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 Biographical Sketch & Bibliography

Grace E. La
Associate Professor
Department of Architecture

gla@uwm.edu

 

 

Education

Harvard University, Graduate School of Design
M. Arch, 1995, with thesis distinction.
Harvard University
B.A., magna cum laude, 1992, in Visual and Environmental Studies.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Architecture, spring, 1989.

 

Research Interests

Grace La is principal of La Dallman Architects.  The practice re-imagines the American post-industrial landscape using the Midwestern city as a laboratory for investigation. Through projects of intentionally diverse scale and program, the design studio focuses on the critical transformation of site. La Dallman's project range engages the public realm through infrastructural interventions and redefinition of public space as well as strategic insertions within emergent landscapes. Through specific exploitation of the rich, industrial heritage of the region, La Dallman's practice deploys material and detailing investigations as cultural and temporal artifacts which grow from the phenomena and constraints of context. Recently completed and current projects include the Marsupial Bridge and Urban Plaza, the Employee Meeting Center at Miller Brewing Company, the Kilbourn Tower multi-family dwelling, the Milwaukee Montessori Open Air Classroom, the Brady Street Bus Shelter, and the Ravine House.

 

Led by the husband-wife team of James Dallman and Grace La, both educated at Harvard University, the studio most recently has won four design awards from the American Institute of Architects, Wisconsin, recognizing design excellence.  The firm is also a recipient of the 2002-3 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Design Award. La Dallman Architects is currently a finalist in Pittsburgh’s West End Bridge Competition, was a recent finalist in the 2005 International Design Competition Honoring Ambassador Andrew Young held in Atlanta, and was awarded 1st place in the 2000 housing competition for Kilbourn Tower, a 33 story residential tower in Milwaukee overlooking Lake Michigan.

 

For her study of multi-family dwelling, La was awarded the Clifford Wong Housing Prize, honoring the project that best represents housing innovation and design at Harvard University. Ms. La is tenured at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the 2005 recipient of the UWM Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award and the 2003 recipient of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture New Faculty Teaching Award. La Dallman Architects has been published locally, regionally, and in international publications such as A+T (Spain), Architectural Record April 2001 as the featured emerging architectural firm, Architectural Record December 2002 as one of four small firms nationally working on large scale projects, and Azure (Canada, forthcoming). They have lectured broadly on their design work and were selected for solo exhibitions in Chicago and Milwaukee.

 

Teaching Area
Design Studio, Building Construction & Technology, Theory
Winner of the UWM Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, 2005.
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture New Faculty Teaching Award, 2003.
 

Academic and Professional Honors

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Faculty Design Award. 2008-2009

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Faculty Design Award. 2007-2008
Finalist, West End Bridge International Design Competition, Pittsburgh, PA.
American Institute of Architects Wisconsin Honor Award 2006, Marsupial Bridge.
American Institute of Architects Wisconsin Merit Award 2006, Open Air Classroom, Montessori School.
American Institute of Architects Wisconsin Honor Award 2005, Frederick J. Miller Employee Meeting Center.
American Institute of Architects Wisconsin Merit Award 2005, Brady Street Bus Shelter.
Finalist, International Design Competition Honoring Ambassador Andrew Young, Atlanta, GA.

Associate, Perry Dean Rogers & Partners.

First Place, Kilbourn Tower Housing Competition, Milwaukee, WI.
Winner of the Clifford Wong Housing Prize, 1995, honoring the project from the Harvard GSD which best represents innovation and design in multi-family dwelling.
Honored as one of two students with Distinction, by the GSD faculty for Master's Design Thesis, 1994.
James Templeton Kelley Thesis Prize finalist for most outstanding GSD thesis project, 1995.
Accepted under early admission to the GSD, as a junior, for outstanding performance in architectural studies, 1991.
Harvard College Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Certificate of Merit for outstanding academic excellence, 1990.
Harvard College John Harvard Scholarship for academic achievement of high distinction.
Winner of the Pamela Weidenman Memorial Prize for excellence in Art and the Dakar Project Essay Competition, Andover.

 

Teaching Experience
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, faculty
Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI, Adjunct Faculty
Harvard University Career Discovery Program, Cambridge, MA, Studio Critic
Boston Architectural Center, Cambridge, MA, Studio Critic
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Teaching Assistant
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, Guest Critic
Northeastern University, Boston, MA, Guest Critic

 

Professional Experience
La Dallman Architects, Milwaukee, WI
Perry Dean Rogers & Partners Architects, Boston, MA
Jonathan Levi Architects, Boston, MA
Atelier Pichelmann, Vienna, Austria
Kohn Pedersen Fox International PA, London, England
Dakar Project, Dakar, Senegal, Africa

 

Publications (Selected)

Skycar City, edited Winy Maas and Grace La. Actar, Barcelona, 2007.

A+T, In Common, Spain, publication about the Marsupial Bridge, 2006.
Azure, Canada, forthcoming.
Architectural Record, December 2002.
Architectural Record, April 2001
La, G., Editor, University of Wisconsin Journal of Architecture, Calibrations, 2000, 2003.
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA, May 1997, Exhibited theoretical housing design.
Selected for publication in GSD Studio Work 1992-93 (Housing Project under critic Jonathan Levi), Studio Work 1993-94 (Toronto Museum under option critic Brigitte Shim), Studio Work 1994-95 (Thesis Housing Project) and GSD News (Thesis Housing Project), 1995.
Programming the Image of City (Train Station for Valparaiso, Chile under Prof. Jorge Silvetti), forthcoming

 

Research and Creative Activities
The Jefferson and Milwaukee Blocks, a housing proposal, in conjunction with La Dallman Architects Inc.
UWM Graduate Research Award Recipient, 2000: "The Aperture Analyzed: Reconciliation of built form and context through the design of openings"
CAUPR Research Grant Recipient, 2000: "Between the Individual & the Collective: A study of the Semi-urban Dwelling"
The University Professors' Masonry Workshop, Gonzaga and Washington State Universities, March, 2000.

 

Service
Board of Directors, Betty Brinn Children’s Museum
Board of Directors, River Revitalization Foundation
Board of Directors, Wisconsin Architecture Foundation
M.Arch Committee Member, Spring 2000
Co-founder of the Wisconsin Journal of Architecture, SARUP studio work publication
Interviewer, Harvard University
Alumni Council, Phillips Academy Andover