denny Architectural Art & Design

Artist Blaine Fontana currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Imbuing his vision with the divine symbolism of religious myths, worldly folklore and current social dynamics, his works contain a kind of shamanic exploration of meaning that recognizes the totemic quality and power of the image. With extensive experience within the design world, including working as a designer for Felt Bicycles and acting Art Director for Zero+ Publishing, Fontana's work displays a virtuosic understanding of sign & simulacra and their role within our contemporary visual culture. Straddling the physical and metaphysical, organic and architectural, painterly and graphic sensibilities, Fontana fuses multiple visual strategies to forge an aesthetic language entirely of his own making. His works have been published in a variety of publications, including iDN/Society 6, My Name Is, Sycamore Review, Soul Pancake, Mod Art and Juxtapoz. He has exhibited nationally in Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Denver, Austin, Miami, and New York, and internationally in Germany, Canada and Japan. With his wife and creative partner, he currently runs Fontana Studios, a multi-media art and design studio in Portland, Oregon. He has designed and licensed work for a number of companies including SCION Installation Art Tour, Patagonia, Nike, Quicksilver, Toyota, Kid Robot, Upper Playground, Quiksilver, Ocean Pacific, KFC International, and Arbor Snowboards. Blaine Fontana ...

Assistant Professor Anders Carlson is the Director of the Chase L. Leavitt Graduate Building Science Program at the USC School of Architecture. He has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Caltech researching damage to tall steel moment frame buildings due to the Northridge Earthquake. Anders is also a licensed structural engineer and Staff Consultant at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger with over 17 years experience in design of steel, concrete, composite, and light framed wood structures. His work has encompassed a broad range of project types including civic, educational, healthcare, office, retail, government, and residential. Project sizes have ranged from sculptures to highrises. He has worked on notable projects such as Koolhaas' Seattle Public Library, Libeskind's Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum, the investigation of the collapse of WTC-7 and the first buckling restrained braced frame building in the United States. Prof. Carlson's pedagogical focus is to integrate building science studies of the natural and manmade forces affecting the built environment with design, current practice and new tools and technologies to make the USC School of Architecture a paradigm of holistic architectural design. He is helping to develop new tools for students to quickly assess structural and environmental impacts to their designs using the software and technologies they are already familiar with so that they can make informed design decisions. Anders' research focus is on seismic ...