[Temporary website – updated November 2011]
FACADE T E C T O N I C S
DOCTORAL STUDENTS in
the FAADE TECTONICS Program in the
School of
Architecture, University of Southern California
Simon K. Chiu is in the final steps of
pursuing his license in architecture.
He graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor
of Architecture degree, and later with a Master of Real Estate Development
degree. After college, he worked
with McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners, one of Southern Californias
leading architecture, planning, and interior design firms, where he earned
broad architectural experience in Type V over Type I building constructions. He became the youngest Associate in the
firms 30 years history. In 2002,
as Simon began his Master of Real Estate Development program at USC, he
established his professional career in real estate development and investment. As an owner-developer, his project The
Troon House earned multiple awards from home-building related industries. He is also pursuing his LEED
professional credentials, and California Real Estate Broker License. In addition to his interests in
architecture and real estate, Simon is actively involved with non-profit
organizations. He serves on the
Board of Directors at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, for which he helps
orchestrate fundraising activities, exhibition programming and research
publications. He is a member of the
USC Associates Provost, a member of the USC Ambassadors of the University
President Office, and a life member of the USC Architectural Guild -- the
primary support group of the School of Architecture. Currently Simon is a
student at USC in the Ph.D. in Architecture program, with a research interest
in Fabric Membrane Lightweight Faade Systems. He recently received a research grant
for his case study research in Membrane Building Facades from MVE
Institutional, Inc., an architecture and planning firm
that specializes in institutional and educational projects. His other interests
include historic preservation and building technology in sustainability design.
Myo Boon Hur is currently pursuing her
license in architecture and is a LEED Accredited Professional. She has both
research and work experience in digital methods and building design. She
graduated from Ewha Womens University in South Korea with Bachelor and Master
of Science degree in Architecture and Texas A&M University with a Master of
Architecture degree. Her graduate studies in Ewha Womens University focused on
the computer aided design and the high-rise apartment design. In the study,
Design Support Systems for Korean Traditional Wooden Structures, Myo Boon
proposed the information structure of components and part assemblies of
traditional Korean wooden structure by using CATIA and programs for database
and internet service. Her research, A Study on Building Management System
using GIS program was published in Journal of Korea Facility Management
Association and Open Apartment Building System in Korean Context was
published in Open Building Proceedings Conference of CIB W104. In Texas A&M
University, Myo Boon completed her graduate research in hospital design and her
study, Design of Hospital-Related Rehabilitation Facilities for the Elderly,
was awarded a 2003-2004 AIA/AHA (American Hospital Association) Graduate
Fellowship in Health Facility Planning and Design. After graduation from Texas
A&M University, Myo Boon had worked in RTKL Associates, Inc. as an
intermediate architect for three years. In RTKL, she participated in several
hospital projects, from small renovation projects to large new projects with
construction scopes of over 100,000SF. Myo Boon is participating in the Ph.D.
program in Architecture with an interest in sustainability based on building
technology in 2010 fall semester.
Shih-Hsin Eve Lin completed her undergraduate
Civil Engineering degree and her Masters in Construction Engineering &
Management at the National Taiwan University . Eve
gained experience working at various construction and development companies,
including the Century Development Corporation. There she assisted in the
development of Nankang Software Park by providing the Green Building
Evaluation. She also aided in the subsequent implementation of the ISO9000
standard. During her first Masters, Eve discovered her interest in green
building and sustainable design.
She had the opportunity to expand her studies by pursuing a second
Masters through the USC Building Science Program. By concentrating on emerging
technology with regards to building energy simulation, Eve continued to push
the boundaries of her contribution to sustainable design. Merging her
background and knowledge in civil engineering, construction management,
building science, sustainable design and energy simulation, she believes
building information modeling technology (BIT) is the solution for more
efficient, higher performance and sustainable building. While current BIT has
not been mature enough to achieve the goal she believes in, she continues her
research in analytical building information technology in the Ph.D. in
Architecture program at USC. In the future, she hopes she can continue to
devote herself to the ever expanding and ever important
world of BIT for sustainable design.
Ed Losch is a licensed structural
engineer and architect in Illinois, and a registered professional engineer in
many other states. He is a member of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute
and recently chaired the PCI Sandwich Wall Panel Committee. He also served as
co-editor and contributor to the PCI Precast Concrete Detailing Handbook and
served as juror for the 2004 Harry H. Edwards Industry Advancement Awards. Ed
was a founding member of the Precast Concrete Software Consortium. As a former Associate of The Consulting
Engineers Group in Mount Prospect, IL, Ed was project manager for the design of
a variety of concrete and steel structures including several paper mills and
the spiral pedestrian ramps for the Florida Suncoast Dome. He was a Field
Investigator for PCI Research Project No. 7, "Survey of Precast
Prestressed Concrete Parking Structures" He personally surveyed 39 parking
structures in 11 major cities nationwide for this study. He has also served as
Chief Engineer for Dukane Precast and Prestress Engineering Corp. Ed founded
Losch Engineering Corp. in 1993 and continues as president. He also wrote the
LECWall Precast/Prestressed Wall and Column Design program in 1994 and the
LECPres Prestressed Beam Design program in 1997. Well over 100 companies have
since licensed these software titles for use in their engineering departments.
Ed holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois at
Urbana, with a specialization in structural engineering.
Andrea Martinez graduated as an architect from
Universidad de Chile. She arrived
at the USC Architecture Ph.D program after being awarded a Fulbright
scholarship from the U.S. Department of State and the Chilean Government. The program, called Beca Igualdad de
Oportunidades called for a selected group of professionals, joined under the
Fulbright umbrella and the Chilean Corporacion Nacional de Ciencias y
Tecnologia (CONICYT). As a
practitioner, she worked as designer for architectural firms developing
projects for both private and government, and later as project manager in a
design-construction firm specialized in retail projects. In academia, she worked as an assistant
studio professor at the Universidad de Chile and later at the Universidad de
las Americas, where she also had the role of academic advisor. Her current research explores building
retrofits. Her graduation research
"El proceso de restaurar: intervencion a dos escalas (Restoration
process: two scales of intervention) for the Universidad de Chile, Department
of History of Architecture explored techniques of art restoration applied to
both the urban and building scale.
The master plan project for rehabilitation of one of the important court
of justice in Chile, was one of the first projects in
her practice. She is
currently pursuing her LEED Accredited Professional accreditation.
Prior to enrolling in the Ph.D.
program at USC, Yara Masri had been teaching for four years in different schools of
architecture in Jordan, with classes focusing on comparative history of
architecture, advanced design and building construction. As a result of research alongside
professors in different areas, which included renovation and urban design,
Masri was asked to join the faculty at the German-Jordanian University in Amman,
and co-launched the School of Architecture and Design in 2006 (now the School
of Architecture and Built Environment), an award winning college program in
Jordan. Masris work as an
architect encompassed different areas; with reputable Jordanian architectural
firms she worked on projects that range from large industrial facilities,
hospitals, sports complexes, and housing development, to private residences.
Her expertise took on issues of cultural heritage and place, giving solutions
within the frame of revitalization of historic buildings, city/ town centers-
up to the scale of town master plans. The experience in design and site
supervision led her to work in contracting and development-
which was alongside teaching. Contracting was the field that got her
interested in further study of structures and building technologies, and the
advancement in building construction in Jordan. Because she adopts a
multi-disciplinary approach in teaching and research, Masri was later awarded
two DAAD scholarships to work on historic towns revitalization projects at
Dortmund University in Germany in 2008, and a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue
her PhD in the United States.
Mic Patterson has made a career study of
structural glass facades, participating in the design, fabrication and
installation of a remarkably diverse body of novel applications. He founded ASI
Advanced Structures Inc in 1991, the firm that pioneered the introduction of
advanced faade technology in the US marketplace. Enclos, a leading global curtain
wall firm, acquired ASI in 2007. Patterson subsequently participated in the
establishment of the Advanced Technology Studio of Enclos, a faade think-tank
located in downtown Los Angeles, where he works as the Director of Strategic
Development. Patterson earned a Masters of Building Science degree from the
School of Architecture at the University of Southern California, where he is
currently a PhD candidate. He has taught, written extensively and lectured
widely on diverse aspects of advanced faade technology. He is the author of
Structural Glass Facades and Enclosures, to be published by Wiley in the spring
of 2011.
After graduating from the Master
of Building Science program at University of Southern California in 2007, Jae Yong Suk has been working as a lighting
designer in Los Angeles. At Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design Company, he has
worked on various projects such as airports, museums, universities, offices,
libraries, hotels, retails, parks, etc. These projects have included special
requirements for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) credits,
daylighting analysis, and complicated building geometries. Through these
projects he has learned many lighting and daylighting design approaches that
can accommodate the visual comfort of occupants. In 2009, he has started his
Ph.D. program in school of architecture at USC. His main interest is
architectural daylighting and glare in relation to building facades. During his
Ph.D. study at USC, he is going to develop a new glare evaluation methodology
which can predict and quantify levels of absolute and relative visual glare
caused by daylight through a building facade or by sunlight reflected from it.
He is currently studying High Dynamic Range Imaging that can store much greater
range of luminance information in digital photographs than conventional digital
imaging techniques. Using this technique, he is going to evaluate his previous
research methodology for visual glare analysis on Disney Concert Hall in Los
Angeles.
Jeffrey C. Vaglio is a structural engineer,
architect, and researcher who is focused on the design and performance of
advanced building enclosure technologies. He is currently the Design Engineer
in the Advanced Technology Studio of Enclos Corp, the largest curtain wall firm
in the United States. In this role he has been integral in the design and
engineering of numerous structural glass facades and skylights including
double-skin facades, cable-net walls, point-supported glazing, and grid-shell
systems. He is also a Ph.D. in
Architecture candidate in the USC Chase L. Leavitt Graduate Building Science
Program where he is an Oakley Fellow. As a researcher Jeffrey has merged his
interests of structures and sustainability by investigating the unique
structural response and design practices associated with double-skin
facades. This research has resulted
in numerous articles for conferences and professional journals, as well as
presentations in the United States, Canada and Europe. In practice he is dedicated to spanning the
gaps between architecture and engineering by methods of creative problem
solving. This often includes exploring transfer of technologies and solutions
from other disciplines to compliment his competencies in design, 3D modeling,
structural analysis, finite element analysis, complex geometry rationalization,
visualization, animation and 3D information management. At the core of
Jeffreys approach are a spirit for collaboration, research, and dedication to
clarity in communication.
Elizabeth Valmont is currently pursuing her
license in architecture and is a LEED Accredited Professional. She is an
Associate of the American Institute of Architects and an active member of the
Acoustical Society of America. She graduated from the University of Southern California
with a Bachelor degree in Architecture and pursued her interest in acoustics
with a graduate degree in Building Science. Her graduate work included research
of disabling solar glare especially for the Walt Disney Concert Hall at the Los
Angeles Music Center leading to conference publications in the United States
and abroad. She was awarded the SBSE Best Presentation Award at the ASES/ISES
conference in 2005. Her graduate study in building technology provided her with
opportunities for creating technical programs and lectures to architecture
students and professional firms. Elizabeth completed her graduate thesis in
variable acoustic tehnologies for performance space design and was awarded the
Bobert B. Newman Award for Architectural Acoustics in 2005. She is currently an
acoustic consultant at Arup in Los Angeles working in building acoustics on
local and international projects. Her project work includes processes of
auralization, exterior noise analysis, interior sound and impact isolation,
room acoustic design, mechanical, electrical and plumbing noise and vibration
control. She was formerly with Veneklasen Associates. Elizabeth has been a
lecturer for architectural systems courses for USC undergraduate architecture
students since 2007 and frequently presents for visiting students and
professionals at Arup. Elizabeth is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Architecture
through the Chase L. Leavitt Graduate Building Science Program with an interest
in acoustic technologies to improve the performance of the building facade.