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…
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.
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 the P.D. Koon Endowed Professor in the Department of Construction Management (CM) and leads the Energy and Sustainability in Construction (ESC) Lab. 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 addresses how decisions about buildings and infrastructure are made under uncertainty, and how those decisions can be made more sustainable, safer, and more equitable. Through the ESC Lab, he develops financial models, risk assessment frameworks, and planning tools across three themes: advancing sustainable built environments through building and transportation electrification, enhancing construction health and safety, and leveraging data-driven innovations for construction excellence. His current work centers on electrification—EV charging infrastructure planning, electrified mobility hubs, ferry terminal and transit fleet electrification, and public-private partnership (P3) models for financing the transition—alongside a parallel line of research on clean energy justice that documents disparities in access to rooftop solar, heat pumps, and EV chargers in underserved communities. This research is conducted in close partnership with public agencies including the Washington State Department of Transportation, the Port of Seattle, King County Metro, Sound Transit, and Seattle City Light, and is grounded in community-centered planning and interagency coordination.
Prof. Lee has led or collaborated on over 30 funded research projects totaling more than $2.5 million, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Washington State Department of Transportation, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, NIOSH through CPWR, and industry partners including Google and Skanska. He has produced over 100 publications, including more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles in journals such as Applied Energy, Automation in Construction, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, and Journal of Management in Engineering, and his work has been featured in ASCE Civil Engineering, Metropolis, Fast Company, and Safety+Health. He serves as Assistant Specialty Editor for the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management and on the Advisory Board of the Lean Construction Journal.
Jan Whittington
Dr. Jan Whittington is Associate Professor of the Department of Urban Design and Planning, at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research applies transaction cost economic theory to networked infrastructures, such as transportation, water, and communications systems, to internalize factors historically treated as external to transactions. Her publications include methodologies for greenhouse gas mitigation and resilience through capital investment planning, examination of the efficiency of public-private contractual arrangements for infrastructure, and the evaluation of online transactions for efficiency, security, and privacy. At the University of Washington, she is the Director of the Urban Infrastructure Lab, Associate Director of the Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity, and Affiliate Faculty at the Tech Policy Lab. She teaches infrastructure planning and finance, public finance, infrastructure mega-projects, science for environmental policy, planning for water, and land use planning. Her PhD (2008) is in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was advised by economic Nobel laureate Oliver Williamson. Prior to her academic career, she spent 10 years with infrastructure giant Bechtel Corporation, as a strategic planner and environmental scientist. She holds bachelor degrees in Biology and Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz (1987). Her master’s degree is in City and Regional Planning, from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (1993).
Sofia Dermisi
Sofia Dermisi holds a joint appointment between the Department of Real Estate and the Department of Urban Design and Planning. She is the Victor L. Lyon and Alvin J. Wolff Endowed Professor in Real Estate. She is also the Chair of the Interdisciplinary Group for Real Estate (IGRE), which focuses in cross-discipline collaboration in teaching and research. In her joint appointment role she focuses on maintaining a formal two-way connection between the two departments on courses, student interests and research. This role is especially important among the MUP students who pursue the Real Estate specialization or have interests in real estate courses, for which she serves as their advisor.
Dermisi has an interdisciplinary approach in her teaching and research as real estate is one of those fields someone can have significant flexibility in focusing on different uses (e.g. office, residential, retail etc.), scales (local, national, international etc.) and aspects (e.g. market analysis, development, investment etc.). Real estate is also typically linked with other fields such as social and economic, construction among many others, which help us understand and possibly predict in the short and long-run expansion and contraction patterns of the real estate markets. Her area of research has always focused on understanding the evolution of office markets and the effect of internal and external shocks in downtown areas. Office markets have evolved significantly through time and understanding how real estate markets react to deferent economic conditions helps predict future market shifts in a highly cyclical industry. The adoption of sustainable practices by office buildings is another aspect of her research especially in regards to existing buildings, when the capital investment tends to be more significant than a new construction. The last but not least aspect of her research focuses on the effect of disasters on office and hotel markets.
Dermisi has received various grants for her research and received multiple awards highlighting her contribution to the field. She also serves as the elected Program Chair of the American Real Estate Society conference in 2018 and the Vice President of the Society. She will be the President of the American Real Estate Society in 2019-2020, and only the second woman to be elevated by members in such a position, but the first non-US born.
Dermisi, holds a Diploma in Planning and Regional Development Engineering from the University of Thessaly-Greece (1998) and a Master and Doctorate in Design Studies (1999 and 2002 respectively) from Harvard University.
Christine Bae
Christine Bae is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington, Seattle. She received her Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southern California. Her primary areas of interest are transportation and the environment; land use, growth management and urban sprawl; urban regeneration; environmental equity and justice; and international planning and globalization. She recently co-authored an article on measuring pedestrian exposure to PM2.5 in the Seattle, Washington, International District. She teaches a course “Mega City Planning”, in which she leads a group of students to Seoul, South Korea for two weeks in spring quarter. She is currently the West Representative for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, and a Board Member for the Western Regional Science Association. She is also the recipient of an on-going Sea Grant for The Economic and Environmental Impacts of Moorage Marinas in the West Coast.