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Susan Jones

Susan Jones, FAIA, LEED BD+C, is a practicing architect and the founder of atelierjones, an architecture and urban design firm. Founded in 2003, the firm’s work entwines design, research, and community engagement to create projects of urban reclamation: of sites, buildings, materials, waste, and ways of living. With her clients and her staff, her projects seek out sites and materials with inherent but underutilized value – to harvest their embodied energy, their catalytic power for owners and communities, and their beauty. In 2015, atelierjones completed the highly acclaimed CLTHouse, one of the first in the US, and was recently selected to design Pike Station, a highly sustainable live/work loft project targeting net-zero water use. atelierjones’ Bellevue First Congregational Church, also one of the larger commercial CLT projects in the US, is under construction and scheduled to be completed in early 2016.

Jones’s work has been recognized by numerous national, regional, and local design awards, including an AIA National Honor Award. Her work has been published nationally and internationally. Licensed in over 15 states, she has been a visiting design professor and critic at numerous universities. In 1999, she was made the first woman partner of the large firm, nbbj. She resigned her position to start atelierjones in 2003.

Jones earned her B.A. from Stanford in Philosophy, and her M.Arch from the Harvard GSD in 1988. She became a Fellow of the AIA in 2010 and was awarded a UW Runstad Research Fellowship in 2013. Originally from Bellingham, Washington, she has traveled extensively, living in San Francisco, Boston, Vienna, Berlin, Catania, Sicily, and Sri Lanka. Currently she lives in Seattle with her husband, Marco, and their two teenage children, Rogan and Domenica.

Tyler Sprague

Tyler S. Sprague PE., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture, with an Adjunct appointment in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He holds engineering degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington (UW) and worked professionally as a structural engineer before completing a Ph.D. in architectural history in the College of Built Environments at the UW.

Dr. Sprague’s research investigates the intersection of architecture and structural engineering, in both post-war modern architecture and the present. He has written on the rise of concrete skyscrapers in the Pacific Northwest, the engineering of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, and other topics. In 2019, he published Sculpture on a Grand Scale: Jack Christiansen’s Thin Shell Modernism (italicize, and link: https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295745619/sculpture-on-a-grand-scale/) with the University of Washington Press. This text explores Christiansen’s prolific work in thin-shell concrete which culminated in the largest free-standing concrete dome in the world: the Seattle Kingdome.

He currently serves on the board of docomomo wewa (the regional chapter of the international preservation advocacy group), and the Construction History Society of America.

Jeffrey Karl Ochsner

Jeffrey Karl Ochsner FAIA is a Professor in the Department of Architecture, where he has taught since 1988 in the areas of architectural design, urban design, historic preservation, and architectural history. He holds adjunct positions in the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design & Planning and is a member of the faculties of the CBE Preservation Certificate, Urban Design Certificate and BE Ph.D. He served as Chair of the Department of Architecture from 1996 to 2002. He served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College from 2007 to 2019. He currently serves as CBE Senior Advisor for Policy and Procedures. Professor Ochsner has twice won the College of Built Environments Lionel Pries Award for teaching excellence. He is a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects and a recipient of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professor Award.

Professor Ochsner is author of H. H. Richardson: Complete Architectural Works (1982), editor and co-author of Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects (First Edition, 1994; Second Edition, 2014), co-author of Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and the Legacy of H. H. Richardson (2003), and author of Lionel H. Pries, Architect-Artist-Educator: From Arts & Crafts to Modern Architecture (2007), and Furniture Studio: Materials, Craft, and Architecture (2012). Lionel H. Pries, Architect-Artist-Educator was a finalist for the 2008 Washington State Book Award in History/Biography. Professor Ochsner has published in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, JAE: Journal of Architectural Education, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, ARCADE and other journals. From 1990 to 1994 he was member of the editorial board of JAE: Journal of Architectural Education. He was the Local Chair for the annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians in Seattle in 1995, and he served on the Board of the Society from 2000 to 2003. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Pacific Northwest Quarterly.

Jim Nicholls

Senior Lecturer Jim Nicholls has over 20 years of experience teaching architectural tectonics in lectures and studios at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Arch 570 Design Development, a graduate lecture class on tectonic theory, produces strong student work in both 1:1 precedent constructions and large-scale tectonic models of studio projects. In Arch 532, Materials and Assemblies, Jim offers a foundation in construction issues and design syntax. In both required graduate classes, the emphasis is connecting design opportunities and construction issues, subverting the traditional separation of theory and practice.

In Jim’s design studios, content varies with the level and focus, always including an opportunity for human scale detail development within a larger context of urban and environmental design. This nesting of design concerns at all scales begins at the city scale with the urban design study of Copenhagen, followed by a collaborative Seattle based studio with students and faculty from Landscape Architecture and Planning. At the human and material scale, each summer Jim teaches a furniture design studio each summer based in the School of Art’s wood shop. Between those brackets, the building scale is taught through his tectonic studio, based on detailed development of a simple program on a provocative site with a limited set of materials. In all the studios, a student’s subjective responses and interpretation of objective constraints provide the design’s theoretical constructs. Jim offers the Storefront Studio as an opportunity for architecture students to design work based in community outreach, preservation, and small town economic sustainability. It enjoys the support of the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, and the Main Street Program, Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, and the City of Seattle. The communities of Snoqualmie, Roslyn, Vashon, Gig Harbor and Fall City have supported recent studios. A studio website archives all Storefront Studio work.

Jim practiced architecture in Vancouver BC for 10 years on projects ranging in scale from urban design to furniture. He has taught at the University of British Columbia and continues to be a studio critic. His publications include a book on Glenn Murcutt. Professor Nicholls maintains a diverse practice. He exhibits and curates regularly in art and design.

Kathryn Rogers Merlino

Kathryn Rogers Merlino is an Associate Professor of Architecture and an adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape architecture. She teaches courses on architectural history, theories of preservation and building reuse, vernacular architecture as well as graduate and undergraduate design studios. Courses include Building REuse Seminar; Appreciation of Architecture, Public Spaces Public Life master studio with Gehl Architects (co-taught with Nancy Rottle in Landscape Architecture), Architecture in Rome (history, design studio) and design studios 400, 401 and 503.

Her current research argues that the reuse of existing buildings – both everyday ‘non- historic’ and ‘historic’ – is a critical part of our sustainable future. Informing her work are two research grants that study how building reuse and historic preservation can be sustainable both at the building and neighborhood scale. One project, funded by the Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation is looking at ways to communicate how historic preservation rehabilitation projects can be high performing, sustainable and historic. Another project, funded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preservation Green Lab, is developing metrics for measuring urban grain of existing, older neighborhoods, and seeks to illustrate how older fabric can contribute to more vibrant city neighborhoods.

After receiving a B.A. in Architecture from the University of Washington, Kathryn practiced in the Seattle area for several years and worked with Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects (now Olson Kundig), where she received several awards for projects designed with the firm. She received both a Master of Architecture and a Master of Architectural History from the University of Virginia in 1999. She sits on the executive committee of the department and serves as the undergraduate program coordinator and the graduate faculty advisor. She is on the Board of Directors for the Vernacular Architecture Forum, and recently completed four years on the King County Landmarks Commission.

Louisa Iarocci

Louisa Iarocci, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington, where she teaches in the areas of architectural history, theory and design. She is a licensed architect who has worked in architectural firms in Toronto, New York, St. Louis and Boston after receiving her professional architectural degree at the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo in Canada. She completed a Masters in Arts and Science (1994) and a Masters in Liberal Arts (1992) at Washington University in St. Louis. She received her Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture from Boston University (2003). She served as editor and contributor to Visual Merchandising: The Image of Selling, published by Ashgate in 2013. Her monograph, The Urban Department Store in America was published by Ashgate in 2014.

Ann Huppert

Ann C. Huppert offers classes on architectural history, focusing particularly on urbanism, drawing and the architecture and art of the Renaissance. Recent courses have included the Drawing and the Design Professions, (Re)Building Rome 1400-1800, Architecture of Mediterranean Cities, 1300-1600, Drawing and Artistic Process in the Italian Renaissance (Department of Art History), and Italian Renaissance Art (Department of Art History). She also teaches survey courses including Architecture of the Ancient World, Medieval and Renaissance Architecture, and Appreciation of Architecture I.

Professor Huppert received an B.A. in Philosophy from Vassar College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Architectural History from the University of Virginia. Before joining the faculty at the University of Washington, she taught in the architecture and art history departments at the University of Kansas, the Ohio State University and Syracuse University. She has been a fellow at Worcester College in Oxford and at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, and has received additional fellowships from the American Philosophical Society and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

Professor Huppert’s book, Becoming an Architect in Renaissance Italy: Art, Science, and the Career of Baldassarre Peruzzi, (Yale University Press, 2015) investigates the close connections between the figural arts and architecture in the early sixteenth century through the lens of a remarkably large group of period drawings. Among the topics the book explores are the close connection of Peruzzi’s mathematical aptitude with his skill in perspective, and the influence of antiquity on his designs. Other publications have examined the role of perspectival drawings in the building workshop and designs for new St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, in the Journal of Architectural Historians, and Renaissance practices of mapping ancient Rome, in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Recently published book chapters include “Practical Mathematics in the Drawings of Baldassarre Peruzzi and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger,” “Giorgio Vasari and the Art of Siena,” and “Material Matters: Training the Renaissance Architect.” She has presented her research at numerous academic conferences in the United States and in Europe.

Meredith Clausen

Meredith L. Clausen, born in Los Angeles to a highly musical and literary middle-class family, with close ties to members of the avant-garde in L.A. in the postwar era; her father was on the faculty, then served as chair of music department at LACC for over 40 years. She obtained both M.A. (in Medieval) and Ph.D. (in Modern) in architectural history at UC Berkeley, taught briefly at Stanford, then at the University of Washington where she continues to teach in both the architecture and art history departments.

Her courses are all in architectural history: Architecture 20th c. and Beyond, American Architecture, Architecture Since 1945, Paris: Architecture & Urbanism; graduate seminars in architectural history.

Her scholarship and research interests range widely, from 19th c. Parisian department stores and pioneering shopping centers to Le Corbusian historiography, Michael Graves, and postmodernism. She has published on Craig Ellwood, Gehry, Koolhaas, and Tschumi, but is perhaps best known for her work on Pietro Belluschi, the Italian-born American architect who was a leading regional modernist in the Pacific Northwest in the ’30s and ’40s before becoming dean of architecture and urban planning at MIT in Boston. She subsequently published a book on the Pan Am Building, which Belluschi designed in collaboration with Walter Gropius, as well as a book on Belluschi churches. Her dissertation was on the Samaritaine department store in Paris of 1905-1910; it was published in 1986, and led to her being asked to contribute an essay on the building’s history in a recent book, La Samaritaine, Paris, 2015, as the well-known historic building on the Right Bank abutting the Pont Neuf just down from the Louvre undergoes major remodeling by the Pritzker prize winning office of SANAA Architects, Tokyo.

Current research interests include John Yeon, architect of the Pacific Northwest; Le Corbusier (then Jeanneret), and his first encounter with Paris in 1908; revisionist perspectives on American postmodernism; and the experiential aspect of architecture, especially as is playing out in the work of SANAA Architects.

Alex Anderson

Alex T. Anderson, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Architecture and Director of the MS program in Architectural History and Theory, teaches in the areas of architectural history, theory, representation, and design. Professor Anderson is also an adjunct faculty member in Landscape Architecture, and a faculty member in the the Ph.D. in the Built Environment program.

Professor Anderson received a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University, and an M.Arch., M.S.Arch., and Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Before assuming his position at University of Washington in the fall of 1998, Professor Anderson taught architectural history, theory, and design at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, building structures and architectural theory at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, and architectural drawing at the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Anderson’s book, The Problem of the House: French Domestic Life and the Rise of Modern Architecture (University of Washington Press, 2006) examines domestic interiors and their role in shaping modern architecture as it developed in France during the early 20th century. Professor Anderson’s translation with commentary of Le Corbusier’s 1912 Étude sur le mouvement d’art décoratif en Allemagne (A Study of the Decorative Art Movement in Germany) expands this study of domestic architecture’s influence on modernism into Germany (with Mateo Kries, Vitra Design Museum, 2008). Professor Anderson’s other publications include “Table Settings: The Pleasures of Well-Situated Eating,” in Eating Architecture (MIT Press, 2004) and “On the Human Figure in Architectural Representation” in the Journal of Architectural Education, May 2002. He has presented papers on architectural history, theory, representation, and pedagogy at conferences in the United States and Europe and has contributed book reviews to journals in architecture and aesthetics.

Vikram Prakash

Dr. Vikramaditya “Vikram” Prakash is an architect, architectural historian and theorist. He is Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington with adjunct appointments in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design and Planning. He received his B. Arch. from Chandigarh College of Architecture, India and his M.A. and PhD in History of Architecture and Urbanism from Cornell University.

Vikram works on issues of modernism, postcoloniality, global history and fashion & architecture. His books include Chandigarh’s Le Corbusier: The Struggle for Modernity in Postcolonial IndiaA Global History of Architecture (with Francis DK Ching & Mark Jarzombek), Colonial Modernities (co-edited with Peter Scriver), The Architecture of Shivdatt Sharma and Chandigarh: An Architectural GuideA Global History is widely used as a textbook and being translated into five languages. His next book, One Continuous Line: Art, Architecture and Urbanism of Aditya Prakash, is due in summer 2020.

Vikram is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Built Environments. He previously served as Associate Dean for External Affairs, Chair of Architecture and Director of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Programs. His public service includes terms on the Boards of Seattle Center and the Seattle AIA. He also directed Chandigarh Urban Lab, a series of interdisciplinary international studios.

Vikram is co-PI (with Mark Jarzombek, MIT) of three successive grants of $1.0 million (2014), $1.5 million (2016) and $1.0 million (2019) awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. These resulted in the creation of GAHTC – a collective of over 200 teachers of global architectural history.

Vikram is host of ArchitectureTalk – a bi-weekly podcast based on curated conversations with invited guests. In its first two years, ArchitectureTalk received over 60,000 unique downloads and has been independently reviewed in The American Scholar.

The 2020 Annual meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture recognized Vikram with the title of ACSA Distinguished Professor.