The University of Minnesota’s College of Design was pleased to present fashion designer and urban gardening advocate Ron Finley as the featured speaker for the 2022 Kusske Lecture & Dialogue.
Max Dickson (he/him) earned a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota in 2019. After graduation, Dickson moved to Philadelphia to work with OLIN, an internationally awarded landscape architecture and urban design firm. At OLIN, Dickson’s work has focused on district-scale urban spaces, and leading the emergent research initiative through OLIN Labs called PrideScapes, an exploration of LGBTQ+ landscapes and people within the field of landscape architecture.
When the COVID-19 pandemic set in and drove more social interaction online, virtual reality (VR) platforms, like VRchat or SecondLife, exploded in popularity. These virtual environments allow users to make friends, play games, and participate in a virtual economy. For Claire Lumen (BS ‘20, Apparel Design), this technology provides more than just a social outlet. As a student, VR shaped her academic focus and played a pivotal role in her journey as a trans woman. Now in her professional life, VR continues to shape how Lumen applies her apparel design skills to the virtual world.
Assistant Professors Terresa Moses (University of Minnesota) and Lisa Mercer (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) first met at the University of North Texas as graduate students. Three years later, the two reunited to create the Racism Untaught toolkit—a resource to help design educators bring social impact projects and discussions of race, culture, and identity to their classrooms.
This fall, the School of Architecture is proud to present its latest lecture series. Featuring practitioners, educators, and activists, these lectures are free and open to the public.
The 35W Interstate Highway is a staple for Minneapolis commuters, but what many people may not know is that the highway and its construction is responsible for the segmentation of communities and displacement of hundreds of families—the impacts of which are still felt today.
“The sociology, the history, the economics, the graphs, the charts, the regressions all land, with great violence, upon the body.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates in Between the World and Me (inspired by James Baldwin‘s The Fire Next Time)
High above the Arctic Circle in the fishing village of Vardø, Norway sits the Steilneset Memorial. Created by architect Peter Zumthor and artist Louise Bourgeois, the memorial remembers the 91 women and men who were burned at the stake after being found guilty of sorcery in 1621.
The work and accomplishments of female architects have historically been overlooked in the profession.
To help address this issue, the Women in Architecture Student Organization (WIASO), in collaboration with the School of Architecture, presents the fall lecture series Make Space: Women in Architecture.
The One House, Many Nations campaign, founded by indigenous activist group Idle No More, works to address the lack of quality housing found in First Nations and other indigenous communities.
