M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Building Construction
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M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Building Construction COLLEGE OF DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION & PLANNING Spring 2011, Volume 75, Issue 1 1 Orange & Blueprints M.E. Rinker, Sr. a bi-annual publication School of Building Construction 304 Rinker Hall Table of Contents PO Box 115703 In Memory of Dr. Brisbane Brown, Jr...... 4-5 Gainesville, FL 32611-5703 Executive Committee.............................. 6-7 Phone: (352) 273-1150 Alumni in Higher Education .................... 7 Fax: (352) 392-9606 Construction Hall of Fame...................... 8 www.bcn.ufl.edu Alumni in the News................................. 8 UF BCN Athletes..................................... 9 Alumni Updates...................................... 10-11 Dr. Christopher Silver Lessons Learned..................................... 11 Dean of the College of Design, Construction & Planning Regional Clubs ...................................... 12-13 Dr. Abdol Chini Fall 2010 Career Fair.............................. 14 Director of the Rinker School of Building Construction Fall 2010 Welcome Reception................ 14 Dr. Paul Oppenheim Fall 2010 Convocation & Dinner.............. 15 Director of Undergraduate Programs Guest Lectures....................................... 16 Dr. Jimmie Hinze Homecoming.......................................... 16 Director of Master’s Programs Major Donors ......................................... 17 Dr. Ian Flood Gifts........................................................ 18 Coordinator of Ph.D. Program Sponsorships......................................... 18 Dr. Charles Kibert Scholarships.......................................... 19 Director of the Powell Center for Friends and Donors................................. 20-21 Construction and Environment Student Club Activities........................... 22 Dr. Raymond Issa Student Competition Teams................... 23 Director of the Center for Advanced Construction BCN Field Trip........................................ 23 Information Modeling Faculty & Staff News.............................. 24-25 Research Centers................................... 26 Message to alumni .... The Charles R. Perry Construction Yard. 27 In an effort to reduce the cost of this -pub lication , please let Kim Stanley (kimms@ ufl.edu) know if you are receiving duplicate copies of this newsletter. Front cover photographs: Top left: Construction Hall of Fame Inductee - Daniel Baker page 8 Top middle: Construction Hall of Fame Members page 8 Top right: Construction Hall of Fame Inductee - Lance Walker, Sr. page 8 Middle left: Atlanta BCN Alumni Club - Golf Benefit page 12 Editor: Middle right: Fall 2010 Career Fair page 14 Kim Stanley Bottom: Fall 2010 Graduates at BCN Convocation page 15 [email protected] SHOW YOUR RINKER SCHOOL PRIDE To purchase items, contact Kim Stanley by phone at (352) 273-1187 or by e-mail at [email protected] BCN Polo Shirts (S, M, X, XL, XXL) BCN Coffee Mug BCN Portfolio Blue and White $5 $20 2 $30 A Message From ... Dr. Christopher Silver, Dean Dr. Abdol Chini, Director This past November, the semi-annual Some of you may have already heard gathering of the Architecture + Con- about my decision to step down as Di- struction Alliance (A + CA) took place rector of the Rinker School at the end at the Alexandria campus of Virginia of this semester. I have been in this Tech. You probably don’t know much position for eight years and have had if anything about this group, but hope- the privilege of serving an outstanding fully its mission and its efforts will be- group of faculty, staff, and students. come better known shortly. The group Their hard work and dedication have was created to advocate within leading helped the Rinker School become rec- educational institutions the need for ognized as one of the best construction stronger connections between the de- programs in the U.S. Our accomplish- signers and constructors as we prepare ments over this period are significant: the next generation of professionals to create our built environment. We started - We added four new faculty members to with the 13 universities in the U.S. that bring the total to 22. Two of the new fac- have both architecture and construction ulty lines are supported through the Charles programs within the same college, on the assumption that this group R. Perry endowed professorship and the William G. Lassiter and Aneice would likely be in the best position to advance better collaboration R. Lassiter endowed professorship. All faculty have significant industry between these two fields. The group has since recognized the value experience and all currently hold doctorates. They annually publish more of broadening membership beyond the original 13, and to encour- than 70 articles, make many national and international presentations, write age participation even where design and construction may be taught about 50 research proposals, and receive close to $2.0 million in research in separate colleges (and even in separate institutions) but where the funding. desire is evident to transform the teaching and research missions - We made a major revision in the undergraduate curriculum in 2007 to to foster greater collaboration between these sometime competitive bring it more in line with the current industry trends and needs. A set of fields. student learning outcomes was defined for each course and new topics such as sustainable construction and building information modeling were incor- Here in DCP, we are taking positive steps to model collaborative porated into the curriculum. learning across these disciplines. Certainly, the Solar Decathlon - We increased the size, diversity, and quality of our graduate program while Europe 2010 competition exemplified our commitment to this ef- still improving the quality of our excellent undergraduate curriculum. The fort. The initiation of a new Design-Build course in BCN last Fall, graduate enrollment is currently 150, with over 35 in the Ph.D. program. and the addition of an Integrated Project Delivery “studio” course We established the Rinker Scholar program for Ph.D. students through a taught jointly by construction and architecture faculty, and with major gift from M.E. Rinker, Sr. Foundation. a student base drawn from both disciplines, will take this effort - We provided opportunities for interdisciplinary education for BCN stu- to the next level starting this spring. Several of the BCN faculty dents and increased their awareness of the environment of designers and participate in the “research laboratories” set up under A + CA to other related disciplines through participation in the Solar Decathlon Eu- encourage cross-disciplinary research and even cross-institutional rope 2010 competition and courses in design-build and integrated project collaboration. The five areas of research include: housing and delivery methods. homebuilding; learning and pedagogy; integrated process and de- - We continued student exchange programs with Germany and Australia livery; building information modeling; and healthcare facility de- and started new student exchange programs with Hong Kong and Singa- sign and construction. These have already yielded impressive re- pore. We established the Rinker Fellowship for International Student Ex- sults. This fall, A + CA released its first compendium of “research change through another major gift from M.E. Rinker, Sr. Foundation. initiatives” featuring 43 abstracts of work currently underway by - We completed fundraising for construction and furnishing of Rinker Hall faculty at the member institutions. We expect the volume and the and moved to the School’s new home in 2003. Construction of the Charles collaborative qualities of this research will increase as more of our R. Perry Construction Yard was completed in 2007; and since then it has faculty become engaged. A + CA also is considering ways to pro- provided significant hands-on experience opportunities for BCN students. vide modest but useful financial support to foster work in all these - We established several new endowed fellowships, scholarships, and pro- research initiatives. fessorships. The School’s endowment increased from $11.8 million in 2003 to its current $25.1 million. There is a growing array of cross-disciplinary initiatives within - We formed seven BCN regional clubs in Florida and one in Atlanta and DCP between the design, construction and planning faculties and maintained strong ties with our alumni and industry friends through the ca- real estate, law, the environmental folks in IFAS and engineering, reer fairs, guest lectures, industry focus groups, BCN advisory council, and especially within the broad category of sustainability (which should publication of the bi-annual BCN newsletter, “Orange & Blueprints.” be an additional research initiative within A + CA). In this regard, we are attempting to keep up with what is already a prevailing trend The contributions of our friends and alumni have played a major in practice. One of the next steps for A + CA is to more fully engage role in the School’s success. In particular, I would like to acknowl- our practitioner designers and constructors into the dialogue with edge the support of our Industry Advisory Council Executive Com- our educators of appropriate teaching and research issues. Certain- mittee members who have been great friends and advisors to us. ly the broader Rinker community has much to offer to this impor- tant initiative. So I urge you to continue to share with our faculty Finally, let me say what a pleasure it has been to be and