I N H A B I School of Architecture, Planning T & Preservation’s Alumni Magazine MARYLAND’S BUILT ENVIRONMENT SCHOOL Inhabit is the annual alumni e-magazine of the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation—Maryland’s Built Environment School. Inhabit showcases achievements and activities within the school, highlights the work of our alumni and connects our MAPP community. You may also view it on our website at www.arch.umd.edu. To share alumni news or be added to our mailing list, contact us at: [email protected]. Writers Maggie Haslam Holly Simmons Editor Christine Cestello Hinojosa Designers Jelena Dakovic Pete Morelewicz The MAPP Alumni Newsletter was produced with Adobe InDesign. The text is set in Interstate, Univers and Bembo. We appreciate your comments on this publication and encourage you to contact us at: [email protected]. December 2020 School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation 3835 Campus Drive University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 ii | Maryland’s Built Environment School Contents Dean’s Message 4 Green is Good for You—and Your Career 6 Is the Definition of Heritage All in Your Head? 8 Above: Rendering of green building by Perkins + Will for Troubled Waters: Rising Floodwaters and the Toll 10 ongoing research by Professor on Marginalized Communities Madlen Simon and Assistant Professor Ming Hu on the brain’s Double Duty: Three New Dual Degrees Prepare 14 response to sustainable design. Students for a Changing and Challenging World Below: fMRI mockup image, 18 courtesy of Jeremy Wells. Making “Ah-ha” Moments Happen: Brian Kelly on the Power of Giving and Study Abroad Read more about these projects on pages 6-9. Draw Like the Romans Do: Architecture’s Oldest 20 Study Abroad Program Puts the Classics at Students’ Fingertips Historic Preservation’s LGBTQ Heritage 22 Above: Residents of North Brentwood, Maryland, wade News at MAPP: Projects, Research and Initiatives 24 to work after a night of heavy downpours in 1955. Research UMD for the Win! Maryland Students Bring Home 31 conducted through the Top Honors in 2019-2020 Stormwater Infrastructure Resilience and Justice (SIRJ) UMD Launches First Undergraduate Real Estate 33 lab is working to address Development Program this enduring issue for the predominately African American Alumni Profiles 34 community (read more on page 10). Photo courtesy: the Alumni News 42 Washington Star, 1955. Exhibits & Events 50 Faculty News 52 Isabelle Gournay Writes Her Next Chapter 58 Steve Hurtt Reflects on a Well-Built Career 60 at Maryland In Memoriam: MAPP Remembers Legendary Faculty 62 2 | Maryland’s Built Environment School Inhabit December 2020 | 3 Our new virtual environment offered the advantage of engaging wider audiences, affording our students perspectives from alumni and practitioners from around the world. -DON LINEBAUGH Dean’s Message As we look back on the events of 2020, certain gentrification, sustainability and green design, words naturally come to mind: exhausting, surreal, smart cities, social and environmental justice, heartbreaking, unprecedented and never-ending. climate change and economic development. But, when I reflect on the past 12 months here at the school, the words that reverberate in my mind Our new virtual environment offered the are actually quite different: resilience, creativity, advantage of engaging wider audiences, affording community and hope. our students perspectives from alumni and practitioners from around the world. We have In 2020, our MAPP community demonstrated watched our students succeed despite incredible dedication and fortitude in the face of obstacles and our graduates poise themselves— overwhelming uncertainty. In March, when the with determination and grace—to make their mark university was forced to quickly pivot online with on the world. the state’s Coronavirus shutdown, our faculty adeptly overhauled class discussions and studio The year 2020 was one of incredible hardship and work for a virtual environment, using innovative loss. Our community faced new obstacles because technology and restructured virtual spaces to of the pandemic and were robbed of the intimate, replicate day-to-day in-person activities. engaging experiences that define college life. We lost beloved faculty and are navigating new The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor challenges as a school. But it was also a time of and others this past spring led our community reflection and renewal; we did more than maintain to examine issues of diversity, inclusion, equity, the status quo, we pushed beyond it. systemic racism and bias within the school; town halls and ongoing conversations have led to an We approach 2021 with new resolve as a anti-racism plan that we continue to evolve and community and look to a future propelled by those work has begun to address issues that need bright spots of 2020. Wishing you a joyous and immediate attention. healthy new year. We had one of the most productive research years in our school’s history. Record funding has Donald W. Linebaugh, PhD, RPA, spurred new projects and initiatives that engage Interim Dean our faculty and students in “big idea” challenges: 4 | Maryland’s Built Environment School Inhabit December 2020 | 5 and combined, EEG data has shown intriguing This people-centric focus could be a secret changes in emotional responses that influence weapon in winning the argument for more behavior. sustainable buildings. Despite their obvious environmental benefit, Simon and Hu agree “There’s a lot of evidence that natural exposure the world has been slow to adopt sustainable has the ability to reduce stress,” says Bernat. building design, with the biggest barrier being “We hypothesized that people would be the higher construction cost. But the findings more engaged by the visual aspects of green of this pilot study might sway companies to buildings and what we’ve seen is conducive “go green” by demonstrating the impact it can to that. While that’s not surprising, what have on their bottom line. we’ve been able to correlate that to is very compelling.” “If one can construct an economic argument that people will be more productive, have Initial findings show that participants who are higher executive functioning, be more creative immersed in a green building environment or more collaborative, then you begin to demonstrate significant increases in brain get clients saying, ‘we need a sustainable activity that drive attributes like information building,’” says Simon, who has spent nearly sharing and collaboration, a willingness to two decades studying design thinking. “If your approach others and a likelihood to try new employees are making things. In addition, the findings suggest a you more Rendering of green reduction in prefrontal activity, with regions money in building by Perkins + Will of the brain talking less to each other and for ongoing research by quieting. The Building Blocks of Human Health Professor Madlen Simon and Assistant Professor Ming Hu on the brain’s response to “The interpretation is that pulling individuals Does working in a light-filled space make a floor plan—provide a boost to areas of the sustainable design. into the present moment through the spatial A real sustainable building person more productive? Could exposure brain associated with workplace strengths and visual elements of green building design is a space that can enhance to patina help hospital patients heal faster? like collaboration and mental well-being, can reduce their stress and make them more a person’s productivity New research by UMD faculty is exploring the the ongoing study between the School of available to the work,” says Bernat. and well-being; that is psychological and physiological responses Architecture, Planning and Preservation and the ultimate goal of green to the places where we live, work and play to UMD’s Brain Behavior Initiative suggests. “Some environmental metrics of a green building design. - Ming Hu understand how factors like built heritage and building are well-defined, like energy, water green building practices could impact quality Using virtual reality (VR) and or air quality,” says Hu. “But all of those of life. Read on to see why human health electroencephalogram (EEG) brain imaging, intangible soft benefits are hard to measure. might be the next big design movement: architecture Professors Madlen Simon For the longest time, we’ve only had anecdotal and Ming Hu and psychology Associate evidence. Now we have numbers.” Professor Edward Bernat are examining the cognitive activity of study participants as While the combination of VR and EEG isn’t Green Is Good for You— they experience two different environments: new, this is the first time that researchers have a green building equipped with flexible used it to gauge how design influences human and Your Career work spaces, abundant natural light and behavior. According to Hu, whose research colorful walls, and a more conventional work focuses on net-zero building systems, their Architecture, Psychology Researchers environment with white walls, fluorescent work may lead to a new way of measuring Explore Workplace Performance Benefits of lighting and sequestered offices. (The virtual building performance—not by how much energy Sustainable Buildings spaces have another Maryland connection— it saves, but by the performance of the people area design firm Perkins +Will built them with inhabiting it. The gentle carbon footprint that green 3D graphics software from Tim Sweeney ’93’s building design delivers