This website is a compilation of projects that I have worked on through my career as an Architect, Design/Builder, Educator and Administrator. As of March 29, 2021, I will be Architecture Department Head at the University of Oregon, in the School of Architecture and the Environment (SAE) in the College of Design. This is a great honor to return to my alma mater (1998) and work with this tremendous faculty.
Since 2018, I have been an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering in the College of Engineering with a courtesy appointment in the School of Architecture in the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs (CAPPA) at the University of Texas at Arlington. I was the Director of the Architectural Engineering program in Civil Engineering.
I was an Assistant and Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Interior Design (SAID) in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) at the University of Cincinnati from 2006-2018. I was Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Curriculum in DAAP from 2016-2018.
I am a licensed Architect (California) and I work at the intersection of design/build and community engagement in the built environment. While my initial research and teaching was on technical aspects of environmental sustainability in buildings, my research and teaching evolved to focus on public interest design, academic design/build and culturally-informed community engagement (local and international).
My published work includes Precedents in Zero-Energy Design: Architecture and Passive Design in the 2007 Solar Decathlon (Routledge Press, 2009) and New Directions in Sustainable Design, with Dr. Adrian Parr (Routledge Press, 2010). I have had articles published in several architectural journals and presented at conferences around the world on Sustainability, Humanitarian Design and Public Interest Design. Some projects are included in the 2018 book The Public Interest Design Education Guidebook edited by Bell and Abendroth. I am presently writing Design Beyond Borders: International Design/Build Community Engagement – a book that explores how those in practice, organizations and universities involved in international design/build projects engage those in under-resourced communities where they are working.
I have been Director of Design for the Roche Health Center (RHC) in rural Tanzania since 2008. This is a project of Village Life Outreach Project, Inc., based in Cincinnati, a non-profit whose mission is to promote Life, Health & Education in communities. The Roche Health Center is the first–ever permanent health care facility in this region. RHC opened April 1, 2011 and provides health care to as many as 20,000 villagers. The Roche Health Center was the winner of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Collaborative Practice Award in 2011 and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) Award for Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy in 2011.
I was the Director of the MetroLAB Community Design/Build program at University of Cincinnati from 2011-2018. MetroLAB was a collection of projects in which UC faculty led studios that collaborated with non-profits in the Cincinnati area to work with local communities on projects for under-represented communities. Several UC faculty were involved in leading the MetroLAB projects.
I collaborate with many people, but my primary collaborator is my wife, Dr. Adrian Parr. One ongoing initiative is the Future Cities; Livable Futures project which began with the Future Cities; Livable Futures Symposium in Cincinnati in 2013 and included the Future Cities; Livable Futures: Towards a Sustainable Model for Urban-Watershed Systems conference and workshop in Arlington in 2019.