Fall lecture series to feature leading designers, educators

Renowned designers and educators will present a variety of past and present projects during the fall 2018 [Department of Architecture] (http://dept.arch.tamu.edu/) Lecture Series at Texas A&M.

The public lectures are scheduled at 5:45 p.m. on dates noted below in [Preston Geren Auditorium] (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Preston+Geren+Auditorium/@30.619325,-96.3405223,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x864683913443e5d1:0xe98d1db511d30545!8m2!3d30.619325!4d-96.3383336) , located in Building B of the Langford Architecture Center on the Texas A&M campus.

Sept. 10 | Bill Zahner

Entrepreneur, innovator

William Zahner III, whose revolutionary, patented techniques for erecting avant-garde metal structures and artistic installations have influenced design thinking and metal fabrication procedures throughout the world, kicked off the lecture series Sept. 10.

An innovative entrepreneur and visionary thinker, he is the president and CEO of [Zahner] (https://www.azahner.com/) , an internationally known metal fabricating company that has built iconic structures in numerous major cities.

Since becoming head of the family-owned business in 1989, Zahner has developed advanced methods to build metal structures and building elements whose construction would be impossible with traditional building practices.

Oct. 1 | Clark Thenhaus

Architect, educator

Clark Thenhaus heads the design of award-winning residential, commercial, landscape and interior design projects as the founding director of Oakland, California-based [Endemic Architecture] (https://endemicarchitecture.com/) .

“Across all of my projects is an ambition to sync aesthetics with politics, technology with materiality, history with contemporary culture, or form with context,” said Thenhaus, who is also an assistant professor of architecture at California College of the Arts. “This allows me to think about relationships between form-making and context in different ways. Form doesn’t always need to be contingent on context. Sometimes form can precede context and at times form can actually reauthor it.”

Thenhaus’ awards and honors include the 2015 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects & Designers, and the 2017 Best Public Landscape Award from The Architect’s Newspaper.

Oct. 10 | Geoffrey von Oeyen

Architect, educator

[Geoffrey von Oeyen] (http://www.geoffreyvonoeyen.com/) heads residential, commercial and institutional projects in North America and Asia as principal of [ ] (http://www.geoffreyvonoeyen.com/about/) [Geoffrey von Oeyen Design] (http://www.geoffreyvonoeyen.com/) and principal/partner of von Oeyen Architects in Los Angeles, and leads architectural design studios as an assistant professor of practice at the University of Southern California School of Architecture.

In 2014, von Oeyen’s design work was awarded an Architectural League Prize from the [Architectural League of New York] (http://archleague.org/) . The prize recognizes exemplary and provocative work by young practitioners and provides a public forum for the exchange of their ideas.

As a designer at the famed architecture firm Gehry Partners, LLP from 2005 to 2011, von Oeyen played key roles in the design of several geometrically and technically complex, large-scale, culturally significant international projects, including the [Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la creation ] (http://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/) art museum in Paris, and the [UTS Business School] (https://www.dezeen.com/2015/02/03/frank-gehry-paper-bag-dr-chau-chak-wing-uts-business-school-sydney-opens/) in Sydney, Australia.

Oct. 22 | Ersela Kripa

Architect, educator

Ersela Kripa is a founding partner of [AGENCY] (https://agencyarchitecture.com/) , a collaborative, interdisciplinary practice that engages contemporary culture through architecture, urbanism, and advocacy.

She is also an assistant professor of architecture at Texas Tech University at El Paso, where she focuses on binational relations’ effects on infrastructure, public space and migration.

Kripa seeks to inform new ways of living by finding productive and unexpected anomalies in urban contexts, and capitalizes on their potential in tactical design interventions.

In her research, Kripa seeks to increase the reach of local practices in informal environments, identify opportunities for intervention, and proposes agile, minimal inventions she calls “hackable infrastructures”. She tests her ideas with direct action by installing prototypes in urban environments, and gauges their effectiveness to refine the relationships between design technologies, resources, and communities.

Her work and scholarship have earned numerous honors, including the [2018 Emerging Voices] (https://archleague.org/competition/emerging-voices-2018/) award from The Architectural League of New York, the in [2010 Rome Prize in Architecture] (https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/american-academy-in-rome_o) from the American Academy in Rome, and residency fellowships at the [MacDowell Colony] (https://www.macdowellcolony.org/) in 2009 and 2013.

Nov. 5 | Shima Mohajeri

Educator, author

Shima Mohajeri , a lecturer at the University of Washington, researches Iran’s twentieth-century urbanism and architecture history and writes about methods historians use to study architecture theory and history.

In her book, “ [Architectures of Transversality: Paul Klee, Louis Kahn, and the Persian Imaginary] (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/architectures-of-transversality-shima-mohajeri/1128762502/2660171148031?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Core+Catch-All,+Low_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP212586&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj8v0gb_C3QIVD9bACh09dQChEAYYASABEgIeXfD_BwE) ,” Mohajeri effectively synthesizes’ philosophers’ treatises to address modern Iran’s failure to distinguish between building a modern nation and Westernization, said Dorothea Olkowski, professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado.

Mohajeri's research has been supported by the Architectural League of New York, the Texas Architectural Foundation, and the Texas A&M Glasscock Center for Humanities Research. Her articles have appeared in various publications, including the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

A 2013 [Ph.D. Architecture] (http://dept.arch.tamu.edu/graduate/phd/) graduate of Texas A&M, Mohajeri is exploring unbuilt architectural proposals in 1960s Iran in a collaborative exhibition/publication [project] (http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/5457-unbuilt-iran-modernism-s-counterproposals) supported by a [Graham Foundation] (http://www.grahamfoundation.org) grant.

Nov. 12 | Ellie Abrons

Architect, educator

Ellie Abrons is a principal at [T+E+A+M] (http://tpluseplusaplusm.us/) , an Ann Arbor, Michigan architecture firm and an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Michigan’s [Taubman College] (http://taubmancollege.umich.edu/faculty/directory/ellie-abrons) .

She helped lead her firm’s award-winning [reinterpretation] (https://archinect.com/news/article/149998868/the-adrian-smith-prize-for-the-2017-ragdale-ring-goes-to-living-picture-by-t-e-a-m) of the Ragdale Ring, an renowned garden theater in Illinois, that featured digital fabrications of the ring’s historical elements nestled among its grounds.

Abrons, who led EADO, a design practice, from 2010 to 2015, has earned several fellowships, including a residency at the [Akademie Schloss Solitude] (http://www.akademie-solitude.de/en/) in Stuttgart, Germany.

Her work has been exhibited at the 2012 and 2016 Venice Biennales, Storefront for Art and Architecture, A+D Gallery, and the Architectural Association.

Nov. 19 | David Eskenazi

Architect, educator

David Eskenazi heads [D-ESK] (https://www.d-esk.net/) , a creative architectural practice, and teaches design and visual studies at SCI-Arc, a Los Angeles architecture school.

His architectural installations have been exhibited in Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Columbus, Ohio.

A guest lecturer and critic at numerous institutions, Eskenazi’s essays about photography and design have been published in Project, Pidgin , and additional publications.

Richard NIra
rnira@arch.tamu.edu