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Gail Peter Borden, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Discipline Head of Architecture, and Director of Graduate Architecture was recently elevated to Fellowship in the AIA (FAIA). Borden was one of ten new Fellows from the Los Angeles chapter of the AIA. His elevation to Fellowship  affirms significant contributions to the profession on many levels: for his academic leadership; his teaching on technical and effectual qualities of materiality; for his vibrant, research-based practice, Borden Partnership; for five important books on materiality; and for his ability to bridge the academy and the profession. He will be honored at the investiture ceremony during the 2015 AIA National Convention in Atlanta.  

Ehrlich Architects, led by faculty member Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, RIBA, received the 2015 AIA Architecture Firm Award. The Firm Award, given annually, is the highest honor bestowed by the AIA to recognize firms that have made significant contributions to architecture and have produced exceptional architecture in the past  ten years. Ehrlich Architects was recognized for its sensitive approach to an architecture that is inclusive and brings a deep commitment to cultural sensitivity while solving contemporary problems. Seeing themselves as “architectural anthropologists,” the firm routinely explores ancient building traditions to inform and enrich their unique brand of modernism.  

Faculty member Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Service from the American Institute of Architects California Council (AIACC). This award is the most significant honor presented by the AIACC. It recognizes outstanding contributions to the improvement of the built environment and contributions that further the goals of the architectural profession. “The multiplying effect of Scarpa’s influence is obvious and extraordinary,” one juror said. Another added, “He is a strong candidate who has embraced sustainability and moved the profession forward showing that exceptional and sustainable design do not need to be different.”  

Doris Sung, Assistant Professor, was honored with an 2015 AIA Small Projects Award for her project Bloom: An Environmentally Responsive and Zero-Energy Surface System. Bloom, an “architectural research installation,” acts as a sun tracking instrument, indexing time and temperature. Composed of approximately 14,000 lasercut pieces of thermobimetal, a type of sheet metal that curls when heated, the structure acts as a responsive surface that shades and ventilates as the sun heats up its surface. The project reflects Sung’s on-going research on thermobimetals and their applications in curtain walls and as architecturally integrated passive shading systems. Sung will be honored along with other AIA Award recipients at the 2015 AIA National Convention in Atlanta.

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