Shantol Morgan, BLA 2025, has been awarded the LAF Ignite Scholarship, joining an inaugural cohort of four students. LAF Ignite is a unique program within the landscape architecture community and design professions, designed to overcome particular barriers faced by BIPOC students to stay in school, graduate, and enter landscape architecture practice.
College of Built Environments Associate Professor of Architecture, Rick Mohler, has been awarded the AIA Seattle Gold Medal, the highest award that AIA Seattle can bestow on one of its members. It recognizes distinguished lifetime achievement in architecture, including design and professional practice and service to the profession, the community, education and the arts.
This spring, Harris and Oshima were named Fellows of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH). This honor is given to those who have distinguished themselves by a lifetime of significant contributions to the field. Their contributions may include scholarship, service, teaching, and stewardship of the built environment.
The University of Washington recognized two students from the College of Built Environments for the 2022 Husky 100. Congratulations to Talia Kertsman and Andrew Hengstler!
Talia Kertsman, Community, Environment, and Planning major
“I came to the UW seeking a depth of understanding around questions keeping me up at night – questions about the future of cities and how to sustain belonging in all spaces. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to grow in Seattle and learn from those working to preserve spaces of cultural value. I hope to work at the intersection of equitable community development and education, thinking about how students and educators can co-create spaces of learning, inside and outside the classroom.”
“Strong communities promote positive progress. I have focused my years at the UW working to foster this sense of community, empowering others to rally and grow together. Within my career, I seek to develop built environments that encourage community collaboration, where people are not separated by class or culture. By creating environmentally and socially sustainable habitats, we can both protect nature and preserve our vital sense of community.”
The Husky 100 recognizes 100 UW undergraduate and graduate students who are making the most of their time at the UW. Those named include undergraduates and graduate students who have founded start-ups, conducted research, and advocated for social justice.
Ken Tadashi Oshima is Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he teaches trans-national architectural history, theory and design.
He has also been a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and UCLA, and has taught at Columbia University and the University of British Columbia. He earned an AB degree, magna cum laude, in East Asian studies and visual and environmental studies from Harvard College, an MArch degree from University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in architecturalhistory and theory from Columbia University. From 2003 to 2005, he was a Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in London.
Dr. Oshima’s publications include Kiyonori Kikutake: Between Land and Sea (Lars Müller/Harvard GSD, 2015), Architecturalized Asia (U. Hawai’i Press/Hong Kong U. Press, 2013), GLOBAL ENDS: towards the beginning (Toto, 2012), International Architecture in Interwar Japan: Constructing Kokusai Kenchiku (U. Washington Press, 2009) and Arata Isozaki (Phaidon, 2009).
He curated GLOBAL ENDS: towards the beginning (Gallery MA, 2011), Tectonic Visions Between Land and Sea: Works of Kiyonori Kikutake (Harvard GSD, 2012), SANAA: Beyond Borders (Henry Art Gallery 2007–2008) and was a co-curator of Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive (Museum of Modern Art, NY, 2017) and Crafting a Modern World: The Architecture and Design of Antonin and Noemi Raymond (UPenn, UCSB, Kamakura Museum of Modern Art, 2006–2007).
He was an editor and contributor to Architecture + Urbanism for more than 10 years, co-authoring the two-volume special issue, “Visions of the Real: Modern Houses in the 20th Century” (2000). His articles on the international context of architecture and urbanism in Japan have been published in journals including Architectural Review, Architectural Theory Review, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians,Kenchiku Bunka, Japan Architect, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, and the AA Files.
Dr. Oshima was president of the Society of Architectural Historians from 2016 to 2018 following service on the SAH Board of Directors and Executive Committee from 2008 to 2016. He joined SAH in 2000 and is a Life Member.
The Board of Directors names as Fellows of the Society of Architectural Historians individuals who have distinguished themselves by a lifetime of significant contributions to the field. These contributions may include scholarship, service to the Society, teaching and stewardship of the built environment.
On Monday, November 8, AIA Seattle hosted the 71st annual Honor Awards for Washington Architecture to celebrate excellence in design. The Honor Awards is a nationally recognized program that provides an important opportunity for the design community to share and celebrate its achievements, both among practitioners and with the community-at-large.
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 Seattle’s Central District.
Each year, the Husky 100 recognizes 100 UW undergraduate and graduate students from Bothell, Seattle and Tacoma in all areas of study who are making the most of their time at the UW. The Husky 100 actively connect what happens inside and outside of the classroom and apply what they learn to make a difference on campus, in their communities, and for the future. Through their passion, leadership, and commitment, these students inspire all of us to shape our own Husky Experience.
In honor of their many contributions to the University of Washington, each member of the Husky 100 is eligible to receive exciting benefits, and to participate in a range of activities and opportunities offered by the UW’s on- and off-campus partners.
The students from the College of Built Environments represent a range of disciplines and causes: Lan T Nguyen and Reese O’Craven.
Lan Nguyen, PhD student of Urban Design and Planning and Husky 100 2021 recipient
“Xin chào! In my research and practice, I center the knowledge, culture, and lived experiences of BIPOC, immigrant, and refugees in risk communication, disaster preparedness, public health, and community resilience. As a community development scholar-activist, I work in and with communities to advance social and spatial equity and justice. As an educator, I support students in the classroom and careers. My UW experience allowed me to apply knowledge to practice for social change.” – Lan Nguyen
Reese O’Craven, CEP student and Husky 100 2021 recipient
“We live in a world that is beautiful and diverse, yet deeply unequal and unsustainable. My work and academics focus on the intersection of human connection and sustainability: I intend to devote my career to moving the needle towards a future where wealth is more evenly distributed, communities are designed to be resilient and connected, environmental stewardship and sustainability are valued, and overall wellbeing and happiness are greater.” -Reese O’Craven
Congratulations to all the students selected for this year’s Husky 100 award! To learn more about their experiences, please visit the Husky 100 page.
Fall in the Quad, University of Washington Seattle campus, October 2013. Photo by Katherine B. Turner
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Thaisa Way has been appointed chair of the Dumbarton Oaks Fellows in Garden and Landscape Studies. Way, who has been a Senior Fellow with Dumbarton Oaks since 2011 will serve a one year term.As one of six Senior Fellows, the group serves as advisors to the Director of Dumbarton Oaks in relation to the Garden and Landscape Studies Program.
As chair, Way will play a guiding role in the fellowship selection process and work with Senior Fellows to foster and nurture scholarship in urban landscape histories. “We provide opportunities for scholars to come and fully immerse themselves in their studies, in one of the world’s best landscape libraries and rare books collections,” Way said.
The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection is a research institute in Washington D.C. overseen by the Trustees of Harvard University. The Garden and Landscape Studies program was established in 1972 to support advanced scholarship in garden history and landscape architecture. Dumbarton Oaks is one of the few institutions in the world with a program devoted to garden and landscape studies that is targeted at both humanities scholars and landscape practitioners. The program encompasses the analysis of culturally and artistically significant landscapes from around the world, spanning from ancient times to present day.
In her role as a Senior Fellow, Thaisa Way will curate a collegium on histories of drawing in landscape architecture, focused on urban landscapes in fall 2017. Previously, Dr. Way was the lead for the spring 2015 Dumbarton Oaks Garden and Landscape Symposium “River Cities: Historical and Contemporary.”
Along with Thaisa Way, Dumbarton Oaks Senior Fellows include: John Beardsley, Dumbarton Oaks; Sonja Dümpelmann, Harvard University; Georges Farhat, University of Toronto; Kathryn Gleason, Cornell University; Gert Gröning, Universität der Künste Berlin; Ron Henderson, Illinois Institute of Technology.
For more information contact Allie Rock in the College of Built Environments Advancement Office at: rocka2@uw.edu or Thaisa Way at: tway@uw.edu
“Strong communities promote positive progress. I have focused my years at the UW working to foster this sense of community, empowering others to rally and grow together. Within my career, I seek to develop built environments that encourage community collaboration, where people are not separated by class or culture. By creating environmentally and socially sustainable habitats, we can both protect nature and preserve our vital sense of community.”
