+CHANGE Speakers
+CHANGE features guest speakers known for their expertise in implementing positive change through the practice of architecture.
Dr. Craig L. Wilkins, RA
Director, Detroit Community Design Center, University of Michigan
Dr. Craig L. Wilkins received his doctorate at the University of Minnesota, his masters at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and his bachelors from the University of Detroit School of Architecture.
He has worked as a designer, project architect and consultant both nationally and internationally and currently serves as the director of the Detroit Community Design Center at the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where he also teaching in both the architecture and urban planning departments.
Dr. Wilkins has written and lectured widely on a variety of topics, from hip hop architecture to the prospects of globalization on African spaces. In addition, he has taught or been a guest critic at several institutions including the University of Minnesota, Southern University, City College in New York, Washington University, Louisiana State University, the University of Porto in Portugal and the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Dr. Wilkins, whose work and research is primarily in the areas of community design, space, race and music, is presently researching his second manuscript, which will focus on the philosophy and practice of community design centers.
Hector LaSala
Slemco / Board Of Regents Professor of Architecture
School of Architecture and Design, University of Louisiana
Hector LaSala was born in El Salvador. He has been a professor of architecture at the University of Louisiana for over thirty years. In 1975-76 he conducted his graduate studies with a concentration on environmentally responsive architecture at Texas A & M University. In 1983, he and his colleague, Edward Cazayoux were awarded an Energy Design Innovation Award by the US Department of Energy. He was a visiting professor at Virginia Tech in 1983. He is a member of the Graduate Faculty and the Coordinator of the schoolÕs Design Division.
Hector and his colleague Geoff Gjertson co-direct the Building Institute (BI): a design-build program. For the last four years the BI has participated in the physical rehabilitation of the urban, city-block site of the Outreach Center: a nonprofit agency that addresses the needs of the poor and homeless population of the region. This effort has engaged the design and fabrication skills of over 200 architecture students. The project has been published in Metropolis, the Journal of Architecture Education, numerous conference proceedings, and recently was given The 2006 American Democracy Project Curricula Award.