2012-2013 Hearst Lectures

The 2012-2013 Hearst Lecture Series was hosted by Cal Poly's College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) through a generous grant from the Hearst Foundation. The 2012-2013 lecture series brought local, national, and international speakers to present on Architecture and the built environment. The series was co-directed by Assistant Professor Carmen Trudell and Professor Robert Arens.

Heather Roberge, "How Things Take Shape"

Friday, October 12, 4pm-5pm
Business Rotunda, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (03-213)

Heather Roberge is the Director of UCLA's undergraduate program in Architectural Studies and teaches graduate courses in design and digital fabrication. She is the founder and principal of murmur, a practice that focuses on the effective implications of contemporary surfaces with particular interest in formal and material experimentation that engages the senses.

Vincent Martinez

Friday, October 26, 4pm-5pm
Business Rotunda, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (03-213)

Vincent Martinez is the Director of Research for Architecture 2030, whose mission is to rapidly transform the U.S. Building Sector from the major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to a central part of the solution to the climate change, energy consumption, and economic crises. Co-sponsored with the Central Coast Chapter of the AIA.

Allan Wexler and Ellen Wexler

Friday, November 2, 4pm-5pm
Business Rotunda, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (03-213)

Principals of Wexler Studio, Ellen and Allan's research has resulted in objects, buildings and environments that blur the borders between sculpture, landscape, furniture and architecture. Allan is currently an adjunct faculty member at Parsons the New School of Design. Co-sponsored with Vellum.

Victoria Kastner, historian, curator for Hearst Castle

Friday, November 9, 4pm-5pm
Business Rotunda, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (03-213)

As Hearst Castle historian, Victoria Kastner has written and lectured extensively about William Randolph Hearst, his art collection, and the architecture of the Castle. Kastner is the author of Hearst Castle: The Biography of the Country House and most recently Hearst's San Simeon: The Gardens and the Land, both published by Harry N. Abrams. In Collaboration with Cal Poly's Robert E. Kennedy Library.

The CAED, as part of its Hearst Lecture Series, will host Victoria Kastner, historian, curator for Hearst Castle and author of two books: "Hearst Castle: The Biography of a Country House" and
"Hearst's San Simeon: The Gardens and the Land."

A reception will take place on November 9, 2012 at 3pm in the Gallery at the Commons, 2nd Floor
Kennedy Library, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. This reception, hosted by Kennedy Library for Cal Poly architecture students, will help to kick off the Morgan Exhibit.

A Julia Morgan exhibit will take place between November 9, 2012 - January 11, 2013 in Gallery at the Commons, 2nd Floor, Kennedy Library, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In addition to Morgan materials, this exhibit will include a special section of drawings by Cal Poly second-year students.

Shawn Gehle and Li Wen

Friday, November 16, 4pm-5pm
Business Rotunda, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (03-213)

As Design Directors at Gensler Los Angeles, Shawn Gehle and Li Wen have emerged as catalysts for a new generation of discourse and speculation on the future of downtown Los Angeles including projects focused on transportation and building reuse. Directors of numerous Gensler / Cal Poly collaborations, Shawn and Li have led research driven studios with Cal Poly's Department of Architecture including the Winter 2011 Carless LA Professional Studio, Winter 2012 The Evolution of the Office Building Professional Studio and the Fall 2011 Material Research Studio that resulted in the SLO_Gen Communal Table. In addition, they are active practitioners at Gensler establishing the design direction of many of the office and region's most provocative projects, competitions and research initiatives. 

Qingyun Ma | Dean at USC, MADA s.p.a.m.

Friday, January 25, 4pm-5pm
Business Rotunda, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (03-213)

Quinyun Ma is the dean of the USC School of Architecture and founder of MADA s.p.a.m., an award-winning architecture firm based in Shanghai.

MADA’s work has received many honors and has been included in exhibitions at the Venice Biennale and the Pompidou Center. In addition to award-winning projects such as the Longyang Residential Complex (Shanghai) and the Silk Tower (Xian), MADA’s projects include the Quingpu Community Island (Shanghai), the Centennial TV and Radio Center (Xian), and Tianyi City Plaza (Ningpo). Quinyan Ma's honors include a Design Vanguard award from Architectural Record, Phaidon’s Emerging Design Talents designation and a New Trends of Architecture designation by the Euro-Asia Foundation.
Ma earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in architecture from Tsinghua University and a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts. Ma has served as a visiting professor and critic at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University as well as at ETH in Zurich, the Berlage Institute, the Universität Karlsruhe, Berlin Technical University and the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. In China he has taught at Shenzhen University, Tongji University and Nanjing University.

Marcelo Spina | PATTERNS

Friday, February 1, 4pm-5pm
Business Rotunda, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (03-213)

Marcelo Spina is a Design Professor at SCI-Arc and the Coordinator of the newly launched Emerging Systems and Technologies post-graduate program. Along with Georgina Huljich, Spina is the Principal of PATTERNS, a design research architectural practice based in Los Angeles that has gained worldwide recognition for its inventive approach to design and architecture, fusing advanced computation with an extended understanding of form, tectonics and materials. Recent commissions include pavilions for SCI-ARC and MOCA.

The work of PATTERNS has received numerous prizes and awards including the third prize in the Young Architect of the year Award in 2003 and first prizes in the competitions for the new SCI-Arc Cafe and the Vertical Garden at the Schindler House in West Hollywood. In 2011, the firm participated in the Emerging Voices Series of the Architectural League of New York, and was the recipient of the Arch Is__ Award by the AIA Los Angeles Chapter. PATTERN’s work has been exhibited and published worldwide and is part of the permanent collections of SF Moma, the Chicago Art Institute and MAK Museum in Vienna. The firm's first comprehensive book-monograph entitled "Embedded" is forthcoming by AADCU Beijing.

Marcelo Spina holds a professional degree from the National University of Rosario and a Masters in Architecture from Columbia University. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard University, Tulane University, the University of California Berkeley and the Technical University of Innsbruck, Austria. He has previously taught at the National University of Rosario and the Di Tella University in Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Lewis Knight | Senior Urban Designer at Gensler SF

Friday, February 8, 4pm-5pm
Business Rotunda, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (03-213)

Lewis Knight, AILA, leads the planning and urban design practice area at Gensler, a global architecture, design and planning firm.

With his expertise in urban design and the planning of recreational, educational and transportation facilities, Lewis has directed award-winning projects spanning five continents. Prior to joining Gensler in 2008, he was the Director of Operations for EDAW (now AECOM) in San Francisco where he led multi-disciplinary planning, urban design and landscape architecture projects both locally and internationally.
At Gensler Lewis has manages diverse project teams that included scientists, planners, economists and public artists with the common goal of melding academic rigor with the design process. He maintains an active teaching agenda, and has taught urban design, landscape architecture design and theory, and technology at Universities in Australia and the USA.

Claire Fellman | Snohetta

Friday, February 22, 4pm-5pm
Business Rotunda, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (03-213)

Claire Fellman, LEED AP, is an architect and landscape architect with Snøhetta AS, the award-winning design firm.

Formed in 1989, Snøhetta is an integrated architecture, landscape, and interior design practice based in Oslo and New York. The firm, which is named after one of Norway's highest mountain peaks, pursues a collaborative, transdisciplinary approach, with approximately 100 staff members from multiple professions working together to explore diverse perspectives on each project. Snøhetta has completed a number of critically acclaimed cultural projects, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt and the National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, Norway (both received the World Architecture Award for best cultural building). In 2004 the firm was awarded the commission for the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Center site in New York and is currently designing the expansion of SF MOMA, scheduled to break ground in summer 2013.

As an architect and landscape architect, Claire Fellman personifies Snøhetta’s philosophy of maintaining a strong relationship between landscape and architecture in all of its projects. Joining the New York office in 2008, Claire has been involved in many Snøhetta projects in the US, notably the Times Square Reconstruction in New York, the Wolf Center for the Arts at Bowling Green State University. Claire earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from Carleton University and master’s degrees in architecture and landscape architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.  

Benedetta Tagliabue | EMBT

Thursday, March 14, 4pm-5pm
Business Rotunda, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (03-213)

Benedetta Tagliabue was born in Milan and graduated from the University of Venice in 1989. In 1991 she joined Enric Miralles' studio where she eventually became a partner.

Her work with EMBT includes a number of high profile buildings and projects in Barcelona such as Parque Diagonal Mar, the Head Office of Gas Natural, and the Santa Caterina Market and Quarter. Projects in Europe include the School of Music in Hamburg and the City Hall in Utrecht. In 1998, EMBT won the competition to design the new Scottish Parliament building and despite Miralles' premature death in 2000, Tagliabue took leadership of the team as joint director and successfully completed the award-winning project in 2004. Recently completed projects include the Hafencity Public Space and the Youth Music School in Hamburg, Germany and the Italian Pavilion for the Venice Biennale.

Today under the direction of Benedetta Tagliabue the Miralles-Tagliabue-EMBT studio engages architectural projects, open spaces, urbanism, rehabilitation and exhibitions, trying to conserve the spirit of the Spanish and Italian artisan architectural studio tradition that espouses collaboration rather than specialization.

Benedetta received the Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Napier University (2004), the RIBA Stirling Prize (2005), the Centenary Medal from Edinburgh Architectural Association and the 2005 Spanish National Architecture Prize 'Manuel de la Dehesa' for the Scottish Parliament building. She recently won the World Architectural Festival Award for Spanish Pavilion at the 2009 Shanghai World Expo. She has held visiting professorships at Harvard University, Columbia University, the Architectural Association, the Bartlett School of Architecture, the Berlage Institute, as well as at a number of other institutions.