LOUISIANA ARCHITECTURE PROFESSSORS SHOW THEIR ART AT LYONS SHARE
GALLERY DURING FAIRHOPE FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK.

FAIRHOPE, AL & RUSTON, LA -- 361 miles. That's the distance between
Fairhope and Ruston, Louisiana. Unless you're talking about artwork,
that is. Long time Eastern Shore artists and designers Anne and Robert
Brooks (now living in Louisiana), along with Kelly and Mike Lyons,
owners of the Lyons Share Gallery in Fairhope, have co-curated a
long-distance multi-medium exhibit for the upcoming Fairhope First
Fridays Art Walk. The body of work, aptly titled "the things we make"
showcases the creative work of six professors from the School of
Architecture at Louisiana Tech University, where Mr. Brooks now
teaches. The show will exhibit paintings, sculpture, wicked cool
clocks and lamps, contemporary quilting and fabric bowls, digital
collage and charcoal drawings at the Lyons Share Gallery beginning
July 7th, with the show opening at 6pm.

"One of the things that attracted me to teach at the School of
Architecture at Tech was seeing the interesting and creative work
being done by the faculty." says Brooks "the work we are all doing,
while not linked thematically in any way, shares a certain spirit
which we feel will find resonance with the art lovers on the Eastern
Shore."

The artists exhibiting work are Robert (+Andi) Moran, Michael
Williams, Damon Caldwell, Timothy Hayes, Alexis Wreden and Robert
Brooks. Each has been trained as an architect or landscape architect
and each currently teaches within the Tech School of Architecture.

The Lyons Share Gallery is located at 330 De La Mare Avenue in
Fairhope. First Friday Art walk runs from 6-8 pm July 7th in Downtown
Fairhope.

Kelly Lyons
Lyons Share Gallery
Fairhope, Alabama
251.928.2507
Or-
Robert Brooks
Louisiana Tech University
School of Architecture
Ruston, Louisiana
318.257.2816 office
318.245.8698 cell

Justin Roark is a 5th year architecture student at Louisiana Tech University. He is currently working as an intern at Architecture + in Monroe, Louisiana where he is involved in a range of projects from large scale retail to educational and local development.

CRIT - Journal of the American Institute of Architecture Students, Spring 2006, Issue 61,
30th Anniversary Edition

As today's society becomes more fast-pasted, people rarely take the time to stop for reflection and meditation. So why not create architecture to address this lost aspect of life?

In many cities, areas of "artificial" nature are created to provide an escape from the fast pace of modern living. Mobile Meditation takes a form of nature, a rock, and assembles it into a structure of reflection. In a spiritual life, a highly recognized position to reflect on one's self is to kneel, combined with an allusion to human accomplishment and progression, steps combine to form a kneeling platform for meditation. Each step is made up of two separate "pillows" of rock stacked three levels high and fastened with bolts. Each set of three levels make up a step which gets smaller as you ascend upward to the last step or platform for kneeling.

Mobile Meditation can also be assembled or disassembled into a rock walkway. Many people find that simply walking along a path can reduce stress or stimulate clear thinking. The "pillows" of rock are placed in a line and reconnected to the next with the same bolts that connect each layer to form the steps.

Tim Hayes - Good Earth #1

Hayes' work will be featured in the university's Main Gallery. The show will run from Jan. 10 to Feb. 9. An opening reception is set for Tuesday, Jan. 10, from 5-6:30 p.m. in the campus Visual Arts Center.

Michael Williams
My work is concerned with memory, loss, and entropy.
The work is an exploration
of sensation,forces, and the haptic.
....”not to render the visible, but to render visible”
Paul Klee

We have a new faculty member in the School of Architecture. Michael Williams received his M. Arch. from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Michael will be teaching courses in the foundation level, upper level and craft studios of the Architecture curriculum. Michael has actually been at the SOA for a year now - check out his faculty web site - here.

We actually do have a new Acting Visiting Assistant Professor, Robert Brooks. Robert received his Bachelor of Architecture from Auburn University and his Master of Architecture from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Robert will be helping out this year in our foundation studios and in the the 5th year design/craft program.- check out his faculty web site - here

During the fall quarter of 2004, eight students from the School of Architecture at Louisiana Tech measured and documented the Samuel G. Wiener House in Shreveport, Louisiana. The drawings and related materials were submitted to the Charles E. Peterson Prize competition during the summer, 2005 prior to becoming part of the permanent collection of the Historic American Buildings Survey in the Library of Congress. Louisiana Tech's entry received FIRST PLACE out of a national field of competitors. The winning team of architecture and interior design students included: Stephanie Boyles, Natasha Dufrene, Valerie Fontenot, Jason Henson, Yomi Oluwole, Aaron Sanderson, Lenora Schilling, and Dylan Towe. Each student will receive a certificate and a portion of a $2,500 cash award commemorating their accomplishment. The Charles E. Peterson Prize is an annually held national competition sponsored by the Historic American Buildings Survey of the National Park Service, The Historic Resources Committee of the American Institute of Architects and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, recognizing the best architectural measured drawings produced by university students for the fiscal year.

Prof. Vibhavari Jani, Chairwoman of the Interior Design Program and an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture, recently had a one woman show of her digital flower photographs "Flowers: My First Love" at the SNCEC Gallery in Rajkot, India. Since her childhood, she has been fascinated with flowers. As a child, flowers' colors, shapes, details and movement always attracted her. In 1990, painter Georgia O'Keefe's flower paintings inspired her to capture the beauty of flowers through her camera. Since 1990 Prof. Jani has been photographing flowers everywhere she traveled. The selected 100 flower photographs were taken in Ruston, Louisiana, and various National Forests, Parks and Gardens of North & South Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, California, Arizona, Colorado, New York and India.

We have an Interim Director of the School of Architecture following the retirement of Henry Stout. Karl Puljak, Associate Professor and former architecture program chair of the SOA has been selected by the university administration to direct the program until a permanent director is named. Karl received the B. Arch., Certificate in Regional & Community Planning from Kansas State University and the M. Arch. from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Karl has been the leader and major faculty presence of the 5th year collaborative community design/craft capstone project that began in the Fall of 2001. Check out the 5th year web site - here - to see what our 5th year students have accomplished over the last 4 years

Prof. Vibhavari Jani, Chairwoman of the Interior Design Program and an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture was recently invited to give a lecture on how architecture is shaped by, and shapes, cultural values in Indian society at the regional conference of the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) in Gujarat, India. Prof. Jani discussed how cultural values, attitudes and beliefs affect the structure and aesthetics of civic, religious and domestic spaces, including how buildings are conceived and constructed in India. Prof. Jani is a registered architect in India.
Prof. Jani was also invited to give a talk "In Light of India: Octavio Paz and his essays on Indian arts, architecture, culture and religions" at Sister Nivedita Continuing Education Center, Rajkot, India. Octavio Paz served as Mexico's ambassador in New Delhi from 1962 to 1968 and won the 1990 Nobel Prize for his Spanish poetry. Prof. Jani talked about Paz's spiritual education in India and how it influenced Paz's poetry, prose writings, and his life itself. Prof. Jani read some of his prose from the collection of his essays "In Light of India" to describe how Paz was moved by Indian architecture in Delhi and Bombay. This summer, Prof. Jani visited India for her research project "Faces and Places: Exploring Relationship between architecture, culture and people."
Prof. Jani also gave a lecture "Cultural Influence in Indian Architecture and Design" at the National School of Interior Design (NSID), India. Prof. Jani discussed how the Indian culture shapes Indian architecture and design and how Indian architecture influences the Indian culture and people. Prof. Jani also reviewed NSID student work and encouraged NSID students to establish collaborative projects with LATECH Interior Design students.

"I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly... ".
Mary Oliver.

This project, "Mudflat Boathouse" belongs to a body of work whose primary focus is on placing sculpture in the local landscape. The installation of this sculpture and the other components of the project at Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge: deck, bird stones and benches, is similar in concept to the spatial language of intimate gardens. They are small-scale interventions in their respective sites-only large enough to shelter or support one or two people at a time-allowing for a more intimate sympathetic experience with the landscape.

RUSTON, La. - The dream of home ownership will soon become a reality for a local family, thanks to a Mount St. Helens eruption anniversary and a new partnership announced this week.

Local managers from Weyerhaeuser Company's North Louisiana-based operations are partnering with North Central Louisiana Habitat for Humanity and Louisiana Tech's fifth-year School of Architecture students to build a single family home for a Lincoln Parish family. It is among more than 25 homes Weyerhaeuser is helping to build to mark 25 years since Mount St. Helens erupted, spewing ash worldwide and leveling Weyerhaeuser forests in southwest Washington.

Weyerhaeuser announced "Project Habitat" on May 18, 2005 - exactly 25 years after the 1980 eruption - as a $1-million campaign to build houses for families in 18 states and three Canadian provinces. The $1 million is being delivered to local Habitat for Humanity affiliates in grant dollars and packages of Weyerhaeuser lumber.

"We're pleased that our Habitat project in Louisiana is a part of this Weyerhaeuser anniversary project, which reaches across North America," said Martin Elshout, manager of Weyerhaeuser's Louisiana Particleboard operation at Simsboro and team leader for the project.

The partners announced the North Louisiana project at a groundbreaking ceremony today at Circle Drive in Ruston, where a Habitat home will be built for the April Austin family.

Ms. Austin and her four children, ages 4 to 10, helped shovel the first dirt at the groundbreaking. Also participating were Weyerhaeuser volunteers and many of the 30 Louisiana Tech fifth-year architecture students who are designing and helping build the home.

The design and building of the Habitat House is the final project for the fifth-year architecture students, said Karl Puljak, interim director of Tech's architecture program. "It's an exciting challenge for the students, after four and one-half years of designing on the computer and working in the classroom, to turn ideas into reality by designing and building a house.

"Beyond that, it's just a wonderful opportunity to bring together Weyerhaeuser, Habitat and the School of Architecture to help this family have a new home," Puljak said.

"This is a perfect partnership for us," said local Habitat president Allen Tuten. "With Weyerhaeuser's money and volunteers and Louisiana Tech's students' designs and building talents, this is going to be an extra-special Habitat house."

"We're excited to be a part of this partnership to help a family realize the dream of home ownership," said Elshout. "Our employees and retirees are eager to roll up their sleeves and pound nails for a good cause."

Many Weyerhaeuser operations in North Louisiana are involved in the Habitat project. Besides Louisiana Particleboard, these include Arcadia Oriented Strandboard, Simsboro Trus Joist, Taylor Lumber, Dodson Plywood and Lumber, North Louisiana timberlands, and Weyerhaeuser Purchasing and Supply Management and Environmental, Health and Safety offices in Ruston.

Weyerhaeuser celebrated the return of the working forest with the Project Habitat announcement held in May at the company's Forest Learning Center in Washington state. Located inside the 1980 blast zone, the Forest Learning Center is an interactive educational center that tells the story of how active forest management has jump started the forest ecosystem at Mount St. Helens.
You can learn more about the eruption and recovery of Mount St. Helens at www.theforestreturns.com. Weyerhaeuser's interactive Web site features a live web cam, maps, a wildlife viewer and other features that take you inside the blast zone. While you're visiting, be sure to plant a seedling!
The Weyerhaeuser donation to the build includes a small package of lumber from Mount St. Helens, which will be used in a special, commemorative way in the home. Weyerhaeuser planted 18 million seedlings after the eruption, in one of the largest scale reforestation projects in history. Today these trees are 70 feet tall and growing so densely that thinning is needed to allow the hardiest trees room to grow to full maturity.

"Weyerhaeuser stepped up 25 years ago to give the forest at Mount St. Helens a fresh start," said Elshout, "and now this forest is ready to provide lumber to shelter people in need. This is a remarkable stewardship achievement, and we are pleased that a Louisiana family will benefit from Weyerhaeuser's success at Mount St. Helens."

Weyerhaeuser Company has about 2,000 employees in Louisiana and manages more than one million acres of timberlands in the state, all certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)™. Weyerhaeuser's Louisiana operations include the Red River linerboard mill at Campti, plywood and lumber operations at Dodson and Zwolle, a sawmill at Taylor, an oriented strandboard (OSB) operation at Arcadia, Trus Joist operations at Natchitoches and Simsboro, a particleboard mill at Simsboro, a packaging operation at Shreveport, a lumber mill at Holden, Tree Improvement Centers at Isabel and Taylor and timberlands offices at Taylor, Natchitoches, Livingston and Dodson.

Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY), one of the world's largest integrated forest products companies, was incorporated in 1900. In 2004, sales were $22.7 billion. It has offices or operations in 19 countries, with customers worldwide. Weyerhaeuser is principally engaged in the growing and harvesting of timber; the manufacture, distribution and sale of forest products; and real estate construction, development and related activities. Additional information about Weyerhaeuser's businesses, products and practices is available at http://www.weyerhaeuser.com.

Habitat for Humanity International, based in Americus, Ga., is a ministry dedicated to eliminating poverty housing. By the end of 2005, Habitat will have built its 200,000th house and more than one million people will be living in Habitat homes they helped build and are buying through no-profit, zero-interest mortgages. www.habitat.org

The School of Architecture wishes to express its deepest gratitude to those who have generously supported the activities, faculty and students of the School of Architecture through their gifts during the period between July 2004 to October 2005.

Michael L. Walpole
Mr. R. Mark Mann
Mr. Joseph Wheeler, Jr.
Merrill Lynch & Company, Inc.
CMDR Eric F. Willenbrock
Mr. Alan Dinkle
Mr. Jerry L. Hollensworth, AIA
Ms. Rhonda W. Perry
Mr. Perry N. Harrell, AIA
Mr. Terry Roye
Federal Home Products
Ms. Rhonda W. Perry
Mr. Dale Riser
Mr. Perry Harrell, AIA