Archinect - News

Prasad Boradkar named new dean of the University of Minnesota's College of Design

2023-08-28T15:42:00-04:00

The University of Minnesota's College of Design has announced designer, anthropologist, educator, and researcher Dr. Prasad Boradkar as its new dean following a nationwide search.

The college houses the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design programs in addition to other design disciplines like Product Design, Apparel Design, and Human Graphic Design, to name a few.

Boradkar's extensive career in academia and the design industry can be seen through his work with Google, where he recently served as the UX Research and Sustainability Lead at the company's Advanced Technology & Projects division, and his prior professor of industrial design role at Arizona State University, where he held positions as the co-director of the Biomimicry Center and director of the InnovationSpace transdisciplinary research and education lab.

His multidisciplinary background has allowed him to collaborate across several disciplines, leading him to work in "cross-functional, tr...

AIA Upjohn Research Initiative grant winners focus on NZE, performance, and life cycle assessment

2020-06-29T18:37:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has chosen the winners of the latest round of AIA Upjohn Research Initiative grants.

The grants offer $15,000 to $30,000 in research support for "applied research projects that enhance the value of design and professional practice knowledge," according to the AIA website. This year's winners aim to tackle a variety of performance and sustainability-related topics, including Net Zero Energy (NZE) standards and building life cycle assessment metrics.

A research team headed by Nina M. Sharifi, PhD of Syracuse University and Gabrielle Brainard, AIA of Pratt Institute aims to develop research titled Envelope Retrofit Guide: Net Zero Energy Ready Strategies for Existing Buildings. This project, according to the researchers, "will produce an Envelope Retrofit Guide to assist architects in the early stages of net zero ready retrofit projects." The guide will provide "technical guidance at a schematic level and will catalog retrofit strategies for...

Architect Jennifer Yoos selected as the new Head of the University of Minnesota School of Architecture

2020-05-08T17:29:00-04:00

Architect and educator Jennifer Yoos, FAIA has been named as the new Head of the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota.

Yoos is the principal and CEO of Minneapolis-based architecture practice VJAA. She is also an alumna of the University of Minnesota and the Architectural Association in London.

Throughout her career as an educator, Yoos has taught at the Cooper Union, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Minnesota. Additionally, Yoos studied at Harvard University in 2013 as a Loeb Fellow in the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Urban and Environmental Studies department. Yoos was elevated to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows in 2013, as well.

Yoos comes to Univesrsity of Minnesota to replace the school’s previous Dean, Blaine Brownell, who was named as the new director of the School of Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s College of Arts + Architecture earlier this y...

Get Lectured: University of Minnesota, Fall '16

2016-08-22T15:44:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2016

Gearing up for another eventful school year this fall? Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss. Mark those calendars!

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

First up is the University of Minnesota School of Architecture. Their Fall 2016 Lecture Series brings together a range of leading architects, designers, historians, and theorists whose work is actively reshaping discourse in the architectural industry and education. Lecturers will present their current bodies of work and research through unique lenses guiding their own design practices and pedagogy.

Sept 21
Ferda Kolatan / PennDesign | Brooklyn, NY

Sept 26
Jennifer Siegal / Office o...

Get Lectured: University of Minnesota, Fall '15

2015-09-28T11:34:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2015

Archinect's Get Lectured is ready for another school year. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Our next featured poster comes from the University of Minnesota, College of Design with their Fall '15 Public Lectures: "Play".

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Free and open to the public. Lectures begin at 6:00 p.m. at UMN School of Architecture Rapson Hall 100: 89 Church Street Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

Oct 5
Beatriz Colomina / Princeton School of Architecture

Oct 12
Daniel D’Oca / Interboro/Harvard GSD

Oct 19
Dan Wood / WorkAC/Yale School of Architecture

Oct 26
Günter Zamp Kelp / Haus-Rucker-Co
Related: Gallery talk at Walker Art Center on October 25, 2:00 p.m.

Nov 9
Lisa Iwam...

A Minneapolis Warehouse Reborn as Artist-style Chiropractic Office

2012-05-24T16:04:00-04:00

"Beauty is not an additive act but rather a coherent aesthetic. Anything else would be irrelevant. We have been advocating a total and integral environment for both physical and mental wellbeing, in other words, a healthy environment must work on all levels." - Ali Heshmati, '92 graduate from the School of Architecture at College of Design

Darin Duch, Associate Intern Architect at Laboratory for Environments, Architecture, and Design (LEAD, Inc.), and Ali Heshmati, owner of LEAD Inc., recently completed work on Ambiente Gallerie, a new artist-style chiropractic office located in Northeast Minneapolis. Duch and Heshmati both graduated from the School of Architecture in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota.

The project was designed for Dr. Kari Boudreau, who wanted to integrate art and design into a healing space for her business, formerly Art of Chiropractic. The 1910 warehouse has an open space flanked with exposed brick walls decked with original paintings, floating cloud lighting, and sheer fabric convertible rooms that resemble ultra modern pods. The massage and exam rooms utilize curved, boomerang pivot doors, "Duchamp doors" covered with a translucent skin of fiberglass that offer privacy without feeling confined.

"Beauty is not an additive act but rather a coherent aesthetic. Anything else...

Coalition for Sustainable Rail Plans to Create World's First Carbon-Neutral High-Speed Train

2012-05-22T12:35:00-04:00

“This project presents a novel approach to U.S. locomotive development, looking to technologies of the past to inspire solutions for today’s sustainability challenges." - Sustainable Rail International President Davidson Ward, 2010 School of Architecture graduate from the College of Design at the University of Minnesota

The Coalition for Sustainable Rail (CSR), a collaboration of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment (IonE) and the nonprofit Sustainable Rail International (SRI), announced plans to create the world's first carbon-neutral higher-speed locomotive. SRI President Davidson Ward, a 2010 School of Architecture graduate from the College of Design at the University of Minnesota says that he's confident the researchers at the University of Minnesota and his team of engineers, "will be able to bring this technology to the forefront of America's energy and transportation conversations." According to Ward, "This project presents a novel approach to U.S. locomotive development, looking to technologies of the past to inspire solutions for today's sustainability challenges."

Bike Pasture Funded!

2011-11-15T13:30:00-05:00

Emily Lowery enrolled in an architecture course last May hoping to learn about different architecture and landscape design solutions. She walked out as part of a team of students who would design the University of Minnesota’s first ever ecologically friendly bike pasture –– a combination of bike parking, social space and a garden.

Making higher-ed more sustainable (and social) one project at time, the Bike Pasture Project was conceived and planned entirely by students in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota as a real life design-build project. Now it's one step closer to being built, thanks to $15k in funding.