IN THE NEWS

Board of Regents Approves College of Design Reorganization PlanThe Iowa State University College of Design will encompass seven departments under a reorganization plan approved by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, at its meeting April 25-26 in Cedar Falls. The new structure retains three existing departments—architecture, community and regional planning, and landscape architecture—and creates four new ones—graphic design, industrial design, interior design and integrated studio arts—from programs that were housed in the former Department of Art and Design. [Read more]

Design College, Alumni Association Partner with Iowa Prison IndustriesIntegrated studio arts students in Associate Professor Chris Martin’s advanced furniture design studio partnered with the ISU Alumni Association and Iowa Prison Industries this spring to create several alumni keepsakes from salvaged campus wood. Student designs for a picture frame, a child’s rocker, an all-purpose storage box for jewelry or remote controls, and a Shaker-style end table will be produced by IPI and sold by the ISUAA. A portion of the sales proceeds will help support student scholarships. [Read more]

Design Students Create Oversized Toy for Reiman GardensAssociate Professor of Architecture Mitchell Squire’s innovative teaching and his students’ discoveries will be on view through Nov. 16 at Reiman Gardens, in conjunction with the LEGO Nature Connects exhibit. Students in Squire’s TOYS! Studio created a Conservatory building exhibit that embraces basic toy forms like a pinwheel and cannon to create a world of wonder and delight. [Read more]

Four Design Faculty Earn PromotionsAt its April 26 meeting in Cedar Falls, the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, approved promotions for three Iowa State University College of Design faculty members for the 2012-2013 academic year. Those promoted to associate professor with tenure are Emily Godbey, art and design, and Jihyun Song, interior design. Francis Owusu, already a tenured associate professor of community and regional planning, was promoted to full professor. Steven Herrnstadt, a tenured professor of graphic design, also was awarded the title of University Professor by Iowa State. Herrnstadt will be recognized at the university’s annual fall convocation in September. All promotions take effect at the beginning of the fall semester.

Four Student Teams’ Entries Selected for Smithsonian Folklife Festival ExhibitFour entries in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival Interactive Exhibit Feature Competition have been chosen for inclusion in Iowa State’s exhibit at the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival this summer in Washington, D.C. The winning projects and teams are “Sphere” by Michael Krause, Fountain Hills, Ariz., and Lindsay Morris, Rochester, Minn., fifth-year architecture; “Drawing Machine” by Caleb Spiegel, Moline, Ill., and Eric Neuhaus, Cedar Rapids, second-year architecture; “Disorientation Machine” by Rachel Johnson, Eagan, Minn., third-year architecture, and Stephanie Waples, Middletown, second-year architecture; and “Music Machine” by Michelle Rogge, Ham Lake, Minn., and Yuan Liu, Eugene, Ore., third-year architecture.

Twenty total projects by 56 students from 10 majors (advertising, aerospace engineering, architecture, pre-architecture, art and design, design, design open, industrial design, journalism and mass communication, and mechanical engineering) were submitted. The winners were chosen by faculty members on the exhibit design task force, and entries will be fabricated by a team of students supervised by architecture Lecturers Patrick Rhodes and James Spiller.

Industrial Design Grad Student Receives MLO AwardCarlos Ramirez-Espinoza (BS 2011 Industrial Technology), a second-year graduate student in industrial design from Sioux City, received the MLO (Multicultural Liaison Officer) Outstanding Student Award for the College of Design at the Multicultural Student Affairs Awards and Recognition Ceremony on April 29. Ramirez-Espinoza has helped Design MLO Cristobal Salinas in developing a new multicultural student organization for design students and is an active member of the Mexican-American Young Achievers Society (MAYAS) at Iowa State. He has impressed all around him with his passion for justice, community, philanthropy and scholarship. Ramirez-Espinoza leads by example and works to create a safe, welcoming place for all students. His integrity and intellectual rigor have earned him the respect of his peers, staff and faculty.

Graphic Design Senior Wins ScholarshipMegan Reiner, a graduating senior in graphic design, won the $1,000 Larsen Design Scholarship at the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Minnesota 2012 Portfolio 1-on-1 event this month. Thirty students from 10 Midwest schools submitted their portfolios for consideration for four scholarships, which were awarded to the four best portfolios as determined by a panel of Twin Cities professional designers. You can view Reiner’s portfolio site and download her awarded book on the AIGA MN website.

Design Students’ Float for Reiman Gardens Wins Veishea Parade AwardThe “Some Assembly Required” float designed and constructed by a special topics class of industrial design and architecture students won the second-place trophy in the Veishea parade. The float highlighted Reiman Gardens’ theme for 2012 and featured animatronic elements, music and live plants. Reiman Gardens is planting and dedicating two maple trees to commemorate the successful partnership with the industrial design program.

ISA Lecturer’s Commissioned Artwork to be Unveiled at Jester ParkA formed-steel elk sculpture by Michael Stanley, lecturer in integrated studio arts, will be unveiled at the grand opening reception for the Jester Park Elk and Bison Educational Plaza at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 23, at Shelter #6. The sculpture, which is 6’4” tall, 6’ long and 2’6” deep, is an abstract representation of a recumbent elk based on its original lines as well as the lines of the prairie that is the animal’s home, Stanley said. “It is made out of metal to refer to the industrial age that made them leave their natural habitat here in Iowa,” he said. Jester Park can be reached by taking exit 127 off Interstate 35 and traveling 6.5 miles west on Highway 141.

Integrated Visual Arts MFA Student Exhibition at the OctagonWork by 14 graduate students in the integrated visual arts program is on display through Saturday, May 5, in the Community Gallery at the Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Ave. Organized by student Heather Davis, Ames, and Associate Professor Arthur Croyle, this is the first off-campus exhibition of IVA student work. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

ISA Professor’s Work in Two Summer Invitational ExhibitionsWork by Ingrid Lilligren, professor and director of integrated studio arts, has been selected for two exhibitions this summer. Lilligren created “Sam’s Rocks” (9” x 15” x 7”, porcelain with crystalline and high-fired glazes) in honor of renowned woodworker Sam Maloof for the Sculpture in the Garden invitational exhibition, April 26 through June 21 at the Maloof Discovery Garden in Alta Loma, Calif. Two of her artworks, “Foreign Aid, Part A” (pit-fired stoneware) and “Foreign Aid, Part 4” (wood and salt-fired porcelain), will be on view in the “TOUCH: The World at Your Fingertips” invitational exhibition from July 4 to Oct. 28 at the Claude Verdan Foundation/Museum of the Hand – MUDAC in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Clean Out Your Lockers!Student lockers must be cleaned out by the end of finals week, Friday, May 4. New locker assignments will be made on the first day of fall-semester classes, Monday, Aug. 20, outside the Business Office (146 Design). Bring your combination lock with you to receive a new locker. Please note that no early assignments will be made.

Graphic Design Senior Portfolio NightFriends and family are invited to attend “Onward & Upward,” the 2012 Graphic Design Senior Portfolio Night, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 3, at the ISU Alumni Center, 420 Beach Ave. It’s a night to showcase design. Creativity. Passion. An event to display all we’ve done over the past four years at Iowa State. The time for the all-nighters to pay off. An occasion for only our best. Senior portfolio night is here, and we are ready to show our stuff. Come check out the graphic design Class of 2012. We’re sure you’ll be impressed!

DID YOU KNOW?

Core Portfolio and Essay Submission ProceduresStudents in the Core Design Program who wish to apply for admission to one or more of the College of Design’s degree programs must fill out an online application form and submit portfolios and hard copies of your essay between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Friday, May 4, or Monday, May 7, in 316 Design. Anyone in line by 3 p.m. on either day will be allowed to complete your submission. If you have not submitted your materials or are not in line by 3 p.m. on Monday, May 7, however, you will miss your opportunity, so plan ahead and don’t be late! The online application must be completed before you can submit your portfolio and essay. [View application information]

Graduation Convocation to Bring 1,500-Plus VisitorsThis Saturday’s College of Design Graduation Convocation is expected to bring more than 1,500 visitors into the building to honor our 320 spring and summer candidates for graduation. A reception will be at 9:30 a.m. in the Hansen Exchange, followed by the ceremony at 10 a.m. in the Lightfoot Forum. Congratulations to all of our graduates! We look forward to recognizing you and to wishing you a personal farewell.

Computer Lab HoursThe College of Design computer labs will close at 5 p.m. Friday, May 4, for semester break. The labs and output center (black-and-white printers only) will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday May 7, to accommodate Core students who still need to print copies of their essays for portfolio submission. The labs and the output center will be closed the remainder of the week (May 8-11), and will reopen at 8 a.m. Monday, May 14, when summer classes begin. Summer hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday from May 14 through the end of the second summer session, Friday, Aug. 3.

Summer Building HoursThe College of Design building will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily (seven days/week) from Monday, May 7, through Sunday, Aug. 19. We will resume normal building hours beginning with the first day of fall-semester classes, Monday, Aug. 20.

Architecture Chair Search to ContinueAfter careful consideration, including conversations with architecture faculty and members of the Architecture Advisory Council, College of Dean Luis Rico-Gutierrez has decided to continue the search for the next chair of the Department of Architecture. While the two finalists recently on campus were both strong candidates, it was not clear that the position was a good fit, either for them or for the department and college. The college will hire a national professional search firm to help the search committee identify a new pool of potential candidates and find the best possible person to lead the department. Further developments will be shared with you when this e-blast resumes in the fall.

Sukkahville 2012 Design CompetitionArchitects, students, artists, builders and allied design professionals are invited to submit design proposals for the second annual Sukkahville Design Competition. Design a temporary, freestanding Sukkah to be built in Toronto’s Mel Lastman Square on the eve of the Jewish festival of Sukkot in September. Register by June 1 if you plan to participate.

Paul Anderson, Professor, Landscape Architecture and AgronomyGenealogy. Photography. Music. Children and grandchildren. Any one of these is enough to keep someone busy, full time. But it’s just part of the list that Professor Paul Anderson plans to devote himself to after retirement from the Iowa State University Departments of Landscape Architecture and Agronomy. That’s not to say that Anderson hasn’t kept busy over nearly four decades, enriching the departments with innovative leadership as well as distinguished teaching. It’s just that he’s focused on his next act. [Read more]

FACULTY RETIREMENTS

Gary Hightshoe, Professor, Landscape ArchitectureGary Hightshoe spent a good part of his childhood tromping around the woods: His father, a general contractor and home builder, has a degree in botany and his mother is an artist, so both parents found creative and professional inspiration in the plants, animals, bugs and fungi in Iowa’s woodland areas. Looking back, it’s not surprising that Hightshoe—who was always growing, making, building, collecting, drawing and designing something outdoors as a kid—would find himself attracted to landscape architecture when he entered college. Forty-seven years later, this professor of landscape architecture is retiring from Iowa State University, where he has made his mark with a nationally recognized book and innovative contributions to curriculum development that’s touched the lives of hundreds of students. [Read more]

Association of University Interior Designers Offers Student ScholarshipThe Association of University Interior Designers (AUID) offers up to three $1,000 scholarships per year to juniors and seniors enrolled full time in an AUID member university’s interior design program. (Seniors who will have just graduated by the application deadline also are eligible to apply.) Applications must include a cover letter, completed application form or resume, 500-word essay/personal statement, letter of recommendation from a present or former employer, design professional or professor, and an official university transcript. Submission deadline is Thursday, May 31. Full guidelines are available on the College of Design’s Scholarships website; search on AUID Scholarship.

Riad Mahayni, Professor, Community and Regional PlanningThirty-three years ago, Riad G. Mahayni joined the fledgling Department of Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University. At the time there were six faculty members and “a few handfuls of students,” he said. Though the planning program could trace its roots to courses taught in the early 1920s and had been a department since 1973, it was only with the move to the new College of Design in 1978 and Mahayni’s appointment as chair that CRP really came into its own at Iowa State. Mahayni left for a few years to travel halfway around the globe for a career-defining planning project, but returned to Ames again to continue to make an impact on the university and the city. And now, he’s ready for the next step—retirement. [Read more]