PennDesign Teaching Awards |
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April 22, 2014, Volume 60, No. 31 |
The School of Design announced three recipients of their 2014 Teaching Awards.
These awards are named in honor of the late G. Holmes Perkins, dean of the Graduate School of Fine Arts from 1951-1971 (now the School of Design) and are given in recognition of distinguished teaching and innovation in the methods of instruction in the classroom, seminar or studio. Dean Perkins passed away in 2004 (Almanac September 7, 2004) at the age of 99. The Perkins Award was established in 1993 by former dean and Paley Professor Patricia Conway. The undergraduate award was established by the School in 2005.
The awards will be presented at PennDesign at a ceremony on Sunday, May 18, at 4 p.m. at Furness Plaza, next to Meyerson Hall, as part of the School’s graduation activities. The ceremony will feature remarks by Alan Greenberger, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Director of Commerce, City of Philadelphia.
The 2014 G. Holmes Perkins Award for Distinguished Teaching by a member of the standing faculty: Franca Trubiano
The 2014 G. Holmes Perkins Award for Distinguished Teaching by a member of the standing faculty will be awarded to Franca Trubiano, assistant professor of architecture, who teaches high performance building design studios in the graduate and post-professional Masters of Environmental Building Design Program, as well as Construction Technology seminars. She has also introduced Building Information Modeling in the Construction Technology sequence by authoring a two-volume BIM Handbook for use by students. Her research areas include construction technology, materials, tectonic theories, integrated design, architectural ecologies and high performance buildings.
Noting Dr. Trubiano’s “dedication to the marriage of technology and design, nominees called their instructor incredibly dedicated, knowledgeable and approachable.” One student wrote “Franca is an amazing professor and person. Beyond being extremely intelligent and passionate, she is devoted to her students and always puts in the time and energy to help guide them. She is without a doubt one of the most valuable resources here at PennDesign.”
Dr. Trubiano is a registered achitect. She is also a research associate and inaugural member of the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub, a US Energy Innovation Hub located at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. She received her MArch and BArch from McGill University and her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. |
The 2014 G. Holmes Perkins Award for Distinguished Teaching: Mark Alan Hughes
The 2014 G. Holmes Perkins Award for Distinguished Teaching by a member of the associated faculty will be awarded to Mark Alan Hughes, professor of practice in city & regional planning.
Dr. Hughes teaches the Sustainable Cities course in the department’s land use and environmental planning concentration as well as Design as Policy. Dr. Hughes also co-taught the School’s online Sustainability in Practice course for Coursera. Nominations from the students noted that Dr. Hughes “ran the best and most engaging seminar that I’ve ever been in.” Others noted his kindness and one stated that “he teaches very clearly and he is knowledgeable.”
Dr. Hughes holds a BA from Swarthmore and a PhD from Penn. He is well-established as a researcher, serving as a lead investigator at the DOE’s Energy Efficient Buildings Hub at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. He is a faculty fellow of the Penn Institute for Urban Research, a senior fellow of the Wharton School’s Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership and a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Penn’s Fox Leadership Program. With his colleagues, Dr. David Hsu and Dr. John Landis, he is supporting Penn’s role in exploring green infrastructure investments as part of a grant from the US EPA. |
The 2014 G. Holmes Perkins Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Undergraduate Programs: Sofia Krimizi
The 2014 G. Holmes Perkins Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Undergraduate Programs will be awarded to Sofia Krimizi, lecturer in both graduate and undergraduate architecture. Notably, Ms. Krimizi has also played a leading role in the School of Design’s annual Year-End exhibition and Pressing Matters II publication.
Students were emphatic in their praise for their studio instructor. “I have never had a professor who was able to teach us so many fundamental and unwritten lessons about design in a course before,” said one. “I feel that she has been the most effective instructor that I have yet studied with in this program,” said another. “She has consistently given valuable feedback during desk crits and pinups and is excellent at driving her students to produce high quality work.”
Originally from Athens, she earned her graduate degree in architecture and engineering from the National Technical University of Athens with honors. She followed the Master II program in Ecole National SupÈrieure d’ Architecture de Paris La Villette (UP6) under the Erasmus program. Under a Fulbright scholarship, she earned a post professional masters in advanced architectural design from the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia. She is a practicing architect and co-founder of ksestudio in New York. |
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