College News

• David Ferguson and Andrea Swartz  received a $150,000 three-year grant awarded by the Ball Brothers Foundation entitled “CAP@MadJax – Maker Culture Leadership”. The grant supports CAP’s footprint at MADJAX, where Ball State CAP students and faculty support design education workshops, creative exploration, prototyping for Ball State students, and developing programs for k-12 youth and adult learners.
• The college is shooting promotional infomercials for the Dennis Quaid-hosted PBS program “Viewpoint,” which runs on PBS channels nationwide. Specific topics include: Societal leadership and Social Justice, Environmental Stewardship and Community Engagement, and Technological Advances.
• CAP assisted WIPB with developing site installations for the Bob Ross ‘Happy Little Festival’ on campus held on Saturday, October 29th in the quad adjacent to Worthen Arena.  Led by Colby Gray, CAP students and faculty used contemporary fabrication methods to make an eight-foot entrance and event sign, a ten-foot Bob Ross bobble head, six four-foot tall wayfinding squirrels, and more. The process features CNC foam sculpting and showcases Ball State Digital Fabrication resources.
• New exhibit in CAP’s Gallery. Architecture and Life in the Big City Cartoons from 1887 to 1985. Runs October 24-November 18, 2022 Monday thru Friday 8:00 to 4:00 pm

Upcoming Guest Lectures

• SEKOU COOKE
  NOV 7 | 4 P.M. | AB 100
  Sekou Cooke is an architect, urban designer, researcher, and curator. Born in Jamaica and based in Charlotte, North Carolina, he is the Director of the Master of Urban Design program at UNC Charlotte.
• SAPPENFIELD GUEST LECTURER – MARLON BLACKWELL
  NOV 14 | 4:00 P.M. Reception in Architecture Gallery | 5:00 P.M. Lecture in AB 100
  Marlon Blackwell is an architect in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and the E. Fay Jones Distinguished Professor at the University of Arkansas.
• ALEXANDRA LANGE
  NOV 28 | 4 P.M. | AB 100
  Alexandra Lange is a design critic and columnist for Bloomberg CityLab.

 

Department News

Architecture

• The Bachelor and Master of Architecture programs was awarded the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) first-ever Zero Energy Design Designation (ZEDD) seal of recognition. This recognition is given to educational programs “that are preparing tomorrow’s architectural and engineering leaders to design and build the most sustainable buildings possible. This new DOE designation distinguishes post-secondary academic programs that impart the best practices of zero-energy design on students and require them to apply those building science concepts in actual projects.”
• Solar Decathlon project has broken ground on the site for the Alley House build. An innovative slab system is being used engineered by Legalett in Canada. The frost protected shallow foundation slab system doesn’t require any footings or stem walls below the first line. The slab system reduces the amount of concrete used and the overall carbon emissions associated with the Portland cement in the concrete. CAP is one of only a few buildings in Indiana to have ever used this innovative slab system. The thick EPS foam pad that the slab sits on effectively prevents the ground below from freezing and will perform well in this climate. More about the project here.
  
• Kristin Barry received a grant for “Interpretations of the National Cemeteries” funded by the National Cemetery Administration. The ongoing project is for the development of an interpretive masterplan for current and future US national cemeteries (there are 155 of them) and for interpretive signage at those cemeteries, the grant money awarded for the projects so far totals $184, 902.
• The article “LEED Lab co-founder publishes guide to the program (USGBC Indiana),” by Robert J. Koester has been published on the U.S. Green Building Council’s website.
• Sean Burns and Matthew Wilson co-authored and co-edited the book entitled, “Understanding Site in Design Pedagogy”, contributing the chapter entitled “Sites of Alternate Origin: Design Ideation Under a New Austerity,” published September 12, 2022 by Routledge.
  https://www.routledge.com/Understanding-Site-in-Design-Pedagogy/Burns-Wilson/p/book/9781032345420#
• Students Kyle Anthony-Petter, Grace Goedecker, Trisha Martin, Brianna Minnich, and Abigail Rosenow in Historic Preservation were awarded second place in the national 2022 Charles E. Peterson Prize Competition, for their drawings of the Interurban Bridge at Oldfields—an historic site in Indianapolis.Faculty advisor was Jonathan Spodek.
• The paper “Visual Character Analysis Within Algorithmic Design, Quantifying Aesthetics Relative to Structural and Geometric Design Criteria”—written by Patrick Danahy has been published in the CAADRIA 2022 Post Carbon Conference Proceedings, receiving the award for “Best Presentation Runner Up”.

Construction Management

IDIA Lab

• Institute for Digital intermedia Arts (IDIA) Lab launched its Virtual Escape Room project for Ball State’s College of Health. The research and development of the virtual multi-user escape room application will be used to enhance learning objectives and support teaching teamwork and communications curricula for health profession students.
  Escape rooms employ innovative learning strategies such as problem-based immersive learning, role play, and game principles to improve teamwork, communication, and leadership. Nationally, health profession curricula are beginning to explore the use of escape room experiences as innovative pedagogy. Escape rooms challenge individuals to collaboratively explore new content, work as a team to discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish interactive tasks in a limited amount of time.

Interior Design

• Juntae Jake Son co-authored an article with Byeongjoon Hoh and Hansaem Park entitled “Optimization of Building Material Selection for Energy Savings in Commercial Buildings in Different Climatic Conditions,” for the Journal of Green Building, Volume 17, Issue 3.
  https://meridian.allenpress.com/jgb
• The article, “Theories as a Heuristic Thinking Device to Create Empathy in [Interior] Design Studio”—co-authored by Sarah Angne Alfaro and Tina Patel from Kent State University—has been published in the International Journal of Designs for Learning.
• Second year Interior Design students received awards at the National Kitchen and Bath Association. Faculty advisors were Juntae Jake Son and Reza Ahmadi. Tiffany Campion– 1st place in kitchen design; Aysiah Hernandez– 2nd place in kitchen design; Naomi Smallwood– 2nd place bathroom design.

Landscape Architecture

• Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) Indiana honored five faculty members from CAP for this year’s COVID Character Honors program. The nominees were selected by LEAP chapter members, who submitted stories about dedicated colleagues who helped one or more students during the many challenges presented by the pandemic. Honorees are: Christopher Baas, Cesar Cruz, J.P. Hall, Jeremy Merrill, and Susan Tomizawa.
• J.P. Hall, Jeremy Merrill, and Christopher Baas co-authored article “Tree-ring Analysis of the Free Black Beech Church: A Surviving Relic of an African American Farm Community” has been published by the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
• Landscape student Travis Johnson won an Award of Excellence from the American Society of Landscape Architects for his project, “Nature’s Song – An Interactive Outdoor Music and Sound Museum.” Faculty advisors were Chris Marlow and Craig Farnsworth.
• Jeremy Merrill co-authored an article with Dr. Dongying Li of Texas A&M. The article, titled “Nature deficit and senses: Relationships among childhood nature exposure and adulthood sensory profiles, creativity, and nature relatedness,” has been published in Landscape and Urban Planning.
• Craig Farnsworth’s India ink wash rendering received first place in the 10th Annual Acanthus Awards. This year’s competition brief called for A New Vision for the Court of the Presidents in Grant Park in Chicago. It imagined a hypothetical situation where this entire area would be designed using classical design elements to “complete” the Court of the Presidents by creating usable park space dedicated to a noble purpose.
  
  
  

Urban Planning

• Scott Truex’s neighborhood planning studio in Ft. Wayne will present work on Dec. 7. President Mearns will visit and participate in a ribbon cutting of CAP’s Ft. Wayne location in the co-working space of ElectricWorks.
• John West, contributed a chapter entitled “The Political Economy of Abandoned Property: Structure and Agency in Land Banking Practice in Muncie, Indiana” in the book Political Economy of Land, edited by Mika Mika Hyötyläinen and Robert Beauregard. https://www.routledge.com/The-Political-Economy-of-Land-Rent-Financialization-and-Resistance/Hyotylainen-Beauregard/p/book/9781032248196
• “Africans in Harlem: An Untold New York Story by Boukary Sawadogo,” an article written by Michael Burayidi was accepted for publication in the Journal of Urban Affairs.
• Lorhen Deeg wins his fifth American Society of Architectural Illustrators (ASAI) award in the “Informal Award” category and it’s his first time winning a category of the competition. ASAI will exhibit a print of the work in London UK in November in conjunction with their annual conference and publish the work in the 37th edition of Architecture in Perspective, an annual serial volume that is in our library.