Qing Shen is Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair and Director of the University of Washington Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning. He holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning from University of California, Berkeley. Professor Shen’s primary areas of interest are urban economics and metropolitan transportation planning and policy. Author of numerous scholarly publications, he has developed methodological frameworks for analyzing urban spatial structure, examined the social and environmental consequences of automobile-oriented metropolitan development, and investigated the differential impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT) on various population groups. A primary focus of his current research is on the opportunities and challenges created by mobile ICT-enabled new mobility services. Exploring the paths toward more efficient, equitable, and environmentally responsible urban transportation, he is working with colleagues and graduate students to conduct innovative research on travel behavior and its connections with shared mobility services, built environments, and transportation demand management policies.
Professor Shen’s scholarly work has gained wide recognitions, which include a Horwood Critique Prize given by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), an Emerging Scholar Paper Award in spatial analysis and modeling specialty given by the Association of American Geographers (AAG), a Chester Rapkin Award given by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), and a Best Paper Award by the World Society for Transportation and Land Use Research (WSTLUR). A highly active member of the academic community, he has served on the editorial boards of seven academic journals, including the Journal of the American Planning Association (since 2000; Associate Editor since 2020) and the Journal of Planning Education and Research (since 2006).
Professor Shen was educated in China (Zhejiang University) and Canada (University of British Columbia) before coming to the United States. He started his academic career at MIT as an assistant professor in 1993 and was promoted to associate professor in 1999. That was followed by his tenured faculty appointment in 2000 at the University of Maryland, College Park where he also served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He joined the University of Washington as Professor and Department Chair in 2009. In addition, he has served as a visiting professor at several leading universities in China. In 2005, he was appointed by the President of Nanjing University as the first holder of Siyuan Chair Professorship, an endowed visiting position. In 2009, he was appointed as a visiting Tongji Chair Professor at Tongji University. In 2014, he was appointed by the President of Southwest Jiaotong University as the Oversea Dean of the School of Architecture and Design, a visiting advisory position. He was a primary founder and former Chairman of the International Association for China Planning (IACP).
Marina Alberti is Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington. She is Director of the Urban Ecology Research Lab and PI of the NSF Funded Research Collaboration Networks on Urban Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics. She teaches courses in Urban Science, Urban Ecology, Environmental Planning, Research Design, Geographic Information Systems, and Group Dynamic and Conflict resolution. Alberti’s research interests are in urban ecology and evolution. Her studies focus on the interactions between urban patterns and ecosystem function, urban signatures of evolutionary change, and the properties of cities that enhance their resilience and transformative capacity. She also leads research on urban ecological modeling, scenario planning, and urban ecological metrics to monitor progress and inform policy-making and planning. In her book Cities That Think like Planets (UW Press 2016), Alberti advances a science of cities that work on a planetary scale and link unpredictable dynamics to the potential for socio-ecological innovation.
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.
Kathrina (Kate) Simonen is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington, founder and board chair of the nonprofit Carbon Leadership Forum and leader of the Life Cycle Lab. Licensed as an architect and structural engineer, she connects significant professional experience in high performance building design and technical expertise in environmental life cycle assessment working to accelerate the transformation of the building sector to radically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions attributed to materials (also known as embodied carbon) used in buildings and infrastructure.
She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, an honorary fellow of the UK’s Institution of Structural Engineers and was named Engineering News Record Top 25 Newsmaker in 2020 for her impact rallying industry to reduce embodied carbon. Taking an entrepreneurial approach to academic work she helped launch two successful nonprofits, CLF and Building Transparency; spurred the formation of two embodied carbon commitment programs, SE2050 and MEP 2040; and develops and sustains networks of individuals and organizations working together to harmonize and optimize embodied carbon actions.
UW’s Life Cycle Lab is focused on supporting the next generation of researchers and pursuing critical research to advance life cycle assessment (LCA) data, methods and approaches. The research that we pursue aims to fill challenging knowledge gaps in order to inform impactful policies that support the integration of life cycle thinking, LCA findings and decarbonization strategies to implement into practice today.
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.
Christopher Meek, AIA, IES is Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington and a registered architect. He is Director of the Integrated Design Lab (IDL) at the University’s College of Built Environments and the Center for Integrated Design (CID). In this role, he consults with design teams in the Pacific Northwest and nationally with a focus on building energy performance, daylighting, visual comfort, electric lighting, and climate responsive design. Mr. Meek teaches graduate and undergraduate level courses on building design, daylighting, electric lighting, and building technology at the UW Department of Architecture and in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research has been funded by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, regional utilities, New Buildings Institute, the Illuminating Engineering Society, the American Institute of Architects, and the National Science Foundation. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Washington he worked in architectural practice in Washington State, New Mexico, and New Orleans, LA.
He is co-author of Daylighting Design in the Pacific Northwest published in 2012 by the University of Washington Press and Daylighting and Integrated Lighting Design published in 2014 by Routledge.
Mehlika Inanici, Ph.D. is a Professor and the former director of the Design technology track of the Master of Science in Architecture program at the University of Washington, Department of Architecture.
The focus of her research is computational lighting design and analysis. The underlying presumption in her research and teaching is that analytical approaches employed throughout the design processes help architects envision the performance of their designs, accelerate and improve design decisions, and reduce the uncertainty of the outcome. A large body of her research centers on developing and utilizing computer-based (day)lighting analysis techniques and metrics that can facilitate occupant comfort, satisfaction, health, and productivity improvements, in conjunction with significant energy savings.
Inanici has authored or co-authored highly influential papers on the use of high dynamic range (HDR) photography to measure and evaluate existing environments and to conduct psychophysical studies on visual comfort and preference. Her work on lighting measurements with HDR photography was selected as one of the “25 classic papers” in the 50-year history of the Journal of Lighting Research and Technology (2018) among the 2048 papers published between 1969 to 2018. Some of her papers are on the most cited list in Leukos (the journal of Illuminating Engineering Society) and Lighting Research and Technology.
She developed Lark Multispectral Lighting tool in collaboration with ZGF Architects LLC. Lark is an open-source software to simulate the non-visual effects of light that entrains the human circadian system. She also co-developed hdrscope in collaboration with Viswanathan Kumaragurubaran.
Her research has been funded by the US Department of Energy, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of Washington Royalty Research Fund, UW Built Environments Innovations Collaborative Grant, and the Nuckolls Funding for Lighting Education.
Prof. Inanici’s teaching focuses on graduate-level courses on building performance simulation (Arch 524 Design Technology V, Arch 582 Computational Lighting Research, and 598 Performance-Driven Design) and research methodologies. She supervises students from the Master of Architecture, Master of Science in Architecture, and the Ph.D. program in Built Environments.
Inanici has received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan. She has Master of Science degrees both in Architecture (University of Michigan) and Building Science (METU), and a Bachelor of Architecture degree (METU). Previously, she worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley California. Dr. Inanici is a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society, the International Commission on Illumination, and the International Building Performance Simulation Association.
Kimo Griggs’ teaching is centered on the development of individual design strategies informed by a deep knowledge of materials and hands-on experience with processes of making, from hand-work to advanced digitally-enabled fabrication. Core teaching includes Design Studios as well as a required, workshop-based introductory Materials & Making course. Courses in Digital Craft and Materials are also offered, developed with the goal of advancing knowledge about, and incorporating the use of Digital-Design-and-Manufacturing in design practices.
Kimo’s current research is based on understanding how existing and proposed manufacturing technologies – particularly those which are digitally-enabled – can be absorbed into the well-established delivery systems that produce our buildings and infrastructure. These interests include looking at how alternative design practices can operate as well as how contracting and management of construction processes might change as digital technologies mature. Kimo is also keenly interested in specific processes and products with craft-based histories that have altered or widely affected how we build today, and in how craft and material concerns register culturally, particularly in our built environment.
Heather Burpee, Research Professor at the University of Washington Integrated Design Lab, is a nationally recognized scholar in high-performance buildings — buildings that reduce energy and promote healthy indoor environments. Her work bridges practice, research, and education with collaboration between practitioners, faculty, and students. Her research addresses both qualitative and quantitative aspects of buildings including tracking health impacts and synergies between environmental quality, natural systems, sensory environments, and energy efficiency. She has led several efforts to create protocols for performance-based tracking and auditing for hospitals, higher education, and commercial buildings. She regularly applies these roadmaps in practice, consulting with leading design teams nationally that are charged with implementing high-performance buildings.
As the Director of Education and Outreach at the UW IDL, she leads a tour program at the Bullitt Center “The World’s Greenest Building,” and develops curriculum and implementation of other educational opportunities related to high-performance buildings to multi-faceted audiences. Heather is a Pacific Northwest native and received her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Washington College of Built Environments and her undergraduate degree in biology from Whitman College.
Elizabeth Golden is an architect and an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington, where she teaches in the areas of design, materials, and building technology. Her teaching, academic research, and creative work are dedicated to revealing the systemic complexities that shape our physical and cultural realities. Golden investigates the relationship between people and their environments, both at the micro and macro scales, analyzing architecture as an index to its larger cultural context.
Golden is a licensed architect in Washington and New York state and has practiced nationally and internationally for over 25 years. She holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University GSAPP and a Bachelor of Architecture (professional degree) from the University of Arkansas. She currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Architectural Education. Underpinning her practice is an ongoing analysis of the complex relationship of architecture and the built environment to systemic issues such as social marginalization and economic globalization. Together, her built and speculative work, research, and community activism demonstrate architecture’s dynamic potential to drive social change.
Research + Practice
Golden cultivates a reciprocal relationship between her research and practice, treating them as integral parts of an interconnected feedback loop. She frequently collaborates on design initiatives that combine expertise from the University of Washington, local nonprofits, governmental agencies, and other educational institutions. A recent example is the Seattle Street Sink and Clean Hands Collective, a community effort to promote hand hygiene in the midst of COVID-19. Her collaborative projects have received numerous honors including a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), an Award of Merit from AIA Seattle, and an R+D Award from Architect Magazine. They have been published internationally including features in Architectural Record, Architectural Review, and the BBC World Service.
Across her research and teaching, Golden is committed to transforming the discipline of architecture by building productive connections between academia and professional practice. Her recent book Building from Tradition: Local Materials and Methods in Contemporary Architecture (Routledge, 2018) offers a critical analysis of traditional building practices and their contemporary resurgence in the context of globalization. A belief in the power of collective intelligence drives the practice, with the expertise of local professionals, craftspeople, and user groups integral to each project. Ultimately, Golden is concerned with the mutual exchange between people and place, studying ways in which architecture can evoke our shared humanity.