03/24/17

AMES, Iowa — Three finalists have been named in the search for the next chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Iowa State University. They are:

  • Nnamdi Elleh, professor of architecture, history and theory in the School of Architecture and Interior Design in the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning at the University of Cincinnati
  • Carl Rogers, associate professor and interim chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture in the College of Design at Iowa State University
  • Thomas Oslund, principal and design director of Oslund and Associates in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The finalists will visit campus in the next two weeks. Each candidate will give a public presentation followed by a question-and-answer period. All presentations will be in room 416 Design. Visit dates are:

  • March 26-28: Elleh, presentation from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. Monday, March 27
  • March 29-20: Rogers, presentation from 1 – 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 29
  • April 2-4: Oslund, presentation from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. Monday, April 3

Evaluation forms will be available at each session and also online; completed forms should be returned by 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, to Linda Galvin in the Administrative Services Office, room 146 Design, or Jenn Wiederin in the Dean’s Office, room 134 Design.

Nnamdi Elleh

Elleh joined the architecture faculty in the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning at the University of Cincinnati in September 2002. Since 2010, he has coordinated the Master of Science and PhD programs in architecture.

He is the author of Architecture and Politics in Nigeria: The Study of Late-Twentieth Century Enlightenment-Inspired Modernism in Abuja, 1900-2016 (Routledge, 2016) and editor of Reading the Architecture of the Underprivileged Classes (Ashgate Publishing House, 2014), among other publications. He is at work on Modern and Contemporary Architecture in Africa: Concepts, Historiography, and Theories of Sustainable Environmental Design (W.W. Norton, forthcoming).

Elleh holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics (1985) and a Master of Architecture (1994) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a PhD in art history (20th-century architecture with a focus on Africa) (2002) from Northwestern University. He studied post-apartheid nationalist-inspired architecture in South Africa as a Fulbright Teaching-Research Scholar at the University of Cape Town in 2011-2012. He is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians, the African Studies Association and the College Art Association.

Carl Rogers

Rogers joined the landscape architecture faculty in the Iowa State University College of Design in 2000. He has taught courses in site engineering, site design and professional practice. Since 2011 he has directed the Community Design Lab, a collaboration between the College of Design and ISU Extension and Outreach. He served as the college’s Core Design Program director and Design Studies 102 studio coordinator in spring 2012. He has served as interim chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture since July 2016.

Prior to joining ISU, Rogers had been a landscape architect in training with Searle and Searle Landscape Architects in Providence, Rhode Island (1995-97), and RDG Crose Gardner Schukert (now RDG Planning and Design) in Des Moines (1997-98), and a landscape architect with Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck Architecture, also in Des Moines (1998-2004).

Rogers holds a Bachelor of Architecture (1993) from Kansas State University and a Master of Landscape Architecture with honors (1997) from the Rhode Island School of Design. He received the Raymond G. and Lula G. Polster Teaching Award from the ISU College of Design and a Creative Achievement Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, both in 2008.

Thomas Oslund

Oslund has more than 35 years of professional experience at all project scales from an 800-acre master plan to a 5,000-square-foot rooftop garden. He established Oslund and Associates in 1998; the firm has won more than 65 local, national and international awards. Site planning and design projects have included the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden; Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, Lake Forest, Illinois; Kitchak Cellars Winery, Napa Valley, California; Harley Davidson Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Valparaiso University Master Plan, Valparaiso, Indiana, among many others.

Prior to founding Oslund and Associates, Oslund was the vice president and director of landscape architecture for Hammel Green and Abrahamson in Minneapolis and a principal at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has lectured and published widely, and has served as a visiting professor at institutions including the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain; Harvard University; Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago; University of Texas at Austin; Washington University in St. Louis; University of Arkansas; Ohio State University; and University of Minnesota.

Oslund holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (1980) from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Landscape Architecture (1986) from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He received the Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture from the American Academy in Rome in 1991-1992. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Search committee

The search committee is chaired by Cameron Campbell, College of Design associate dean for academic programs. Committee members include Professor Mira Engler, Associate Professor Michael Martin and Assistant Professor Julie Stevens, all in landscape architecture, and Professor Jeff Iles, chair of the Department of Horticulture.

Contacts

Cameron Campbell, Search Committee Chair, (515) 294-7427, cameronc@iastate.edu
Jenn Wiederin, Design Human Resources, (515) 294-5703, wiederin@iastate.edu
Heather Sauer, Design Communications, (515) 294-9289, hsauer@iastate.edu

-30-