The Urban@UW initiative brings together labs that study urban issues from across the University of Washington. Urban@UW works with scholars, policymakers, and community stakeholders in order to strengthen the connection between research and solutions to urban issues through cross-disciplinary and cross-sector collaborative research. Key functions of Urban@UW include amplifying public awareness of ongoing projects, connecting researchers with outside constituencies, providing staff and administrative support services, and providing pilot funding and fundraising assistance. Multiple BE labs are involved, including the Northwest…
Research Theme: Natural Resources & Sustainability
Use or conservation of resources as well as broader notions of sustainability in the built environment
Podcast: Leveraging the Life Cycle Assessment for Useful Carbon Accounting
Kate Simonen joins the NORI podcast to share the ins and outs of life cycle assessments, or LCAs. Kate Simonen is a carbon accounting expert and professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington. As a licensed architect and structural engineer, she has an extensive background in high-performance building systems, seismic design and retrofitting, and net-zero energy construction. Kate’s research is focused on environmental life cycle assessment and innovative construction materials and methods. She is also the founding…
CBE Spotlight: Heather Burpee
Heather Burpee is a Research Assistant Professor in University of Washington’s Department of Architecture and a director of the Integrated Design Lab in the Center for Integrated Design, located in the Bullitt Center. We sat down with her to discuss her work and research on high-performance buildings. What are your current research interests at the University of Washington? I am a research associate professor in the Department of Architecture, and I work in a small group called the Integrated Design Lab. We focus on ideas around high-performance buildings. What we…
Sandy Fischer
Sandy’s career as a landscape architect and community planner has focused on exploring the intersections of art, ecology, landscape design and planning in theory and practice. For nearly 40 years she has advocated for livable communities, and shaped attractive places through design of enduring landscapes and creating spatial and policy plans addressing both conservation and development. She has managed her own successful consulting firms, held senior director positions in local government, and served as design and planning principal in large international and local consulting firms.
Sandy has a diverse and award winning design portfolio of projects including exquisite small gardens in the Pacific Northwest, various mixed use and resort projects in Asia, revitalized downtowns in rural communities in the Rocky Mountain region and embassies and campuses around the globe. Sandy has garnered numerous awards from professional and service organizations including American Society of Landscape Architects, The American Planning Association, the Governor of the State of Washington, The Puget Sound Regional Council and National Association of Environmental Professionals. Her work has been published in Landscape Architecture Magazine, Rural Towns Symposium, Scenic America Best of the West, Geological Society of America and others. Sandy currently serves on two Local Art Committees and two professionals Councils at the University of Washington College of the Built Environment; Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and Design.
She is a former board member of State of Montana Licensing and Air Quality Boards, the State of Michigan Arts Council, Washington Association of Landscape Architects Board of Directors, Council of Landscape Architects Registration Board Examination Committee. After graduating from Michigan State with degrees in Art and Landscape Architecture, Sandy practiced in Ann Arbor and Lansing prior to beginning her migration west by way of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Montana, and Seattle. In 2003 she settled on Bainbridge Island with her husband, a photographer and technologist and their two sons; Dylan and Sean who are both emerging designers of products and technology. Sandy studied at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute; the first program in the US to offer an MBA in Sustainable Business. Intellectually curious and a non-conformist by nature, Sandy is intrigued by cross discipline collaborations. With Richard, she continues and debate and explore the intersections of landscape architecture, horticulture, design, ecology and technology in her practice, community service, research, art, writing and personal garden.
Laure Heland
Laure Heland is Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture. She has been teaching as an Associate Professor at the National School of Architecture of Paris La Villette (France) since 2007. As research faculty she participated in several national and European public funded research programs on participatory process for sustainable design and the assessment of environmental and climate change policies at regional, local and building scales.
Trained in Ecology, Urban Design and Planning, she developed her professional experience in environmental consulting and training for professionals, local authorities and regional governments. She earned her PhD in 2008, studying the neighborhood as a place for emergence, experimentation and appropriation of sustainable development, through bottom-up ecological practices and community-led participatory design.
Laure’s current research focuses on the Pacific Northwest experience and leadership on stormwater management at different scales, and more generally the social, ecological and economical consequences of implementing ecological infrastructure in dense urban environments. She is analyzing their impact on local communities, on the praxis of design professionals, and the management of ecological systems over the long term through the collaboration of various actors: local communities, NGOs, public and private professionals and agencies.
She also explores community-led ecological design projects and participatory process in various socio-cultural contexts. She is teaching a fall seminar on Perceptions of Nature in dense urban environments and she collaborated with the past two McKinley BE Studios on
interdisciplinary teaching pedagogy.
Monica Huang
Monica Huang is a research engineer for the Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington with expertise in environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). Recent research topics include the environmental impact of housing, optimizing tall wood structures, and developing data on the environmental impact of earthquake damage. She was also the lead author for a guide on the use of LCA in design and construction practice. Past research experience includes diverse topics such as astronomy, electronic waste, and sea level rise. As a graduate student, she developed the Port of Seattle’s first study on the impacts of sea level rise on seaport structures.
Judith Heerwagen
Judith Heerwagen, HiBR Core Founding (Steering) Memberand PhD, is a psychologist whose work focuses on the behavioral, psychosocial, and health impacts of building design and operations. Prior to joining GSA she was a senior scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and also had her own consulting business for 10 years. She has written widely on occupant experience in buildings, the human factors of sustainability, and the links between human health and the natural environment . She is co-editor of Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life which won the 2008 Publishers Award for best book in architecture and urban planning. She received the 2014 Design for Humanity Award from the American Society of Interior Designers.
Giovanni Migliaccio
Associate Professor Giovanni C. Migliaccio holds a P. D. Koon Endowed Professorship in Construction Management and is the Executive Director of the Center for Education and Research in Construction (CERC) at the University of Washington, Seattle. He joined the CM department in August 2010. Previously, he was a faculty member with the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. He holds a M.S. and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a master-level degree from Politecnico di Bari in Italy. Prior to moving to the U.S., he worked in Italy in the construction management of telecommunication projects under Nortel Networks, Nokia Networks, and IPSE 2000. At UW, Giovanni is active in all three pillars of academic life, including service to the university and the industry, teaching, and research.
At UW, Giovanni has served in the CM Graduate and Undergraduate Admissions and Curriculum Committees, the Construction Industry Advisory Council (CIAC), the CERC Steering Committee, the CBE PhD Steering Committee, the CBE Interdisciplinary Group for Real Estate, and the UW Faculty Council on University Facilities and Services (FCUFS). Outside UW, he is active in various industry organizations, including the Transportation Research Board (TRB), the Construction Industry Institute (CII), and the Construction Industry Training Council of Washington (CITCWA). He is also a member of the editorial board of the ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, and the Project Delivery Methods and Native American Transportation Issues committees at TRB. Dr. Migliaccio has served as consultant to domestic and international organizations or universities, including the World Bank, the Secretariat of the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, and the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR).
Giovanni has an established and diverse research portfolio. His areas of specialization and research include: (1) Innovative procurement, contracting, subcontracting and delivery practices for construction projects; (2) Sustainable management of construction workforce with focus on ergonomics, human performance, and physiological demand of construction work; (3) Sustainable management of the built environment; (4) Project management; (5) Innovative construction engineering and management education. His scholarly work is based on a combination of methods, including qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. The second line of research is pursued jointly with Dr. Ken-Yu Lin through activities at the SHARE Lab.
SHARE Lab : Dr. Migliaccio co-directs with Dr. Lin the Laboratory for Safety and Health Advancement through Research and Education (SHARE) in Construction Management, which is physically hosted at the UW Center for Education and Research in Construction (CERC). The mission of the lab is to promote construction safety and health through evidenced-based innovative research, education, and practices. In particular, the SHARE lab specializes in creating new knowledge, learning resources, and practical solutions using technology interventions such as wearable sensors, visualization, serious gaming and tablet computers. Research work is supported by domestic stakeholders as well as national institutions and global corporations.
Hyun Woo “Chris” Lee
Hyun Woo “Chris” Lee is a PD Koon Endowed Associate Professor in the Department of Construction Management (CM). Prior to joining the CM Department in January 2016, he spent 3.5 years as an Assistant Professor at Oregon State University, and 7 years in the U.S. and Korean construction industries as field engineer, project engineer, and estimator. He received his B.S. in Architectural Engineering from Seoul National University in 1999, and his M.S. and PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and 2012, respectively.
Prof. Lee’s research interests center on developing models to identify, quantify, and mitigate various risk factors inherent in the development of energy-efficient commercial buildings and sustainable infrastructures. His research is currently focused on 3 types of risk factors: (1) financial risks associated with sustainability and energy-efficiency investments, (2) worker safety risks associated with sustainable design features, and (3) design-related risks due to project complexity.
Since 2012, Prof. Lee has led or been involved in 20 research projects (a combined value of over $1.5M), funded by various organizations including Washington State, Google, the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Currently, he has 5 on-going projects with a combined value of over $400,000.
As of October 2020, Prof. Lee has published 33 peer-reviewed journal papers in top-quality journals such as Applied Energy, Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, Automation in Construction, and Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. In addition, he has co-authored 24 peer-reviewed conference papers and 14 technical reports.
Boris Srdar
Boris Srdar’s design thinking reflects a creative synthesis of interdisciplinary knowledge. Originally from Croatia, he earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Zagreb School of Architecture, worked in Zagreb for three years, and then moved to the United States, where he received his Master in Design Studies from Harvard University.
As a principal at NAC Architecture for well over a decade, Boris has led the design of a wide range of projects, including large-scale educational, medical, recreational and civic buildings across the western United States and in China. His passion for architecture that inspires underscores his efforts to elevate design excellence, office- and firm-wide.
With worldwide travel augmenting his multinational architectural background, Boris has developed a strong sensitivity to the specificity of a place. This approach promotes a dynamic dialogue between a project and its context, whether urban or natural. He believes that engagement of the built environment and landscape is of the utmost importance for design to embody the experiential quality of architecture.
In turn, Boris’s projects have received numerous recognitions at state, national and international levels, including publication in Architectural Record and the review of K-12 architecture by Hi-Design International Publishing. A variety of educational design magazines regularly showcase his projects.
Boris continues to share his architectural expertise through conference presentations across the United States and abroad. In recent years, his presentations at eleven international educational design conferences have led to significant international work, including projects with an exceptionally progressive client in China that put him at the center of new ideas advancing the evolution of learning space design.