School of Architecture welcomes four faculty members in Fall 2012

Experts in four key areas will join the UH Mānoa School of Architecture in the Fall. Highly respected educational professionals, the new faculty members bring expertise from premier educational and private institutions around the world.

 

The incoming faculty will offer students greater depth and breadth in their graduate and undergraduate studies. “The faculty members joining us this Fall are, first and foremost, outstanding educators,” says School of Architecture Dean Clark Llewellyn. “They are recognized for their ability to inspire students to achieve excellence.”

 

The culmination of a yearlong search involving more than 200 applicants, the new hires represent the largest addition to the School in over a decade. They further the School’s focus on teaching excellence, sustainability, building technology, digital fabrication, environmental design and landscape architecture.

  

“The School of Architecture is excited to have our first-choice candidates joining us this Fall,” says Professor Spencer Leineweber, who also serves as Director of the Graduate Program and Heritage Center at UH Mānoa. “Their particular areas of expertise complement and expand upon the core strength of our current faculty.”

 

Joining the school as an Assistant Professor, Lance Walters specializes in digital technology fabrication. He will teach entry-level courses in digital media, design studio and technology fabrication. His architecture education includes a master’s in architecture and environmental design from Montana State University and a master’s in architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His work in private industry includes the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab, which will be the deepest underground science facility in the world when complete. Recent awards include the 2011 Merit and People’s Choice Award at the American Institute of Architects Washington Council Civic Design Awards and honorable mention at the International Interior Design Association INawards.

 

Appointed as Associate Professor focusing on structures, materials and sustainability, Martin Despang excels in creating buildings that look as good as they perform. Born into a family of architects, he is a founding member of Despang Architekten in Germany. He previously held a tenured Associate Professor title at the University of Arizona. He will share his expertise with both graduate and undergraduate students.

 

Judith Stilgenbauer, hired as an Associate Professor, is the School’s first tenure track landscape architect. She will play a key role in developing a graduate program in landscape architecture. Her architectural education includes degrees in landscape architecture from the Technische Universitat Munchen and the University of California at Berkeley. She is responsible for one of Taiwan’s newest public parks, the 228 National Memorial Park. Stilgenbauer’s courses include advanced studio and urban design.

 

Maria Simon joins the university as an Assistant Professor with a wealth of experience in private industry. At Fentress Architects and The Organization for Permanent Modernity, her professional design experience included airports, towers and residential developments. She taught at the Lawrence Technological University and lectured at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Simon holds a master’s in architecture from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and a bachelor’s in architecture from Pennsylvania State University. Simon’s courses will help beginning students develop a clear mastery of basic skills to communicate design through both hand and digital drawing techniques.