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Architecture

Tobias Jimenez
Fall 2020

The building of social empowerment

Tobias Jimenez spent his childhood in the type of settlement that he and his colleague Sean Anderson are now striving to improve.

The structures “have no electricity,” Jimenez says. “None have potable water. They’re not connected to the sewer. It’s not sanitary.”

Jimenez (’17 Arch., ’19 M.Arch.) was born in Pasco but moved to Colima, Mexico, with his parents as an infant. They raised him in an informal settlement— “like a favela,” he explains—on the city’s outskirts. “You’re focusing on surviving. You’re spending most of your time and energy trying to meet your basic needs. Living there is one of the reasons I decided to … » More …

Pete's Dragon
Fall 2018

Architect of other worlds

A green furry dragon named Elliot living in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. A twisted and pathetic creature yearning for a ring in Middle Earth. A monstrous ape, an alien jungle, a future dystopian city.

If any of these cinematic creations will capture the imaginations of moviegoers, they need the magic of visual effects created by wizards like Eric Saindon ’96. Saindon’s own imagination was stirred by animated films as a kid, which led to over two decades designing effects and leading teams of visual effects artists on some of the largest blockbusters on screen.

Much of Saindon’s career has been with » More …

Jason Chan (Courtesy Perkins+Will)
Winter 2017

Medical research design that’s 24/7

Jason Chan ’99 had to travel roughly 10,000 miles to satisfy a childhood curiosity. “I grew up in Singapore and the rate of urbanization is incredible there,” explains Chan. Interested in engineering and design, “architecture felt like a natural step.”

Chan, who specializes in medical and research facility architecture, first pursued his passion in Pullman. “I definitely had to look at architectural history and design studies with critiques. (Being a Cougar) helped me develop design skills,” Chan says.

Now a principal and regional leader for the research sector at Perkins+Will in Houston, Texas, his design prowess is on full display in concrete ways.

The Texas … » More …

Paccar Environmental Technology Building
Summer 2016

Within the urban fabric

The architectural responsibility of making more than just buildings

When the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, planned to expand their convention center in the late 2000s, they wanted a structure that would reflect the city’s environmental values while tripling the meeting space of the downtown facility. The Vancouver Convention Centre West, designed by LMN Architects and completed in 2009, exceeded their vision: The gentle slope of the 6-acre green “living roof” provides bird habitat; the building is heated and cooled by seawater; and fish and shellfish inhabit the base of the building.

The Vancouver project fits exactly with the philosophy of the Seattle-based architects … » More …

Book - Briefly Noted
Winter 2015

Briefly noted

 

A Formative Decade: Ireland in the 1920s

Edited by Jason Knirck ’96 MA, ’00 PhD, Mel Farrell, and Ciara Meehan

Irish Academic Press: 2015

Knirck, a history professor at Central Washington University, and his fellow editors and contributors chronicle the events in Irish history during the ’20s, when Ireland underwent transformations in national identity and allegiances. Knirck’s contribution examines the role of the loyal opposition, the Irish Farmers’ Party.

 

Zen and the Art of Dog Walking

By G. Ray Sullivan Jr. ’73

Deeds Publishing: 2015

Sullivan authored this collection of photographs and musings as a simple descriptive journey of how he discovered natural … » More …

Cowperson with horse
Spring 2015

A re-dress of the West

Joe Monahan, from all appearances a typical American frontiersman, arrived in Idaho Territory in the late 1860s. He was lured by the promise of fortune in the hillsides and settled in Owyhee County, which The New York Times had described as “a vast treasury” with “the richest and most valuable silver mines yet known to the world.”

Monahan built a cabin and mined a claim. He also worked as a cowboy with an outfit in Oregon.

When he returned to Idaho, he settled into a dugout near the frontier town of Rockville. An 1898 directory lists him as “Joseph Monahan, cattleman.” And his neighbors described … » More …