News | April 6, 2018
‘Building Blocks’ exhibit charts 15-year grassroots evolution
Building Blocks: Storefront Studio on Mainstreet charts the grassroots evolution of a community outreach studio offered by the University of Washington College Built Environments. Since 2003, Director Jim Nicholls and senior lecturer in the College of Built Environments has been leading groups of architecture, landscape, and planning students to partner with local small towns to study their main…
News | June 28, 2022
‘Something has to change:’ These architecture students are challenging Seattle’s housing norms
The City of Seattle expects to have 1 million residents by the year 2044. That’s about one-third more people than Seattle has right now. We’re having trouble housing the people here now. So where are we going to put all the new people? Some University of Washington architecture students are looking at new ways to…
News | March 10, 2021
A conversation with Julia Nagele, the architect behind Seattle’s newest luxury residential tower The Emerald
Females in architecture aren’t that common, unfortunately. The New York Times reported in 2018 that, while half of architecture school graduates are women, women only make up 20 percent of licensed architects and 17 percent of partners or principals in architecture firms. Female architects, including Zaha Hadid, Jeanne Gang and Denise Scott Brown, to name a few,…
News | May 5, 2020
A timber-based building method draws praise, and skeptics
Last September, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee stepped to a lectern in a sprawling 270,000-square-foot factory outside Spokane and declared it the “best day so far” in his six years in office. Earlier that day, he had marched downtown as part of the youth-driven climate strike that united 4 million people worldwide. Now he was in nearby…
Scholar
Alex Anderson
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 15, 2022
An Online World That Doesn’t Destroy the Real One
Inviting as visions of the metaverse can be—a 3D stroll through Barcelona, avatars kissing, selling your side-hustle NFTs for mad Bitcoin—the real-world price of virtuality is alarmingly high and climbing. Nothing “internet” happens without megatons of hardware, those hot racks of servers in highly secured data centers (DCs) that sprawl in the most unimaginative way…
Scholar
Ann Huppert
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Ann Marie Borys
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Anne Vernez-Moudon
Visit scholar websiteCourse | ARCH 502
Architectural Integration Studio I
The studio is structured as a first integrated design studio experience. It builds upon the first two quarters through integrating structural systems, building assemblies and environmental responses with broader design concerns. Through exploring a project in an urban context, the studio focuses on themes of community and society. The studio work is closely coordinated with parallel Design Technology and Materials and Assemblies classes. Prerequisite: ARCH 501 Credit/no-credit only.Course | ARCH 503
Architectural Integration Studio II
The first of a two-quarter sequence structured for the development of integrative design skills. Studio problems explore the relationship between building, the public realm and place-making in an urban context and develop a building design as part of larger urban systems related to energy, ecology and mobility. The fall studio work is closely coordinated with parallel Design Technology, Urban Issues and Contemporary Theory classes. Prerequisite: ARCH 502 Credit/no-credit only.Course | ARCH 504
Architectural Integration Studio III
The second of a two-quarter sequence structured for the development of integrative design skills. Studio problems explore the relationship between building, the public realm and place-making in an urban context and develop a building design as part of larger urban systems related to energy, ecology and mobility. The winter studio work is closely coordinated with parallel Design Technology, Site Ecology and Materials and Assemblies classes. Prerequisite: ARCH 503 Credit/no-credit only.Course | ARCH 413
Architectural Photography Projects
Students develop in-depth photo essays relating to architecture, the urban movement, or landscape design. Lectures, seminar, and discussion.Course | ARCH 494
Architectural Studies Abroad – Culture
Studies of language, art, food, music, and other activities that influence architectural and urban form in contexts outside the United States.Course | ARCH 496
Architectural Studies Abroad – Urban Fieldwork
Analysis and interpretation of urban form and architectural contexts through direct observation in locations outside the United States.Degree Program
Architecture / Architectural Design (BA, CM dual degree, MArch, dual MArch-MLA, MS, Minor)
The Department of Architecture advances the discipline and practice of architecture by: Educating architects who are responsive and responsible to society, culture and the environment. Advancing architectural knowledge through research, scholarship, and critical practice. Using this knowledge to benefit local, regional, national and global communities. We value excellence in research and teaching, the traditions of…
Visit program websiteCourse | ART H 493 / ARCH 459
Architecture Since 1945
Theories and forms in architecture from the end of World War II to present. Includes new wave Japanese architects, recent Native American developments, and non-Western as well as Western trends.News | March 29, 2021
Architecture students envision a greater Gould Hall
Back in the days of disco, Architecture Professor Daniel Streissguth, ’48, was asked to lead the design for a new home for the then College of Architecture and Urban Planning. His brief was to lead the team to create “useful, well-balanced architecture” with offices, classrooms, studios, a library and space for the design disciplines to…
News | September 13, 2022
Benjamin F. McAdoo’s Lasting Legacy as an Architect and Activist
Enid McAdoo was only 6 when her family of five moved from the apartment above her dad’s Capitol Hill office to a brand-new custom home in Bothell. It was an impressionable age, an influential era and an exceptional place, and so her kaleidoscope of early memories reflects the still-vivid images of childhood. Enid is the…
News | August 3, 2020
Black pastors and activists want Central District land as reparations
In the midst of ongoing protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, Black communities in the Seattle area have begun a push for bigger, more long-term actions toward overcoming the poverty created by decades of racist policies. “We need reparations for our Black and brown communities,” said Pastor Angela Ying of Bethany…
Scholar
Boris Srdar
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Brian McLaren
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Bring back corner stores to create a connected, equitable city
Originally written by Sam Kraft, principal of D3 Architects and instructor of architecture at the University of Washington. I used to live in Ravenna in a fourplex that looked like a large single-family house. I could walk to what was then Boulevard Grocery and buy lunch. In this small one-story gabled market, originally a garage…
News | January 13, 2021
Building knowledge: The architect and the builder with Professor Ann Huppert
Throughout history, we’ve seen shifts in how people communicate regarding design. The question of how communication happens between architect and builder is as fundamental today as it was hundreds of years ago. While the dynamics of these communication processes are nuanced, our understanding of them has been colored by a narrative of the past. One…
Degree Program
Built Environment (PhD)
Three fundamental areas of specialization in built environment knowledge and practice are offered within the BE Built Environment Doctoral Program: 1) sustainable systems and prototypes; 2) technology and project design/delivery; 3) history, theory, and representation studies. Each student will select one of these areas, within which she or he will take their advanced and specialized…
Visit program websiteNews | April 21, 2023
Bullitt Center Generated Net Positive Energy over First Decade
In its first ten years, the Bullitt Center has generated nearly 30% more energy from solar panels on its roof than it has used, which is enough excess to power 41 homes in Seattle for a year. Since opening on Earth Day 2013, it has shown indisputably that net-positive energy buildings are possible anywhere. In…
News | February 13, 2021
Carbon Leadership Forum among finalists selected for $10 million 2030 Climate Challenge
On February 9th, Lever for Change announced that the College of Built Environment’s Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) and four other finalist teams will advance to the next stage of the 2030 Climate Challenge, a $10 million award launched last year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by 2030. The Challenge, sponsored by an anonymous donor, will…
News | April 11, 2017
Challenging the whiteness of American architecture, in the 1960s and today
“This book tells the story of how I got a free Ivy League education.” That’s the arresting opening sentence of Sharon Egretta Sutton‘s “When Ivory Towers Were Black,” an unusual hybrid of memoir, institutional history and broadside against the entrenched whiteness of the architecture profession in this country. The institution in question is Columbia University…
Scholar
Christopher Meek
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 16, 2020
Climate Debate Over Washington State Decarbonization
On March 11, KUOW’s That’s Debatable highlighted a goal, based on the state’s own policies and recommendations — “Washington State Can Decarbonize in a Decade” — and featured Schwartz, Simonen, and local youth activists Julia Barnett and Sarah Starman. The event was broadcasted live from the KUOW studios at 7 p.m. The event was originally…
News | August 4, 2022
College of Built Environments students help historically Black churches survive gentrification
Rev. George Davenport Jr. had a vision of using real estate to sustain his church community in its historically Black Central District neighborhood. But while the streets around the church gentrified, he struggled through the complex landscape of zoning laws, building codes and speculative funding options. Then he stumbled upon the Nehemiah Initiative and the…
News | May 18, 2022
College of Built Environments students help historically Black churches survive gentrification.
Rev. George Davenport Jr. had a vision of using real estate to sustain his church community in its historically Black Central District neighborhood. But while the streets around the church gentrified, he struggled through the complex landscape of zoning laws, building codes and speculative funding options. Then he stumbled upon the Nehemiah Initiative and the…
News | June 8, 2022
College of Built Environments’ unique Inspire Fund aims to foster research momentum in underfunded pursuits college-wide. And it’s working.
“For a small college, CBE has a broad range of research paradigms, from history and arts, to social science and engineering.” — Carrie Sturts Dossick, Associate Dean of Research Upon taking on the role of Associate Dean of Research, Carrie Sturts Dossick, professor in the Department of Construction Management, undertook listening sessions to learn about…
News | January 23, 2020
Considering wood as a sustainable building material
Architects, builders, and sustainability advocates are all abuzz over a new building material they say could substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the building sector, slash the waste, pollution, and costs associated with construction, and create a more physically, psychologically, and aesthetically healthy built environment. The material is known as, uh, wood. Recently, UW…
News | April 28, 2020
Construction causes major pollution. Here’s how we can build better.
Buildings of the future will be grown on-site, says Wil Srubar, an assistant professor of architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder who also runs the Living Materials Laboratory. They’ll be made from hemp, or algae or specially engineered wood — or bacteria that can photosynthesize, like the cyanobacteria mortar he and his research…
Scholar
David Miller
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David Strauss
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Dean Cheng at AIA ’22
The Soul Children of Chicago, an acclaimed youth choir, delivered an energetic start to Day 2 of A’22. The group performed four songs to warm up the crowd for the impending keynote panel conversation. Moderated by Lee Bey, a Chicago-based photographer, author, lecturer, and architecture critic, the conversation featured renowned architects Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA, Renée…
Scholar
Dean Heerwagen
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 31, 2019
Designing for resilience
Seattle is one of the fastest growing cities in the country– a hub of innovation with a thriving economy. Yet this rapid growth challenges the capacity of the city to adapt without damaging its current communities. Students from The University of Washington’s College of Built Environments responded to these and other challenges through the Winter…
Course | ARCH 536
Designing with Living Systems
Investigates an integrated approach to urban agriculture and building systems; looks at cyclical ecosystems intrinsically interconnected with buildings, urban infrastructure, and the constructed environment; establishes a thorough understanding of these productive, living systems, which are indispensable for architects and landscape architects in their pursuit of more sustainable design practices.Scholar
Donald King
Visit scholar websiteNews | April 8, 2024
Earthquake showed Taiwan was well prepared for a big one — more so than parts of U.S.
Originally reported by Evan Bush for NBC News. The powerful earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday shook an island that was well prepared for a seismic catastrophe — likely more so than some regions of the U.S., several experts said. Nine people have been reported dead, though Taiwanese officials said the death toll could rise in…
Scholar
Elizabeth Golden
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 21, 2021
Five months and $100,000 later, Seattle City Council asks: Where are the street sinks?
Last November, the Seattle City Council earmarked $100,000 intended to quickly set up dozens of new hand-washing facilities around the city — a resource to meet the desperate needs of more than 3,700 unsheltered people in Seattle after the pandemic closed access to running water at businesses and other public spaces. Five months later, as shelters…
Scholar
Galen Minah
Visit scholar websiteCourse | ARCH 466, GWSS 466
Gender and Architecture
Examines gender in the experience, practice, and theory of architecture and urban space with a focus on modern typologies: skyscraper, home, convent, bachelor pad, street, and closet. Draws from architectural and art history, social studies, design practice and theory, comparative literature, film studies, and queer theory.News | September 27, 2022
Green Buildings Get a Boost in WA, but Policy and Demand Still Lag
Two decades ago, Washington became a foothold for a global movement to decarbonize buildings. But since then momentum has sputtered. Embodied carbon is still an emerging field. Since the U.S. Department of Ecology began collecting and cataloguing data on building energy use, carbon emissions have slowly but surely become a bigger part of the equation….
News | March 19, 2021
Green construction can play an active role as climate action accelerates
The following op ed was penned by Anthony Hickling, Managing Director of University of Washington‘s Carbon Leadership Forum. When President Joe Biden re-signed the Paris Accord and introduced the largest clean-energy and climate-justice plan the country has ever seen, he launched a significant opportunity to fight climate change. Buildings can be part of the…
Scholar
Gundula Proksch
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 17, 2016
HALA Studio Publishes Research and Proposals About Housing in Wallingford
Seattle’s recent transformations have meant big changes throughout the city. In Autumn Quarter of 2015, The HALA Studio explored how to productively engage with Seattle’s single family zoning and neighborhood development in the Wallingford neighborhood. Led by University of Washington instructor, Rick Mohler, students explored “an expansion of housing types, ownership models, and community engagement.”…
News | April 22, 2024
Has the US finally figured out how to do high-speed rail?
Written by Jeremy Hsu for NewScientist. Construction began today on the first true high-speed rail line in the US, which will connect Los Angeles suburbanites to the bright lights of Las Vegas, Nevada. Not only should the project enable people in the US to finally experience European and Asian standards of speedy passenger trains, it…
Scholar
Heather Burpee
Visit scholar websiteCourse | ARCH 452
History of Architecture in Seattle and Environs
Historical development of architectural in Seattle and surrounding areas from the nineteenth century to the present, also touching on issues of urban design and historic preservation.News | December 7, 2022
Homelessness Research Initiative convenes homelessness scholars from across the UW
Last Tuesday, faculty, staff, and students from across the University of Washington met in the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health for a convening of the Homelessness Research Initiative. Led by faculty co-chairs Rachel Fyall, associate professor in the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, and Gregg Colburn, assistant professor in the College of…
News | March 8, 2017
Honoring Women Collaborators at Urban@UW
In honor of International Women’s Day, we are highlighting just some of UW’s brilliant female professors, scholars, and and change-makers with whom Urban@UW is proud to collaborate. Click on their names to explore their work. Leadership: Thaisa Way, Executive Director, Urban@UW; Department of Landscape Architecture Executive Committee: Margaret O’Mara, Department of History Susan P….
News | July 29, 2024
How Tiny Homes Could Help Solve America’s Homelessness Crisis
Reported by Giulia Carbonaro for Newsweek Shelter villages of tiny homes have popped up across the U.S. in recent years, as the small structures have started to be seen by many advocates as a promising solution to solve homelessness. Perhaps unsurprisingly at a time when mortgage rates are still hovering around the 7-percent mark and…
News | April 12, 2024
How Washington’s local governments have moved to allow for denser housing
Originally reported by Laurel Demkovich in the Washington State Standard. Washington lawmakers in recent years have passed laws to require local governments to allow for more housing density with duplexes, triplexes or attached dwelling units. But before lawmakers required these changes, they looked at ways to incentivize local governments to do this on their own….
News | May 8, 2018
In a concrete jungle, one architect pushes for plywood for giants
Timber is coming back in the Northwest. I don’t mean old growth forests. Those have been holding steady for a couple of decades.I mean architecture. Cross-laminated timber, or CLT, is a material a true modernist can love — and not just for furniture and finishes. It’s very strong, and too beautiful to hide inside walls….
News | September 21, 2021
Interdisciplinary course helps empower the local community
Professors in the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments have created an interdisciplinary, graduate-level course, the McKinley Futures Nehemiah Studio, that combines architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, and real estate principles into a groundbreaking opportunity for the local African American community as well as the students who participate in it. The studio…
News | May 13, 2024
Is Seattle a walkable city? Pedestrian death rates show otherwise
Written by Jadenne Radoc Cabahug for Crosscut. Washington was the first state to commit to zero traffic fatalities. But 24 years later, deaths are at an all-time high and officials are reevaluating. Twenty-four years after Washington became the first state to commit to decreasing pedestrian traffic deaths to zero, the numbers continue to move in…
Scholar
Jeffrey Karl Ochsner
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Jennifer Dee
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Jerry V. Finrow
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Jim Nicholls
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Julia Nagele
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Julie M. Johnson
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Kate Simonen
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Kathryn Rogers Merlino
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Keith Harris
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Ken Tadashi Oshima
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Kimo Griggs
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 19, 2017
Lake Union building earns awards for energy savings
Henbart LLC announced recently that a year-long study led by the University of Washington’s Integrated Design Lab confirmed that upgrading to View® Dynamic Glass technology in the Lake Union Building significantly saved energy and improved the tenant experience. The report verified annual energy savings of 17.7 percent or 351,604 kWh – roughly $28,000 a year…
News | August 16, 2021
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy honors UW College of Built Environments faculty, Nehemiah Studio for curriculum on mitigating gentrification
The Nehemiah Studio, a UW class on mitigating gentrification in Seattle’s Central District designed by Rachel Berney, Donald King and Al Levine with support from College of Built Environments Dean Renée Cheng, has been honored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. The course supports joint efforts by the college and the Nehemiah Initiative Seattle to train graduate students to help mitigate displacement in…
Scholar
Louisa Iarocci
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Manish Chalana
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Marty Curry
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Mehlika Inanici
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Meredith Clausen
Visit scholar websiteNews | January 31, 2016
Monthly Wrap up January 2016
It’s been a great start to 2016. UW Alumni association and History Department put together a woderful history lecture series: Excavating Seattle’s histories: Peoples, politics, and place check out details and videos here> The CBE also hosted a number of great speakers and events including SUSTAINING JAPAN: 3.11 FIVE YEARS ON lecture and panel discussion…
Degree Program
MS Architecture in Design Technology
The Master of Science in Architecture / Design Technology program provides the opportunity for architects, engineers, and other qualified individuals to pursue advance research on topics that include design computing, building performance simulation, sustainable systems and design, high-performance buildings, materials and fabrication, structural analysis, life cycle analysis, food-water-energy nexus, and other related topics.
Visit program websiteDegree Program
MS Architecture in History and Theory
The MS in Architecture stream in History and Theory provides the opportunity for architects, recent architecture graduates and other qualified individuals to pursue advanced research on the history and theory of architecture applying a variety of historical and critical lenses. Although general faculty interests are in nineteenth and twentieth century architecture, the program is broadly…
Visit program websiteNews | August 25, 2016
NEH Awards $179,000 for Urban-Nature Summer Institute at UW
The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded nearly $180,000 for a new summer institute on the urban environment at the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington. The institute, City/Nature: Urban Environmental Humanities, examines how Western cultures have historically viewed city and nature as separate—and how a more integrative understanding can…
News | November 21, 2019
New apps help builders reduce carbon footprint
Two new widgets out of the Pacific Northwest aim to address what their developers say is a pressing need to begin using less carbon-intensive building materials. They work like meal-tracking apps, only for new construction. Input: Materials used in the building. Output: The amount of carbon dioxide used to produce the materials, called embodied carbon….
News | June 5, 2019
New documentary examines the impact of gentrification in Seattle
If you’ve been in our area for any length of time, you can probably recognize the changes occurring not only in downtown Seattle but across Western Washington. Many feel that gentrification of neighborhoods is stifling cultural communities and their history. On the Brink, a new documentary produced by University of Washington’s Foster School of Business…
News | May 12, 2016
New Project to Shine Light on Dark Places Around UW campus
Where do you walk on campus after dark, and which areas could benefit from better lighting? An interdisciplinary team of students, faculty and staff together with lighting design experts is asking the UW community those questions as part of a new plan to improve the efficiency and sustainability of outdoor lighting around the Seattle campus….
Scholar
Nicole Huber
Visit scholar websiteNews | January 19, 2024
Northwest innovators chase the dream of greener concrete
From The Seattle Times By Mike Lindblom PULLMAN — From a onetime speakeasy in North Seattle to a modern lab in the Palouse, inventors are testing recipes that make concrete less lethal to Earth’s climate. Most people understand that the world’s 1.4 billion fossil-fueled cars and trucks spew carbon dioxide, trapping heat in the atmosphere….
Course | ARCH 458, ART H 494, JSIS A 433
Paris: Architecture and Urbanism
Spans the architectural history of Paris, from its Gallic, pre-Roman origins in the second century BCE through the work of twenty-first century architects. Focuses on changing patterns of the physical fabric of the city and its buildings, as seen within the context of the broader political, social, economic, and cultural history.News | August 20, 2024
Permeable pavement could help cities be more resilient to flooding
Reported by Stéphane Blais for La Presse Canadienne and the Toronto Sun. Pilot projects are being developed across Quebec to make parking lots, bike paths or portions of streets more resilient to climate change. To make cities more resilient to flooding caused by climate change, researchers are developing more permeable pavements to allow water to…
Scholar
Peter Cohan
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 5, 2020
Population Health Initiative announces award of 21 COVID-19 rapid response grants
The University of Washington Population Health Initiative announced the award of approximately $350,000 in COVID-19 rapid response grants to 21 different faculty-led teams. These teams are composed of individuals representing 10 different schools and colleges. Funding was partially matched by additional school, college and departmental funds, bringing the total value of these awards to roughly $820,000. “A…
News | September 17, 2020
Project Highlight: Seattle Street Sink
For many living unsheltered, access to a place to wash up is hard to come by. During the pandemic, it is more important than ever to have accessible hygiene stations. The Real Change Advocacy Department partnered with University of Washington College of Built Environments faculty to design and install environmentally friendly “street sinks”. On May…
News | November 27, 2023
RAC projects learning together, building momentum
Co-creation sessions with Duwamish Valley community members and stakeholders that focused on identifying priorities, values, and aspirations for community open space in their neighborhoods. (Credit: Maron Bernardino) After their launch in spring of this year, the two inaugural projects of the Research to Action Collaboratory have been making progress in key ways. Supported by Urban@UW,…
Scholar
Rebecca Barnes
Visit scholar websiteNews | September 16, 2024
Register Today for Urban@UW’s presentation at Climate Week NYC
Urban@UW is heading to the big apple for Climate Week NYC, the largest international conference of business leaders, political change makers, scientists, and civil society representatives working for climate action. Rachel Berney, Faculty Director, and Kate Landis, Program Manager, will present “Call Me, Maybe? University-Community Partnerships for a Greener Tomorrow” on Monday, 9/23, from 5-7PM….
Scholar
Renée Cheng
Visit scholar websiteNews | October 1, 2020
Renée Cheng: Change Agency, Value Change
Collisions are violent. The greater the mass or velocity of objects, the greater the energy released. The crises of the pandemic, economic crash, and social justice outcries are massive and still accelerating. In the wake of their collision, they will reveal new questions for our profession—and newfound energy to address them. Previously, architects pondering whether…
Scholar
Rick Mohler
Visit scholar websiteNews | August 20, 2020
Rick Mohler receives Architect magazine 2020 R+D award for housing access prototype ‘ADUniverse’
Rick Mohler, UW associate professor of architecture, has won a 2020 R+D Award from Architect magazine for a project designed with Seattle city planner Nick Welch to give local homeowners the information they need to plan and build accessory dwelling units on their property. The two led a team at the UW Data Science for Social Good Program in creating a prototype…
Scholar
Rob Hutchison
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Rob Peña
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 29, 2021
Seattle Black faith leaders urge Mayor Durkan not to sign amended density bonus bill
Update: Council Bill 120081 was signed into law on by Mayor Durkan on July 9, 2021. Critics are still hoping that the amended law can be repealed. Critics are demanding a return to the 80% AMI threshold for affordable housing developed on land owned by religious institutions. It was a long-awaited day, one that was supposed to mark…
News | May 7, 2024
Seattle-area housing market picks up, but buyers feel the squeeze
Written by Heidi Grover for The Seattle Times The Seattle area’s spring housing market continued to heat up in April, with more activity and higher home prices across the region, particularly in King County. The number of new listings and home sales climbed throughout the Puget Sound region in April, a typical seasonal uptick. But…
Course | ARCH 560
Seminar on Architectural Theories
Recent developments in architectural theory, urban design theory, criticism, and the methodology of criticism.Scholar
Sharon E. Sutton
Visit scholar websiteNews | April 22, 2024
Skip the Traffic: Commuters Turn to Ferries to Get Around
Written by Linda Baker for The New York Times. As remote work reshapes the way people live and travel around cities, Americans are taking to the waterways not only as part of their commute but also as part of their daily lives. Some coastal cities are seeing ferry ridership bounce back after a decline during…
News | July 19, 2018
Sound Transit rail stations could help solve our housing crisis
All of Sound Transit’s LINK light-rail stations offer opportunities to create vibrant, walkable mixed-use communities with significant amounts of new housing and reduced dependence on automobiles. We need a bold, regional approach to housing affordability, says Rick Mohler, Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, and Al Levine, Associate Faculty at the Department of Urban Design…
Course | ARCH 445
South Asian Architecture I
Advanced introduction to precolonial architecture and urbanism of South Asia. Using methodologies of culture studies, examines select Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic case studies on a comparative genealogy.Course | ARCH 446
South Asian Architecture II
Advanced introduction to colonial and postcolonial architecture and urbanism of South Asia. Using methodologies of culture studies, covers 1800 to present, emphasizing the years since India's independence in 1947.Scholar
Steve Badanes
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 16, 2024
Student Housing Has a New Mantra: Bigger Is Better
Written by Kevin Williams for The New York Times Off-campus complexes are getting larger, with some being home to more than 1,500 students, and being built on prime parcels of land as close to campus as possible. When the Standard, an off-campus student housing complex, opened in the fall in Bloomington, Ind., welcoming its first…
News | September 12, 2018
Summer Design/Build Studio 2018
Food and the ability to prepare it are fundamental components of life. Places of food preparation–whether a home kitchen or a fire pit–serve not only their most explicit functions but also act as cultural gathering spaces for families and communities. Food preparation poses particularly unique challenges in Seattle’s homeless communities for individuals, families and larger…
News | May 29, 2019
Team of UW seniors wins ‘Re-imagining Red Square’ design competition
A team of UW Architecture and Landscape Architecture seniors has won this year’s Re-Imagining Red Square competition. The designers of the “The Loop” originally were looking at how to preserve Red Square and do some intervention underneath in the garage. Then, one of the architects helping critique the designs in the contest gave the team advice…
Scholar
Thaisa Way
Visit scholar websiteNews | October 21, 2020
That sink in the alley is supposed to be there
A sink is nestled in the University District alley between 15th Avenue Northeast and The Ave. It’s bolted to a trough of plants. It appeared in May. Another sink just like it is up The Ave on 47th Avenue Northeast. One was also placed at the University Heights community center along 50th Avenue Northeast. The…
News | December 16, 2019
The Central District has lost over a dozen of its Black churches. The rest may still be saved
There’s little doubt that The Nehemiah Initiative faces an immense challenge combating the displacement of African Americans from central Seattle. When you drive through the Central District today, you see gentrification in its stark reality. New market-rate buildings line the intersections of 23rd Avenue and East Union Street, as well as 23rd and South Jackson…
News | June 11, 2021
The holy grail for sustainability
Each year on Earth Day, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment presents the COTE Top Ten Awards, the industry’s best-known award program for sustainable design excellence. Now in its 25th year, this distinction is granted to projects across the nation — ranging from learning centers and university buildings to houses of…
News | January 9, 2020
This is what Seattle’s new neighborhood could look like
Architecture and planning students love to wrestle with big ideas. And while their end-of-the-quarter presentations sometimes include out-of-the-box ideas, they usually don’t have the attention of public officials. But this time was different. Students with the University of Washington Built Environments Studio, taught by Rick Mohler (Architecture) and David Blum (Urban Design and Planning) in…
Scholar
Tomás Méndez Echenagucia
Visit scholar websiteNews | April 24, 2017
Toward greener construction: UW professor collab sets markers for carbon across life of buildings
A University of Washington-led research group has taken an important step toward measuring — and ultimately reducing — the global carbon footprint of building construction and long-term maintenance. The Carbon Leadership Forum is a collaborative effort among academics and industry professionals based in the UW’s College of Built Environments that studies reducing carbon emissions over…
News | March 31, 2016
Towards a Speculative Politics for African Cities with Edgar Pieterse – 4/12
Join us April 12 at Kane Hall (Room 120) for Visiting Scholar Edgar Pieterse, Please Register for this Public Event Towards a Speculative Politics for African Cities The available frames to understand and reimagine contemporary urban politics in the African context come down two divergent pathways: 1) build the institutional infrastructure to enact the deliberative…
News | February 16, 2024
Transit workers fight drugs on buses and trains
Written by Joseph Gallivan for Axios Oregon Transit companies are pushing to make it a Class A misdemeanor to use drugs on buses and trains in Oregon. TriMet, the Oregon Transit Association, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 testified yesterday to support amending Senate Bill 1553. The amendment would add the use of illicit drugs…
Course | ART H 491 / ARCH 457
Twentieth-Century Architecture
Architecture in the twentieth century, mainly in Europe and the United States. Traces roots of Modernism in Europe in the 1920s, its demise (largely in the United States) in the 1960s, and recent trends such as Post-Modernism and Deconstructivism.Scholar
Tyler Sprague
Visit scholar websiteNews | January 9, 2024
Univ. of Washington set to break ground on 69-acre redevelopment to create Seattle innovation hub
The University of Washington this year expects to break ground on a new building that will anchor an ambitious, innovation-focused redevelopment called Portage Bay Crossing. The project will cover 69 acres of the southwest portion of the Seattle campus, revitalizing and unifying an area of buildings that officials called old and underutilized. UW leaders recently…
Course | ARCH 590
Urban and Preservation Issues in Design
Introduction to recent theory and practice in the fields of urban design and historic preservation primarily in North American urban contexts, including examples of recent projects presented by practicing professionals.Course | ARCH 561
Urban Design Theory
Study of development of nineteenth- and twentieth-century urban design theories and parallel developments in architecture and urban planning. Theoretical premises are related to current practices of urban design in various sociopolitical contexts, European as well as American. Evolutionary nature of theory emphasizedNews | May 5, 2016
Urban Planning and PhD Program Addresses ‘The Future City’ (5/5)
What kinds of cities shall we live in, and how can urban planners help make them a reality? What possible future scenarios lie ahead, and how will big data and new technologies affect science and decision-making in urban design? The University of Washington Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning’s annual symposium…
News | October 1, 2019
Urban Scholar Highlight: Rachel Berney
Rachel Berney is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture, an Urban@UW Fellow, and author of Learning from Bogotá: Pedagogical Urbanism and the Reshaping of Public Space. Her primary interests include community sustainable design, public space, and international development in the Americas, as well as…
News | April 17, 2023
Urban@UW Announces the 2023 Research to Action Collaboratory Inaugural Cohort
Urban@UW is excited to announce the project teams selected for the inaugural cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC). Throughout the next 18 months, Urban@UW will work with these teams and provide seed funds, dedicated time to build team cohesion and collaboration skills, and foster opportunities for peer support and shared resources and learning….
News | September 5, 2024
Urban@UW Presenting at New York Climate Week
Urban@UW Director Rachel Berney and Program Manager Kate Landis will present on the Research-to Action Collaboratory later this month at New York Climate Week, as part of the New York Climate Exchange. “We are thrilled to be one of the very few university centers invited to participate in New York Climate Week. This well- publicized…
News | October 2, 2024
Urban@UW Presents at Climate Week NYC
Last week Urban@UW’s Director Rachel Berney and Program Manager Kate Landis presented on the Research to Action Collaboratory at Climate Week NYC, as a guest of the New York Climate Exchange. Leaders from all sectors met on Governors Island, just south of Manhattan, to discuss climate adaptations, potential partnerships, and new technology in carbon reduction….
News | March 16, 2020
UW Architectural Historian Publishes Work about Kingdome Designer Jack Christiansen
Tyler Sprague is an assistant professor of architecture who studies and teaches structural design and architectural history. A former structural engineer himself, Sprague is the author of “Sculpture on a Grand Scale: Jack Christiansen’s Thin Shell Modernism.” The book, published in 2019 by University of Washington press, is a study of the life and work of…
News | June 3, 2022
UW Ph.D. students hold symposium on the role of technology in urban environments into the future
Originally written by Mingming Cai, Ana Costa, Kristin Potterton & Salman Rashdi. On May 20th, students in University of Washington’s Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Urban Design and Planning and Ph.D. Program in the Built Environment hosted the virtual 2022 annual research symposium. Based on the theme, Pathways toward the future: Assessing the digital dimensions of…
News | November 1, 2018
Valuing older buildings: Architecture professor’s book argues for reuse rather than wrecking ball
In her new book, Kathryn Rogers Merlino, University of Washington associate professor in the department of Architecture in the College of Built Environments, argues for the environmental benefit of reusing buildings rather than tearing them down and building anew. “I was trained as both an architect and architectural historian,” Merlino says, “and have always been drawn…
Scholar
Vikram Prakash
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 10, 2018
Vikram Prakash’s ‘ArchitectureTalk’ podcast explores topics ‘at the edge of the known’
Vikram Prakash says his weekly “ArchitectureTalk” podcast got its start, as many things do, from a student’s idea. Prakash is a professor of architecture in the University of Washington College of Built Environments. An architect himself, he is also an author, a theorist and an architectural historian. He said he has always felt “energized” by discussions in…
News | August 19, 2017
Why Architects should care about public health
Andrew Dannenberg, an Affiliate Professor at the School of Public Health and the College of Built Environments, writes about the importance of architects recognizing human health: while architects have long recognized the importance of human health —including physical, mental, and social well-being — as part of their mission, implementation sometimes reflects a spirit of compliance…
News | August 2, 2024
Wildfire Smoke Exposure Linked With Higher Dementia Risk
Reported by Dennis Thompson for HealthDay THURSDAY, Aug. 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) — The wildfires thats are increasing with climate change could harm the future brain health of humanity, a new study suggests. Wildfire smoke appears to increase people’s risk of a dementia diagnosis even more than other types of air pollution, researchers reported this…
News | September 16, 2021
World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasaki faced discrimination, criticism and controversy, but his work elevated design — and the Seattle skyline
Minoru Yamasaki appeared on the cover of Time magazine on Jan. 18, 1963, and in the days before they were given reality TV shows, that was about as famous as architects could get. The illustration behind Yamasaki’s face featured a gleaming vision of Seattle’s Pacific Science Center, which he had recently designed, to mostly ecstatic…