11/11/08

Contacts:
David Block, Architecture, (515) 294-8292, dblock@iastate.edu
Calvin Lewis, Architecture, (515) 294-2665, calewis@iastate.edu
Heather Sauer, College of Design communications, (515) 294-9289, hsauer@iastate.edu

ISU architecture professor receives AIA Iowa’s Educator Award

AMES, Iowa -- David Block, professor of architecture at Iowa State University, received the Educator Award from the Iowa Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Iowa) at its annual convention in September.

The award recognizes individuals for their contributions to architectural education in Iowa. Recipients have positively influenced a large number and wide range of students, are forward-thinking and integrate other areas of expertise into their teaching.

Block’s commitment to "green" architecture predates that terminology by three decades. A member of the ISU architecture faculty for 35 years, he pioneered courses in solar design at Iowa State in the 1970s and remains the department's leading expert on solar energy studies and design. He developed a course in "Sustainability and Green Architecture" in 1991 that he continues to teach today.

 

"Dave was ahead of his time in valuing the intelligent use of environmental resources," said Cal Lewis, chair of the ISU department of architecture. "He used this awareness and passion to positively influence generations of new architects who passed through his educational filter."

 

Bruce Bassler, associate professor of architecture, also observed, "(Dave's) interdisciplinary collaboration with colleagues at Iowa State, and his authoring of elective courses in energy-efficient design and sustainability in the 1980s and 90s, set him apart as a teaching practitioner with his finger on the pulse of what would be come a design issue for all architects in the 21st century."

 

Block received his bachelor's (1967) and master's degrees (1972) in architecture as well as a master of science degree in town and regional planning (1974), all from Iowa State.

He founded his own practice, David A. Block Architect, in 1976, and has designed and built dozens of energy-efficient homes, most with passive solar heating and cooling. He was one of the winners in the 1978 National Passive Solar Residential Design Competition for the Hodges residence in Ames. The home was featured in "Passive Solar Architecture: Logic and Beauty: 35 Outstanding Houses Across the United States" by David Wright and A. Dennis Andrejko (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982).

Block was also co-architect of the ISU Solar Research House, built north of campus in 1979, and of the Farmhouse of the Future, built at Living History Farms in Urbandale in 1981. Together with Laurent Hodges, ISU professor (now emeritus) of physics, he received a National Science Foundation grant in 1982 for the development of passive solar documents and teaching material that could be disseminated nationally to schools of architecture. In 1993, Block won the AIA Iowa Design Award for the Schwartz residence in Parkersburg, one of the first to incorporate a water-to-air heat pump using geothermal energy in Iowa.

The Hodges and Schwartz homes are among 50 featured in "Green Homes: Case Studies for the 21st Century" by E. Ashley Rooney (Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2008).

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Note to editors: A print-quality photo of Block is available from Heather Sauer, (515) 294-9289, hsauer@iastate.edu.