Joel J. Zinnel

University of Minnesota - B.S. Arch '02, M.Arch '04

What was the most important thing/skill/concept you learned at the School of Architecture?

The value of design on human habitation.

Who made the most lasting impression (most influenced you) and why?

Dean Fisher was my thesis adviser and constructively guided me through a realistic, yet creative, exploration of the culmination of my school career.

What is your favorite memory from your studio days?

Making so many life-long friends.

Please identify one (or more) memorable design project that you worked on while a student at the School of Architecture.

Weisman Art Museum addition and Skyscraper Studio.

What major forces (such as individual architects, design philosophies, rendering styles, research methods, etc.) do you remember influencing you significantly as a student?

Design of space, not buildings.

Cite an example (be specific) that illustrates how you used the education you received at the School of Architecture to positively impact (or better) your community, city, nation or the world.

Designing educational architecture influences students to be more aware of and appreciate their surroundings.

Simon A. Beeson

University of Minnesota - M.Arch '95

What was the most important thing/skill/concept you learned at the School of Architecture?

Exploring the origin of architecture and its ideas.

Who made the most lasting impression (most influenced you) and why?

Professor Lance Lavine, because he is a continuing inspiration for his serious exploration of architecture as a worthwhile activity, with its unique contribution to culture and a humane life.

What is your favorite memory from your studio days?

Professor Lavine ripping student models apart. 

Please identify one (or more) memorable design project that you worked on while a student at the School of Architecture.

The Evanston Library Competition in 1991,

What major forces (such as individual architects, design philosophies, rendering styles, research methods, etc.) do you remember influencing you significantly as a student?

Dale Mulfinger, the influence of American Vernacular; Gunter Dittmar, the philosophy of architecture; and the construction of the Weisman Art Museum.

Cite an example (be specific) that illustrates how you used the education you received at the School of Architecture to positively impact (or better) your community, city, nation or the world. 

Developing a new course at a small university, where model making has a central role to explore the generation of architectural form.

Tom L. Hysell

University of Minnesota - M.Arch '87

What was the most important thing/skill/concept you learned at the School of Architecture?

Leadership and the ability to think critically through a problem.

Who made the most lasting impression (most influenced you) and why?

Dick Morrill, for communicating that we need to love what we do.

What is your favorite memory from your studio days

Getting late night ice cream cones from the Big Ten for the studio (they didn't melt since it was twenty below) and the China foreign study trip in '85.

Please identify one (or more) memorable design project that you worked on while a student at the School of Architecture.

The interior of a hotel lobby and my thesis, Media Arts Center on the West Bank, were memorable due to the difference that scale does, and does not, make.

What major forces (such as individual architects, design philosophies, rendering styles, research methods, etc.) do you remember influencing you significantly as a student?

From outside lecturers and the influences of inside practitioners, we were able to know that the practice is broad and design really matters.

Cite an example (be specific) that illustrates how you used the education you received at the School of Architecture to positively impact (or better) your community, city, nation or the world.

Through my roles on boards of non-profit organizations, such as the Minnesota Museum of American Art, I have been able to give back by helping and bringing my architectural expertise.

Eric J. Utne

University of Minnesota - BED '72 

What was the most important thing/skill/concept you learned at the School of Architecture?
Not to be intimidated by critics.

Who made the most lasting impression (most influenced you) and why?

Ralph Rapson, because he encouraged me. Tom Bender, because he taught me the Chinese concept of Feng Shui, the Japanese concept of space called "Ma," and Buddhist economics. Thomas Hodne, because he brought me to the '87 and '91 World Series. Harrison Fraker, because I think he helped me get my degree retroactively, and Leonard Parker, because he told me ten years after graduation that I was "one of the best designers the U of M ever had."

What is your favorite memory from your studio days?

Sixty-hour charrettes, ending with the ambulance in the loading dock outside the jury room, waiting to scoop up and whisk off students who fainted and collapsed in the middle of final presentations.

Please identify one (or more) memorable design project that you worked on while a student at the School of Architecture.

The City-block square amusement park and natural history museum whose multi-story circulation was based on the game "Shoots & Ladders," i.e. slippery slides.

What major forces (such as individual architects, design philosophies, rendering styles, research methods, etc.) do you remember influencing you significantly as a student?

Bucky Fuller and Tom Bender. After college, Christopher Alexander.

Cite an example (be specific) that illustrates how you used the education you received at the School of Architecture to positively impact (or better) your community, city, nation or the world.

When I left the School of Architecture (the last time), I wrote a declaration of independence to my fellow students and faculty exclaiming that I needed to learn more about life before I could begin to design spaces for people to live in. The best design is that which has more life in it. I believe architects should be masters of all the arts and true cultural-change agents. They should know how to bring more life into any situation.