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Feb 22

CA+P Dean Brenda Scheer Elected Fellow of AICP

Architect and Planner Brenda Scheer Elected Fellow of AICP

Dean of UofU’s college of architecture + planning achieves highest professional honor

Feb. 22, 2012 – The American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) announced today that Brenda Case Scheer, dean of the College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah, has been elected to the College of Fellows of AICP. The designation becomes official during the 2012 Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles on April 12.

Fellows of AICP are honored in recognition of achievements as model planners who have made significant contributions to planning and society. Fellowship is granted to planners who have been members of AICP and have achieved excellence in professional practice, teaching and mentoring, research, public and community service, and leadership.

“It is a very great honor to be selected as a fellow,” says Scheer. “As an academic, the recognition from my profession holds a special value and commits me even more to the mentoring of new professional planners and urban designers.”

“As the leadership of the Utah chapter of the American Planning Association, we are very proud of Brenda and grateful for the positive aura she lends to the planning profession and our state,” says Aric Jensen, director of planning and economic development for Bountiful City, and president of the Utah chapter of APA. “It is no accident that Utah’s emergence as an example of planning innovation corresponds with the growth of the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Utah.”

Scheer has been dean of the college since 2004. During her tenure, the former Graduate School of Architecture has been transformed and is now also home to one of the most well regarded urban planning departments in the United States. Course offerings include interdisciplinary programs in product design, preservation and sustainability. New degrees in the college include a Ph.D. in planning, a master of real estate development (with the School of Business), and a recently accredited graduate degree in city and metropolitan planning. Future projects include renovating and expanding the architecture building on campus into a net-zero energy facility—the first of its size in the United States.

Scheer has prioritized social and civic responsibility, with students and faculty heavily engaged in outreach and service learning programs, as well as new interdisciplinary activities. Faculty have developed new hands-on programs, including a project where students design and build a home for a Navajo family, an urban planning studio that concentrates on helping Hispanic neighborhoods of Salt Lake City, and an innovative honors course that engages interdisciplinary freshmen and sophomores in a think tank with community partners.

Scheer graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Rice University and was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She also continues to practice architecture as a principal in the firm Scheer & Scheer.

Jan 23

bowling 3

CA+P Alumni Alliance hosts third annual alumni bowling event February 10

Will anyone roll a monster 700 series? Maybe not, but surely one or two CA+P alumni can toss a 200+ in single-game play. And for all those working the lanes for a 100 game or less, don’t worry. In addition to awards for “best bowler,” prizes will also be awarded for those who roll with the best “style.”

The CA+P Alumni Alliance cordially invites all alumni to the Third Annual Alumni Bowling Event on Friday, February 10 at 6:30 pm at Classic Bowling in Salt Lake City.  Spouses and significant others are welcome; bowling is not required to attend. Read more

Jan 20

transport

$3.5 million grant will support sustainable transportation research

The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced a $3.5 million grant to a four-university consortium, including the University of Utah (the U), for research and education on sustainable transportation topics. The consortium—called the Oregon-Utah Transportation Research and Education Consortium (OUTREC)—also includes the University of Oregon, Portland State University, and the Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT).

This new, two-year grant to OUTREC builds on prior work done by the three Oregon schools. The addition of the University of Utah to the consortium brings considerable experience and strength to the group’s research capacity, and creates a broad Western regional dimension. Read more

Dec 1

Reid Ewing

Update of influential urban sprawl index funded by National Institutes of Health

Urban sprawl has become the nation’s dominant development pattern, bringing with it a host of attendant problems, including traffic congestion, poor air quality, loss of farmlands, and physical inactivity and obesity. A decade ago, Professor Reid Ewing of the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning – where he is also Director of the Metropolitan Research Center – developed measures of sprawl for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Smart Growth America.

Encompassing 83 metropolitan areas and 950 metropolitan counties, the measures have been widely used to research the high costs of sprawl, including its association with cancer and other health related variables. Because of their great value to health research, the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health is now funding an update of the sprawl measures that will be current up to 2010. Read more

Nov 28

(Photo by Scot Zimmerman)

125 Haus completed…Utah’s most affordable, energy efficient home?

Jörg Rügemer, Assistant Professor of Architecture, has finished building what he hopes is Utah’s most energy-efficient and cost-effective home. The project is a personal research experiment designed to prove that it is possible to build affordable, energy-efficient homes for northern Utah’s tough mountain climate.

The 2,400-square-foot, single-family residence just outside of Park City, Utah has three bedrooms, one studio, 2.5 baths, and a two-car garage. Rügemer, who also serves as co-director of the Integrated Technology in Architecture Center (ITAC), is now monitoring the home to document its energy savings. The results will serve as a model for consumers, architects and builders wishing to construct energy-efficient buildings that are affordable for the typical Utah family. Read more

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