Architecture prof wins Prix de Rome

The Toronto architecture firm Lateral Office has won the $50,000 Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture for 2010. The firm’s founding partners are (from left) Lola Sheppard, assistant professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, and Mason White.

Lola Sheppard is the fourth Waterloo architecture faculty member to win this prestigious prize, says Rick Haldenby, the school’s director. “Dereck Revington, Philip Beesley and John McMinn are previous winners. Certainly no other school of architecture in Canada has four Prix de Rome winners on faculty.”

“Administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, this award recognizes excellent achievement in Canadian architectural practice," says a news release from the Canada Council. "Sheppard and Mason will use the prize funds to travel to the Arctic to pursue their research proposal entitled Emergent North.

“The travel research continues an ongoing investigation and documentation of cold-climate settlement forms, issues, and vernacular innovations in the Circumpolar region. Emergent North looks at the challenges and opportunities of the public realm, civic space, landscape, and infrastructure emerging from a unique geography.

“Ms. Sheppard and Mr. White will conduct two travel routes through Nunavut, Yukon, and Northwest Territories, as well as Alaska and Greenland, to gather first-hand knowledge and documentation of far northern settlements.

"This research will inform a series of ongoing design projects responding to social, political, economic and ecological issues confronting the Far North."

(Above right is an image of part of their Emergent North project, called “Liquid Commons.”)

“The Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture is awarded to a young architect or practitioner of architecture, an architecture firm or an architectural design firm that has completed its first buildings and demonstrated exceptional artistic potential.

"Lateral Office was selected by a peer assessment committee appointed by the Canada Council. Jury members said: 'Lateral Office shines in their ability to engage in a conversation that moves across architecture, landscape design and through all scales of intervention, including urbanism, regional and even national infrastructure planning.

"The issues they address remained outside of the architectural imagination for too long; their decision to focus on research and share their findings will make it possible for a broad community of actors to engage in the search for appropriate solutions.'"

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Other Waterloo people making a splash

When the Canadian Index of Well-Being released a new report on Time Use, Leisure and Culture in June, the author of the leisure and culture part of the report was Bryan Smale, associate dean in applied health sciences and a professor of recreation and leisure studies. He is principal investigator for the leisure and culture domain of the index, a production of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation.

The report noted, among other findings, that Canadians’ overall participation in leisure activities has declined in recent years; time spent in volunteer activities has declined, especially in the 25-34 age group; physical activity is up slightly; and attendance at performing arts events and visits to national parks are both sharply down. “In summary… the overall decline in the engagement of Canadians in this important lifestyle domain is of concern. Coupled with the general decline in support for public agencies and non-profit and voluntary organizations responsible for leisure and culture, this trend is even more troubling for the wellbeing of Canadians and their communities.”

These strange green children (right) are actually live squash on the vine, shaped as they grow by Kitchener artist and Waterloo grad Mary Catherine Newcomb (BA ’79. fine arts). Product of Eden 2010 is an exhibition at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, 101 Queen Street North, Kitchener, where it can be seen outside the front entrance. The exhibition continues until October 5 – or until harvest time. “Product of Eden combines Newcomb’s love for the natural world with an unusual yet delightful urban harvest,” says a note on the KWAG website. 

Janusz Pawliszyn, a Waterloo chemistry professor, was presented with the PerkinElmer, Inc., 2010 Marcel Golay award in June “for a lifetime of achievement in capillary chromatography, most notably his development of solid phase microextraction,” says the company’s news release. “Currently, the primary focus of his research is the design of highly automated and integrated instrumentation for the isolation of analytes from complex matrices and the subsequent separation, identification and determination of these species. The primary separation tools used by his group are gas chromatography, liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis coupled to a variety of detection systems, including a range of mass spectrometry techniques.”

Fr. Brian McCormick (left, photo by Bryn Gladding) was presented with the Fr. Norm Choate Distinguished Graduate Award at a dinner at St. Jerome’s University on Wednesday. The award is presented annually to a St. Jerome’s graduate who has distinguished herself or himself in professional or community life. McCormick founded Martin House in Trenton, New Jersey, more than 35 years ago, a diocesan inner-city ministry that secures housing, education, clothing and appliances, as well as offering worship and devotional services, for local people. The dinner was the centrepiece for a reunion of 75 St. Jerome’s alumni from the 1950s and 1960s who returned to Waterloo from the United States. Most had been seminary students at Resurrection College and had studied at St. Jerome’s.

The Water Boys are holding their end-of-term concert this Sunday, July 18, at 7:30 p.m., in Conrad Grebel UC Chapel. This a cappella singing group was founded by a group of Waterloo students two years ago and now includes students and alumni from across campus. The Water Boys have performed at, among other events, the Waterloo Alumni Event at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Impact International Theatre Festival, with a repertoire that ranges from the classical to the contemporary. The concert is free and all are welcome.

VeloCity is having a party on Monday to celebrate the achievements of the spring term, including the Bootcamp program. The Bootcamp entrepreneurs will demonstrate their new products and services, such as:

• GroupVestor (recent Waterloo grads): an online solution for small businesses to raise funds directly from their communities for expansion and investment purposes. (They are currently raising money for Mel's Diner.)
• Bloq Software (Waterloo and Queen's students): an iPad framework for card game development.
• Aetas Solutions (UBC students, pictured above): an interactive online booking system, ReserveMe, to help with the speed and efficiency of appointment-based businesses.

Next, a presentation of VeloCity group projects, then a barbecue dinner with cash bar. The event takes place Monday, July 19, 4 to 8 p.m. at the Accelerator Centre in the R&T Park, 295 Hagey Boulevard, Waterloo. Space is limited; please register.

Speaking of VeloCity, Dave Wilkin, a science and business student and a former resident of the unique Waterloo program, is writing a 10-article series for the Globe and Mail on youth entrepreneurship. His third article, highlighting VeloCity, appeared recently and is titled “Help is close at hand for eager Gen-Y entrepreneurs.”

Last-minute news on the Hylozoic Ground project comes from Rick Haldenby, the School of Architecture’s director. “We have been notified that CBC will broadcast a special report on Professor Philip Beesley and his Hylozoic Ground project for the Canadian Pavilion 2010 at the Venice Bienalle of Architecture on the National tonight (Friday) at 9:30 p.m.” This CBC news article describes the project, Canada's entry in the high-profile international event, and includes a slide show of intriguing images.

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Sabbaticals: from Asia to Zurich

Here’s a list of faculty members who are currently on sabbatical leaves. In each case, the plans described are as reported to the university’s Board of Governors, which has to give approval for all sabbaticals.

Marios Ioannidis, chemical engineering (six months beginning May 1): “My sabbatical is to be held at ETH-Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), where I plan to conduct research in the area of fluid and particle transport in porous geomaterials in the Soil and Terrestrial Environment Physics Laboratory, directed by Professor Dani Or.”

Jennifer LaGuardia, psychology (six months beginning July 1): “With collaborators at the University of Rochester I will be testing a couples-based intervention in the rehabilitation of patients who have experienced a heart attack and bypass (CABG) surgery. Then, at UC Santa Barbara, I will work with a collaborator to analyze results of a study using virtual reality technology and physiological measures of motivation.”

Jonathan Kofman, systems design engineering (six months beginning May 1): “Graduate student supervision, conducting research, and publishing research work of five graduate students completing their degrees in 2010. Conference organization as Steering Committee Chair and Technical Programs Chair of the International Symposium on Optomechatronics (ISOT). Research at the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre, Ottawa, and visit of laboratories in my research areas in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.”

Brian Ingalls, applied mathematics (twelve months beginning July 1): “I plan to spend a sabbatical year developing a set of course notes into a textbook manuscript and getting some laboratory experience.”

Philip Beesley, architecture (six months beginning July 1): “The sabbatical will be conducted in Toronto and London, developing responsive building envelope technical systems and cultural context.”

Pavle Radovanovic, chemistry (six months beginning May 1): “The sabbatical leave is requested to help my professional development and enhance my research production and scholarly activities at the critical stage when I am approaching my tenure application. The sabbatical will be used to finalize important research projects, publish several manuscripts for which experiments have been completed, give talks and seminars, and prepare applications for pre-tenure awards, including Alfred Sloan and Early Researcher Award.”

CPA staff

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