Four School of Architecture + Design faculty named Most Admired Educators of 2010

8 Dec 2009

Four Virginia Tech professors from the School of Architecture + Design, College of Architecture and Urban Studies, were among 25 faculty in North America named Most Admired Educators of 2010 in the 11th annual Americ's Best Architecture and Design Schools study by "DesignIntelligence" on behalf of the Design Futures Council.

Brian Katen, landscape architecture program chair and associate professor of landscape architecture; Ronald Kemnitzer, industrial design program chair and professor of industrial design; Patrick Miller, associate dean of graduate studies and outreach and landscape architecture professor; and Lisa Tucker, assistant professor of architecture.

Brian Katen

Katen is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He received a master‘s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from George Washington University. Prior to joining the faculty at Virginia Tech, Katen directed the landscape design program at George Washington University and was a principal of Brian Katen, Landscape Architecture, in Arlington, Va.

With more than 20 years of practice experience, his research explores the everyday landscape, community identity and conceptions of place, and the complex relationship between the landscape, its archives and memory. A resident of Blacksburg, his current research is focused on the African American landscape of Virginia and those everyday gathering places that have both defined and celebrated community and cultural identity throughout the state.

Ronald Kemnitzer

Kemnitzer is a fellow and past president of the Industrial Designers Society of America. He holds 18 U.S. and international patents for his work, which has also been recognized in many design competitions. He received the Gold Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design in 2001 and 1997. He received a Gold Award in the 1993 Plant Engineering magazine Product of the Year competition and a Bronze Award in the 1992 Industrial Design Excellence Awards sponsored by Business Week magazine and the Industrial Designers Society of America.

In 1988, he designed the best-selling Bola chair for the Fixtures Furniture Company, for which he received a Gold Award by the Institute of Business Designers. A resident of Blacksburg, Kemnitzer received a master’s degree in design from Northern Illinois University and a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from the University of Cincinnati.

Patrick Miller

Miller is a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. He is also a former national president of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He received a doctorate in landscape architecture from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; a master's degree in landscape architecture from the University of California, Berkeley; and a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture from California State Polytechnic University.

A resident of Blacksburg, Miller has worked in public, private and academic practice in both the United States and Canada. He has a demonstrated history of success on both national and international outreach efforts and has years of experience participating and chairing doctoral and master's level student committees. Miller has been a faculty member at Virginia Tech since 1986 and has extensive administrative experience as the former department head of landscape architecture.

Lisa Tucker

Lisa Tucker is a certified interior designer, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional and a member of the American Institute of Architects. A practicing interior designer and architect, she received a doctoral degree in architectural studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a master's degree in architectural history, a Certificate of Historic Preservation and a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Virginia.

Her work focuses on the relationship between historic preservation and sustainability. A resident of Christiansburg, Va., Tucker currently serves as the graduate student coordinator for the Master of Science in architecture with a focus in interior design program. She is currently the communications director of the Interior Design Educators Council and the president of the Virginia Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers.