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 and December 2004.

R. Mark Mann
Merrill Lynch & Company (corporate matching program)
David L. Smith, Jr.
Michael L. Walpole
Joseph E. Wheeler, Jr.
Cmdr. Eric F. Willenbrock

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images from the interior design/architecture
collaborative studio

Two Professors from the School of Architecture: Interior Design Program Chair and Assistant Professor Vibhavari Jani and Assistant Professor William T. Willoughby presented a paper "Seeing from both sides: Cultivating a collaborative studio culture for Interior Design and Architecture students" at IDEC Southwest Regional Conference on October 15th, 2004 and received "Best Paper Presentation Award."

Assistant Professors Jani and Willoughby taught a collaborative studio this summer emphasizing the importance of cross discipline collaboration to their students. The integrated student teams included senior architecture and interior design students who collaborated on multiple designs for a 20,000-square-foot community center to be situated near the Town of Arcadia. The integrated student teams hosted a public exhibit of their final projects in the Town of Arcadia, Louisiana. Assistant Professors Jani and Willoughby documented students' experience of this project and presented their findings in this paper

Interior Design Program Chair and Assistant Professor Vibhavari Jani presented a paper "Defining Sustainable Practice: Changing Societal Attitudes to Create Total Environmental Awareneww in Building Design" at IDEC Pacific West Regional Conference in Tempe, Arizona on November 5th, 2004. Vibhavari Jani collaborated with Assistant Professor William T. Willoughby from the School of Architecture on this paper presentation. Assistant Professors Jani and Willoughby investigated the present status of sustainable practice in architecture and interior design. As educators of future designers, Assistant Professors Jani and Willoughby recognized the necessity for design educators to better address the ecological imbalance and irresponsibility perpetuated by current building design practices. Both professors also felt that educators are pressured by the design industry to teach skills required of today at the expense of neglecting envisioning a better, healthier tomorrow. In their research, the two professors explored ways to balance industry's short term demands with long-term ecological concerns that, in the long run, promote a holistic acceptance of ecological principle

Assistant Professor Vibhavari Jani has been named the Cunningham Endowed Professor of Interior Design. The Cunningham Endowed Professorship is made possible by a generous gift from Herc and Betty Cunningham, and the Board of Regents Support Fund.

The Interior Design Program has been named one of the top 40 by Design Intelligence for 2005. Assistant

Professor Alexis Wreden is participating in a group show at the Barrister Gallery in New Orleans, and has been selected to be artist-in-residence at the Sustainable Arts Society located in Blue Ridge, Georgia this coming summer.

Alexis Wreden, Assistant Professor from the School of Architecture at Louisiana Tech University has been awarded a $20,000.00 Project Assistance grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Friends of Black Bayou Lake Refuge. The project titled "The Wetlands Art Project" is located on a 17 acre piece of land formerly used as a state fish hatchery. The land is now part of the black Bayou lake Wildlife Refuge in Monroe, Louisiana.

The project consists of site-specific sculpture installations that use the existing ponds topography of the sight and history of the site as part of the vocabulary of the artwork. The sculpture installations, referred to as "Mudflat Boathouses", combine art, architecture and landscape architecture to create forms that recall bird blinds, temporary huts, and abstract art. In addition to the sculptures, the project will include decks and a walkway designed from an image used by one of the former inhabitants of the site, the Caddo Indians and information about its context, the Summer and Winter Solstices and the Migrating Birds that fly to Black Bayou Lake every year.

The intention of the project is to "teach" the viewer, through experiencing the site, new ways to engage in an appreciation of the natural flora and fauna of Northeast Louisiana.

During Ms. Wreden's career as an artist and designer, she has won a National Endowment for Arts Grant and a ford Fellowship. She holds a Master's Degree in Sculpture from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana and a Master's Degree in Landscape Architecture from the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. Ms. Wreden's work is influenced by her love of being immersed in the natural world, of drawing, of her commitment to environmental issues and her role as a teacher of design and drawing at Louisiana Tech University's School of Architecture.

The project is currently under construction and will be permanently installed at Black Bayou Lake Wildlife Refuge late in Spring 2005.

Check out News@Tech web article 'Modern art mingles with Black Bayou Refuge.'

Read about the School of Architecture's innovative 5th year program. The article 'Architecture is a Community Act At Tech" is featured in the No. 12 Summer 2004 Louisiana Tech Magazine edition. Highlighted in the article are Robert's Park Picnic Pavilion, The Science Outdoor Classroom at Ruston Elementary School, Play Area and Healing Garden at the D.A.R.T Safe House and the Outdoor Amphitheater on James lake in Dubach. Click on the image to download a copy of the article.

During the fall quarter of 2003, eight students from the School of Architecture under the direction of Guy W. Carwile measured and documented the Plamoor Ballroom and the former Big Chain Store - Broadmoor both in Shreveport, Louisiana. The drawings and related materials were submitted to the Charles E. Peterson Prize competition during the summer, 2004 prior to becoming part of the permanent collection of the Historic American Buildings Survey in the Library of Congress. Louisiana Tech's documentation of the Plamoor Ballroom received Third Place and the documentation of the former Big Chain Store received an Honorable Mention out of a national field of competitors. The student documentation team included: Jason Bethany, David Beverly, Laura Erdely, Chris Jackson, Travis Jore, Brent Knox, David Leblanc, and Zach Moss. Each student will receive two certificates and a portion of a $1500 cash award commemorating their accomplishment. The Peterson Prize is an annually held national competition sponsored by the 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 under faculty direction for the calendar year.