Chair: Jaime Palomo, Partner/Owner CasaBella Architects

Find them at their AIA Austin website: http://www.aiaaustin.org/committee/latinos-architecture-lia

or in their Facebook Group page:http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_162581360457393

On December 10th, 2010, Adolfo Ayuso, Mexican Consul of Cultural Affairs in Dallas, Julian Lizarazu and Yesenia Blandon members of LiA were part of the jury for the final presentation of Emmanuel Ramirez' Advanced Design Graduate Studio at UTA this past Fall semester.

The project, called "Rethinking Borders" defined strategies in the territorial boundaries of the international border between Mexico and the United States, specifically addressing relevant topics such as:
- The border and the Culture and Education
- The border and the Environment
- The border and the Water
- The border and its Connectivity

During a period of seven weeks, the students developed a regional plan for a chosen site, building up their projects in different stages, testing their ideas in various scales raging from regional to local.
The quality of work, and design solutions, not only at the design architectural level, but the questions that these projects raised, in every realm of the border's social compass were truly inspiring.
Great work!

More photos of the final presentation, by Navid Tehrani at LiA's facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118157504870133

About Emmanuel Ramirez Ruiz:

Co founder of “MMX Studio”, Architect and Urban Designer, holds a degree in architecture by the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and a master degree in Urban Design by the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Awarded by the "FONCA" with the "Mexican Young Creators Award 2003" he has been an invited critic and lecturer at the AA and The Bartlett School of architecture in London, UTA in the United States as well as a variety of universities in Mexico.

Prior to co-founding MMX Studio He worked in various renowned international practices such as Alberto Kalach studio in Mexico City, SOM -Skidmore Owings and Merril- in London and Chicago as well as David Chipperfield Architects in London where he consolidated his design skills in different scales raging from architecture and urban design to regional and national plans.
His Practice MMX Studio, is a collective firm dedicated to research, development, and the execution ideas. The studio has a strong focus on the design process and seeks to understand the implications that architecture and urbanism have upon our societies. The studio aims to balance theory and practice, design and construction as well as architecture and urbanism.
mmx Studio: http://www.mmx.com.mx/

Tuesday, December 7th, we celebrated the AIA Dallas Latinos in Architecture Committee Holiday Party at the offices of HKS. The event was a huge success!

We would like to thank HKS, our sponsor that made this event possible, and the people there that worked so hard at organizing this gathering:
Lorenzo Castillo, Dulce Torres, Enrique Greenwell and Sandra Ballesteros. They did a great job!

The intention of these twice a year networking/informational happy hours is to cover that part of LiA's mission that aims to strengthen relationships and networks between professionals in the field of Architecture. These social events will be at major architecture firms, and our next one will be next spring at the offices of Corgan Associates!

We had so many reasons to celebrate Tuesday night. If you have been a member of LiA from the beginning you know it has not been easy, but it has been very rewarding. If you are new to the committee, we encourage you to more learn about it, about our mission and its community, educational and professional components.

This year, 2010:
- LiA became an AIA Dallas Chapter Committee! We started as a small group in April, but became an official committee of the AIA Dallas Chapter in July.
- We have hosted two Networking Happy Hours, one at Perkins+Will, one at HKS.
- We run a successful Architecture book drive called: "From an Architect's Bookshelf" , where we collected more than 1100 books to be donated to 3 local high schools. Our original goal was 200 books!
- We celebrated National Hispanic Heritage Month by featuring the work of many local talented Hispanic Architects
- We have been collaborating with the Dallas CityDesign Studio - at their West Dallas Design Charrettes; and with the ongoing Neighborhood Stabilization Overlay (NSO) of La Bajada neighborhood project
- We worked with the Dallas Architecture Forum and the Mexican Consulate in Dallas for the Alberto Kalach Lecture at the Magnolia Theater
- We worked with the Associates Committee during the "2 Be an Architect" program
- We participated at Skyline Architecture cluster, students-parents orientation, and have also met with students at other schools to talk to them about Architecture as a career path.
- An just in November, we took the Local Hispanic Architects & Designers Exhibit to The UTA School of Architecture.

So this has been a very busy year for LiA!
Thank you so much to all of you who help out, who sponsored an event, who donated your time and efforts! We hope 2011 will be just as rewarding.

And as you know, LiA seeks to serve and support our local communities by establishing a forum for celebrating Latinos in the design related professions.

If you missed Tuesday night's event, we had a guest celebrating with us: Mr. Emmanuel Ramirez Ruiz. Mr. Ramirez is a visiting professor at UTA this semester and he was so kind to join us to talk to us about his work, and his experience this semester at the school.
It was a great presentation, make sure you check out his website: http://www.mmx.com.mx/

About Emmanuel Ramirez Ruiz:
Co founder of “MMX Studio”, Architect and Urban Designer, holds a degree in architecture by the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and a master degree in Urban Design by the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Awarded by the "FONCA" with the "Mexican Young Creators Award 2003" he has been an invited critic and lecturer at the AA and The Bartlett School of architecture in London, UTA as well as a variety of universities in Mexico.
Prior to co-founding MMX Studio He worked in various renowned international practices such as Alberto Kalach studio in Mexico City, SOM -Skidmore Owings and Merril- in London and Chicago as well as David Chipperfield Architects in London where he consolidated his design skills in different scales raging from architecture and urban design to regional and national plans.
His Practice MMX Studio, is a collective firm dedicated to research, development, and the execution ideas. The studio has a strong focus on the design process and seeks to understand the implications that architecture and urbanism have upon our societies. The studio aims to balance theory and practice, design and construction as well as architecture and urbanism.

Happy Holidays!

“CityVille Class Intro to Architects” is a program sponsored by TREC (The Real Estate Council) and Big Thought (a nonprofit council focusing partnerships that allow all children access to quality learning opportunities). They partnered with LiA (Latinos In Architecture) which is why Juan Perini, Edwin Montes of Rees Associates and Selso Garcia of Corgan Associates all went to Hill Middle School, at Easton Rd. Dallas, TX 75218 on December 6, 2010 to give children insight and direction in the Architectural Field.

The goal was to provide a quick discussion on what it means to be an architect; what inspired them to be architects and what the field entails regarding education requirements; professional responsibilities and what it personally means for them to be Architects. The class then broke out into groups to help the young minds develop the floor plans, encourage their design and help them understand what they need to consider when designing and building their subsequent models.