Innovation + Technology: A Talk by Marcel Botha SMArchS '06 (with video)

To see video of the event click this link or scroll to the bottom of this page.

On June 06, 2017, the MIT Club of New York and MITArchA, (the MIT Architecture Alumni Affinity Group) and CAMIT (the Council for the Arts at MIT) hosted a talk by Marcel Botha, SM ’06 for a talk about his company, 10xBeta, an innovative product design consultancy focusing on consumer and healthcare products. The event was held at Arup New York, located in Manhattan’s Financial District.

Marcel Botha began the talk with a brief introduction to his company, followed by a description of NewLab, the Brooklyn-based technology and innovation incubator space in which 10xBeta resides. He described the resources available to NewLab affiliated companies and the unique community which inhabits the space. Botha then spoke about his company in greater detail, describing its operating method and philosophy, and gave examples of various working arrangements for products in which 10xBeta has been involved. He noted that his MIT education helped his career immensely, stating that the Institute helped him learn (among other things) how to first define a problem before looking for solutions.

Having described his background and approach, Botha showed attendees a number of products developed by 10xBeta, including: Beatbot, a programmable self-driving robot designed to motivate athletes by giving them a target to beat (Usain Bolt is a fan); Footprintless, a sneaker prototype created from CO2 recovered from energy production (each pair of shoes includes 78 grams of captured carbon dioxide); Timesulin, a digital add-on to a standard insulin pen that tracks injection schedules to assist diabetic patients; and Spuni, an infant spoon designed to trigger a baby’s innate latching instinct to improve feeding and reduce mess.

Alumni in attendance asked many detailed and insightful questions after the talk concluded, touching on topics including management, technology, partnerships, and the like, creating a lively and stimulating conversation that extended well into the evening.

[ See video below ]

American Academy in Rome appoints Professor John Ochsendorf as 23rd Director

MIT professor John Ochsendorf has been named as the 23rd Director of the American Academy in Rome (AAR). Ochsendorf, a professor with dual appointments in the Departments of Architecture and Civil and Environmental Engineering, will serve a three-year term beginning July 1, 2017, after which he will return to MIT.

Ochsendorf is the Class of 1942 Professor of Architecture and Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A structural engineer with multi-disciplinary research interests including the history of construction, masonry mechanics, and sustainable design, Ochsendorf conducts research on the structural safety of historic monuments and the design of more sustainable infrastructure.

In 2008 Ochsendorf was named a MacArthur Fellow for his pioneering work using comparative cultural and historical studies to explore pre-industrial engineering traditions. Beyond his teaching and research, he has been an active presence on the MIT campus, living as a Head of House with his family in the Warehouse, a graduate residential community, and serving as the faculty chair of MIT’s 2016 Campus Centennial Celebration.

“We are very proud that John will serve in this important role for scholarship and creative work,” said Hashim Sarkis, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, and J. Meejin Yoon, professor and department head of Architecture, in a joint announcement to the school. “His unique ability to bring together engineering and the humanities, archeology and architecture, and building technology and history, will serve the American Academy in Rome well, just as it has MIT.”

“John’s work in Civil and Environmental Engineering has strengthened our connections with the Department of Architecture, and resulted in a new vision for education and research opportunities. We are excited that this vision will have the potential for even broader impact in the world as he begins the appointment in Rome,” said Markus Buehler, McAfee Professor of Engineering and department head of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Many members of the MIT community have been awarded the AAR’s highly regarded fellowships for a year of scholarly research, creative experimentation, and exchange.  Ochsendorf was the recipient of the Rome Prize Fellowship in Historic Preservation, awarded by the AAR in 2007-2008, for a project on the study of masonry vaulting. The last MIT faculty member to serve as Director of the organization was professor Henry Millon from 1974-1977.

"The Academy is one of the most vibrant scholarly and creative communities anywhere in the world. I am extremely grateful for my time there as a Fellow and I am looking forward to giving back to the Academy,” said Ochsendorf. “This is an exciting time for AAR and I am humbled to be entrusted with the stewardship of the next chapter in its distinguished history.”

Founded in 1894, the AAR is a leading international center for independent study and advanced research in the arts and humanities. The organization annually offers the Rome Prize Fellowship and Italian Fellowships to a select group of artists and scholars; the winners, selected by independent juries through a national competition process, are invited to Rome the following year to pursue their work in an atmosphere conducive to intellectual and artistic experimentation and interdisciplinary exchange.

“The breadth of John’s experience makes him an ideal choice,” said Mark Robbins, the President of the American Academy in Rome. “His rigorous intellect and administrative abilities will further the support of our Fellows, engaging them fully in the AAR community, the city of Rome, and throughout the Mediterranean basin. He will also be a great partner for the staff and Board in reinforcing awareness of AAR’s global impact.”

Note:
Article is reposted from architecture.mit.edu (link)

2017 Awards Ceremony at MIT Architecture

Reposted from architecture.mit.edu. See original article here.

Congratulations to all of our 2016-2017 Department of Architecture graduates! 

Special congratulations go to the following students who were the recipients of the 2017 Departmental Awards:

WILLIAM EMERSON PRIZE
to an Architecture Senior for Academic Excellence
Sofie Belanger

HENRY WENTWORTH GARDNER (1894) PRIZE
to an Architecture Senior for Academic Excellence and Achievement in Design
Maria E. Roldan

TUCKER-VOSS AWARD
in recognition of promise for the future in the General Field of Building Construction
Noor K. Khouri

TODA AWARD
to a student who demonstrates excellence in building technology research
Carlos Cerezo Davila

KRISTEN ELLEN FINNEGAN MEMORIAL FUND AWARD
to a Female Third-Year Doctoral Student in History, Theory and Criticism
Jessica A. Varner

SYDNEY B. KAROFSKY 1937 PRIZE
to a Year-Two Master of Architecture Student for Outstanding Academic and Design Achievement
Anne M. Graziano

MARJORIE PIERCE ‘22/ DEAN WILLIAM EMERSON FELLOWSHIP AWARD
to a Year-Two Master of Architecture Woman for Outstanding Academic and Design Achievement
Mackenzie P. Muhonen

ROSEMARY DANEHY GRIMSHAW AWARD
to a Master of Architecture student whose thesis proposal best exemplifies the spirit of Professor Grimshaw
Sean Phillips
Mary P. Lynch-Lloyd
Ching Ying Ngan
Maya Shopova

THE ALPHA RHO CHI MEDAL
to a Graduating Master of Architecture Student for Service, Leadership and Promise of Professional Merit
Jessica Y. Jorge

THE ARTHUR ROTCH PRIZE
to a Graduating Master of Architecture student for Achievement in Architectural Design
Jessica N. Pace

IMRE HALASZ THESIS PRIZE
to a Graduating Master of Architecture Student for Academic Excellence and a Thesis in which the Design Recognizes the Expanding Responsibility of Architecture
Blanca E. Abramek

AIA CERTIFICATE OF MERIT
to a Master of Architecture student for Academic Excellence
Nicolo V. Guida
Jessica Y. Jorge

AIA HENRY ADAMS MEDAL
to the Top Ranking Graduating Master of Architecture Student
Kristina E. Eldrenkamp

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ARCHITECTURE STUDIES PRIZE FOR THESIS
Ali Khodr
Oscar Rosello Gil

ARTHUR ROTCH SPECIAL PRIZE
to a Graduating Master of Science in Architecture Studies Student for Highest Academic Achievement
Akshita Sivakumar

Jeffrey Heller ’64 ’67 FAIA receives the inaugural MITArchA Alumni Achievement award in San Francisco on May 18, 2017 (with video)

Fifty years after completing his Masters in Architecture and Planning at MIT, Jeffrey Heller is being honored with the FIRST MITArchA Alumni Achievement Award.

Jeffrey Heller ’64 ’67 FAIA is president and founder of Heller Manus Architects. Since its beginning in 1984, the firm has established a reputation for influencing architecture and urban design in the San Francisco Bay Area, nationally and internationally.

As SAP Dean Hashim Sarkis and Department of Architecture Head Meejin Yoon noted in their letter of congratulations, Jeffrey Heller has “set a high standard for those who follow [him], and ably represent MIT’s guiding principle of mens et manus, and our permeating value of a better world.”

The initiative to honor distinguished MITArchA alumni was conceived and implemented by Pamela Tang (nee Chang Sing) ’83 ’85, MITArchA’s founding board member and Vice-President of Programs. The initiative quickly received the support of the MITArchA board, the MIT Alumni Office and the MIT School of Architecture and Planning.

The ceremony and reception at the Olympic Club in San Francisco sold out quickly as MIT alumni and the AIA San Francisco community gathered to celebrate this honor bestowed on a fellow alumnus, a Fellow of the AIA, and a dear friend of the community. John Chisholm ’75 ‘76, MIT Corporation Trustee and immediate Past President of the MIT Alumni Association, presented the Joint Letter of the Award recognition from the SAP Dean and Architecture Head, and the original MITArchA Award designed and fabricated by MITArchA President Jacob Kain ’00.

The evening was livestreamed by the acoustical engineering firm of Charles Salter ’69 which beamed the event across the evening skies to Architecture students gathered in Building 7’s Long Lounge in Cambridge and Architecture alumni across the country and the world.

MITArchA at AIA Orlando

MITArchA would like to thank everyone who came to the reception hosted at the AIA Convention in Orlando by Mina Marefat, MITArchA VP of Communications and John Klein, Research Scientist at MIT. More than twice the number initially registered attended the gathering and were encouraged to join.

Several attendees had been to the AIA Philadelphia as well as a number who came for the first time. The mission and activities of MITArchA in various cities including New York, Hong Kong, Detroit, DC, and Cambridge and was discussed and John Klein (who teaches at MIT) gave a synopsis of activities at SA+P.

Building an Affinity with Architecture

Article by Nancy Duvergne Smith (MIT Alumni Association). Reposted with edits from Slice of MIT. See original article here.

MITArchA tour of I.M. Pei’s National Gallery.

When some 45 MIT alumni and friends met April 2 for a private tour of the newly renovated East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington, they were doing more than celebrating the 100th birthday of I.M. Pei. ’40. True, Pei remains one of the world’s most influential architects and the building is one of his masterpieces. But the tour, led by Mina Marefat PhD ’88, was also a perk of participation in MITArchA, a two-year old affinity group dedicated to sharing common interests of School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) alumni, faculty, and students, as well as all MIT alumni and friends.

Marefat, who teaches at Georgetown University and is the principal of Design Research, based in Washington DC, was a perfect guide for the behind-the-scenes tour of the building’s Center for Advanced Study since she was a fellow there. She commented on Pei’s groundbreaking design that accommodated the galleries and public spaces for the museum as well as its administrative, curatorial, educational and scholarly needs.

Jeffrey Heller ’64, MArch ’67 will receive the MITArchA Alumni Achievement Award in May.

The National Gallery East Wing tour was one of several MITArchA gatherings this spring. On April 28, the Alumni Association group will join with the Department of Architecture to host a casual gathering at the AIA convention in Orlando, Florida. On May 18 in San Francisco, Jeffrey Heller ’64, MArch ’67 will receive the Inaugural MITArchA Alumni Achievement Award. On June 6, MITArchA members will be invited to a talk in New York City by Marcel Botha, SMArchS ‘06. Learn more about upcoming MITArchA events here.

“MITArchA was founded in 2015 to represent the more than 5,000 MIT architecture alumni world-wide by a group of course IV alumni,” says Jacob Kain MArch ’00, the group’s president and a project architect at Elkus Manfredi Architects in Boston. “It was time to organize our alumni community in order to develop a greater awareness of one another and to connect to each other, the School of Architecture and Planning, and the Institute. "Our events offer opportunities for our alumni to share their work with the MIT community, often by collaborating with established regional MIT alumni clubs. In our short history, we have held events from coast to coast and as far away as Hong Kong.”

Course IV Alumni touring the Detroit Center for Design and Technology as part of MITArchA's recent ACSA event.

The group also celebrates MIT’s role as the first professional school of architecture. “The first woman to graduate with a degree in architecture was from MIT and the first professionally credentialed African American architect was an MIT alum,” says Marefat, communications vice president of the group. “MIT invited cutting-edge architects like Alvar Aalto, Eero Saarinen, and I.M. Pei to build modern buildings on campus, a trend that has continued well into the 21st century with a campus that represents a physical history of our profession. All this to say that as we face unprecedented challenges today, bringing together MIT architecture alumni helps remind us of the privilege we all share and the responsibility we all bear toward the well being of our planet and its inhabitants.”

Learn more about MITArchA and its activities.

MITArchA Tour of the National Gallery of Art East Building

Some 45 MIT alumni and guests met at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday, April 2 to tour the newly renovated exhibition spaces in the East Building.  This event was organized by MITArchA in collaboration with the MIT Club of Washington D.C. to commemorate the upcoming centennial birthday of celebrated architect and MIT alum, I.M. Pei ‘40.  Commissioned in 1968 and completed in 1978, the building remains an iconic addition to the National Mall in Washington honoring the historic legacy of both Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who conceived the city of Washington, and John Russell Pope, the architect of the National Gallery’s first building. 

Mina Marefat, MIT alum and VP of Communications with MITArchA led the tour, which included the Library and the Center for Advanced Study wing of the East Building, rarely seen by visitors.  Having been a pre-doctoral fellow at CASVA, Mina discussed the museum’s scholarly mission and the successful architectural solution I.M.Pei provided in his design to accommodate the galleries and public spaces for the museum as well as administrative, curatorial, educational, and research needs.  The open atrium of the library recalls the lofty symbolism found in the great libraries of the world.

Pei’s groundbreaking design solved the spatial needs of the museum in a very difficult trapezoidal space through a triangular geometry resulting in a modern masterpiece that celebrates the Mall and its symbols.  Setting the building in its historic context, Mina discussed the public-private partnership that has been the hallmark of this extraordinary institution through the role of its patrons, Andrew Mellon, Paul Mellon and Ailsa Bruce Mellon as well as that of the museum directors—especially J. Carter Brown, whom Mina knew personally and whose contribution was invaluable to the architectural success of the East Building. 

The newly renovated interior offers an ingenious solution that upgrades the mechanical systems, meets accessibility requirements, and expands the gallery space by 12,260 square feet within the existing structure. It includes the creation of an outdoor terrace that offers a magnificent view of Pennsylvania Avenue and Washington adorned with a 15-foot electric blue rooster by Katharina Fritsch.  

The new galleries, dedicated to Mark Rothko, to Alexander Calder, and to temporary exhibitions now showing the work of contemporary artist Theaster Gates work seamlessly with the original Pei design. The triangular geometry of the new stairways improve access to each of the five levels in each of the three towers and while the original monumental stairs and escalators beckon the visitor to enjoy the many vistas the building offers to the city of Washington.  The indoor-outdoor fluidity and the sense of Zen in the main atrium, graced by the enormous Calder mobile, is magnified as the changing light filters through the large triangular skylights; it is a reminder, a space-time assurance to the visitor of both season and time of day. The East Building, showcasing the very best of our national collection of art, has aged gracefully as it reaches almost 40 and is now rejuvenated for another few decades. 

The tour ended with a gathering at the Terrace Café around a cake modeled in the form of the East Building.  All attendees expressed their appreciation for the East Building and for its architect.  Happy Birthday I. M. Pei!  MITArchA and the MIT Club of Washington pay tribute to an illustrious architect whose contribution to Washington architecture, to world architecture, to modernism and its lasting tenets makes the MIT community proud.  

MITArchA@ACSA Detroit

On Friday, March 24, 2017, during the 105th ACSA Annual Meeting in Detroit, Lawrence Technological University (LTU) hosted a group of MITArchA members at the Detroit Center for Design & Technology (DCDT). MITArchA President Jacob Kain MArch, ’00, flew from Boston to lead the event, explain MITArchA’s mission, and encourage membership. Course IV alumni involved in architectural education, including: Marilys Nepomechie MArch ’83, Associate Dean at Florida International University and immediate past President of ACSA, Mina Marefat PhD '88, MITArchA VP of Communications and Lecturer at Georgetown University, and local architect Robert Ziegelman, FAIA MArch ‘59 were in attendance, with other alumni and guests.

Constance Bodurow SMArchS ’91, Professor of Architecture at Lawrence Tech and Midwest Regional Board member of MITArchA, handled logistics and arranged participation by LTU design students. CoAD Dean Karl Daubmann SMArchS ’99 and DCDT Associate Director Chris Stefani provided a tour of the facility and spoke about its programs. Ms. Nepomechie observed that this was the first alumni gathering at an ACSA annual meeting, and hoped it would become a new tradition. Members and several guests (including GSD alumni) provided input and ideas, and engaged in a wide-ranging conversation. At the end of the event, Mina Marefat asked attendees to describe their favorite building at MIT—Saarinen’s Chapel and Aalto’s Baker House were the most popular responses.

MIT named No. 1 University for Architecture and the Built Environment

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For the third year in a row, MIT has been named the top university in the world for “Architecture/Built Environment” in the latest subject rankings from QS World University Rankings. In “Art and Design,” the Institute ranked No. 2 globally for the second year in a row. Twelve other subject areas at MIT were ranked No. 1.

Photo: Sham Sthankiya via news.mit.edu

"This ranking recognizes the excellence of our faculty, students and staff. It also recognizes our unwavering commitment to work together in order to imagine, design and build a better world."

-Hashim Sarkis, Dean of SA+P

Of the three years “Architecture/Built Environment” has been assessed by QS as an individual subject area, MIT has been the only institution to hold the No. 1 position. According to survey sponsor Quacquarelli Symonds, an education organization based in the U.K., the annually published subject area rankings “aim to help prospective students identify the world’s leading schools in their chosen field.”

The QS rankings reflect academic reputation, reputation with employers, and research impact. Reputation measurements are based on surveys of academics and employers; the 2017 survey polled 74,651 academics from around the globe, along with 40,643 graduate employers. MIT has been ranked as the No. 1 university in the world by QS World University Rankings for five straight years.

The full 2017 QS subject rankings can be found at topuniversities.com.

Note:
Article reposted from sap.mit.edu and edited. See original article here.

Course IV Alumni Social: MITArchA New York

On January 31st, 2017, the MIT Club of New York and the MIT Architecture Affinity Group (MITArchA) hosted a Course IV Alumni Social event in New York City. The event was held at WeWork Charging Bull, located in New York’s Financial District, and was hosted by Melissa Marsh, M.Arch ’04, MITArchA’s Vice President of Membership.

The event was set up as a combined social and presentation event. Alumni working in architecture or related disciplines were invited to give presentations on their personal or professional work.

Reflecting the fact that MIT architecture alumni work in many diverse fields, the presentations covered a wide range of topics, including: interaction design, urban planning, structural engineering, social justice, and architecture. The work presented also varied in type and scale, from responsive light installations to gravity-defying skyscrapers.

Ten alumni gave presentations: Jacob Kain, (President of MITArchA), Liz Burow, Elliot Felix, Erik Olsen, Li Lian Tan, Frank Hebbert, Ifeoma Ebo, Ahmed ElHusseiny, and James Patten.

The social event was implemented as part of an ongoing engagement initiative intended to expand MITArchA membership, foster an active architecture alumni community, and advance the missions of the MIT Club of New York and MITArchA.

Keep an eye out for news and events from other MIT student and alumni groups including DesignX, an SA+P-affiliated incubator that supports student, faculty, and alumni entrepreneurs as they start their ventures.