Architect Julie Snow to Present 'Expansion/Distillation' Lecture on Oct. 31

Snow Kreilich Architects

CHS Field in the Lowertown neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota, forms a transitional use from the city's vibrant arts district of 19th century warehouses into the natural amenities of riverfront parks and trails.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Julie Snow will present a lecture at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31, in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, as part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design lecture series.​

Snow leads Snow Kreilich Architects, a studio-based practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The studio's interest in pragmatic and critical programmatic reflections results in innovative designs that expand the understanding of architectural performance.

In her lecture, titled "Expansion/Distillation," Snow will discuss the expansion in scope and possibilities that design practice has undergone in recent years. Expectations for design performance are no longer limited to an aesthetically powerful experience or an efficient, functional operation.

Architecture is expected to work with a layered framework of cultural, economic, historic, social, ecological and political systems. To operate well within this complex context, architecture must be distilled to perform at an essential level.

Architecture projects perform within a complex system of variables. Understanding the ecological position of a particular site requires modeling the consumption of resources, while understanding that social and cultural context can influence how a design is used and perceived. Through creative collaboration with engineering and construction teams, durable and efficient integrated building systems can occur.

Her firm's design process begins with thorough research to support both the practical and intangible goals of the clients, as well as the specifics of each site's historic, urban, cultural and landscape context. The expansion of design expectations means that Snow and her team seek design strategies that achieve multiple ends within formal and material constraints.

Snow has held several visiting professor positions, including those at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, University of Southern California and Washington University in St. Louis. She also taught at the University of Minnesota College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, where she received the Ralph Rapson Award for Distinguished Teaching. In 1998, the New York Architectural League selected Snow as an "Emerging Voice." In 2011, she was awarded the Architecture Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Snow Kreilich Architects has been recognized with numerous awards, including the AIA Honor Award, Holcim North American Bronze Award, Progressive Architecture Design Award, the Chicago Athenaeum's American and International Architecture Awards, Architect magazine Annual Design Review and the Design Distinction Award from I.D. magazine. The studio has also received many Business Week/Architectural Record Awards and several Design Excellence Awards from the U.S. General Services Administration. The work of the studio was exhibited at the Chicago Architectural Foundation. In 2005, Princeton Architectural Press published the first monograph on the studio's work in its series on emerging designers from around the world.

This is the Ernie Jacks Lecture, sponsored by Marlon Blackwell Architects.

This lecture has been approved for HSW learning unit credits through the American Institute of Architects Continuing Education System. It also was approved for CES-HSW credits through the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The public is invited to attend. Admission is free, with limited seating.

For more information, contact 479-575-4704 or fayjones.uark.edu.