The design of a new Memorial to Enslaved Laborers (MEL) on the grounds of the University of Virginia marks a critical moment to address the complex history of the University, slavery, and the country. It directly responds to a deep need to address an untold and uncomfortable history – one that is still very much a difficult, though necessary, national conversation on race. The goal of the Memorial is to create a physical place of remembrance and a symbolic acknowledgement of slavery and offers a place of learning and a place of healing.
The Memorial was designed as part of a collaboration between Howeler + Yoon Architects, Studio&, Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect, Eto Otitigbe, and had thoughtful input from many more. During this program, Alice Raucher and Mary Hughes (UVA Office of the Architect), Mabel Wilson (Studio&), and J. Meejin Yoon (Höweler + Yoon Architects) will discuss the unique process that made this project possible. Read more.
Hear about the momentum of the project, beginning with student-led initiatives as early as 2010, the ideas competition, final design resolution, and the guiding work of the President’s Commission on Slavery and the University (PCSU). Learn about the robust community engagement process, including descendants of the enslaved and how the shared vision informed each element of the Memorial’s design. Register online.
The design of a new Memorial to Enslaved Laborers (MEL) on the grounds of the University of Virginia marks a critical moment to address the complex history of the University, slavery, and the country. It directly responds to a deep need to address an untold and uncomfortable history – one that is still very much a difficult, though necessary, national conversation on race. The goal of the Memorial is to create a physical place of remembrance and a symbolic acknowledgement of slavery and offers a place of learning and a place of healing.
J. Meejin Yoon | Principal, Höweler + Yoon Architects J. Meejin Yoon is an architect, designer, and educator. She is currently the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. Previously, she was Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture at MIT where she began teaching in 2001. Yoon is the co-founding principal of Höweler + Yoon Architecture, a multidisciplinary architecture and design studio that has garnered international recognition for a wide range of built work. Her design work and research investigate the intersections between architecture, technology, and public space. Yoon received the New Generation Design Leadership Award by Architectural Record (2015), the US Artist Award in Architecture and Design (2008), and the Rome Prize in Design (2005). She is the co-author of Public Works: Unsolicited Small Projects for the Big Dig (2009) and Absence (2003). Yoon received a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University with the AIA Henry Adams Medal in 1995, a Master of Architecture in Urban Design with Distinction from Harvard University in 1997, and a Fulbright Fellowship to Korea in 1998.
Alice J. Raucher AIA, AUA, LEED AP | Architect for the University, University of Virginia As Architect for the University of Virginia, Alice Raucher directs the architecture, planning and landscape design of the UVA grounds. As the symbolic custodian of Thomas Jefferson’s design legacy, she oversees the architectural selection process for all capital projects. In addition to the World Heritage Site of Jefferson’s original college, Alice oversees a dynamic and expanding campus embedded in the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, advocating for design excellence, accessibility, resilience, equity and sustainability. Alice also served in a similar capacity at Yale University. As a practitioner, Alice held senior positions with SOM and James Polshek’s New York office and a partner with Bell Larson Raucher Architects.
Mary Hughes, FASLA, LEED AP | University Landscape Architect, University of Virginia Mary Hughes, FASLA, LEED AP, has served as the University Landscape Architect at UVA since 1996. Her responsibilities include oversight of contemporary landscape design and cultural landscape preservation for the main campus in Charlottesville as well as the State Arboretum at Blandy Farm and other field research stations as well as the UVA College at Wise. Along with Peggy Cornett and Gabriele Rausse of Monticello, Ms. Hughes serves as co-director of the Historic Landscape Institute, an adult education program featuring the Jefferson landscapes of central Virginia as laboratories for applying historical horticulture and preservation practices. She is the co-editor with Charles Birnbaum of a book, Design with Culture: Claiming America’s Landscape Heritage (2005), which chronicles the origins of the landscape preservation movement in the United States. Prior to assuming her current position at UVA, she worked for the National Park Service. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and was awarded the LaGasse Medal by ASLA in 2012 for contributions in the conservation and stewardship of public lands.
The University of Virginia is hosting a symposium entitled “Lineages and Trajectories: the case of Architecture Pedagogy” on March 28, 2015. The program, coordinated by Ghazal Abbasy-Asbagh, will consider the “complex conditions of a pedagogy arising from the confluence of a Modernist lineage with contemporary methods and processes, and charged with responding to the mandates of an ever complex context. We hope to recognize gaps in architecture pedagogy – to reveal what has sustained during this period, what has been lost, and how it can be brought back.”
Panelists include:
Mary McLeod – Columbia GSAPP
Dorothée Imbert – Knowlton School, OSU
Iñaki Alday – U.Va. Chair of Department of Architecture
Teresa Galí-Izard – U.Va. Chair of Department of Landscape Architecture
Michael Hays – Harvard GSD
Winka Dubbeldam – Penn Design
Bill Richards – American Institute of Architects
Kiel Moe – Harvard GSD
Wiel Arets – IIT
Sylvia Lavin – UCLA
Julian Raxworthy – University of Cape Town
Beth Meyer – U.Va.
Ghazal Abbasy-Asbagh – U.Va.
The event is free and open to the public. Learn more>>
The Jury for the Virginia Society AIA Prize for Design Research and Scholarship, chaired by Luis Rico-Gutierrez of Iowa State University, has awarded the 2013 Prize to John Quale of the University of Virginia. His paper, entitled Commercializing Energy Efficient Affordable Housing, describes the efforts of UVa’s EcoMOD project, a research and educational project that strives to create sustainable modular and renovated housing units for affordable housing organizations. This Prize is intended to encourage theoretical awareness, educational exchange, thought and research in architecture, both within academic institutions and within the offices of practicing architects who participate in theoretical pursuits.
The jurors recognized that Quale’s paper covered an interesting and important subject, and stated:
“This project represents an impressive effort to translate the knowledge created and developed in universities and in practice, into a product that has the potential of greatly improving the quality of life in communities around the country and the world. We recognize that it is a snapshot of a long-term effort, with conclusions that may shift year to year, and new challenges arising. It is a great example of research as an ongoing design laboratory, integrating academy and practice in a way that yields benefits to all parties involved. It feels very mature and robust, with a lot of thought and rigor put into it. It’s an ongoing real-world project with outreach that impacts communities, engages partners and involves students.”
John Quale will present this work at Architecture Exchange East on Thursday, Nov. 7 from 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
The Jury also awarded an Honorable Mention to Phoebe Crisman of UVa for her paper entitled Health and the Built Environment: Shaping Policy and Place through Innovative Community and Academic Partnerships.
Jury Member Andrea Quilici, AIA, presents the 2012 Virginia Society AIA Prize to Eric Kuhn of the University of Virginia
The Virginia Society AIA Prize is a statewide student design competition, held each January. 2012 was the 32nd year for this competition. Over the course of one weekend, students from Hampton University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech Blacksburg, and Virginia Tech WAAC respond to a problem brief written by a faculty member from one of the participating schools.
The 2012 VSAIA Prize problem was Temporary Permanence: Emergency Housing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Students were asked to design a small house or set of houses to be used as emergency shelter after hurricanes or severe storms in the area of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The designs were to be semi-permanent, and reusable. They were to be located in proximity to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (i.e., Hatteras Light) in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in Buxton, North Carolina.
The 2012 Prize Jury members were Paula Loomis, FAIA, Chair; Kurt Keesecker, AIA; Andrea Quilici, AIA; Mike Stoneking; and John Diven. The Jury is asked to award one Virginia Society AIA Prize winner, one Best of School from each other participating school, and may elect to award Honorable Mentions. This jury elected to designate two Honorable Mentions and two boards as Notable for certain creative aspects of their solution. The Virginia Society AIA Prize went to Eric Kuhn of the University of Virginia for his entry Sky Tent. The Prize was awarded during the Virginia Design Forum on March 17, 2012 at the University of Virginia.
Students from Hampton University, Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center, and the University of Virginia took part in the 32nd annual Virginia Society AIA Prize competition over the weekend of Jan. 27–30, 2012. From those submissions, each school advances 10 finalists; the winning design will be selected by a jury in February.
This year’s competition problem was developed by faculty at Hampton University and addressed our ability (or inability) to provide temporary emergency housing. Students were asked to propose a semi-permanent and reusable intervention in one of the region’s most naturally vulnerable locations — Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The problem asked students to design one prototypical unit, not to exceed 600 square-feet, capable of housing up to 4 individuals. Designs were to include a site plan demonstrating how four of these prototypical units could be arranged to form the embryo of a community. Students were also asked to envision how these structures could be used as housing for special events during non-catastrophic times.
The Virginia Society AIA Prize — along with the accompanying $2000 check — will be awarded during the Virginia Design Forum: Skins, March 16-17, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Best of School nods (and possibly an honorable mention or two) will be noted as well. An exhibition of all of the finalists will tour each of the schools and will wrap up in the ArchEx Exhibit Hall at Architecture Exchange East on Nov. 8–9.
