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SL- Yes. I found that in Neil’s work. It seems that there are a number of people that are playing around with this notion of the unity between wall and ground plane and all of that. It's really the beginning of an opening up of something different, a different kind of discussion about the relationship of all those components to each other in a unified fashion.
v5 - You're now teaching at SCI-Arc and at USC. How do you find teaching in two schools?
SL- I find it fascinating, they are both very different beasts in
terms of how they operate and think. They are trying to find their
direction. Both schools, actually, within the time frame that I've been teaching there have more or less been on a quest of finding their future identity. At SCI-Arc they have defined their direction with their new directorship search, and what it's all going to mean.
v5- Is that clear yet?
SL- I don't think so. Neil (Denari, the new director) seems to be
definitely committed, and from a standpoint of working and being
involved we can see what he's been trying to do. But it's hard to say at this point what it's all going to mean.
v5 - Right, it takes time.
SL- I think it takes that. Dean (Robert) Timme with USC came in probably the second year that I was teaching there. They were in the process of trying to find a new person to fill the position of chair and find a direction for themselves. They have a lot of people there who are incredible, like Pierre Koenig, some that have been there for a long time. They were there when it was really anchored in a series of principles that have since been rethought and questioned. I don't think they have found where they're going exactly, but young faculty there has been instrumental in making new things happen. There has been an adaptation of a new landscape architecture program. The
programs will be looked at very seriously together and interact with one another.
v5 - Who is running landscape architecture there?
SL- Achva Stein. She's another person that's been there for the long haul.
v5 - Yes, I met her at conference at Cranbrook. She's extraordinary. Very funny and sharp. So, is she trying to tie together the departments, or are they doing joint projects between the architectural and landscape departments?
SL- Yes, she does cross over and has been teaching a group of thesis students in architecture this semester.
v5 - That is a big development. Is SCI-Arc attempting to reach other kinds of majors in the same manner?
SL- Yes. I know Linda Hart, who istemporarily in charge of the undergraduate program right now, the interim undergraduate director until they decide on a permanent person, has been looking at that.
v5- Now that Heather Kerse left - that was quite a loss for SCI-Arc.
SL- Yes. She was another person who I felt was really committed and knew the place, understood it, and respected its spirit and what kept it going. She wants to spend more time with her family and work with her practice a little bit more. The search for a replacement has been put on hold for a while. Linda Hart has been trying to find people who have been trained in architecture and in landscape architecture, and who have gone into unusual avenues of endeavor, and bring them into the school to speak with students. To provide more of a link that way, to open the field up to other possibilities.
v5 - The issue of University versus College in education...
SL- Yes, since we always teach from that vantage point, like we were talking about earlier, it will be wonderful to see that reflected more in the curriculum. SCI-Arc has always been a little bit more adventurous in that realm than USC. I think it's funny, it reaches out to a variety of different points of discussion and interest and investigation depending on what period of time it is in terms of faculty.
v5 - There is some irony here, because so often a school like Cal Poly Pomona, that offers urban planning and landscape design, will also have an architectural program. Yet the faculty never seem to talk to one another. They are literally sitting only yards away, but it's interesting that a school like SCI-Arc has at least recognized that it has to make the effort to reach out to find these people and bring in their ideas.
SL- And that there is value in all of them. Basically, if you have an
idea and you're interested, they say, "Well, go do it". Go figure it
out, and make it happen.
v5 - Is that the attitude at SCI-Arc?
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