVING REALITY

CSS Director and Associate Professor of Architecture Jeff Carney and Kristi Dykema Cheramie, former assistant professor of landscape architecture, were competitively selected through a nationwide call to serve as co-chairs of the 2014 Environmental Design Research Association annual conference, which will take place in New Orleans, May 28–31, 2014. The conference will be themed “Building with Change,” and will provide tremendous opportunity for CSS to showcase its work and advance themes of sustainable design.

ArtiFACT

 In February 2014, CSS was awarded a $200,000, two- year grant from the Kresge Foundation to help Louisiana communities plan for climate change, sea-level rise, land subsidence, and other hazards. This is the first time that LSU has received a grant from this prestigious and highly competitive foundation—a $3 billion, private, national foundation headquartered in Detroit.  The funding supports the development of a tool or process to coordinate local city planning and land-use decisions with the efforts of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) 2012 Master Plan. It will also provide an avenue through which communities may better access state funding for their resiliency planning efforts.  An impactful initiative of CSS and the Office of Com- munity Development Disaster Recovery Unit is the Louisiana Resiliency Assistance Program. In 2013, LRAP’s work helped 30 communities affected by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. With funding from the Disaster Recovery Unit, these communities are creating resiliency plans and projects that address local needs. To assist these efforts, LRAP has conducted several webinars and workshops. In 2014, LRAP will complete a detailed collection of resilience planning best practices distilled from South Louisiana’s experience. This document will offer models and lessons learned for communities around the world.  CSS continues to participate in statewide and national

academic conferences in various disciplines and frequently meets with leaders and decision-makers from institutions such as the Water Institute, Louisiana CPRA, and Federal Emergency Management Agency.  Currently, a new project with CPRA is in the works to prepare visuals, models, and exhibits to help the public understand the 2017 Coastal Master Plan and the accomplishments of the 2012 Coastal Master Plan. The largest undertaking will be the design of a 9,000-square- foot exhibition space in the new Water Campus, proposed for development in downtown Baton Rouge. This project will grow CSS significantly, constituting about three years of

projects, and will help fund the hiring of three to five research fellows. Also, the studio recently received a grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation to plan a new, transdisciplinary minor.  CSS has developed a growing

number of dedicated supporters. The core support that Chevron Corporation awarded in 2012—$1.5 million—has allowed the concept to become a thriving reality. Beyond this base support, CSS has leveraged funds to grow the studio through grants and other funding, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “We look forward to the continued growth and expansion of this important work,” said Carney, “and we hope that College of Art & Design alumni will be a part of our sustainable future.”

Inside the Coastal Sustainability Studio

8 FEATURE

The core support that Chevron Corporation awarded in 2012—$1.5 million—has allowed the concept to

become a thriving reality.

LSU/Chevron Studio

9FOUR MINUTES ON...

For as long as humans have been walking upright, we have had a vested interest in adapting our environments to our needs. From hunters and gatherers to nomadic farmers to the dwellers of the world’s first cities in the fertile crescent, early humans learned to use information about their environment—when the sun would rise and set throughout the year, the phases of the moon, the presence of Venus, the behavior of domestic and wild animals—as indicators of the movements of herds, the best times to plant and harvest crops, or the onset of major weather events.  Since then, almost any attempt to improve the quality of our lives has been contingent upon a better understanding of the forces and flows that underpin life on this planet. Therefore, as our means of collecting data and observing the environment has improved, so has our standard of living: from an early suggestion of global warming by Thomas Jefferson in the 1780s (a product of decades of meticulous phenological documentation of bloom times in his garden)1, to a better understanding of disease transmission and hygiene that reduced the spread of cholera (as seen in John Snow’s map of cholera deaths and shared water pumps from the 1854 cholera outbreak), to Henry Ford’s reduction of his factory workers’ workday after discovering that gains in human productivity decline after eight hours2.  Increasingly, we find ourselves in the midst of an information revolution. With rapid advances in technology, data is changing many professions, as automation, globalization, and software produce dramatic changes in workforce. Landscape architecture is one of these professions. In the profession’s infancy during the 18th and 19th centuries, large landscapes were the purview of landscape gardeners, who were primarily concerned with picturesque qualities. However, around the time the term “landscape architect” was adopted in 1863 by the New York park commissioners to describe the work of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux on Central Park3, data began to take on increasing importance. Framed by a geology that was deemed too unwieldy for commercial development but ideal for creating breathtaking vistas in a park and reshaped to separate the complex intersecting movements of carriages, horseback riders, and pedestrians, every aspect of the park’s design required an intimate understanding of the site context

1 Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia . 1785.2 New York Times “[Ford] Gives $10,000,000 To 26,000 Employees”, The New York Times, January 5, 1914.3 Newton, Norman T. Design on the Land: The Development of Landscape Architecture. Belknap Press, 1971. 4 Rosenzweig, Roy and Blackmar, Elizabeth. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park. Cornell University Press, 1992.

and the end user. Moreover, this massive undertaking involved the moving of over three million cubic yards of soil and the placement of over 270,000 shrubs and trees, requiring a sophisticated system of logistics4.  Today, as more types of data become available, the profession of landscape architecture is changing and expanding from its origins in garden and park design to the planning of large and complex urban sites, brownfields, and infrastructure. As these sites increase in complexity, it becomes more and more important to use data intelligently, and designers have rapidly embraced sophisticated digital technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), computational fluid dynamics for hydrological simulation, and structural and environmental analysis software to facilitate responsive site design. Students at LSU are poised to help lead the way in data-driven landscape architecture as they experimented with these and other tools at the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture as part of the spring workshop series Datascapes: Design for Changing Cities and Shifting Lands.

Four Minutes on . .. Data-Driven Design with Andrea Hansen, 2013-14 Marie M. Bickham Chair

Mid City Studio: FOOD+SHELTER

“A quality service-learning experience should demonstrate excellence in community service and excellence in education. It should address critical community needs while building student leadership skills and reinforcing excellence in design.” This is the motto of the Mid City Studio, a service-learning initiative designed to push LSU School of Architecture students to act as socially responsible professionals by developing real projects for real people in their own communities. The studio is part of a six-hour studio course led by Professional in Residence William Doran and Associate Professor Jason Lockhart.  The studio was established in 2012 to look specifically at design opportunities in Mid City Baton Rouge. Sitting just east of downtown, Mid City is a diverse, economically valuable part of Baton Rouge that has suffered from fading infrastructure, lost public spaces, and the poor image that outward development left behind. Each academic year, LSU School of Architecture students and faculty are working with the Mid City Redevelopment Alliance (MCRA) and the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority (EBRRA) to identify a project, client, and site to fulfill the service-learning requirement of the Bachelor of Architecture program at LSU.  “This studio is critical for architecture students because

it reveals their potential to make a difference in their own communities—for us it’s Mid City, right here in LSU’s backyard,” Doran said. “It puts them into the reality of making something happen on the ground.”  In 2012, students examined converting the Laurel Street Fire Station—the oldest operating fire department in Baton Rouge, decommissioned in 2011—into a local fire department museum. The focus in 2013 was Food + Shelter, a workforce development project for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, an organization that lies at the center of the city’s homeless services and hopes to expand its shelters and counseling services to include workforce development. St. Vincent de Paul envisions offering on-the-job training in the food-service and retail grocery industries, as well as providing a more comprehensive support network to participating clients while supplying local residents easy access to fresh, healthy options for dining and grocery shopping.  The proposed project site was the empty lot on North Boulevard, the former location of Romano’s Pack & Save neighborhood grocery. The North Boulevard corridor is an area with a high concentration of homeless people, and Mid City is also home to several areas declared as food deserts. The students were challenged to develop ideas for a fresh produce market and café that would engage St. Vincent de Paul’s workforce development program while providing healthier food options to Mid City residents.  A new twist for the 2013 Mid City Studio was the collaboration with fifth-year architecture students at Southern University. Lockhart joined LSU in the fall of 2013 after teaching at Southern University, where he was assistant director of the Community Design and Research Center and assistant director and program manager of the Urban + Rural Community Design Research Center. Lockhart initiated discussions and coordination with Southern University faculty member Jin Lee to start the collaboration.  “The students from Southern University’s School of Architecture were well received in the community,” said Lockhart. “Their work with the Scotlandville Comprehensive Community Development Plan offered the Mid City Studio project an added level of community engagement experience.”  The students spent the first part of the semester developing research in three specific areas: housing, homelessness, and food systems. “The class was a great opportunity to investigate the needs of a community and actually try to meet them. Getting to know the residents of the neighborhood—our clients—really enriched the process,” said fourth-year LSU architecture student Tyler Detiveaux.  As part of the studio’s community engagement goals, students met with representatives of MCRA, EBRRA, St. Vincent de Paul, and Councilwoman Tara Wicker, District 10 representative, to build relationships with residents and business owners and to create a working list of ideas to develop community engagement events.

10 FEATURE

 Letterman’s also sponsored a competition for the studio. The students’ design proposals were judged by a panel of faculty, local architects, and other stakeholders in Mid City, including Dyke Nelson, principal of Dyke Nelson Archi- tects; A. Hays Town Professor of Architecture at LSU, Ursula Emery McClure; Marvin R. “Buddy” Ragland, principal at Coleman Partners Architects; Whitney Cooper, development project coordinator for the Baton Rouge Downtown Development District; Roger Tijerino, adjunct faculty member at Southern University; and Jori Erdman, professor and director of the LSU School of Architecture.  The winning team will be announced in May 2014 at the O. J. Baker Awards at the LSU School of Architecture. Visit midcitystudio.org to view more of the students’ work and see

 The students collected feedback from residents and other stakeholders by going door to door and interviewing Mid City residents. They designed and installed community boards in four key locations surrounding the project site, prompting feedback from community members on topics specific to the market and café project by posing questions such as, “What do you like about your neighborhood?” and “Where do you buy your groceries?”  The students shared the collected feedback at Mid City Speaks, a community event held at the project site in October. Councilwoman Tara Wicker said she was “excited about the Mid City Speaks project and the involvement of such a diverse and energetic group of students working together on this project.”  The students spent the second half of the semester working in groups to propose designs for the market and café program, based on the community feedback and their research. Their design proposals were displayed at a public pinup in November at Letterman’s Blueprint and Supply on Government Street during White Light Night, an art hop hosted by Mid City Merchants’ Association. Along with faculty and local architects, hundreds of Baton Rouge residents passed through Letterman’s to view and discuss the work.

“Getting to know the residents of the neighborhood—our clients—really

enriched the process.” – Tyler Detiveaux

Food-systems panel with food desert maps and seed packets for residents to take

11MID CITY STUDIO

INTERIOR DESIGN HEROESThe LSU Interior Design Student Organization (IDSO) 2013 fall service project, Access Your Life, took place in Mid City Baton Rouge at the House of Destiny, a property owned and operated by Metamorphosis Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides transitional housing to homeless women, veterans, and their children.

The students performed a series of home modifications to make the living space for the residents more comfortable according to their special needs. “The project provided an opportunity for students to learn about the critical issues such as accessibility, daily living, a healthy environment, security, and personal space for special needs housing and the impact of interior design services on creating quality environments,” said Marsha Cudde-back, Ruth Z. McCoy Professor of Interior Design at LSU.

“Access Your Life was a great way for us to use our design skills to help the community. We gained a better understanding of the needs of those less fortunate and the ways we can help them,” said Madeleine Rappold, IDSO president. “It felt great to come together for such a deserving cause.”

The improvements at the House of Destiny are just the first steps in a long-range plan, Cuddeback said. Steps are already in place to integrate community outreach programs into the third-year interior design studios. “Access Your Life has been a terrific project. We’ve had lots of participation and interest, and it has created momentum within the community and among the students,” concluded Cuddeback.

the winning proposal. The winning designs will be refined and turned over to St. Vincent de Paul and the Mid City Redevelopment Alliance to help raise money and promote the project. “While student designs cannot be used for construction,” said Doran, “they are quality products our partners use to promote awareness of their needs and find financial support for projects.”

 “Being engaged in our community is a key element in the architectural education of our students. The experiences they get through working directly with community members are opportunities to teach critical skills in collaboration, ethics, sustainability, design, and communication,” said Erdman. “We are fortunate to have great community partners, right here in Baton Rouge.”

2014 Mid City Studio

12 FEATURE

13HOW IT’S MADE

HOW IT’S MADEStudents in Visiting Assistant Professor Shelby Doyle’s analog and digital fabrication class were instructed to design a chair that could be cut out of one sheet of plywood and assembled into a three-dimensional product. Fourth-year undergraduate architecture student Cody Drago wanted a design that would utilize the accuracy and speed of the computer and designed his chair to have many pieces and flowing curves.  The side rails were made by glue-laminating two pieces of wood together and sanding them flush. The arched crossbars were friction fit into the side rails, and the seating lattice was secured using recycled rubber inner tubes. Because the seat of the chair was made of numerous, articulated small pieces, the chair forms to the sitter’s body.  “Overall, the chair is a success, accomplishing the main points that I was seeking,” said Drago. “However, I would make a couple of small changes to the overall size and angle of the chair if I had a chance to do this project again.”  The students’ work created in Doyle’s class was displayed at Middleton Library in an exhibition named Edges: Analog + Digital Fabrication. Doyle is a visiting assistant professor at the LSU School of Architecture. She holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a BS in architecture from the University of Virginia.

SOFTWARE:AutoCAD

HARDWARE:CNC MillBelt SanderUtility Knife

MATERIALS:Glue LaminateRubber Inner TubesPlywood

Disassembled gears, rails, tracks, and rubber tread. Old billboards, silkscreens, spools of wire and cable. Dirty bottles, used tires, fire hoses. Scrap lumber, rope, and PVC piping. These materials and more make up the sculptures and installations of New York artist Nari Ward, whose work upholds the age-old idiom: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”  However, Ward sets himself apart from other scavenger- artists by beginning each of his explorations with a self- imposed question, “How can the transformation of everyday objects open the possibilities of each individual’s expectations?”  Born in St. Andrews, Jamaica, Ward came to the United States as a young boy. Early in his career, he explored illustration and figurative painting until a summer at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture convinced him that sculpture was his calling. Since 1993, Ward has lived and worked in Harlem, New York, collecting the neighborhood’s discarded objects for use in his work. In fact, he was once kicked out of a squatters’ block in Harlem because his trash-collection tendencies were deemed too weird by the other residents.  Ward has come a long way from those early years. Now, one of the foremost New York art galleries, Lehmann Maupin, represents Ward and sells his work internationally to private collectors and museums. He recently returned to the United States following a 2012–13 Rome Prize fellowship, an annual award bestowed by the American Academy in Rome to a select group of individuals who represent the highest standard of excellence in the arts and humanities. Additionally, Ward has received commissions from the United Nations and World Health Organization and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Pollock Krasner Foundation.

ShiftingGears:FROM NEW YORK TO BATON ROUGE

14 FEATURE

 Most exciting and of particular importance to LSU and the Baton Rouge community, Nari Ward was named the 2013–14 Nadine Carter Russell Chair, a rotating residency shared among the four disciplines within the College of Art & Design— this year, hosted by the School of Art.  “Nari Ward’s significant body of international work represents a high point of aspiration for our graduate and undergraduate students. His oeuvre, combined with his work ethic, sensitivity, sense of humor, and down-to-earth manner, means Ward’s residency also represents the best the School of Art and our faculty have to offer,” said Rod Parker, director of the School of Art.  During his residency, Ward has worked within the university and the community, initiating projects and influencing students. And, coinciding with his residency, the LSU Museum of Art featured the first solo exhibition of Ward’s work in Louisiana and the first museum exhibition of his work since the artist received the coveted Rome Prize.  Rooted Communities: The Art of Nari Ward was organized by the LSU Museum of Art, with the help of School of Art faculty member Scott Andresen, a former student and studio assistant of Ward’s. The exhibition is on view through August 10, 2014, and highlights a series of the artist’s recent sculptures, works on paper, and mixed-media installations, as well as new works Ward created during the first part of his residency at LSU.  A master at balancing elegance with grittiness, Ward articulates multilayered issues that affect all communities—economics, poverty, race, culture—and how these factors shape a society. Rooted Communities highlights these major themes, which are as pervasive in Baton Rouge as they are in New York, but perhaps with greater poignancy in the context of the Deep South.  A tire swing (Swing, 2012), for example, suggests carefree living—until one notes that the tire is suspended from a hangman’s noose, a particularly raw symbol in the South. In Losaidas LiquorSOUL (2011), Ward rearranges the letters of a neon liquor store sign, positioning the letters S-O-U-L upright while leaving the remaining letters upside down. With the work Medicine Bats (2011), Ward comments on America’s national pastime and shows how it is a sport constantly grappling with its history and legacy, from the earlier restriction of African American players to its more recent attempts to address the players’ use of steroids.  Several of the new installations on exhibition at the LSU Museum of Art use materials found throughout the Baton Rouge community and were completed with the help of volunteers, students from the School of Art, and Tom LaPann, a skilled craftsman and a 2013 graduate of the School of Art

MFA program who is assisting Ward as a fabricator.  Early in his residency, Ward explored several Baton Rouge scrapyards in search of potential sculpture materials. “So much of my work generally starts with the material,” he said.  Ward visited the Louisiana Machinery “Caterpillar graveyard,” where he found gears, bearings, and large sections of rails, tracks, and rubber tread. He visited the Lamar Graphics “boneyard,” a scrapyard full of disassembled silkscreens, billboards, neon signs, and lettering, and LSU Landscape Services, where he sifted through scrap lumber, rope, PVC piping, and wire.  At Lamar Graphics, Ward found large flip numbers, formerly used at service stations to display gas prices. In Blackboard Numbers (featured on the cover), the numbered signs were repurposed as chalkboards, where the artist writes his frustrations and accusations in the form of punishments toward the greed and recklessness of oil companies, “turning punishment into a voice,” he said.  “When I was able to get this material—these num- bers specific to service stations and the price of oil,” Ward said, “it was already so loaded in a way, and could tangent into being

about trust. So much of how we think about things is according to how they affect our lives and how much control we have over them.” This installation represents the things we don’t have control over, “like oil prices, the weather, how food is produced, and how something that happens across the world, thousands of miles away,

affects us right around the corner,” he added.  Ward created a new work specifically for his residency in Baton Rouge. Free-Weight Bottle Incubator features hundreds of bottles recovered from the foundation ruin of Alvin Roy’s Strength and Health Studios in Old South Baton Rouge. To create the installation, Ward combined the unearthed bottles with Plexiglas discs etched with numerical engravings to resemble free weights. Ward and his student helpers and volunteers used the laser cutter in the Design Shop to fabricate dozens of weights—hours of meticulous assembly-line work. Graphic design students helped transform an old image of the front of the gym into a pen-and-ink illustration, which served as the template for an etching performed with the laser cutter. The etching was then fixed atop the weight bench. Viewers can place their hands inside the bench and lift the bottles without actually removing any of the weights. Additional bottles were affixed on the wall and gallery space.  As Peter Schjeldahl of The New Yorker has previously noted about Ward’s installations, “Ward puts art in service to something that is, declaratively, more important than art.”

“Rooted Communities is one of the most cutting-edge, provocative, and interesting exhibitions the

museum has had to date. Anyone interested in contemporary art

should see this show.” – Dr. Jordana Pomeroy, executive director of

the LSU Museum of Art

15SHIFTING GEARS

Nari Ward works on Blackboard Numbers

Free-Weight Bottle Incubator on display at LSU Museum of Art

16 FEATURE

Swing (2012) on display at LSU Museum of Art

differences of working in New York versus working in Baton Rouge. “The South operates on a different kind of time, and I’ve shifted gears to work in a different, more flexible, way,” he said. “It’s not just your interests here; there are other things at work that you have to be patient about. There’s a new level of wisdom that goes into understanding yourself, other folks, and the dynamics about what’s going on in a different place.” He said he enjoys the change in pace after the treadmill mindset of New York.  As Nadine Carter Russell Chair, Ward has also been working with students on their own projects in Associate Professor Malcolm McClay’s advanced sculpture class. Class assignments were divided between projects initiated by Ward that the class helped bring to fruition and individual student projects that were directly inspired or influenced by Ward’s work and ideas.  Professor McClay designed the course to allow the students to work on Ward’s pieces and their individual projects simultaneously. The students worked collaboratively on Ward’s projects while developing ideas, drawings, and models for their own sculptures, and throughout the semester, Ward met with the students in McClay’s class to discuss their ideas.

 Rather than emulating Ward’s methods, McClay asked his students to consider Ward’s foundational ideas in the works he created while at LSU. The students were asked to create a site-specific shelter device, exploring the ideas of protection,

domesticity, and control—similar to the themes Ward addresses in Msssspp Runoff.  “I think one of the great benefits for our students is being around someone of his caliber and watching him create work from scratch, watching his decision-making process, his problem-solving skills in action, getting a look inside his head. This is the stuff you can’t learn online,” said McClay.  McClay added that Ward has the ability to be extremely focused and productive while still making time to engage with the students or anyone else curious about his work.  Dan Chasuk, a second-year sculpture student, said he saw the class as a good opportunity and the most accessible way to work with a nationally renowned artist. Chasuk has enjoyed throwing ideas back and forth with Ward during studio and was excited that he got to help work on Ward’s Tired Seat pieces for the LSU Museum of Art exhibition. Chasuk’s shelter device is a domestic-looking beehive constructed of house siding and roof tiles, with porcelain honeycombs positioned inside. The finished piece will be close to three-and-a-half-feet tall.  Second-year student Savanna LeBauve’s shelter devices are cocoon-like structures constructed of dead plant materials—frozen banana leaves—stained with dark walnut and assembled into “colonies of growth,” she said. The pieces

Free-Weight Bottle Incubator is a reference to history being examined, held, and experienced on a visual and physical plane: Alvin Roy’s legacy in terms of the neighborhood and in terms of sports and fitness culture. Roy was an important entrepreneur whose chain of gyms changed the way people thought about weight-training in the 1950s. The delicate, excavated remnants of the foundation become poignant vessels for reflection on how history can play a role in strengthening and maintaining the spirit.  Ward said that talking about the piece with the students was important to his process: “The more voices you hear, the more questions, the better. Being in the role of instructor made it more about sharing the information. I didn’t feel the judgment that I would normally feel from a regular studio visit, which allowed me to take a different approach from my normal interactions with curators.”  Ward is using the parts collected at the Caterpillar graveyard for a bench installation, Msssspp Runoff, that will be installed in the Sculpture Quad on campus. Ward’s visit to Baton Rouge and his access to the Caterpillar materials inspired him to create this piece, which he was in the process of completing at the time this issue went to print.  Ward noticed the series of benches, garbage cans, and lights that line the downtown Baton Rouge river bank, which he saw as “a way to kind of tame the wild, in-between space as the Mississippi River claims the area. It was also a way to have a moment of introspection—these resting spaces aren’t really a park but a view, a vista.” Ward wanted to find a way to combine these two ideas—the huge and roiling Mississippi River with the stasis of sitting and contemplating.  When Ward was touring the LSU campus and visiting the various scrapyards, he kept noticing the grating systems designed by the grounds people to control the water runoff and keep the drains from getting clogged. The bench Ward is making will be placed on a re-creation of the runoff drain, which will serve as a perforated platform, or “pedestal repository,” housing the skeletal, rusted Caterpillar equipment pieces. “Looking between the grates, you will see these huge, massive gears and equipment, which even in a rusted state really have a presence,” said Ward. “It almost becomes this strange animal that you’re sitting on top of.”  The bench, light, and garbage can will be painted Caterpillar yellow, “much like the gold of the football team,” said Ward, who likes the way the Cat in Caterpillar plays on the LSU mascot. Ward said he would never have thought of this piece if he had not spent so much time in Baton Rouge.  “This is the first time I’ve been in the ‘campus as community’ environment,” said Ward, who has taught at Hunter College in New York, but said the environment there is pretty much the same as that of the city. Ward noted the

“Watching his decision-making process, his problem-solving skills in

action, getting a look inside his head—this is the stuff you can’t learn online.”

– Malcolm McClay

17SHIFTING GEARS

were designed to be illuminated and hung from the rafters of the Studio Arts Building. LeBauve was excited to work with Ward, especially after researching his work earlier in the semester. “You could tell from his work that he’s a collector. I’ve always been drawn to collecting things, and seeing his work has shown me what I can do with everything I collect,” she said.  Upon completion of his residency as Nadine Carter Russell Chair, Ward will be diving head first into a piece for the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, a Broadway Housing Communities project in Harlem. Plans for the museum, a portion of which will serve as a school, call for approximately 15,000 square feet of flexible space with galleries showing artwork generated or inspired by Harlem,

including a new installation by Nari Ward.  He envisions a new interpretation of the piece Canned Smiles (on exhibit at the LSU Museum of Art), which takes on the stereotypical interpretation of Jamaicans as happy island people and the history of the African American minstrel.  This time, instead of collecting the smiles of his family, Ward will document, collect, and “can” the smiles of hund- reds of Sugar Hill residents. The canned smiles will be for sale, and the proceeds will go back to an organization working in the community.  “So the smiles will go back into something that will help the community,” said Ward.  Well, Ward has certainly left the LSU and Baton Rouge community smiling.

Nari Ward with McClay’s students

Savanna LaBauve’s watercolor rendering

Dan Chasuk (left) works on Tired Seat installation

Msssspp Runoff sketch

18 NARI WARD18 FEATURE

19DID YOU KNOW? 19DID YOU KNOW?

Q: What is Humming Mississippi, and how does it work? Humming Mississippi is a piece that performs a section of the Mississippi River on resonant wood planks as an organic instrument. Jesse Allison (from the School of Music) and I worked on the piece in collaboration with LSU Coastal Hydraulics Lab researchers, who graciously provided a LIDAR scan of the Mississippi River floor. The scan was used to mill 18 miles of riverbed into individual planks of cedar. Small transducers attached to the back of each plank transformed the boards into speakers colored by the individual characteristics of the wood and influenced by the carving of the river’s contours. The audio composition was generated from a linear reading of river topology combined with a “sonification” of real-time river data, including temperature, salt content, flow rate, and river height. We installed a version of the piece at the LSU Museum of Art during the Right Here, Now faculty art show. For the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference at Goldsmiths University in London, we are looking to create an interactive interface that viewers can access through their cell phones. The interface will allow people to interact with the river by interjecting tones in concert with the existing sonic landscape. For more information about the piece, visit hummingmississippi.net.

A:

DID YOU KNOW?

Derick OstrenkoAssistant ProfessorDigital Art

UndergoingREACCREDITATION

In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, it is more important than ever for clients and the public to expect interior design professionals to demonstrate their competency in all areas of interior design, from aesthetics to building codes. The legal recognition of the profession through state licensing helps ensure that this competency exists by setting professional standards that protect the health, safety, and welfare of the general public and by encouraging excellence in the industry.  In Louisiana and many other states, it takes quite a bit of work to become a licensed interior designer, including having the appropriate degree and work experience and passing a national licensing exam. To date, interior design laws have been enacted in 27 states, including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and eight Canadian provinces. In some of these states, such as Louisiana, the use of the term interior designer is limited to those professionals meeting the states’ requirements.  Louisiana and Texas, for example, require interior designers to pass the National Council of Interior Design Qualification licensing exam. While there are more time-consuming routes to qualify for this exam, the typical route for prospective designers is to obtain a degree from a program accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), an international nonprofit organization that has accredited postsecondary interior design education programs in the United States and Canada since 1970.  The LSU Department of Interior Design is proud to be such a program, one of the earliest CIDA accredited programs in the nation, receiving accreditation in 1975 and consistently passing reaccreditation ever since.  The interior design program is undergoing reaccreditation again in 2014. Currently, more than 140 students are enrolled in the program, across all four years, and the department employs six permanent and four adjunct faculty—a dedicated team that has proven itself yet again throughout the reaccreditation process. And work hard they have, along with the students and administrative staff, because the reaccreditation process requires the following:

Preparing a Program Analysis Report (PAR), a 77-page, self-evaluation booklet that communicates the program’s internal analysis of its strengths and weaknesses. The LSU Department of Interior Design prepared the PAR in fall 2013. Exhibiting student work and class documents for each course that the program has offered over the past three years. The exhibit room was prepared over winter break from work archived over the past six years and included design projects, exams, papers, syllabi, assignments, handouts, textbooks, and readings. Hosting a three-day, on-site review by a visiting team to determine whether the program meets standards for interior design education. The accreditation team visited LSU in early February 2014. During the visit, the review team prepared a Visiting Team Report, detailing the program’s strengths and weaknesses. The report is generally a good indication of whether the program will be reaccredited. Waiting for the CIDA Accreditation Commission to consider all reports, comments, and feedback and to make a final decision on the accreditation status for the program. The decision regarding the LSU Department of Interior Design will be finalized in the summer of 2014.

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20 NARI WARD20 UNDERGOING REACCREDITATION

MEET JIM SULLIVAN

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 During the team visit in February, CIDA looked at three major categories for reaccreditation: departmental resources such as facilities, computers, and equipment; faculty qualification and dedication; and—perhaps most importantly—student learning. The team reviewed student work and determined whether student-learning criteria and program expectations were met, including safety issues, color, communications, design thinking, and aesthetics.  The visiting team left impressed with the program at LSU. Of the more than 70 required student-learning criteria and program expectations, the team found the interior design program at LSU to be in compliance with all but four, having

UNDERGOING REACCREDITATION

Jim Sullivan, former associate professor of architecture at LSU, was named chair of the LSU Department of Interior Design in the summer of 2013. Jim began teaching architecture at LSU in the fall of 2000 and gained academic administrative experience as the undergraduate program coordinator for four years at the School of Architecture. He also gained valuable experience working in partnerships with interior designers in New York City for 10 years prior to moving to Baton Rouge and while running his own firm, the Louisiana Architecture Bureau. The majority of his professional work is in the renovation and adaptive reuse of existing structures with a focus on interiors.

Jim and the interior design faculty are working together to continue to improve the program at LSU by building on previous successes. Their plans include the creation of a lecture series, establishing more research partnerships with industry leaders, and officially designating the program as a school within the university, rather than a department, to reflect its stature as an independent professional program in the college. Long-term plans include establishing a graduate program and specialized certification programs while bolstering research as

part of student learning and faculty activities as the program continues to hold and earn the respect of the national interior design community.

Jim said one of the challenges the interior design profession faces today is to become culturally relevant—not just practically needed: “We do that by engaging in design work and scholarship that address questions unique to interiors that have broad cultural import.”

to do with fire and smoke compartmentalization, detection, and suppression and the application of anthropomorphic data to design work. Impressively, the team also found 17 student-learning criteria and program expectations that the program exceeded and that were noted as particular strengths. These strengths ranged from professionalism and business practices to the use of space and form in design work.  While the official decision will not be made or announced until later this summer, students, faculty, friends, and alumni may rest assured that the LSU Department of Interior Design continues to meet the high standards of CIDA.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?2222

Dr. Marchita Mauck served on the art history faculty at LSU for 43 years (1967–2010), and from 1999 to 2008, she was associate dean of the College of Art & Design. While at LSU, she taught a wide range of courses, including introduction to fine arts, Early Christian and Byzantine art, Romanesque art, and Gothic art, and she led seminars at LSU Honors College. Widely recognized for her contributions to religious art and architecture, Marchita has written books, articles, and dictionary entries on these subjects, and she has spoken at numerous national and international conferences. Among her many awards, Marchita was the recipient of the 2013 Elbert M. Conover Memorial Award from the American Institute of Architects Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA), a career achievement award for the contributions to the profession of architecture by a non-architect.

But the real question is: What is Marchita Mauck doing now?

  First of all, Marchita refers to retirement not as retirement but as a shift in focus. She decided on this terminology long ago, with one of her undergraduate college roommates—one of eight best-friends-for-life whom Marchita has met up with every year since graduation, going on 50 years now. They call themselves the Shattuck Group, after their first dorm at Mississippi University for Women.  “None of that sitting in a rocking chair and waiting to transfer to a nursing home for us,” Marchita laughed.  Second, the question isn’t what is Marchita doing now but what isn’t Marchita doing now?  Since 1987, Marchita has worked as a liturgical consultant whenever the opportunity arises—to date she has consulted on 24 different projects at sites across the country. As a liturgical consultant, she serves as an intermediary between the architect and the church or parish as client, “helping them be the best client they can be by articulating their design needs,” she said.   She advises both the designers and the clients not only on the traditional but the psychological, anthropological, and sociological aspects of sacred spaces. “Sacred spaces should invite people to liturgy instead of just trapping them in seats,” insisted Marchita. “Church-goers should enter a space and participate in worship. They can’t do that if they are only positioned to watch.”

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Marchita Mauck

Marchita Mauck, photo by Professor Emeritus A.J. Meek

Mauck with travel group at Cavador Castle in the Scottish Highlands

ArtiFACTMatt Savage, assistant professor of art history at LSU, attributes his career path to his mentor, David Stanley of the University of Florida. David Stanley was Marchita Mauck’s first thesis student!

23WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

 Many of Marchita’s liturgy projects have won national awards for their designs, including St. Jean Vianney Catholic Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for which Marchita was recognized in the August 2000 issue of Architectural Record. She received Honor Awards from both the national organization and the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects and from IFRAA.  Marchita said that one of the many great things about her shift in focus is the opportunity to pursue creative activities in a new way, “with a bit of a different angle than the academic historian.” Seeing the three-dimensional results of her liturgical consulting come to fruition inspired her to experiment with other creative methods that produce tangible results—“something other than, ‘here’s your article’,” she laughed.  In that vein, she has begun working in the fiber arts—quilting and fabric-dying—playing with ideas for artistic quilts. One such quilt hangs in her home today, a detailed kaleidoscope pattern of unique medallions are joined over a background laced with gold thread.  Marchita’s shift in focus still includes teaching. She teaches one course a semester at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at LSU—known commonly as Lagniappe—a non-credit, continuing education program for learners age 50 and over. She teaches Romanesque art history courses, and more than 50 students were enrolled in her spring 2014 semester class. Since 1990, Marchita has worked with a German travel company to plan and schedule group trips approximately once a year. She plans the itinerary, and the travel company arranges the transportation and accommodation. Marchita accompanies the travel group as their art historian and guide.   “I create itineraries to see things I haven’t yet seen myself,” she said, “that way I get to do fun things, too.”  Last summer, she took a group to central Europe, including Budapest, Slovenia, and Salzburg, where they toured the famous salt mines. In November 2014, she is taking a group to Spain and southern France. The group will visit Barcelona, for the Gaudi and Romanesque architecture; Girona; the monastery at Montserrat; and Bilbao to see the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry. Marchita is excited to see the Millau Bridge, which hovers over the Tarn Valley in southern France. At 984 feet, it is the highest road bridge in the world—the central pillar is higher than the Eiffel Tower! When asked what she misses the most about working

at LSU, Marchita quickly answered, “the teaching, the interaction with the students and colleagues. But Lagniappe helps fill that gap.” Marchita frequently hears from former students, art history alumni, “mostly in the summer,” she said. “I get all kinds of postcards from their travels.” Students write to her to tell her about this or that piece of artwork, building, or landmark they have seen, which they learned about in her courses at LSU. Several of her current Lagniappe students are former art history graduate students. Marchita is truly living the dream. Her shift in focus has been mostly about doing what she’s always done—she now just has more time to do it and the freedom to do it exactly when she wants. “I will never run out of things to do, and I am not bored. I have no trouble coming up with what to do next,” said Marchita. Marchita’s advice for others who are facing retirement?   “It’s fun to hand off to the next generation.”

Winter Kaleidoscope, an artistic quilt by Marchita Mauck

HONORINGSuzanne

Turner

Suzanne Turner’s lifelong experiences with landscape architecture began when she saw her mother, Sue, pounding pavements to help save Magnolia Mound Plantation from destruction.  Suzanne described her mother as a “rabid preservationist.” Oftentimes as a child, Suzanne would wake to find landscape architecture students from LSU in her upstairs bedroom, viewing the garden below, which was designed by Dr. Robert Reich. As part of his field studies class, he would bring students to visit projects he had designed, and Sue Turner’s house was a common stop on the tour.  Sue’s passions prompted Suzanne to swear off nature and instead acquire a bachelor’s degree in art history from Emory University in Georgia. She moved to Athens, Georgia, into an apartment with an abandoned vegetable garden. The prospect of growing her own food excited her, marking the beginning of her long and illustrious career in designing, advocating for, and preserving landscapes.  “In art history, you learn all the basics of composition in trying to analyze paintings. Art history includes architecture, so I knew about design from my art history degree,” Suzanne shared, explaining her transition to landscape architecture.

 “You learn about criticism and you learn how to analyze a work of art,” she continued. “I was a good critic already. I was used to looking at and evaluating art. When you get into landscape architecture, that’s half the game, being able to look at what you’ve done or what your colleagues have done and see what’s wrong or how to make it better.”  Suzanne earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Georgia in 1978. As an undergraduate, pursuing the field was not on her radar. “I never thought about doing it, mainly because mostly men did it back then.” But, her experience with the vegetable garden cultivated a seed her mother had planted in childhood.  Before her thesis was complete, she returned to Baton Rouge to teach at LSU. In her almost 25 years at LSU, Suzanne taught landscape architecture; worked as a consultant for firms across the country; was the coordinator for the College of Art & Design graduate program; twice served the college as associate dean; and became the interim director of the School of Landscape Architecture. Suzanne has also supported the college and other units on campus for more than 20 years.

“The School of Landscape Architecture, really, was like a family.”

– Suzanne Turner

24 NARI WARD24 HONORING SUZANNE TURNER

Suzanne Turner received a national American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award in the communications category for her book, The Garden Diary of Martha Turnbull, Mistress of Rosedown Plantation, published by LSU Press in 2012.

ArtiFACT

 “The School of Landscape Architecture, really, was like a family,” she said of her time at LSU. The longer she worked there, she said, the more obvious it became that the college had an exceptional landscape architecture program, and she became more invested. “I had never been in an educational setting that was so tight. Landscape architects work pretty much all day and all night in the studio, so everybody knows everybody else pretty well.”  Suzanne shared that the structure of classrooms as studios, instead of lectures, allowed her to become close with her students. “I loved the students,” she said. “I worked with them individually and took them on field trips.”  Suzanne maintains contact with many of her former students through e-mail and social media, and has been able to collaborate with them professionally. She currently specializes in cultural landscape preservation, alongside three LSU alumni, at Suzanne Turner Associates, a landscape design and planning firm.  For decades, Suzanne’s green thumb—and heart—have reached beyond the gates of LSU and into the Baton Rouge community. After a summer of study in Italy, she became greatly interested in open-air markets and fresh, local foods. This fascination ultimately sparked her cofounding the Red Stick Farmers Market in 1995.  Currently, Suzanne and her husband, Scott Purdin, are working to develop a community near her office in down- town Baton Rouge. The proposed project will include building seven new homes on vacant lots; restoring several historic homes; and creating a community garden, orchard, and kitchen in the nucleus of the development for the residents’ use and enjoyment.  This spring, the College of Art & Design has thanked Suzanne for her commitment to LSU and Baton Rouge by honoring her with the 2014 College of Art & Design Honor Award.

Suzanne was selected for her enthusiastic support, generous contributions, and unwavering dedication to the college.  “I’m very humbled and touched,” she shared of receiving the honor. “It means a lot because I cared a lot about all of the different programs in the college working together as much as possible . . . I’ve always supported the idea that the college is an umbrella that unites all of these design disciplines.”  The 17th recipient of the award, Suzanne will also deliver the spring 2014 College of Art & Design commencement address.  While, at print time, she hadn’t decided what to speak

about in the address, she did have advice for future landscape architects: “Collaboration. There is no point in being an artist alone,” she said. “The real joy I’ve

gotten out of my profession has been in working with other people who love design.”  Suzanne shared that mentors were critical to her success, beginning with her college professors. “It’s important to stay connected to those people who have inspired you,” she said, adding that it’s vital, after becoming a professional, to mentor someone younger.  Suzanne and her family have a longstanding tradition of being connected to LSU. “I grew up a mile away from LSU,” Suzanne said, recalling Saturday nights when she could hear Tiger Stadium from her house. “LSU has always been an integral part of my family’s life.” Her father, the late Bert Turner, her mother, and three of her four siblings attended LSU. “It’s a beautiful campus,” Suzanne said. “As a landscape architect, it was a beautiful place to work.”  In addition to landscape design and community planning, Suzanne and Scott enjoy vegetable gardening; raising Koi fish and their 10 cats, which are spread between their home and Suzanne’s office; and watching their daughter compete as a rider and breeder of Arabian horses.

“It’s important to stay connected to those people who have inspired you.”

– Suzanne Turner

25HONORING SUZANNE TURNER

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Dr. Neil Odenwald’s journey with LSU began his senior year at Mississippi State University when he presented a paper written by a certain professor by the name of Robert S. Reich.  After graduating from MSU with a BS in ornamental horticulture, Dr. Odenwald went on to pursue his master’s degree at LSU in landscape architecture. “During my first couple of days at LSU, a friend and I came across an office that had Dr. Reich’s name on the door. After realizing this is the same person whose paper I had studied and presented, I had to knock,” said Odenwald. He told Reich his original plans to study horticulture, and Reich convinced him to go another way. “I walked out of there and I was pursuing my master’s in landscape architecture,” Odenwald laughed. “It was just that simple.”  In 1972, Reich invited him back to teach at the school. It was at that point when Dr. Odenwald began to fully understand the vital role of alumni. “Reich, who was director at the time, was always conscious of alumni and their importance to the school,” he continued. “Their support assisted in funding scholarships, speakers, and trips that enriched the program.” Dr. Odenwald took note of this and implemented the same practices when he became director of the school in 1981 after Reich retired.  During his tenure as a professor and director of the LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture, Dr. Odenwald encouraged students to explore landscapes through travel in addition to using resources such as Hilltop Arboretum. “I loved teaching because of the students,” he said. “For me, every Monday was just as good as a Friday.”  Through his love of plant materials and planting design, Dr. Odenwald has made a significant impact on the people and gardens in the South. In honoring and continuing Dr. Odenwald’s teachings, the Neil G. Odenwald Distinguished Professorship will be used to recruit and retain outstanding faculty at the LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture; the professorship will be focused on instruction in plant materials, planting design, and natural systems, ensuring these subjects continue to have a prominent place in the curriculum.  Dr. Odenwald is humbled that the college has decided to raise money for a professorship in his honor. However, to him,

the delight comes from knowing that the school has a strong commitment to the study of natural systems. “LSU has always had a good focus on plant systems, and we have always maintained it as a part of the landscape architecture curriculum,” Odenwald said proudly.  Dr. Odenwald later went on to receive his PhD in horticulture from MSU and is a fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects. He has written many books, including Identification, Selection and Use of Southern Plants for Landscape Design (with James Turner), a staple in every gardener’s library.  He has been a consultant at Rosedown Gardens, Afton Villa Gardens, Biedenharn Gardens, Bocage Plantation, Melrose Plantation, and LongVue Gardens to name a few. In addition, he has spoken at garden symposia and professional meetings across the country.  Through his research, consulting work, and community organizations, Dr. Odenwald has established himself as a leading landscape architect in the region. He has a wealth of knowledge and understanding in relation to the garden, and considers himself first and foremost a teacher, willing to share his love and appreciation for plants with those who want to learn.  For Dr. Odenwald, it all goes back to the students and what he, with the support of the community, can gain for them. “I encourage alumni to give back,” said Odenwald. “It doesn’t have to be financial support—but time. When students visit your city, engage with them.”  “My vocation was my avocation,” said Dr. Odenwald of his time at RRSLA. Now, in continuing with the philosophy of his late professor, coworker, and mentor, Dr. Odenwald continues to devote his life to his craft through his involvement in the community and the professorship.

Neil G. Odenwald DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORSHIP

2626 NEIL G. ODENWALD DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORSHIP

27FIVE THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT ...

FIVE THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT...

Hilltop Arboretum

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For many years, students of landscape architecture, forestry, botany, and horticulture have used the arboretum as a classroom to study native species in their natural habitats. Azalea, magnolia, oak-leaf hydrangea, cypress, oak, and more native species can be found at Hilltop, which serves as an example of how the landscape can be both beautiful and ecologically sound.

THE NATIVE PLANTS

PLANTFEST!

THE BIRD-WATCHING

THE FALL GARDEN TOUR

IMOGENE NEWSOM BROWN EDUCATION FACILITY

Each fall, the Friends of Hilltop Arboretum host a fall walking tour through the friend-ly gardens of Le Havre and College Town. The 2013 tour featured the homes of Sue Turner, Charles Henson, Patricia and William Cooper, and Joan and Gere Covert. The late Marion Drummond’s garden in north Broadmoor was a bonus stop on last year’s tour and an incredible treat for any serious gardener or plant enthusiast.

On October 17, 2013, Hilltop Arboretum held a ribbon cutting and open house for the Imogene Newsom Brown Education Facility, part of a $1.4 million expansion project. The facility will be the first LSU building to be registered with the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. The Friends of Hilltop Arboretum raised all funds for the expansion project through private donations.

In October 2013, Hilltop Arboretum celebrated the 30th anniversary of PlantFest! Playfully referred to as a “plant feast,” more than 5,000 plants are assembled for sale at Hilltop Arboretum each fall. Plants are available for sale at Hilltop year-round, as well, at the Hodge Podge Nursery, which has blossomed into a volunteer mini-nursery operation that boasts upwards of 2,500 plants, representing more than 300 species. PlantFest! 2014 is scheduled for October 4–5.

Hilltop Arboretum is a mini-paradise for bird watchers. Walking quietly through the garden paths and crossing the ravines on quaint bridges, one might spot cardinals, eastern towhees, Carolina wrens, brown thrashers, blue jays, barred owls, woodpeckers, mockingbirds, and a variety of hawks and blackbirds. Tiny warblers, white-throated sparrows, juncos, and hummingbirds visit seasonally, and once, two bald eagles were spotted resting in a red oak.

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1960sLSU Hill Memorial Library Special Collections now houses the work of retired landscape architect James R. Turner, FAAR, FASLA, BLA ’69, including original renderings, plans, elevations, character sketches, (1964–2004), and a 64-piece, framed, traveling exhibit of design- related renderings, among other images and ephemera. In 2014, James will turn over 80 illustrated journals primarily focusing on his travels and work in landscape architecture, architecture, art, history, philosophy, and other musings. James continues to work and pursue other interests, records of which will be added to the library’s accumulations.

1970sPeter Chase Wilson, BLA ’73, is a practicing landscape architectural consultant specializing in site analysis in Washington, D.C., and has worked on residential and small institutional projects in France, Italy, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Peter is also the director of more than 30 private family foundations that cover a wide range of aid to other charities and individuals in areas of education and health. On a lighter note, he is the official photographer for an annual bull-riding festival in El Castillo, Rio San Juan in Nicaragua.

Charles Cadenhead, FAIA, FACHA, FCCM, BARCH ’75, is pleased to renew his role on the School of Architecture’s Professional Advisory Board. In November, he presented “Critical Care Design” at the national HDC13 conference in Orlando, and in January 2014, Charles was design speaker at the SCCM Congress in San Francisco. WHR Architects, Houston, continues a time of rapid growth, exemplified by $1.6 billion of new projects in the Texas Medical Center for Memorial Hermann Hospital System, Houston Methodist Hospital, and the Baylor College of Medicine. In addition to his role as senior designer, Charles is curator for the firm’s 16-year Tradewell Fellow healthcare design program for new architectural graduates. Kurt Culbertson, BLA ’76, was elected chair of the American Society of Landscape Architecture Fellows and will serve a two-year term.

Stephen Plunkard, FASLA, BLA ’77, transferred from Stantec’s Boston office to the Calgary, Alberta, office and was recently promoted to senior principal at Stantec. He is currently working on the design of the Canadian Never Forgotten War Memorial on Cape Bretton, Nova Scotia, several master planned communities, a new light rail transit route in Calgary, and three transit-oriented development sites. His volunteer activities have included the master plan for an orphanage and school in Zimbabwe and working as a dishwasher at the Inn from the Cold. He is a also a design critic for the University of Calgary, Faculty of Environmental Design Urban Design and Planning Studio.

1980sGlen Boudreaux, RID, ASID, IDG, BID ’80, and president of Boudreaux Associates has been selected as one of Dallas’s Best Designers by D Home magazine for the fourth year in a row. Boudreaux

Associates provides personal lifestyle environments for high-end commercial and residential clients, with projects completed or working in Dallas, Fort Worth, Pensacola, Gulf Shores, Tucson, Teluride,

Durango, Chicago, New York, and Costa Rica. The firm also recently received appreciation proclamation from the mayor of Dallas for playing a role in the construction industry of the city.

Matt Mathes, ASLA, BLA ’80, was recognized as Most Valuable Player at the January 2014 awards event by Mission Support Alliance, LLC for master planning in his role as Infrastructure and Services Alignment Plan

Class NOTES

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2000sRay Tse, RA, BARCH ’01, recently received a promotion to project executive/lead designer for K-12 education in the Dallas/Fort Worth office of PBK. Kimberly Payne Allen, BARCH ’03, married in 2012 and received her architecture license in the state of New York in May 2013. Chris Keifer, BARCH ’04, was promoted to associate at AECOM in San Francisco. He and his wife, Peiyi, recently moved to Oakland, California, and are expecting a baby in June. Rachel Cannon Lewis, BID ’04, is now a contributing editor of House & Home magazine, which led to her regular segment on Talk 107.3 FM’s Saturday Style with Karen Profita, where she brings expert guests into the show on the first Saturday of each month for a design discussion roundtable. She is also WBRZ’s resident design expert and joins the 4 p.m. broadcast the last Friday of each month for a short segment on design. Her design firm, Rachel Cannon Lewis Interiors,

program director. MSA, LLC is co-owned by Lockheed-Martin, Jacobs and G4S in Washington state. Barbara Harriman, IIDA, BID ’82, is happy to share that her company, Distinctive Art Source, is celebrating its tenth year in business. Distinctive Art Source began in 2003 in Houston and moved to Manassas, Virginia, in 2010. DAS is one of only two premiere healthcare art consultancies working exclusively in healthcare across the U.S.

Barbara Austin, MLA ’86, is celebrating 20 years of tenure at RVi Planning + Landscape Architecture, where she leads the firm’s Park Planning & Design practice and is a principal and vice president. Barbara was also recently honored with the Texas A&M University Leslie M. Reid Alumni Award, which recognizes outstanding alumni who have gone on to achieve professional excellence. Barbara earned her Bachelor of Science in recreation and parks from Texas A&M in 1976 before going on to earn her MLA from LSU. Judy Byrd Brittenum, MLA ’86, was elected to the American Society of Landscape Architecture

Fellows as secretary and will serve a two-year term. Patrick McLean, BLA ’86, is now principal and owner of the new firm Rail Splitter Planning, Landscape Architecture & Management. He continues his community involvement as vice chair of the planning board of Cavendish, Vermont, and is captain of the Cavendish volunteer fire department.

Lewis E. Aqüi, ASLA/LEED AP, BLA ’88, established his own firm, Lewis Aqüi Landscape + Architectural Design (LA2d), in 2012, after successfully working for more than 15 years as a partner at another firm. His practice specializes in the design of unique outdoor spaces of distinction for high-end residential and some commercial projects.

1990sTrula Marie Haley Remson, BARCH ’90, was elevated to the 2013 Jury of Fellows from the American Institute of Architects and was honored at the investiture ceremony at the 2013 National AIA Convention and Design Exposition in Denver. Trula is one of three principals of Remson/Haley/

Herpin Architects, located in downtown Baton Rouge. Garren Owens, BLA ’96, has been practicing landscape architecture with EDAW, now AECOM, for the last 12 years and moved from South Florida to the California bay area two years ago to pursue new opportunities within his company. He said, “I now have two adorable children, and life is wonderful!” Mary Mowad Guiteau, IIDA, BID ’97, of Holly & Smith Architects, is a member of the Leadership Tangipahoa Class of 2014. The mission of Leadership Tangipahoa is to improve the quality of life in Tangipahoa Parish by training a diverse group of current and emerging leaders about the interrelationships of community systems. Classes include parish government, city government, hidden treasures, healthcare, economic development, education, and social systems. Juli Schroeder, BID ’98, was promoted to senior associate at Gensler, Houston. She has been with Gensler for eight years and has been involved with many workplace projects, including Southwestern Energy Company, Transocean, Seadrill, and Kinder Morgan.

29CLASS NOTES

2011 as a workplace strategist and interior designer. Beverly Gaudin, BID ’12, landed a job in New York City as a retail store designer for LeSportsac, an international handbag company. Beverly assisted in the completion of the LeSportsac NY headquarters showroom, the New York flagship store on Madison Avenue, and other LeSportsac locations worldwide.

James Catalano, BARCH ’13, started his own 3D printing business, Future Factory, which specializes in 3D-printed jewelry and custom digital modeling and rapid prototyping for the New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette areas. James has also joined Tipton Associates in Baton Rouge as a professional intern architect.

continues to flourish, and one of her residential projects was published on HGTV.com. Rachel hosted a design workshop to a sold-out crowd, with speakers from around the country, at the Renaissance Hotel in July 2013. Brent Mitchell, MA ’04, is the head registrar at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth as of April 2013, after nine years of being a registrar at the Dallas Museum of Art. Brent gave a presentation on using iPads in museum registration at the Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists annual conference in Chicago in November 2013 and will be giving a similar presentation at the European Registrars Conference in Helsinki in June 2014. He and his wife, Kate Aoki, welcomed their first child, Holden Aoki Mitchell, into the world on July 16, 2013.

Sebastian Alvarez, BLA ’05, recently moved up to vice president in the Baton Rouge Growth Coalition. His company, Alvarez Construction, just broke ground on phase one of its new residential subdivision, Lexington Park.

Sydney Berry Ling, BFA ’05, is living in Sydney, Australia, with her husband, Kevin Ling. She is in the process of starting a creative agency to bring world-changing ideas to life, where she will collaborate with creatives in the fields of design, photography, Web development, and film to take projects from concept to reality.

Gregory Drewes, AIA, BARCH ’06, is designer/project manager at HCI Design Inc. in New Orleans. He is married to Renee Duplantier Drewes and has two children, Sadie Yvonne Drewes (2011), and Simon Louis Drewes (January 2014).

Isral Duke, BFA ’07, has a new position at Operator Qualification Solutions Group as a front end developer and user experience designer. Brad Robichaux, RID, IIDA, LEED AP ID+C, BID ’08, left Gensler, Dallas, in 2013 to pursue a great opportunity with SHW Group to help lead and grow their interior design team. Located in Plano, Texas, SHW Group focuses on the ground-up architecture of educational

buildings. Brad is currently working as interior designer for the new Texas A&M Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences building. Alexandra Leigh Pearson, BFA ’04 and MA ’09, landed a new job as education coordinator for the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas.

Yuanman Zhong, MLA ’09, was awarded the Annual Top 10 Design Award for the Third International Landscape Planning & Design Competition in China. In 2013, she was also appointed as an expert to both the Taihu Urban and Rural Planning Committee and Huian Urban Planning Administration Bureau in China.

2010sJonathan Smith, BARCH ’10, and Patrick Fess, BARCH ’10, opened a custom furniture store on Magazine Street in New Orleans, Elevate:Furniture + Products. The furniture store complements their main custom architectural fabrication company. Cristina Garvie Navarro, BID ’11, became a registered interior designer in the state of Texas. She has been working for Gensler, Houston, since

30 NARI WARD30 CLASS NOTES

Send your updates to

adsn@lsu.edu. More class notes were shared in the College of Art & Design e-newsletter throughout the academic year. Visit design.lsu.edu for more information about alumni and to access the e-newsletter archives.

LSU College of Art & Design is proud to announce Professor Carmon Colangelo as the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award. Colangelo received his MFA in printmaking from LSU in 1983, and he now serves as dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Originally from Toronto, Colangelo grew up with parents who always stressed the importance of higher education. “My parents immigrated from Italy, and they always put a high value on getting ahead by pursuing a university degree,” he said. Colangelo found his love of art early in life, but it was not until LSU that he realized his own passion for teaching. “At LSU, I got the chance to teach a lithography studio, and that is when I fell in love with it,” he recalled.

Colangelo embraces the opportunity to be an academic leader while still being an active faculty member and making his own art. “At the moment, my position offers the perfect balance—allowing me to lead a school of art, architecture, and design at a research university with an internationally renowned art museum. I can be a part of the process of organizing exhibitions and building an amazing collection.”

Colangelo received his BFA from the University of Windsor before making his way to Baton Rouge. “I was tired of the cold and looking to move south,” he laughed, “and LSU was looking

for printmaking students to build the graduate program.” Some of his most memorable times at LSU were the food, the unique culture, and the campus atmosphere. “Above all, though, was meeting my wife at LSU,” Colangelo said. “My wife, Susan Berry, was in the MFA program as well, and we married shortly after we graduated.”

Colangelo has kept his relationships and memories from LSU close and continues to foster more as his connection to the school grows. “I am honored to receive this award and recognition. It is hard to believe that all these years have passed by so quickly,” he said. Colangelo will deliver the commencement address at the college’s fall graduation in December, where he will also be presented his award.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD WINNER CARMON COLANGELO

31CLASS NOTES

Ernesto & Emily, 2014. Intaglio, digital, relief printing, and chine-collé on paper, 22½ x 36½ inches, edition of 8. © Carmon Colangelo. Image courtesy of Bruno David Gallery

32 NARI WARD32 FEATURE

“Integrate, Experiencing, Opened” was published in ZHUANGSHI, a first-tier, professional journal of Tsinghua University, a top-ranked university in China.  True collaboration between students at LSU and HU began in 2008, when Zou initiated the exchange of projects with interior design students at LSU and environmental design students at HU’s College of Architecture. The Chinese students worked on Main Street projects in Franklin, Louisiana—the topic was adaptive reuse of historical buildings—while LSU interior design students worked on designing different areas of Meishan Cultural and Ecological Park, a research and teaching base for many universities in China and overseas.  Collaboration efforts between the universities were renewed in October 2013, when the head of the College of Architecture at Hunan University, Professor Wei Chunyu, invited Zou and Alkis Tsolakis, dean of the LSU College of Art & Design, to participate in the 2013 International Symposium on Architectural Education and to sign the agreement for cooperation and exchange between the two colleges.  The 2013 International Conference on Architectural Education was organized by the National Committee for Architectural Education in Higher Learning Institutions. More than 560 people attended the conference, including leaders from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China and the Architectural Society of China. Experts and scholars from national architectural colleges and universities attended and presented their work, and the theme of the conference, “Opening Architectural Education,” was deeply discussed. Both Zou and Tsolakis were presenters.

Jingxin Xu (left) and Yangan Huang (right), Dean Tsolakis’s guides during his visit to Hunan University

All Roads Lead to ChinaLSU AND HUNAN UNIVERSITY PLEDGE COOPERATION

At the foot of the picturesque Yuelu Mountain on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River in the historically and culturally renowned city of Changsha, sits one of the oldest and most important national universities in China. Dating back to 976 AD, Hunan University traces its history to the Yuelu Shuyuan Academy, one of the four famous academies of the Song Dynasty. Today, the modern campus of Hunan University encloses the traditional Yuelu Academy, creating a unique learning environment replete with traditional and contemporary architecture.  In the last year, the College of Art & Design has made significant headway in establishing a cooperative agreement with this renowned and prestigious Chinese university.  The first seed of collaboration between Hunan University and LSU was planted in 2006, when Associate Professor Jun Zou joined the faculty of the LSU Department of Interior Design. Both of Zou’s parents were eminent professors at the university, and Zou grew up in the academic environment of Changsha.  Zou went on to earn her Bachelor of Science and Master of Architecture from Hunan University and then worked there as a faculty member for one and a half years before she moved to Canada, where she received a Master of Architecture in design and technology from Carleton University in Ottawa. She moved to the U.S. and was an intern architect at Bani, Carville, and Brown Architects in Baton Rouge before she joined the faculty at LSU.  Zou has maintained her connection to the university through her research and work with Feihu Chen, associate dean of Hunan University’s College of Architecture, who is also a professor of architecture and an acclaimed watercolor artist. In 2008, Zou and Chen presented “A Comparative Study of American and Chinese Interior Design Education” at the Proceedings of Interior Design Educators Council International Conference, and in May 2011, their article

 While in Changsha, Tsolakis was invited to tour Hunan University and to present LSU College of Art & Design programs to more than 200 Chinese students and faculty of the Hunan University College of Architecture.  “I was impressed with the level of the university and the engagement and enthusiasm of the students and faculty and their interest in cooperation. Hunan University is one of the most hospitable and highly civilized places I have been invited to visit,” said Tsolakis.  Founded in 1929, the College of Architecture at Hunan University is one of the earliest disciplines of architecture in China. Ranked ninth nationwide in 2012, the college covers the major disciplines of architecture, urban and rural planning, environmental design, and landscape architecture, offering programs leading to bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. The faculty of the College of Architecture are nationally recognized, practicing architects who, along with their students, designed many of the contemporary buildings on Hunan University’s campus.  Both universities have agreed to explore the creation of programs that promote teaching and research collaboration of mutual interest and benefit. At the signing ceremony, the uni- versities pledged to cooperate and foster collaboration by undertaking and initiating joint academic activities, including research projects, academic seminars, and guest lectures and the exchange of faculty and students. Of particular interest are the areas of interior design, local cultural preservation, sustainable design, architectural design, and environmental design.

 Also while in Changsha, Tsolakis and Zou met with Chinese government officials and the chair of the Broad Group, a private manufacturing company established in 1996 that exports environmentally friendly, non-electric air-conditioning products to more than 60 countries. Broad Group is the parent company of Broad Sustainable Building, whose T30 building recently won the 2013 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Innovation Award in Chicago.

Zou and Tsolakis toured the Broad Group complex and discussed future collaborations.  Tsolakis and Zou returned to LSU with an agreement in hand and minds reeling

with future plans for a more official agreement wherein the two universities would be equipped to offer exchange courses to students for college credit.  Currently, Zou is organizing a summer program that would count for studio credit, and she is in the process of looking for a real project for interior design students to work on over the summer. Zou said that several third-year interior design students are excited about the summer program, and Hunan University students have already shown interest in exchanges.  The agreement between HU and LSU is already being solidified as the college welcomed visiting scholar Yangan Huang, a second-year graduate student from Hunan University, who is working on his thesis and serving as Zou’s research and graduate assistant in the Department of Interior Design.  Huang received his bachelor’s degree in furniture design in 2012 from Central South University of Forestry & Technology

“Hunan University is one of the most hospitable and highly civilized places I

have been invited to visit.” – Alkis Tsolakis

Chuixiang Pavilion, part of the traditional campus at Hunan University

33ALL ROADS LEAD TO CHINA

Tsolakis presented LSU’s art and design programs to more than 200 Chinese students and faculty at Hunan University.

Fei Hu Chen (center), associate dean and professor of architecture at HU, instructs students in the art of watercolor.

Cooperative agreements with other universities in China exist, as well, thanks to the efforts of Robert Reich School of Land-scape Architecture faculty. Professor Max Conrad taught a studio course over the summer of 2013 at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, and he delivered a signed cooperative agreement between LSU and Sichuan Agricultural University in Chengdu. Professor Bruce Sharky led a field studies trip to Sichuan Agricultural University in the fall as part of his advanced topic studio. Find out more online at landscape.lsu.edu.

MORE ROADS TO CHINA ... ONLINE

LSU Landscape Architecture Professor Max Conrad Teaches and Lectures in China

Landscape Architecture Professor Bruce Sharky’s Advanced Topic Studio Explores New Territories in Culture and Design

in Changsha and is working toward his master’s degree in environmental design. He is working with Zou on his thesis topic—daylighting analysis of vernacular houses toward sustainability, energy, and efficiency, which is also one of Zou’s research interests. Together, they are studying how traditional design adopts daylight and how that can advise a more sustainable design future. Huang is also helping Zou teach her lighting studio, and he has helped lead workshops on freehand sketching, watercolor, and the use of Ecotect, sustainable building design software.  “Zou and the other faculty in the interior design department have been very warm-hearted and helpful. They have taught me a lot,” said Huang, who will remain at the Department of Interior Design through October 2014. Huang said he is not sure what comes next. He may return to China to start his career or he may apply for PhD programs in the United States.  In the fall, Zou will go on sabbatical to pursue her research interests in daylighting and living conditions for the elderly.  As the future unfolds, LSU can expect many more collaborations between the College of Art & Design and the College of Architecture at Hunan University.

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